Fast X Picture Car Coordinator Dennis McCarthy reveals the ins and outs of creating cars for The Fast and the Furious franchise, in this interview.
Picture Car Coordinator Dennis McCarthy Q&A
After a tour through the Fast X cars, Dennis McCarthy was kind enough to answer some of the questions from the journalists. Because of this we learned all about what it takes to film a movie as massive as the Fast films, and even if any of the actors have kept the cars that were made for their characters.
Do you have a total number count for the amount of vehicles used in Fast X?
Dennis McCarthy: I do. I’m trying to think roughly what it is. It’s a hard question because there’s a lot of background cars. So it’s hard to define what the total count is. Because for instance, in the trailer, there’s an overhead shot with cars everywhere — hundreds of cars. So do I count those cars? Those are just extra cars that we brought in. But if I do count those cars, it’s probably somewhere in the seven to eight hundred range of cars.
Cars that really get built, right here in the shop, is probably in the two-hundred-fifty to three hundred range. And in a fairly short amount of time (about seven months). If I’m building a car for a customer it will take over a year to build one car. But for a movie, I can build fourteen of these cars in seven weeks. There’s a difference between movie cars and a car that’s gonna be someone’s pride and joy.
Do you have a favorite stunt?
Dennis McCarthy: One of my favorite stunts was going back to Fast Five. One, driving the safe through the streets of Puerto Rico, which was on screen to represent Rio. It was amazing to be there on set and see this safe slide around and smashing things and blowing cars off bridges. And also going back to Fast Five, I love the Train Heist sequence now. Fast X I really haven’t seen in its final form but there’s some stunts here that I think will probably surpass those ones. So I’m looking forward to see the final cut.
Was there any change in the cars that you used with the switch in directors?
Dennis McCarthy: Negative on that. Well, Jason Momoa’s was a change, which was just kind of a story point. But other than that, no, because as you guys know, that change occurred after we started filming. So at that point, the cars are either on location or on a plane on the way, so we didn’t really have any time to make changes.
This sequence shot a little bit later. So we were able to make a change. But that change was more a request of Jason Momoa more than anything else on this car. But for the most part, we were already going and it was already past that point. So there was no backing up.
Do the actors ever request to keep the cars? And are they allowed to keep any?
Dennis McCarthy: That’s a tricky question. Yes, they always request it. Very rarely does it happen. But it’s not easy, but the answer is yes, it does happen on occasion. Jason Momoa’s might be one of them. So we’ll see.
Is it common for actors to put in the same level of input as Jason Momoa did for his car in Fast X?
Dennis McCarthy: Jason was pretty adamant on this one. Vin Diesel, we always chit chat quite a bit, but with Vin it’s a little bit different because I’ve known him for so many years, I really know what he likes. did have some specific requests in this movie. I won’t reveal because I don’t want to give it away, but there is a specific car that Vin requested returns to the franchise, which is involved with his son and whatnot.
Sung Kang is another huge car enthusiast. We talk all the time. I was just on his podcast a few weeks ago, talking cars. Sung and I can talk cars all day long. It’s few and far between because some of the characters I’ve known for a long time.
And Jason Momoa. This is the first time I met him, but he was very, very specific and very into his cars. And obviously, bikes as well. Makes it more fun when when you get that input, because you want to you want to make every cast member happy. You want them to love what they’re in on screen. It just adds to everything. I know if I was an actor, which would never be my forte, but if I were, I’d be pissed if I was in a car that I hated, or that I was embarrassed to drive. So hopefully they’re always happy with what we present them with.
Nobody just wants a clunker.
Dennis McCarthy: Now that’s happened a few times and I’ve had some complaints. That goes back, I want to say it was on Fast Seven, we had a scene shot in LA where Roman drove a Caprice four door. So the story behind that was we had built a ’71 Mustang. And he loved it, it was a really cool car. And then there was a key story point that we had to have four doors.
There’s not a lot of cool four door cars. The Charger may be the exception, but the Charger is always reserved for Dom. So they wanted something kind of different, something kind of down and dirty LA style. That’s where the Caprice came from. But the first time he saw that on set, he was not happy. “Where’s my mustang? What happened?” We put some cool wheels on it. But so yeah, there’s a lot of opinions back and forth.
Is there a particular car that broke your heart when it had to be crashed?
Dennis McCarthy: Well, that always happens. If everything would stay as written, we’re pretty good at planning ahead for cars that we hope will not be damaged. And then we’ll build maybe four or five of these cars with no love whatsoever, just throwing them together. No expensive parts, just the bare minimum for that thirty or forty seconds on camera where it just gets destroyed or blows up or whatever it is.
But you know, something doesn’t go right, a camera goes down, you got to do another take, or someone comes up with a different idea… Let’s do this. Let’s drive the car off of that cliff and come down the side and it’s like, oh my gosh. There’s no time to build more cars so then you have to start pulling out the cars that you don’t want to wreck and they get wrecked. That’s always a little disheartening because in a car like this, for instance, there’s probably three hundred hours of labor.
A lot of effort goes into it. That’s why I like the new Chargers because we can basically paint them, put wheels and tires on them, and maybe some seats, and we’re good to go. It’s so much easier.
Have you gotten to see your dream car on screen yet?
Dennis McCarthy: Many times over, yes. I always try to get my favorite cars in these films, for sure. Every one there’s something that I love or wanted to own. That’s one of the one of the perks of the job, I guess.
Have you kept any cars?
Dennis McCarthy: I have. The one that I have right now was really from the spin-off. It’s that little rat rod here, which was one of my all time favorites. I love that thing. That was another one we put a lot of effort into it. It juggled around character wise, but I always call it Statham’s car because he was one driving it and lighting everything on fire. But it’s like a true off road race car with an old Ford body. I really think that’s one that I’ll probably keep forever.
I’ve owned several cars of the franchise. I still have the Monte Carlo from Tokyo Drift. Which was the first cool Picture car I ever built. I’d been in the business for three or four movies before The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift came up. They want a street racecar and I was like, Okay, now you’re talking my language! I can’t wait!
So I built that Monte Carlo pretty much exactly the way I wanted it to be. With the exception of the primer paint scheme. I was shooting for a full matte black primer and I didn’t win that battle. But other than that the car is exactly how I wanted it to be. Which is why I still have it parked in my garage here.
Are there any on set repairs that have to be done while filming?
Dennis McCarthy: Oh my God, yeah, they’re non-stop on set. There is a team especially for that. You have first team and then you have second unit. Second unit being the action sequence. And that’s where we’ll have ten of these cars lined up. Which sounds like a lot of cars, but when you really think back on it, it’s not. What’ll happen is we might shoot one location one day, where the car was pristine and clean, and then we go to another location where we’re at the end of the chase and the cars cameras front to back.
So we’ll take forklifts and hammers, we’ll hammer the whole side of the car for continuity. And then two days later, we’re shooting the middle, where only this side of the car is damaged and not this side. Then we’re fixing it, and going back and forth. It’s very, very, very challenging. People are amazed when they say, Oh, we had ten cars or fifteen cars, but it’s not enough, especially when you consider we’re shooting in London, Portugal.. we’re shooting in different countries all at the same time. But there might be some on stage, and we don’t shoot in order.
That’s what really makes it challenging. Sometimes we will damage a car or two or three cars for a day shoot, then the team will be up all night fixing it because the next day the car needs to be pristine and clean again. So it’s not just the cars that we ship all over the world, we ship containers and containers full of parts. It’s definitely a logistical challenge. But the guys have been doing it long enough, they always pull it off.
What went through your mind when they made you build a car to go to space?
Dennis McCarthy: You know, that’s one of those things that caught me out of left field. I was like, what? So it takes you a few minutes to absorb that one. Okay, we’re sending the car to space. I’m thinking, I’m thinking, I’m thinking… okay, what can we do here? So I came up with a ’58 Plymouth Fury. My reason being I wanted something that had really thick metal and I figured an old car we can weld up all the seams and everything else. We’ll go all out, maybe take some stuff from a NASA wrecking yard. All these things are going through my mind.
Before I knew it, it was already chosen as a Fiero. I think, a Fiero? Man those cars are made out of plastic, that’s not going to be good on reentry. But anyways, I don’t win all of them. That one I definitely didn’t. My only contribution that played out, and kind of didn’t, was I thought we should have some nitrous in the car for changing trajectory and rotating the car, which kind of made it in there. I guess nothing’s off limits.
What has surprised you the most about being a part of the Fast and Furious family?
Dennis McCarthy: The most surprising thing was actually getting that first job because I got it completely unexpectedly. I got a call from Universal to do some research about the sport of drifting. I had no idea it was related to another Furious movie. I was doing research for a week and it wasn’t until I went to a meeting, that I realized. So that was the biggest surprise, I guess, in my history of working with the franchise. But there’s always surprises there. They’re never ending. That’s what makes it fun.
NEXT: Fast X Cars Explained By Car Coordinator Dennis McCarthy
About Fast X
Over many missions and against impossible odds, Dom Toretto and his family have outsmarted and outdriven every foe in their path. Now, they must confront the most lethal opponent they’ve ever faced. Fueled by revenge, a terrifying threat emerges from the shadows of the past to shatter Dom’s world and destroy everything — and everyone — he loves.
Fast X races into theaters on May 19th!
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Tessa Smith is a Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer-approved Film and TV Critic. She is also a Freelance Writer. Tessa has been in the Entertainment writing business for ten years and is a member of several Critics Associations including the Critics Choice Association and the Greater Western New York Film Critics Association.