Getting to make a movie centered around cars was a dream come true for Dax Shepard, star of the new film Hit and Run.
“I did not have a stunt double even one time in this movie, which was one of the reasons I made it in the first place,” Shepard told Examiner.com. “I wanted to go have fun and do the stunts I had seen in movies as a kid. My main inspiration was showing off in my cars. I got to do all of that. And those days were just unbelievable. We sometimes had 14 hours of straight driving, going through four sets of tires in a single afternoon. That is about as good as it gets for me. That is nirvana.”
Shepard also stars alongside his fiancée, actress Kristen Bell—an experience that the actor really enjoyed. “We have a long history—4 years at that point—of working with one another on auditions, giving each other notes and being constructively critical of one another,” he said. “That did not seem to trigger any insecurities so we knew going in that we were able to have those conversations with each other without getting in a fight.”
It was necessary for the couple to have a strong foundation, since Shepard had more control over the movie—he co-directed the film and wrote the screenplay. “It was certainly easier to memorize my lines, that is for sure,” he said. “I improvise a lot and spend a lot of time thinking about what colorful things I can say so having done all of that before I even got onto the set really made my acting job a lot easier than it normally is. Plus, this was the first chance I have had on a large scale to give my kind of unfiltered point of view. There was no studio intermediary giving me notes. It was just unadulterated me.”
Hit and Run is in theaters now.
