SUCOPRESS/Raquel Laguna. Actor TYE SHERIDAN stars in ASPHALT CITY, directed by Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire. In this interview, Sheridan talks about playing a paramedic in the film, about working alongside Sean Penn and about his role as a producer in the movie. ASPHALT CITY follows Ollie Cross (Tye Sheridan), a young paramedic assigned to the NYC night shift with an uncompromising and seasoned partner Gene Rutkovsky (Sean Penn). The dark nights reveal a city in crisis; Rutkovsky guides Cross, as each 911 call is often dangerous and uncertain, putting their lives on the line every day to help others. Cross soon discovers firsthand the chaos and awe of a job that careens from harrowing to heartfelt, testing his relationship with Rutkovsky and the ethical ambiguity that can be the difference between life and death. Sean Penn, Gbenga Akinnagbe, Michael Carmen Pitt, Katherine Waterston, Mike Tyson, Raquel Nave and Kali Reis also star in the movie. ASPHALT CITY, in theaters on March 29th, 2024.
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PeopleTranscript
00:00 What attracted you to this project in the first place?
00:05 Jean-Stefan.
00:06 It was all Jean-Stefan.
00:08 That's partly true.
00:10 I think he's a superb filmmaker and I think the idea of him at the helm of a movie about
00:20 paramedics in New York was really, really exciting.
00:23 And then I think it mostly became about these people and paramedics and the entire EMS community.
00:30 I kind of fell in love with them, getting to know them through the process of making
00:35 this film.
00:37 And I think they're undervalued.
00:39 I think they're underappreciated, but mostly I think because they're misunderstood.
00:43 So I really got excited about this film as it presents an opportunity to kind of explore
00:49 and take a closer look at the life of medics through the amazing lens of Jean-Stefan.
00:55 I thought it was a very exciting, dynamic duo.
00:59 How was working with Sean Penn and the rest of the cast?
01:03 Oh, Sean is great.
01:05 You know, he's a very intense guy, but in the best way.
01:08 You know, I think he brings a level of intensity and professionalism to the set.
01:13 And I think he cares deeply about first responders and specifically paramedics.
01:20 And so I think we had that in common.
01:21 You know, one of the major challenges was really the process of, you know, understanding
01:28 how to be a medic.
01:29 You know, so there's the technical aspect that you're trying to achieve in the film
01:32 because Jean-Stefan's films are hyper real.
01:35 You know, we knew from the very beginning that it needed to look like we knew what we
01:39 were doing.
01:40 And in effect, we kind of did need to know what we were doing to a certain extent.
01:45 And so we spent months, you know, doing ride alongs and training sessions with mostly with
01:52 the team at Wyckoff Hospital in Brooklyn.
01:55 There are close advisors on this project.
01:57 And yeah, we learned together, Sean and I learned together how to do CPR, how to give
02:02 people IVs, how to intubate, how to do a BVM.
02:06 So it was it was an amazing process.
02:09 And both of us, I think, were really, really engaged in that.
02:12 And then, you know, I had developed a kind of rapport with each other as partners going
02:18 through some of these training sessions.
02:20 So when we started shooting the film, it was very natural for us on set, you know, collaborative,
02:26 collaboratively trying to figure out who's doing what in what instance.
02:29 So yeah, it was it was great.
02:31 You are also a producer in the movie.
02:34 Being a producer, how rewarding is for you to to be able to tell the stories you want
02:39 to tell?
02:40 You know, I think I've worked with a lot of great filmmakers, first of all.
02:45 And so when I first got into film, it was acting was just as new to me as everything
02:51 else.
02:52 And I was always curious about the entire process.
02:53 And I've worked with some of the greatest filmmakers, directors and producers that are
02:57 out there making films.
02:58 And so I've been lucky to learn so much and really want to try to be as additive as I
03:05 possibly can be.
03:07 So whatever capacity that that means, whether it's just as an actor or as a producer, you
03:12 know, I'm happy to be very supportive and try to commit myself fully to the films that
03:17 I'm working on, especially films like this that are super special.
03:20 You know, this film was around since 2017, 2018.
03:24 So we've been trying to make it for a really long time.
03:26 It was a labor of love.
03:28 And it it there was a lot of evolution, you know, from when I first got involved to, you
03:34 know, the final version of the film.
03:37 And I think, you know, that was the cool thing about working with John Stefan is that he
03:42 really immerses himself in the world.
03:45 And it's almost like the movie kind of becomes out of his research, you know, and getting
03:52 close with the people and those stories, you know, just bleed into into the film.
03:57 But but yeah, no, it's this is a super important project for me.
04:01 And yeah, I would just say as whenever I can be additive, I'm happy to be.