Jamie Foxx is set to star in Baby Driver, which also includes Kevin Spacey, Jon Hamm and Ansel Elgort. The movie is centered around a getaway driver named Baby, played by Ansel Elgort, who relies on his personal soundtrack to be the best getaway driver in the game. After meeting the woman of his dreams, he sees a chance to ditch his shady lifestyle. Coerced into working for a crime boss named Doc, played by Kevin Spacey, Baby must face the music as a doomed heist threatens his life, love and freedom.
I headed down to Atlanta, Georgia to visit the set of Baby Driver and spoke to Jamie Foxx, Ansel Elgort, Jon Hamm and the rest of the cast about the upcoming film. Here is some background on the main characters:
Ansel Elgort as Baby: After a car crash when he was seven years old, which gave him tinnitus in the ears, he developed a love for cars. “Because he has tinnitus, he has to always listen to music to drown it out,” Elgort explains. The music in the film is epic and sets the ton for each action-paced frame. “That’s why this whole movie is set to the music that’s all through Baby’s ears.”
Jamie Foxx as Bats: In honor the character’s name, Jamie is inked with countless bat tattoos. However, this character is the comic relief in the film. “Everyone on the set has a sense of humor,” Foxx said. “I just try to throw something in to keep [the humor] alive and keep it moving. That’s my background. I’m always trying to inch towards some type of comedic relief. Some of the greatest gangsters have said the funniest sh*t.” Sounds like we are going to get some classic comedy from Foxx in Baby Driver.
Jon Hamm as Buddy: He’s a guy who ended up the wrong side of good intentions “then kind of decided he liked it and was good at robbing banks,” as Hamm explains. “He probably thinks he’s better at it than he is, and like most criminals, doesn’t really get the consequence when the sh*t goes down.” Clearly, Hamm is enjoying this role, which is so different from his icy character on Mad Men.
Eiza Gonzalez plays Darling: Married to Buddy played by Jon Hamm, she’s the only female criminal who hangs with the guys. “I’m like the evil one. I always play the bad ones, which is pretty exciting. She’s just such a badass. She’s always glammed up. She looks real cool. She has such a cool style because she was an ex-stripper, but she turned to the criminal world.” Men and women are going to love this smart but sexy femme fatale.
Jon Bernthal as Griff: Griff is a reluctant witness to Baby’s remarkable driving skills. However, Jon was very tight-lipped about his character’s involvement in the movie, but did reveal, “I think he’s got some real doubts about this fresh-faced youngster who’s got so much responsibility on his hands, and I think that’ll play out as we play more of it.”
Aside from the characters, here are five cool facts I learned on the set of Baby Driver.
- They used over 150 cars making this movie. “Almost every car in this movie is designed specifically for something,” Car Stunt Coordinator Sean Ryan explained. The production team used five different Chevy Avalanches, with each Avalanche built slightly different, depending on the stunt.
- The movie has been in development for years. Director Edgar Wright had the idea since he was a teenager, but it first came to life in the Mint Royale video for “Blue Song” back in 2007. “I started working on it after Hot Fuzz and then I finished writing it after Scott Pilgrim,” says Wright.
- Edgar got insight on the making of the film from real ex-cons, getaway drivers, and the FBI. Edgar told us about his research process. “I met this guy who’s amazing, an ex-convict who is now a writer called Joe Loya. He wrote a book called The Man Who Outgrew His Prison Cell — I found him through a researcher and we became friendly. So, when I would write pages I would sometimes send them to him and say ‘Does this sound kind of real?'” This research made for an authentic film!
- Music is constantly music playing in the movie, either through Baby’s headphones or at a diner. The songs are always sourced in the scenes. So, is Baby Driver a musical? Edgar Wright explained, “It is and it isn’t. It isn’t in the sense that it’s not like Mama Mia, I don’t know why that was the first thing that came to my mind. But there is a lot of music in it in terms of Ansel’s character is playing music the entire time.”
- Jamie Foxx told his 7-year-old daughter he kills people at work. His character’s name is Bats, therefore, he is bat sh*t crazy. Jamie shared an interaction he had with his daughter. “My seven-year-old daughter asked me what I was doing today and I’m like, ‘Killing some more people.’ She’s cool with it. She was on the set of Django before, so she understands what it is. It’s sort of a familiarity with the role.”
Baby Driver hits theaters everywhere June 28.
