How Freaky Tales Directors Got Tom Hanks Cameo, Learned From Captain Marvel

Freaky Tales directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck spoke to ComingSoon about getting Tom Hanks to cameo in their new film, experimenting with the medium, and what they learned from their foray into Marvel. Starring Jay Ellis, Pedro Pascal, and Dominique Thorne, Freaky Tales is out in theaters starting April 4.

“ Set in 1987 Oakland, Freaky Tales is a multi-track mixtape of colorful characters — an NBA star, a corrupt cop, a female rap duo, teen punks, neo-Nazis, and a debt collector — on a collision course in a fever dream of showdowns and battles. Executive produced by hip-hop pioneer Too $hort, and featuring an all-star ensemble including Pedro Pascal, Ben Mendelsohn, Jay Ellis, Normani, Dominique Thorne, Jack Champion, Ji-young Yoo, Angus Cloud, and Tom Hanks, this pulpy blend of explosive action, edgy humor, gory kills, and sly twists and turns makes for one wild ride,” says the synopsis.

Tyler Treese: Anna, one thing that stood out while watching Freaky Tales was that you guys were having so much fun playing with the medium. The cameraman gets knocked down, there’s animation, and special effects go outside the frame. How was it experimenting and just embracing the form of a film for this?

Anna Boden: Oh man, you’re absolutely right. Thank you so much for that question. It was so much fun to think about making this movie and how we could play with it and have fun with it. We were thinking about that. We were also just thinking about how we could make sure that the audience was having fun and not taking ourselves or our characters or anything too seriously.

We thought of this as this is gonna be like a mix tape of a movie of the kind of things that Ryan loved from growing up in Oakland in the eighties. Things that we loved about movies that affected us when we were younger and we just wanted to play. So, yeah, absolutely. All those things that you mentioned were things that we were gonna be playing with and having fun with.

Ryan, Tom Hanks has the most incredible cameo in this film, just talking about movies. It’s almost like he’s not acting. It’s such a cool scene for him. I know you both worked on Masters of the Air, but how did this come about? It’s incredible.

Ryan Fleck: Yeah, no, exactly. We did Masters of the Air and got to know Gary Goetzman and Tom, they’re producing partners on the show, and he knew about this project set in Oakland that we wanted to make. Even in the screenplay, which we got to him, he’s mentioned as being in a sequence. There’s a musical sequence that happens at the end of the movie, and he’s mentioned as being a cameo in that.

He says, “Yeah, sure, I’ll do that.” Then we started coming up with the dates when he’s available to do it, and we realized if he’s gonna come to Oakland and we’re gonna get Tom Hanks, should we write a scene for him and not just have him do like, just a little two-step in a music video. Let’s write something fun for him. So we actually sat down and then wrote that scene for Tom, and he showed up and just said it word for word. Blew our minds.

That’s a great scene. I loved that you mentioned Bachelor’s Party, too. That’s one of my favorite Tom Hanks movies. So I got a kick outta that.

Anna, Jay Ellis is just kicking some incredible ass in this movie. The fight scenes in this are so fun and over the top. Did working on Captain Marvel get you ready for this or how was it just taking it to the next level here?

Boden: Oh, man. I mean, we had such a dream cast on this, and Jay Ellis was certainly part of that. Working on Captain Marvel and then on Masters of the Air gave us experience working on bigger movie action and stunts and visual effects, stuff that helped us kind of learn the tools that we put into action here, for sure.

Source: Comingsoon.net