SHIFTING INTO HIGH GEAR
Elgort gets revved up about ‘Baby Driver’
LOS ANGELES — For Ansel Elgort, playing Baby, a vicious gang’s ultra-cool teenage getaway driver, is dream-come-true time. This is Elgort’s star-making opportunity as “Baby Driver” creates the beat where he can strut, wheel and romance his way through an increasingly violent and deadly landscape.
“I have to thank Edgar (Wright), who gave me the opportunity,” he said of the “Hot Fuzz” writer-director.
“I’ve done a lot of things in my life to prepare for this,” Elgort, 23, continued. “I didn’t know what I was preparing for, but I started in dance and took so many singing and dancing lessons. Also, I’m an athlete so I could do some of the ‘Baby’ stunts. Everything came together really well.
“I haven’t done a big film before,” he added during an interview at the Four Seasons. “It takes a leap of faith for a director to take somebody and say, ‘OK, now the movie is on your shoulders’ — with a cast like Kevin Spacey and Jamie Foxx, these guys who are legends.”
Baby is introduced with an elaborate John Travolta “Saturday Night Fever” tracking shot.
“I always wanted,” Elgort said, “to do something that was iconic and people could look it up on YouTube, and that opening walk scene of seeing Baby Driver, I think people will do that.
“In terms of how we did it — we rehearsed all the choreography to do it as just one take. We did 28 takes.”
“In 28 times, Ansel never made a mistake,” noted co-star Lily James. “So cool.”
Baby, orphaned in a car crash, survived but with a hearing defect, a constant whine called tinnitus. He listens constantly to music — to drown out the sound.
And music is integral to the storytelling: Wright ingeniously scripted the film’s eclectic score years before he wrote any dialogue, then filming was done with the music playing.
“Whatever the audience is hearing, I was hearing,” Elgort revealed. “It was very important. If we weren’t wearing headphones, we’d have a little ear piece so we each could feel the vibe of the scene with music.
“I am as into music as Baby is, and I think Edgar knew that when we first met. That gave him hope that I might be right for this character.”
(“Baby Driver” opens Wednesday.)