This was an unannounced visit by Director Rob Cohen and co-stars Jessica Biel, Jamie Foxx, and Josh Lucas as they discuss the new military thriller Stealth opening July 29.
Fan Question #1: Is this movie going to be in 5.1, 6.1 audio and Digital projection?
Rob: Well I filmed it on film and but they’re releasing it in a 4K transfer so that’s twice as much resolution as normal. And it will be released in 5.1.
Fan Question #2: I wanted to know from all the actors, did you guys have to go through any training courses, learning about military protocol for stealth bombers?
Josh: Well I went through Fight Survival School which is what you have to do to qualify to be a passenger in an F-18. Which included literally taking a mock helicopter and flipping upside down in a pool and having to get out of the helicopter as it’s sinking while you’re blindfolded. That was the beginning of an incredible level of training that I felt was very, very important to be able to play these guys with a level of integrity that both Jessica and Jamie took on as well.
Jamie: I didn’t do all of that.
Jessica : Neither did I.
Rob: Neither one of them did.
Fan: [To Jamie] You got down but it wasn’t in one…
Jamie: I got in this thing, what was it called?
Josh: The Gimble.
Jamie: It was the Gimble. It was a simulated like it was an aircraft. It was on this big thing flipped over and I was taking off. But you guys did it first. And I know when you were taking off I was like: “Come one, let me do my thing.” But it was fun.
Fan Question #3: Jessica, I think your hair looks really great.
Jessica: That is so nice!
Josh: What about Rob’s hair?
Fan: Jamie, can you talk about the differences of working with blue screen as opposed to working on an actual set?
Jamie: I think the difference is in the directors. When you look at Rob Cohen, a great director, what he does is when you can’t see anything; he already had it planned out. We were working on this film and he’d have this sort of cartoon that he had already done similar to the movie. He would give us the structure of it compared to our lines that made things a lot easier for us. When you do something when there’s somebody right next to you it’s a different program. But he was there to make sure everything was a-ok.
Fan Question #4: Jamie how has it been for you, the transition from comedy to such a dramatic role in Ray?
Jamie: With comedy, it’s the things you never really thought you’d want go to. Like when we did this comedy thing on Living Color we had people who were so great like Keenen Ivory Wayans, Damon Wayans, Jim Carrey, Tommy Davidson and such fantastic people. What people don’t realize is that’s a great training ground to do characters. A lot of time those characters you saw, like Fire Marshall Bill or Wanda have such a great side-story. So by the time you develop your dramatic muscle you’ve used those same things that learned on your comedic side and you scale it back a bit and it works perfectly for the drama. So that’s what it’s been, a lovely ride. I’m looking forward to the future, looking forward to you guys coming out and checking out Stealth.<!--page-->
Fan Question #5: How do you think your fans will respond after seeing you in such a good movie like Ray to this one? [Audience reaction] I’m just saying it’s very, very different.
Jamie: Well it’s a very different movie. It’s all entertainment; you know what I’m saying? It’s a different movie all together: we’re flying in planes, it gets your adrenaline pumping, get some popcorn, the whole thing. That’s what this is about. It’s all about fun. Nobody’s going in trying to critique it and all that kind of shit. It’s just a good time at the movies.
Fan Question #6: This question is for Jamie. What’s the difference in roles between your last movie Ray…?
Jamie: Did we not just go over this? The difference is different roles, different parts, different movies, different characters in this movie. If I could ask along with this question, if Josh and Jessica would explain what their characters are about, you’ll get a flow of what these characters are about in this movie. My character is a guy who’s a little superstitious. His job, only a few people can do as far a mastering these aircrafts. So he takes a little bit of witchcraft, a little bit of luck with him. Now Josh and Jessica and Rob can explain…
Jessica: My character her name is Kara Wade and she is the only female pilot in this squadron, there’s just the three of us. She is an incredibly smart and physically strong, and mentally strong woman. She was an Anapolis graduate.
Rob: And sexy.
Jessica: And sexy. But what’s cool about my character is that she is just as smart if not smarter than the men she’s working with. She’s one of the top dogs, just like these guys are. She’s a killer female character. She is hard-core, strong, and tough and she doesn’t take any shit from them. So I think the ladies are really going to appreciate this character because she’s great.
Josh: We all had these great call signs that we all came up for each other. Jessica’s was “Guns” because she got to the point where she was in such incredible shape that her arms were these big, powerful guns. I think Jamie was the one who named her. Jamie was “E-Z” which was obvious. The guy I played was Ben “Bic” Gannon. “Bic” was because he lit himself on fire drunk at a party one night is the back-story. He’s a very cock-sure of himself, Top Gun pilot who basically gets in the situation where the technology they’re introducing he completely disagrees with it. Because he thinks you cannot under any circumstance take humanity out of warfare. And if you do, it becomes easy and therefore it becomes that you’re not doing your own dirty work and you’re not paying the price for it. So there’s a very interesting moral question underneath this fun, playful roller-coaster ride of a movie. I think that makes it a bit different that way, I think.
Jamie: Rob Cohen, can you kind of explain a little bit of some of the technology that you’re seeing as far as how you got to make these planes look so real and how you make the scenes look so real?
Rob: Well there’s 838 visual effects shot, total 3-D, CG effects. We tried to push the degree between photo realism and effects work to a new level. So there’s much more visceral interaction that you’ll have to see. Digital Domain did all the effects. $34 million for the visual effects and I think a lot of them are ground breaking. So check them out and I hope you enjoy them when you do. Thank you.
You can view photos from the premiere of Stealth on this page.
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