Interview: Lucas Black
Tuesday, June 20, 2006
We chat exclusively with the star of The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift.At age 23, Lucas Black has more on his acting resume than most. He has suited up for both war and football (Jarhead and Friday Night Lights respectively), dabbled in the black oil of The X-Files, given his laundry to Billy Bob Thornton in Sling Blade, saddled up for All The Pretty Horses and trudged all over Cold Mountain.
For his latest outing, Black gets behind the wheel of some serious automotive (and theatrical) power in The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift. Black stars as Sean Boswell, a troubled outcast sent to Tokyo to live with his father by an exhausted mother at her wits end. While there, he meets up with the drifting crowd and soon finds himself smack in the middle of Tokyo's seedy underbelly of corruption, Yakuza shakedowns and insanely fast cars.
Promising a more focused, more aggressive, more realistic look at a car subculture than the previous two films, Tokyo Drift opens June 16, 2006. We've seen it and every fan of cars doing amazing things on film must attend. Black took some time out to talk exclusively to IGN FilmForce about his work on the film.
But first, before you dig into the interview, check our media page on this film for clips and exclusive content you won't find anywhere else.
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IGN FILMFORCE: How are you feeling right now? The movie opens shortly and this is more of a departure for you, being more action driven.
LUCAS BLACK: It hadn't really sunk in yet. I haven't really given it much thought yet. I'm just really excited for the people back home, my family and friends, who are looking forward to the movie to coming out and I'm looking forward to them seeing it.
IGNFF: How did you come into this project?
BLACK: I think they had me in mind because of the past two Universal films I had done (Friday Night Lights and Jarhead), I did those and they had me in mind. I met with them and talked about the movie, talked about the character. They then offered me the role. It was fairly easy on my part.
IGNFF: Let's talk about Sean Boswell. He doesn't seem to have any real allegiances, kind of an outsider.
BLACK: Yes, all throughout the film, especially when he goes to Tokyo, he's definitely an outsider there. He's kind of used to it because he never really stayed at one place for long back when he was in the States because he got into so much trouble. He didn't have any real friends, did things off on his own. His car was about the only thing he had, he could just get away from whatever he was thinking about at the time. That's what he loved to do. He'd race anybody.
IGNFF: There is a strong vein of family running through this film. The relationship Sean has with his father was interesting to me.
BLACK: It was something that Justin Lin had in mind to do I think from the get-go. [These films] have a lot of impact on kids and what they do in real life.
IGNFF: We know the movie is about more than the cars, but we've got to talk about the cars.
BLACK: (laughs) Right, oh yeah!
IGNFF: I personally love car chase films and was just curious if you went back through and watched any of the oldies but goodies and if there were any in particular you want to talk about.
BLACK: Well, I believe this one is going to change car chase scenes for the next generation. It's something I have never seen before in my life and don't think anyone else has on the screen before. It's amazing all the shots, the angles, and the perspectives Justin was able to get in the car chase scenes. It's awesome, looks fantastic on screen. Everything about it is just action packed. Everything is so real. You know exactly what's going on. We were able to do that because we had such good drivers. Rhys Millen was my stunt driver and he won the 2005 Drift championship here at Irwindale [California] Speedway. He was great man. He taught me how to drift, he could do anything with that car.
IGNFF: I talked with Justin Lin earlier and he was complimentary of you and said you were completely fearless. I guess I took that to mean you did a lot of your own driving.
BLACK: I was lucky enough to learn how to drift pretty quickly with Rhys teaching me all of the moves, the tricks of the trade. I would always look for an opportunity to do it on camera. There were a couple of times when I was able to sneak a couple of drift moves in there. (laughs) Justin and I drove around a little bit on a joyride, he probably got that opinion from that ride.
IGNFF: Other than working with Rhys, did you go to any other kind of driving school?
BLACK: No, I was already really comfortable behind the wheel.
IGNFF: One of the things this movie is doing is bringing drifting out to the mainstream. You've been hanging out with these guys for a while so maybe you can talk about some of the traits which define that subculture.
BLACK: It's a laid back, cool style. To drift you have to be completely comfortable and really confident in yourself. It's all about feel so if you start second-guessing something or have some doubt, that's when you're going to mess up. You know what I'm saying? It's definitely a rush.
IGNFF: Do you have any lingering attachments to the drift scene?
BLACK: Yes, I do. Of course! I think any young male would. It's tough because I don't really have a car, I drive a truck. I don't have the luxury of having everything right there in front of me like when we were doing the shoot. Yeah, I miss it. I hope there will be a next time.
Exclusive Video: The Fast And The Furious: Tokyo Drift
Watch a clip and meet the crew behind the crazy dangerous stunt driving.
Exclusive Video: The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift
The cast and crew show off the film's hot rides!
The Cars of The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift
An exclusive first look at the movie's hot rides!
Exclusive: The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift
Go under the hood, and behind the scenes.
posted by Evil @ 11:57 AM,
