Netflix's "Day Shift" stars Jamie Foxx, Dave Franco and director J.J. Perry chat about their supernatural action film in this interview with CinemaBlend's Sean O'Connell. They discuss what they loved most about making the movie, how they filmed some of its coolest action scenes, and of course, Jamie Foxx has more “Spider-Man: No Way Home” behind-the-scenes drama for us.
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00:00You know, I kind of, I almost blew it.
00:02In what way?
00:03As soon as I got on the set and there was all three Spider-Mans,
00:06I was like this.
00:07Ah, we up in here, baby.
00:09About to go live.
00:15Guys, good to see you again.
00:16How are you doing?
00:17Back at you, man.
00:18Back at you, baby.
00:19You both have experience bringing original movies
00:22to Netflix.
00:24And streaming is the way that so many audience members
00:26are taking in new films.
00:27Jamie, I'm curious.
00:28Is opening day any different for a streaming movie
00:31versus when it's going to theaters?
00:33Do you hear from more people who are telling you
00:35that they're checking your new movie out?
00:36It depends on how good it is.
00:37It depends on how good the trailer is.
00:39I tell them all the time, we're not in the movie business.
00:41We're in the movie trailer business.
00:42Our trailer for this movie overperformed.
00:47It did 19 million views in less than 24 hours.
00:50That's pretty big when you look at the landscape
00:55of all these movies that come out.
00:58And I think it's because J.J. Perry,
01:01whose forte is action, and that opening scene
01:05of me pulling the shotgun and shooting the old grandmother,
01:09people are like, what is this?
01:10So it had a real wow factor.
01:11So there is a difference, though.
01:13When you're trying to get people to the theater,
01:15of course, there's more elbow grease,
01:17and especially coming out of a pandemic
01:19and things like this.
01:20But you'd be surprised.
01:22You can't take the audience for granted.
01:24You can't even take an audience for granted
01:25that's sitting at home.
01:27So we want to do as much as we can
01:28to get people to hit that subscription
01:30and see something we think is just really like,
01:34I think it's really amazing in first time.
01:37We dropped power on Netflix around the same time
01:41this movie is dropping.
01:43Works every time.
01:44So I'm excited to be in J.J. Perry's debut movie.
01:50And I'm also excited to be with this young man next to me
01:52who I said, I'm not going to do the movie
01:54unless he's in the movie,
01:55because he brings so much to it.
01:57And to watch his talents flourish in this
01:59has just been amazing.
02:00No, no, no, no, no.
02:02It ain't what you think it is.
02:04I swallowed it.
02:05Dave, at one point in Day Shift,
02:07you referred to your characters as a team
02:09as crockin' in tubs.
02:10And I'm just curious,
02:12if you're referring to the 2006 Michael Mann masterpiece
02:15and you think Bud just looks like Jamie Foxx,
02:17the actual actor.
02:19There was some thought that went into that.
02:21I mean, you know, the movie's a little cheeky.
02:24It kind of fits the tone of the movie
02:27for people who kind of dig deep like that.
02:30But yeah, I mean, the movie, from the get-go,
02:33it's like, it doesn't take itself too seriously.
02:35It wants you to have a good time.
02:37It's got practical effects that are a little campy
02:41in the best way possible.
02:42It feels a little old school, a little throwback.
02:44And so I think that specific joke
02:47just tied in nicely with it all.
02:49Welcome to the Day Shift, motherfucker.
02:52Hi, J.J., how are you?
02:53What's up, Sean?
02:54What's up, my brother?
02:55Can you do me a favor
02:56and take me through the conversations
02:58of how you guys tried to figure out
02:59how many different ways you can behead someone?
03:02Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.
03:04You know, all the years of being on the road
03:06as an action director and action guy,
03:08I pitched so many directors so many things,
03:11and a lot of them go, no, no, no.
03:13I just throw them back in my bag of tricks.
03:15And you know, after 32 years of having this bag of tricks,
03:19when I dumped it out on the floor,
03:20there were a lot of nuggets in there, brother.
03:22And I didn't use them all.
03:23So hang on till we get to,
03:25if we get a sequel, I'm gonna take it up another level.
03:28All the heads are coming off.
03:30It's all, heads are gonna roll, baby.
03:32It's not Eclipse, New Moon, Breaking Dawn,
03:35part one, it ain't like that, all right?
03:37Why do you know the names
03:38to all the specific Twilight films?
03:40You do a shot in this movie
03:42that I had to go back and rewatch about a half dozen times.
03:44It's in the middle of a car chase,
03:46and it comes out of the sunroof of the car.
03:49Walk me through that.
03:50How did you do that?
03:51And why did you choose to do it in that moment?
03:53So I've been doing a lot of car chases in my career,
03:57and the Russian Arm is a pursuit or a precision vehicle
04:01that has a crane arm and a remote head on it.
04:04Became a tool in the cinema in the mid 80s, I believe,
04:08or late 80s.
04:09So that changed the perspective of car chases,
04:12of vehicular chases.
04:13And it was the gold standard up until three years ago,
04:17until the FPV drone hit.
04:20Nobody's quite nailed it.
04:23Ambulance did a good job.
04:24I think we did pretty good.
04:25But what I've done now is I've been working
04:27with that drone company,
04:29and his name's Tommy Tibiato.
04:31We've been R&Ding things.
04:32I just had him in Puerto Rico on this other second year.
04:35I will reinvent vehicle chases with that drone
04:38when I get my next movie.
04:40It's coming.
04:41I've already R&Ded the shots.
04:42I can't tell you
04:43because the other action directors listening
04:45will steal it from me.
04:47But that perspective of being in the over,
04:50in the back seat, in and over,
04:51throwing it out,
04:52and all of a sudden, the whole world is, you know, you're done,
04:55and then diving back in on it,
04:56that, for me, it was a game-changer.
04:59And, you know, I asked the kid, Tommy,
05:01I was like,
05:01-"Hey, Bubba, so if I was in the back seat of a car with gloves on,
05:04could I throw the drone out of the car if it checked up in a slide?"
05:06And he goes,
05:07-"Well, yeah, I think so."
05:10I said, -"Let's go try it."
05:11And we tested it. I have all the tests on my phone.
05:12So that's where it was born.
05:14It was born at Starbucks in Culver City talking about ideas.
05:19You know what I see when I see a van?
05:21Big old dollar sign.
05:24Jamie, you talk about bringing people back to theaters.
05:26This movie, Over My Shoulder, did just that.
05:28And we covered a lot of stories about Andrew Garfield,
05:30Tobey Maguire going back and seeing themselves.
05:32Did you get to go back and see No Way Home with an audience?
05:35The return of Max Dillon.
05:38Man, it was crazy.
05:38It was like a rock concert when we did that film.
05:44It was like,
05:46and I thought Sony did a fantastic job of mystique.
05:49Holding things, keeping things.
05:52I almost blew it.
05:53In what way?
05:54As soon as I got on the set,
05:55and there was all three Spider-Mans,
05:57I was like this.
05:58Ah, we up in here, baby.
06:00About to go live.
06:01And somebody just dove on me like I was a fire.
06:03I was like, man, what the hell?
06:05No one's supposed to know.
06:06Okay, my bad.
06:06Okay, we ain't supposed to know that all three of them are here.
06:10But I think they did a great job in doing that,
06:12bringing some mystique.
06:13And I think that that's what was needed
06:15to get people back in the theater.
06:17And I think that same muscle that's flexed in Spider-Man
06:21gets flexed here,
06:22where you see these incredible stunts,
06:25you see this incredible comedy,
06:27and you see incredible cast like Snoop and us
06:31all in the same situation.
06:34And so that's why we're happy.
06:37No matter where it is,
06:39we're just happy that our art is getting out there.
06:42So what's on the agenda today?
06:45My eyes are closed.
06:48Like every day, hunting vampires.
06:53It just strikes me that,
06:54because Jamie and Dave both have recent experience directing.
06:58So I'm curious if that meant
07:00that they were over your shoulder a ton
07:01and asking a bunch of questions or absorbing.
07:03No, so I welcomed that
07:06because I feel like the more directors you have on set,
07:10especially, let me rephrase it,
07:12the more good directors you have on set
07:14that care about the project,
07:15that care about every frame that you're shooting,
07:18the better, you know?
07:20So Jamie is not just an amazing talent,
07:22singer, actor, entertainer.
07:24He was also a producer on my film,
07:26and he was also a huge asset
07:28in shooting the film and in post.
07:30And Dave too, like always coming with great ideas.
07:32And, you know, I have a very open forum
07:35as far as, you know, ideas.
07:38Look, I don't pretend to be the smartest guy in the room.
07:40I think if you're in the smartest guy in the room,
07:41you're in the wrong room.
07:43And I always end up in the right room
07:45because I always end up somehow
07:46being the dumbest guy in the room.
07:47So I ended up okay on that one.
07:49I can't wait to see both of you guys
07:50continue as directors.
07:52I'm really intrigued by both of your
07:53storytelling abilities.
07:54Jamie, when are we gonna see something
07:55from All-Star Weekend?
07:57Man, it's been tough, you know,
07:59with the lay of the land when it comes to comedy, man.
08:04You know, we're trying to break open
08:08those sensitive corners
08:09where people go back to laughing again.
08:12And that's why I think even in this film,
08:15which is great, is like the one thing
08:17we kept hearing in the screen
08:18is how much people were laughing.
08:21So hopefully we'll keep them laughing
08:23and run them into All-Star Weekend
08:25because we were definitely going for it.
08:27God help me!
08:32Vampires just tried to kill me
08:34and now I just pissed my favorite fucking house.
08:37Everybody pisses himself the first time.
08:39Really? Did you?
08:40No, I didn't.
08:41But listen, you did.
08:45Vamp!