Christina Ricci, Susan Sarandon, John Goodman, Emile Hersch and Kick Gurry in Speed Racer

So what kind of family are the Speed Racers?

SARANDON: A close family. A loving family...

GOODMAN: Very close family. Loving. Repetitious.

SARANDON: ...who are lucky enough to have their, um, business right in the house, so, and, and, share a passion for something, in this case, racing.

GOODMAN: Pops is an artist and he hearkens back to somewhat of a renaissance man. He works at home. He’s a very detailed craftsman. He has a passion for life and for his craft, for his wife, and for, uh, the little Racers.

And the mother is a bit like the rock of the family, and she makes great pancakes?

SARANDON: She’s the glue. She makes great pancakes, but she, yeah, she’s the glue. And she’s the one that’s probably a little more comfortable with her emotions. And, uh, I think she’s, you know, she doesn’t, she’s not pushy, or anything, but when it needs to be said, she says it.

GOODMAN: Very concise.

And how did you both get involved?

GOODMAN: With each other?

[Sarandon laughs]

GOODMAN: That’s a rumour.

SARANDON: Um, I got a call from the Wachowskis, and I was very flattered because I’m a huge fan of The Matrix. Huge in our house. Just thought that film was very, very special.

And, um, so they explained it to me. I read the script. I, at first, didn’t think that it would be that long a commitment because it wasn’t that big a part. But, um, I just thought they were funny and I loved the ideas that were sprinkled throughout and the conflict that they were talking about. And most of all, that they were trying, in the midst of this incredible, experimental, cutting edge, visual, fast-paced, energised thing, to make sure that the heartbeat of the film was really the family. And that doesn’t happen too often. And so, even though the part wasn’t a huge part, it was an important value. And I was really seduced by the idea of how you could manage to exist within this machine as a human.

And... they protected us.

And, John, how did you get involved?

GOODMAN: I got involved when they asked me. Uh, Speed Racer was a cartoon that was, when it came out in America, it was different from anything, the Japanese anime, was different from anything that was going on at the time. Very fluid and, bright, jarring... with stories and characters that were not of this world. Not that they were — they were very exotic, and they created their own universe. For some reason, I jumped at the idea of doing a live action version of Speed Racer. I just thought it was the right time, the right place. And then, the Wachowski Brothers were the exact right people to do that.

What I think great art or films does, it transports you to somewhere else other than this plane of existence. It takes you somewhere else you wanna go. It’s like taking a little two hour vacation, um, and having a little, lot of fun on the way.

And the most important thing to me was the family aspect of it. The Wachowskis are from a very strong family. They bring that onto the set with an extended family. They served to protect their vision, which is extreme, and great, and terrifying, and huge. They had to fight to protect that, uh, to bring that to the screen. In the same token, they protected us, so we trusted them very much.

Speaking of that, many films wave the family film banner, but they do it for commercial reasons. This film truly is a family film...

SARANDON: Well, the compelling part of the story, I think is, that you root for him to win because of so many more reasons than just a race. It has the whole brother thing, and the redemption of the brother, and, you know, the family’s fight to even be able to be present in the race. And so, they were really smart, because that’s what grabs you and that’s what tells you that in order to succeed, really, you have to have the support of your family. And how much, whether you have a supportive family or not a supportive family, the family is what produces what you are. Whatever your family experience has been, you are the product of that environment. And I think that’s, uh, something that could easily be overlooked. They talk about family films, because, as an adult, you could take a child to a film that you wouldn’t hate. That’s a family film. But this one actually stars the family.

When you talked to the Wachowskis, they explained to you what they were gonna do. Nevertheless, when you saw this, weren’t you blown away by the visuals?

SARANDON: Oh, absolutely. I mean, I... They showed us, you know they’re very structured in terms of what they want. And as we were going along, they could show us, even during the green screen, pieces put in, so you kind of had a rough idea. But nothing compared to the finished product, right?

GOODMAN: Yeah, I kind of got intimidated by the vision of, the totality of, everything. We had, like, a movie studio going on there. We had seven different productions, and they were all our productions, with so much chaos going on. But it was controlled, and it all served one purpose through their vision and struggle. But it would mean nothing without us looking at each other in the eye and telling the truth.

SARANDON: I felt a little like a carny, you know?

GOODMAN: Yeah.

SARANDON: We had these trailers all lined up. It was raining, sometimes we were flooded and everything. And then one week the Vikings would arrive, and then there’d be all these great gals in little, tiny bondage outfits. And then... we had people from all over. From Korea... China, Germany.... But you definitely felt like it was a constant changing, kind of, circus atmosphere.

I guess maybe the chimp helped that.