{"id":703788,"date":"2026-05-30T06:52:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-30T06:52:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/703788\/"},"modified":"2026-05-30T06:52:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-30T06:52:13","slug":"adam-shankman-on-directing-stop-that-train","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/703788\/","title":{"rendered":"Adam Shankman on Directing ‘Stop That Train’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tIn the world of \u201cStop! That! Train!<\/a>,\u201d (opening in theaters on June 12) RuPaul is Madame President, and like any world leader, she worries about her approval ratings. When a high-speed train called the Glamazonian Express is struck by lightning and hurtles toward disaster \u2013 a threatening \u201cstormaganza\u201d \u2013 the president is put to the test.<\/p>\n

\n\tBest friends Tess (Ginger Minj) and DeeDee (Jujubee) play train stewardesses who trade their dreary shifts on the Stank Rail for the glitzy Glamazonian Express. Except they encounter the A-Squad, the Glamazonian Express version of \u201cMean Girls\u201d led by Ayshleiygh (Symone), Alli (Marcia Marcia Marcia) and Amber (Brook Lynn Hytes). It\u2019s a romp of a comedy-disaster movie harkening back to the likes of \u201cAirplane\u201d and anything by Mel Brooks.<\/p>\n

\n\tVariety visited the Los Angeles film set last November, and discovered how unabashedly silly and fun the film is.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cHairspray\u201d director Adam Shankman<\/a> was shooting a scene featuring Joel McHale as a passenger dressed in a leather harness. The scene required numerous takes, and each time, ripples of laughter erupted in the video village with World of Wonder<\/a> co-founders and producers Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato, as well as producer Tom Campbell.<\/p>\n

\n\tThey later go over scenes, which turn out to be the post-credits, of the A-Squad helping passengers -specifically Sarah Michelle Gellar, down the inflatable slide.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Glamazonian Express is a set built by production designer Alessandro Marvelli; the first-class cabin oozes opulence and serves as the film\u2019s main set. Shankman sat down for an interview as everyone broke for lunch. He is no stranger to the world of \u201cDrag Race,\u201d having appeared as a guest judge during the main show\u2019s season 16, as well as on \u201cDrag Race: All Stars\u201d seasons 8 and 10.<\/p>\n

\n\tHe had been approached to direct the film, and when he read the script, he found it to be \u201creally funny.\u201d However, the original story was set on an airplane. \u201cI said, \u2018Guys, it\u2019s very funny. But it\u2019s \u201cAirplane,\u201d and some of the characters are drag queens.\u2019\u201d Shankman suggested changing the location to a train. He said, \u201cWe can use all the stakes of what happens on an airplane and even the jokes.\u201d One thing he knew was that he didn\u2019t want to make a different version of \u201cAirplane.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThen came the idea to fill the movie with fun cameos \u2014 Jerry O\u2019Connell, Lisa Rinna, Raven-Symon\u00e9, Michelle Visage, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, June Diane Raphael and more.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\n\tThe production was shot in just 19 days. Shankman says, the script made it easier to navigate that challenge. He says, \u201cIt\u2019s just joke to joke to joke, so that made it easier because I was able to set up the joke, tell the joke, and move on.\u201d He continues, \u201cThis is truly in that old Zucker brothers style, where somebody says something, and you cut away to a different part of the train, and a weird joke happens, and then you cut back.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tShooting within a 19-day window meant the continuity of character placement was deliberate and added to the film\u2019s comedic tone. \u201cIt ultimately makes the train seem bigger because you never know where anybody is sitting.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBefore shooting started, Shankman also gave advice to the queens. It wasn\u2019t about \u201cgiant acting.\u201d He advised them that, \u201cEverything has to be delivered; the stakes are real for you. The movie only works if you\u2019re playing everything as if it\u2019s dead serious, and they got it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tShankman teases that the film brings back the genre of comedy that people love and miss and is \u201ca silly action comedy twisted into a new point of view with an extraordinary cast of extraordinarily talented people.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\tMeet the Characters\t<\/p>\n

\n\tSymone<\/p>\n

\n\tSeason 13 \u201cDrag Race\u201d winner Symone plays Ayshleiygh, a member of the A-Squad who works in first class on the Glamazonian Express. On playing the character, Symone says, \u201cI figured out that she is this stunning and sassy character. I feel like she gets her personality from pills throughout the film, so I play her monotone and go up and down wherever the script calls for.\u201d In preparing for the role, she did some research, looking at flight attendants and train conductors \u201cto understand that part of the job.\u201d She laughs, \u201cI also looked up what people are like when they\u2019re on uppers and downers. Very important.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBrooke Lynn Hytes<\/p>\n

\n\tBrooke Lynn Hytes, who appeared on both \u201cRuPaul\u2019s Drag Race\u201d and \u201cCanada\u2019s Drag Race,\u201d plays Amber, the head stewardess. Hytes describes Amber as the \u201chead bitch in charge of the Glamazonian railway.\u201d She laughs, \u201cThey always get me as this stone-cold bitch. I think it\u2019s because my face doesn\u2019t move.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn auditioning for the film, Hytes says she also tried out for the parts of Tess and DeeDee but eventually landed the role of Amber. She describes the film as \u201ca chaotic masterpiece,\u201d adding, \u201cIt really is a very sharp, clever script.\u201d She credits Shankman for pulling that out of the cast, noting, \u201cIt\u2019s a lot of nuance and under-the-radar jokes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tGinger Minj as Tess and Jujubee as DeeDee<\/p>\n

\n\tGinger Minj<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cRuPaul\u2019s Drag Race: All Stars\u201d Season 10 winner Ginger Minj plays the lovable stewardess Tess. Minj describes her as someone who is wide-eyed and very optimistic. She jokes, \u201cIt\u2019s typecasting. It\u2019s been really fun to play somebody who views every bad thing that happens to her as an opportunity for growth and to be better.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tMinj thinks there\u2019s something to be said about her character\u2019s outlook on life. \u201cIt\u2019s done in such a silly way. It\u2019s a good life lesson. It took me years to learn that bad things are really just stepping stones to something bigger and better.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tJujubee<\/p>\n

\n\tJujubee plays DeeDee, a trained hostess who works for Stank Rail. Unlike her best friend Tess, DeeDee is a glass-half-empty kind of girl. \u201cIt\u2019s wonderful for her because her friend is glass-half-full.\u201d Juju said she gave her character a little bit of a backstory: \u201cShe\u2019s a little depressed, but she can laugh through it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tDespite all her struggles, Jujubee hopes her character will \u201cmeet somebody on the train and fall in love.\u201d One of her favorite moments in the film is a touching scene between Tess and DeeDee, and she recalls Shankman\u2019s response. \u201cWe filmed that, and we got all our angles, and he finished it off by saying, \u2018That was fucking brilliant.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tMarcia Marcia Marcia<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Season 15 \u201cDrag Race\u201d contestant plays Alli, a snooty first-class attendant who rounds out the A-Squad. She says, \u201cThe A-Squad is a blast.\u201d She adds, \u201cThe first thing I did when I got this job was ask who the other two were.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tShe describes Alli as \u201cthe equivalent of the Karen of the group. She\u2019s not very bright, but we try to find ways to make it realistic. She has her moments. We\u2019ll say that she has her loftier moments.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd yes, Alli does have a backstory. \u201cI think it\u2019s kind of always what a mean girl is. It\u2019s a girl who comes from a lot of money, and she and her two friends have been best friends since school. They\u2019re at a peak in that part of their life. I think the A-Squad has been friends since they were babies, and now they all are still working together at the same job, and they haven\u2019t changed.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the world of \u201cStop! That! Train!,\u201d (opening in theaters on June 12) RuPaul is Madame President, and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":703789,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[174781,64,63,174782,134,344,174784],"class_list":["post-703788","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-adam-shankman","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bleecker-street","tag-entertainment","tag-movies","tag-stop-that-train"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703788","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=703788"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703788\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/703789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=703788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=703788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=703788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}