Director Cole Webley, producer Preston Lee and stars John Magaro and Molly Belle Wright stop by THR's studio in Park City and dish on filming their movie 'Omaha.' The cast and crew talk all about filming in Utah, being confined to a small car space and more.
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00:00Oh, she just met Cynthia Rivera. It was wonderful. She was lovely.
00:05And after seeing Wicked, the movie, I'm like, how was Starstruck?
00:09Yeah.
00:10Did you know she was going to be here at Sundance or was that a surprise to me?
00:13I knew she was going to be at Sundance, but I was not prepared for today just to meet her.
00:17I'm like, wow, such a treat. Yeah.
00:24An independent movie is a miracle to get made.
00:28I wanted to use all my friends who I had been working with for a decade and a half and off and on and stuff.
00:36So my DP is from here. Of course, he has a crazy, amazing career.
00:41And the writer is from here. Preston is part time from here.
00:47Myself, I've been here for 20 years.
00:49So shooting it here, and this story is a rural story.
00:53It's a southwestern United States story.
00:55And Utah is that for many, many reasons.
01:00So, yeah, we did like 20 plus days of the movie here and the rest, a few on the road in a haunted house in Wyoming.
01:08A little bed and breakfast.
01:10Haunted. Did you have an encounter?
01:14Well, there was this hotel called Elk Mountain and it was amazing.
01:20There was all these frames on the walls with like black and white, like pictures of old fashioned, like people in outfits, like smiling.
01:28But like it was creepy, but it was good fun.
01:31Before I get any further, I wanted to ask about Rex.
01:34What is his real name? The dog actor.
01:37I was kind of hoping maybe he would come, too.
01:40Or two. That's like Lassie.
01:43But admittedly, the first Rex worked a day or two days.
01:49And we said, I couldn't work with him.
01:52I got his agent down and I said, I've got my lead actor.
01:56That dog was lovely, a little hyper.
02:00So we went to a much more subdued dog, which do you remember his name?
02:06Rigor. There you go.
02:07Rigor is his name. Lives in Utah, alive and well.
02:10Yeah, lives a couple hours away.
02:14We checked up on him for the premiere, wasn't available.
02:17It's on to other things.
02:19Were there anything that was surprising about like the realities of making a road trip, maybe challenges, etc.?
02:27Just car acting, anything like that?
02:30It's confined. I mean, it's a confined space.
02:33You know, it's very tight.
02:36You're spending eight hours a day in a old, beat up coach and wagon.
02:46And then on top of that, it's an indie film.
02:48So it's very scrappy and all hands on deck kind of situation.
02:53But it's an obstacle.
02:55But this is a movie that thrives on obstacles.
02:57So you want those kinds of things to push you and get you into the place that you need to be.
03:04But we had a lot of fun.
03:07This story takes place from Nevada to Omaha.
03:11And I think a big reason you're shooting it here in Utah is because it gives you a sense of that journey.
03:17And also in the script, a big portion of it took place in the Salt Flats.
03:20You can't recreate that. You got to be here.
03:23And then obviously we had to go on the road a little bit.
03:27We went through Wyoming, like we said, and then we finished out in Omaha.
03:32You can't just recreate Omaha.
03:36There was discussion about that, but we knew that we weren't going to get the value if we shot it here in Salt Lake City.
03:43But beyond that, it's for a limited crew with a lot of local people on it.
03:51It really forces you to bond.
03:54There's something about road trips in general that forces people to bond and share memories.
03:59It's almost like summer camp.
04:01And with this tight crew, we went to a place called Little America on the Wyoming border.
04:07This amazing, very strange motel, like quintessential Americana.
04:12And we spent some nights there.
04:14There may have been fireworks going.
04:16I was like, where's the crew?
04:18Because it's legal year-round to do fireworks, I guess, in Wyoming.
04:21Shooting fireworks.
04:22And so they're like off shooting fireworks, playing pool.
04:26It was a good journey for us.
04:29Does anyone remember the first time they were starstruck?
04:34Not to speak ill of the dead, but I'm going to.
04:38When I was a kid, I met Paul Newman, and it was really cool.
04:42There used to be a thing called the Cleveland Grand Prix.
04:45It was a car race, like an indie car race in Cleveland.
04:47My dad was kind of one of the head of the volunteers there, so I had great access.
04:52As a kid, I would go through the paddocks and get all the driver's autographs, and I would just have free reign.
04:57One year, I don't know if you know this, but Paul Newman owned race car teams.
05:04So he owned a team that Michael Andretti raced for and some other great drivers.
05:09And one year, they placed.
05:11I think Michael Andretti got second place, and they were in the winner's circle.
05:14And I was standing in the winner's circle, and there's Paul Newman.
05:17And I'm from Cleveland, and he's from Cleveland, and I want to be an actor.
05:20He's a great legendary actor.
05:22He's sitting there smoking a cigar, just smoking a cigar.
05:26I look at him, and I go, Mr. Newman, Mr. Newman.
05:31My name's John.
05:32I was probably, like, 12 at the time.
05:34I'm like, my name's John.
05:35I'm from Cleveland.
05:36I really want to be an actor, and I look up to you so much.
05:39I love car racing, and I was wondering if you could just sign my program.
05:43And he looks at me, and he goes, no.
05:48And that was it.
05:50This is why I sign, like, anything.
05:52If anyone asks me to sign stuff, I'll sign it.
05:55Because no one else was around.
05:57It was, like, me and Paul Newman.
05:59It wasn't like he was getting hounded.
06:01And it was just like, no, good.
06:03It was my heart shattered.
06:06But sometimes, you know, meeting the people that you look up to,
06:10you learn a different lesson.
06:13And it doesn't change how I feel about him as an actor,
06:16but maybe I feel about him as a person.
06:18I'm Robin Williams.
06:19I think I was 16, and we were on a trip down from Montana.
06:23We'd come down to L.A., and we'd all gotten to go in,
06:26and I met him out front, and I was just unable to even speak.
06:30It was just wondering.
06:31He was drunk.
06:32He was completely high or drunk or whatever.
06:34Didn't get bit with the big beard and everything,
06:37but he was a big hero, so.