'Omaha' Cast & Crew on Filming on Location and Unexpected Dog Mishaps | THR Studio at Park City - video Dailymotion

Hollywood Journal

Director Cole Webley, producer Preston Lee and stars John Magaro and Molly Belle Wright stop by THR's studio in Park City and dish on filming their movie 'Omaha.' The cast and crew talk all about filming in Utah, being confined to a small car space and more.

Transcript

00:00I just met Cynthia Ariaville. It was wonderful. She was lovely.

00:04Um, and after seeing Wicked the movie, I'm like, how starstruck. But yeah.

00:09Did you know she was going to be here at Sundance or was that a surprise to me?

00:12I knew she was going to be at Sundance, but I was not prepared for today.

00:16Just a mirror. I'm like, wow, such a treat. Yeah.

00:23An independent movie is a miracle to get made. But beyond that, like we,

00:28I wanted to use all my friends who, who, um, um, you know,

00:32I had been working with for a decade and a half and off and on and stuff.

00:36So, uh, my DP is from here. Uh, of course he has like a crazy,

00:40amazing career. And, um, the writer is from here. Uh,

00:44Preston is part time from here. Um, myself, I've been here for 20 years.

00:48So shooting it here and I'm like, this story is a rural story, you know,

00:52it's a Southwestern United States story. And Utah, um,

00:57is, is that for, for many, many reasons. So yeah, we did like, you know,

01:0220 plus days of the movie here and the rest,

01:05a few on the road in a haunted house in Wyoming, a little bed and breakfast.

01:09Yeah.

01:10Haunted. Did you have an encounter?

01:14Um, well, there was this hotel called Elk Mountain and it was amazing.

01:20There was all these frames on the walls with like black and white, like pictures of

01:25old fashioned, like people in outfits, like smiling, but like, it was creepy, but it was good fun.

01:32Before I get any further, I wanted to ask about Rex. What is his real name?

01:36The dog actor. We, I was kind of hoping maybe he would come to or two.

01:41That's like Lassie. It was like, you know,

01:43But admittedly, the first Rex worked a day or two days.

01:48We're sick.

01:49Was he five?

01:50And we said-

01:51I couldn't work with him.

01:52I got his agent down and I said, I've got my lead actor.

01:55Ashy personalities. Yeah.

01:58That, that dog was a lovely, uh, little hyper. So we went to a much more subdued dog,

02:03which, do you remember his name?

02:06Rigger.

02:06There you go. Rigger is his name. Lives in Utah, alive and well.

02:10Can I let me not forget the dog?

02:12Yeah. Lives a couple hours away. We checked up on him for the premiere. Wasn't available.

02:17It's on to other things.

02:19Were there anything that was surprising about, like, the realities of making a road trip movie?

02:26Challenges, et cetera. Just car acting, anything like that, what?

02:30Well, it's confined. I mean, it's confined space, you know? It's, uh, very tight. You're spending

02:37eight hours a day in a old, beat-up, uh,

02:43coaching wagon. Yeah. So, uh, and then on top of that, it's an indie film. So it's very

02:48scrappy and all hands on deck kind of situation. Um, but it's an obstacle. But this is a movie that

02:55thrives on obstacles. So you, you, you want those kinds of things.

03:00To, uh, push you and get you into the place that you need to be. But we had a lot of fun.

03:05You know, I mean, you're shooting value. This story takes place from Nevada to Omaha.

03:10And I think a big reason you're shooting it here in Utah is because it gives you a sense of that

03:16journey. And also in the script, a big portion of it took place in the salt flats. You can't

03:20recreate that. You gotta be here. Uh, and then obviously we had to go on the road a little bit.

03:26We went through Wyoming, like we said, and then we finished out in Omaha, um, to get,

03:33you can't, I mean, you can't just recreate Omaha. There was discussion about that,

03:37but we knew that we weren't going to get the value if we shot it here in Salt Lake City.

03:42Um, but beyond that, uh, it's a, for a limited crew with a lot of local people on it,

03:51it really forces you to bond. It's, you know, there's something about road trips in general

03:56that forces people to bond and share memories. It's almost like summer camp. And with this tight crew,

04:02we went to a place called little America on the Wyoming border, this amazing, very strange motel,

04:09like quintessential Americana. And we spent some nights there. And how did there may have been

04:14fireworks going like the crew and they were, cause it's legal year round to do fireworks,

04:19I guess, in Wyoming, you know, fireworks. And so they're like off shooting fireworks and playing pool.

04:24And then it was a good, it was a good journey for us. Does anyone remember the first time they were

04:33starstruck? Not to speak ill of the dead, but I'm going to. When I was a kid, I met Paul Newman

04:41and it was really cool. I was my, there used to be a thing called the Cleveland Grand Prix. It was a

04:45car race, like an Indy car race in Cleveland. My dad was, uh, kind of one of the head of the volunteers

04:50there. So I had great access. I, as a kid, I would go through the paddocks and get all the

04:54drivers autographs. And I would just like have free reign. One year, I don't know if you know

04:59this, but, uh, Paul Newman owned race car teams. So he owned a team that Michael Andretti raced for

05:07and some other great drivers. And one year they placed, I think Michael Andretti got second place

05:13and they're in the winner's circle. And I was standing in the winner's circle and there's Paul

05:16Newman and I'm from Cleveland and he's from Cleveland. And I want to be an actor. He's a great,

05:21legendary actor. He's sitting there smoking a cigar, just smoking a cigar. I look at him. I'm like,

05:28I go, Mr. Newman, Mr. Newman. My name's John. I was probably like 12 at the time. I'm like,

05:34my name's John. I'm from Cleveland. I really want to be an actor. And I look up to you so much. I love

05:39car racing. And I was wondering if you could just sign my program. And he looks at me and he goes, no.

05:45And that was it. I mean, this is why I signed like anything. If anyone asks me to sign stuff,

05:53I'll sign it. Cause it was just so, cause this like no one else was around. It was like me and

05:57Paul Newman. Like, it wasn't like he was getting hounded and it was just like, no, good. It was

06:03my heart shattered. But, but sometimes, you know, meeting the people that you look up to,

06:09you learn a different lesson and, and it doesn't change how I feel about him as an actor, but maybe

06:16I feel about him as a person. I'm Robin Williams. I think I was 16 and we were on a trip down from

06:22Montana. We'd come down to LA and we'd all gotten to go in and I met him out front. And I was just

06:28unable to even speak. It was just wonder. He was drunk. He was completely high or drunk or whatever.

06:34Didn't get bit with the big beard and everything, but he was a big hero. So

06:39he said.

'Omaha' Cast & Crew on Filming on Location and Unexpected Dog Mishaps | THR Studio at Park City

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