PAUL WALKER, CAN YOU HEAR ME?

Ah, the art of the interview. I love me a good interview. Talking to various film directors, producers, etc., there is nothing better than talking shop.

The one thing I totally hate about interviewing someone is actually transferring the dialogue to a word document, by listening to the recording (as I usually record the interviews with my crappy tape recorder). It’s a process that sometimes takes hours. That’s actually why I don’t really do interviews all that often anymore.

Once I interviewed Rob McKittrick (writer/director) about his film Waiting, on the telephone. I strapped this mic device to the phone in an attempt to record the conversation (which was great because I learned that he wrote the script for that film while living in Central Florida, where I live, and some of the places he waited tables at were places I ate often), but the device fell through and the conversation was wasted.

That was the last interview I’ve done.

But there is one person I want to interview more than anything. I mean, every writer certainly has a dream team list of people they’d love to interview, but mine isn’t as sacred as some. I want to interview… Paul Walker.

Yes, the Paul Walker of 2 Fast 2 Furious, The Skulls, etc. That Paul Walker.

There is something about his acting style that utterly hypnotises me. I’m not too sure what it is – his frat boy mannerisms or laughable serious face poses – but I don’t mind him as much as other people do.

I even wanted him to be the next Anakin Skywalker. I wanted him to be where Hayden Christensen ended up. Have you seen Episode II? Saying Walker couldn’t have done a better job – or even just a more tolerable job – than Christensen, is just silly talk. If Walker was in that film, perhaps it would have gone from 3rd worst movie ever made, to 17th worst movie ever made. All because of a simple casting change. You feelin’ me George Lucas?

With the first Fast and the Furious, the screenwriters, director, and actors took an utterly silly premise (taking DVD players from trucks via a harpoon gun and some Honda Civics) way too seriously, thus making nothing but a bad film all around. With the second film, the crew knew how silly it was and just rolled with it. 2 Fast 2 Furious is guilty pleasure by any standards – a totally enjoyable bad movie. But since it’s that enjoyable, is it really a bad movie? I mean, it entertained me (and continues to do so as I own it on DVD, but never will I own the first one), so maybe it really isn’t a bad movie after all.

Like Running Scared.

Seeing Running Scared, not once but twice so far, made my Walker curiousity go up. He is a lot better in this film than he has been in others. Sure, his accent isn’t very convincing, but his persona is a lot more tolerable. I now want to interview Paul Walker for our fine readers of Film Threat.

I actually tried too. I contacted New Line, I contacted Walker’s publicist and manager. I’ve tried everything so far. With all my e-mails and phone calls, I’ve gotten nowhere. Either Walker is just too busy (as he has had 2 films come out this month alone, and his working with Eastwood on a new project) or his publicists just don’t care about Film Threat. You’d think they’d be down too, since I am one of the few that gave Running Scared a somewhat favorable review.

So Paul, if you’re reading this for some reason, where you at? I won’t loosen your mousse, bro.