What happens when drag queens, a runaway train and a disaster movie collide? That\u2019s how you get the gloriously chaotic STOP! THAT! TRAIN! It\u2019s a riotous, campy ride that embraces the absurdity of its premise while putting drag queens front and centre. But beneath all the silliness is something more significant. In a cinematic landscape where queer stories are often highly political, director Adam Shankman believes there is power in simply letting a film like this exist on its own terms.<\/p>\n
Talking improv, hectic filming schedules, and how sobriety helped them approach their starring roles, Drag Race stars Ginger and Jujubee sat down with FILMHOUNDS to discuss all things STOP! THAT! TRAIN!<\/p>\n
Firstly, thank you for sitting down and talking with us. You\u2019re both amazing performers with an incredible talent for improv. What was the process like of having to play these characters straight?<\/p>\n
Ginger: First off, Connor [Wright] and Christina [Friel] wrote a great script, right? So, all of the pieces were definitely there, and we would always make sure that we would do at least a couple of takes that were just exactly what was on the page. But Adam learned very quickly with the two of us\u2026 We happened to live together when we were filming this, so you know we\u2019d film all day and then go home and work on the next stuff all night, and we would just be like, \u201cWe\u2019re gonna tell you what we\u2019re gonna do. Just keep rolling no matter what.\u201d And he goes, \u201cOh, God, the girls have got a bit.\u201d\u00a0 So we would do it, and then it would be just quiet. You wouldn\u2019t hear anything. He\u2019d come over the loudspeaker and go, \u201cOkay, that was good. Let\u2019s go back. Juju, try this. Ginger, try this.\u201d And that was maybe our second or third day of filming. After that, he kind of fell into this rhythm with us of \u201cWe\u2019re gonna do a couple exactly like it\u2019s supposed to be, and then I\u2019m just gonna let them do a fun run and see what they come up with.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Is there any scene in particular where that improv really shines through?<\/p>\n
Jujubee: Oh, yes. I wouldn\u2019t say it was 100% improv because Ginger and I did practice this on our own, but there is a scene where Tess and Didi have their moment where they are fighting and we\u2019re standing across the train. And I don\u2019t want to give too much away, but there\u2019s a physical altercation that is\u2026 magical and irresistible. It was really hard to film that scene because it was so funny. But that was one of those scenes where we asked Adam to keep rolling and that was the, \u201cOh, these girls have a bit,\u201d moment. And we were so glad that we just went in with the gall to do that because, you know, for me, this was my first film, so it was intimidating to share my thoughts and ideas because I just wanted everybody to be happy and everybody to love me. But I also knew this was my one opportunity to just speak my mind and to share what I feel is the strongest version of my comedy. And Ginger and I did some things that were freaking hilarious. <\/p>\n
Ginger: And can we just give a quick shout-out to the entire cast. Like, down to the background actors who, especially in that scene that we were just talking about\u2026 None of them knew what we were about to do. Every single one of them stayed in the moment and played right along with us. You don\u2019t always get that in a film or a theatrical setting. You know, sometimes if it\u2019s funny, somebody\u2019s gonna break. And none of them did. They were just so dedicated to what we were doing, and I truly appreciate that.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I know the shooting schedule was tight. It was a nineteen day filming schedule. Did that add any pressure?<\/p>\n
Jujubee: I didn\u2019t approach it by thinking about it that way. For me it was a day-by-day moment, you know? \u2018Cause we would go home and just look at the next day. So, I wouldn\u2019t look too far ahead. My focus was to just get the next day as \u201cperfect,\u201d and I put that in quotes, as possible, right? And I think we did really well with that. I think at the end when we wrapped, I was like, \u201cWow, we just did that.\u201d And my mind is still blown that we did that in that short amount of time. But we\u2019re drag queens, and drag queens are superheroes, you know?\u00a0We just are capable of anything and everything that you put in front of us. <\/p>\n
Ginger:\u00a0And Juju and I were the two that were there every single day.\u00a0You know, we were always there, and I think it kind of goes back to both of us being sober. We\u2019re on this sober journey. A\u00a0lot of that is very one day at a time. So you\u2019re absolutely right. It\u2019s like you just look at what\u2019s directly in front of you. But I also think it\u2019s because both of us have done Drag Race so many times that it has really prepared us for that. \u2018Cause on Drag Race, you get your script, two hours later you\u2019re in drag and you\u2019re filming in front of the cameras. So there is no time to stop and panic and think. You just gotta keep pushing through. You just do it.\u00a0And I think that\u2019s what made this really fun because we never had the time to overthink it.\u00a0We jumped right in.\u00a0<\/p>\n
STOP! THAT! TRAIN! Is In Cinemas Now<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"What happens when drag queens, a runaway train and a disaster movie collide? That\u2019s how you get the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":327538,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":["post-327537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327537","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=327537"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327537\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/327538"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=327537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=327537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=327537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}