FG: Being a period piece set in the 80s, did you do anything different visually? Yeah; the fashion and the music were reasons enough to set the film in the 80s, even if it is fictional. Then you add in the fact that in that decade, pilots could do this type of outrageous flying that we depict in the movie. FG: Can you give us one moment while filming that made you smile? That’s a great question because I’m known for frowning during production. And we shot some of the movie in South America in very remote airstrips where you had to fly in your own fuel. Tom and I actually camped at one of these airstrips closest to the city of Araraquara [Sao Paulo, Brazil], which was three hours flight time away from the closest road. It was about as remote as could be. I mean, there was nothing there. The rest of the crew flew back, but Tom and I decided to stay. I didn’t even know that this level of remoteness still existed. To get back to your question, I smiled when we were finally able to get a fire going at night because it was deep in the rain forest and all the firewood was wet. Nothing would light; we ended up having to start a fire with aviation fuel. I smiled the next day at dawn, however, as we filmed some of the most astounding flying footage. Normally I kind of question myself during production as we shoot things, but this was movie gold—Tom piloting an airplane by himself in the most rugged and remote area you can imagine. Another time I smiled was when Tom, his bodyguard and I were camping out. I don’t think his bodyguard ever had camped before, so while Tom was out flying and practicing, we started to set up the tent, something that’s always done during daylight because it’s much harder to do in the dark. In the area where we were setting up, there was one soft spot and the rest looked like hard rock. I noticed that Tom’s bodyguard picked a very rocky hard spot to pitch Tom’s tent and I thought “Great! I’m going to take the one good spot (smile!).” FG: Ha ha ha! That’s the director for you, always thinking about his talent. (Laughing) Yeah. It’s not my fault if the bodyguard doesn’t know the first thing about camping!
fall 2017
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