Of all the things you’ve done across your career, have you ever directed such an eclectic cast?
Look, I’ve done a lot of stuff — from the dancing and choreographing and my TV work and the movies . . . I’ve run the gamut. And this was just a great deal of fun.
It felt low-stakes and low-pressure, because we had no time, we had so little money and we were just sprinting the whole time. We shot this thing in 19 days. All those cameo people? Most of them worked for, at most, half a day. The hardest part of making it was kind of scheduling — how to get people in and out. And that train was just one wooden car that we kept redressing at night, after work. It was nuts.
One of those cameos is an actress you’ve got a long history with, Sarah Michelle Gellar . . .
Well, as you said, she is an old friend. And when I asked her, she was just so quick to say yes. I said, “Well, you’re gonna be playing yourself — but nobody knows who you are and everybody’s gonna be giving you s*** about just seeming like some irritating lady on the train.” And she thought that was funny. So, it was great.
“Campy” can be a tricky tonal bullseye to hit. How did you go about that?
I told every actor on the movie, “You just have to play it like you’re in a drama.”
We can pick it up a little bit to, like, soap opera level — but all of this has to feel very real for you. The peril has to feel real, the world has to feel real. There’s no “drag” in the universe that we’re shooting in, so don’t think about the drag part. And if we just keep playing it as a drama, we’re gonna be in good shape.
Is it fair to say this film has some Airplane! vibes going on?
We definitely are the grandchild of Airplane! — one of the most formative, greatest comedies of all time, I think . . . That kind of satire was so much fun to be able to do.
Airplane! was very much skewering classic disaster movies. Did you find yourself rewatching any of those old disaster flicks that played it straight, just to give yourself a reference point for all the satire?
I loved all of the Airports [the film series Airplane! was parodying] . . . and all the [movies produced by] Irwin Allen — the Towering Infernos and Earthquakes and The Poseidon Adventure. Those are my favourite . . . I watch a lot of those movies all the time anyway, so I didn’t have to [revisit them].
Underneath all the absurd, over-the-top, tongue-in-cheek antics — what’s the aspect of the human experience being explored in Stop! That! Train!?
Oh, it’s a friendship love story. The Tess and DeeDee story [the two train attendants, played by Ginger Minj and Jujubee] is the heart of it — and then everything else just sort of circles around that.
As a setting, as a physical space to work in, what does a train offer you that other settings wouldn’t? I imagine there are limitations, but also unique opportunities.
Well, for this it actually made it more funny. The original draft of the script that I read was set on an airplane, and I was like, “No. I can’t do that — because we’re making Airplane! then with a few different jokes and some drag queens.” I said, “But what if we put it on a train?” We can still keep a lot of those airplane jokes . . . you can keep all of the weather-system peril that would really f*** up an airplane, and then you get the joke about the president having been in the “Rail Force.”
You know, [the setting] actually just pumps up the comedy. It doesn’t diminish it.
Speaking of the president, we have to talk about RuPaul Charles and what he brings to that role, and also to this film as a producer . . .
Well, apparently it was RuPaul’s idea to ask me to do it — although Ru and I haven’t ever talked about that part of it. We’ve been friends for a very long time, and it was after I had guest-judged on Drag Race that he asked me to do it. Randy Barbato, one of the other heads of [Drag Race production company] World of Wonder, approached me and said, “Ru would really love you to read this script.” I sort of said, “OK, I guess I’ll read it. Sure.” And it was just so bloody funny and the jokes were so good that I thought, “Oh God, I don’t want somebody else to do this!” So, I took it on.
And my relationship with Ru is just so trusting and pretty divine. It’s really lovely.
We’ve touched on all the big stars who cameo in the movie. Can you talk about your two main characters, Tess and DeeDee — and the magic of Ginger and Juju sharing scenes together?
Ginger was actually in one of my best friends’ movies, called Dumplin’. And I was one of the producers of Hocus Pocus 2, and Ginger had done that . . . What I didn’t realize in casting Jujubee against Ginger was that they have this really long-standing friendship. In fact, it was Jujubee’s idea to get Ginger on Drag Race initially. And they were also touring in a live production at the time . . . I didn’t know any of this. So, the kismet of then casting these people who were such close friends to be playing these friends was real lucky.
Going back to the Airplane! parallel, did you have any ambitions of finding your version of a Leslie Nielsen or Lloyd Bridges — a dramatic actor who turns out to be a secret comedy powerhouse?
OK, you have to understand . . . we shot this thing in 19 days. I only had two weeks of prep, basically, on the ground. We were doing some casting, making lists before then, but it was not a lot of “thinking.” We had to move very, very, very quickly . . . And I’m just thrilled with who ended up in the movie and who said yes.
Are you saying that this production was like a runaway train?
I am saying that. It was definitely not slow-moving!
As much as you or any other filmmaker would prefer all the time in the world to shoot, is there some advantage when you’re forced to work that quickly?
Yeah, I like the kind of DIY vibe of it. “OK, we’re gonna make this play and we’re gonna put it on in the barn” . . . There’s something that is really, really fun and very freeing. You don’t really have time to be scared. You don’t have time to overthink anything.
Do you feel that your background as a choreographer informs how you conceive of and direct a film — even if that film doesn’t involve dance?
Yes, it does. When I read a script and I envision a space, figuring out how to puzzle-piece it together is informed by my dance and choreography. And it makes it much easier, frankly. I don’t walk in and go, “Oh, I don’t know what I would do in here.” I walk in and it all feels very definitive — understanding what the needs of the scene are and understanding where I’m going to move with it and how the flow is going to work.
Finally, what mode of transportation will the sequel take place on?
[Laughs] If this thing does well, who knows . . . Stop! That! Submarine!? Stop! That! Spaceship!?
Stop! That! Train! in theatres now
MEMORABLE ROLES:
Starting out as a dancer for pop stars like Paula Abdul and Janet Jackson, Adam Shankman eventually made the jump to an in-demand choreographer of music videos, movies and TV. One of his more notable credits on the latter front was “Once More, With Feeling,” the iconic musical episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, wherein he worked with his pal and future Stop! That! Train! star Sarah Michelle Gellar. (Fun fact: Shankman and Gellar are such good friends, he even officiated her wedding to Freddie Prinze, Jr.) Starting in the early 2000s, he broke into film directing, helming such hits as The Wedding Planner, A Walk to Remember, Disenchanted and the aforementioned Hairspray. On the other side of the camera, you may well remember his stint as a judge on Fox’s So You Think You Can Dance.
CURRENT GIG:
Taking a page from Airplane!’s flight manual, Stop! That! Train! campily sends up the disaster films of yore, centring on two attendants (played by drag queens Ginger Minj and Jujubee) working aboard a luxury locomotive that suddenly goes off the rails. Rounding out the cast are Sarah Michelle Gellar, Joel McHale, Jerry O’Connell and RuPaul Charles — the latter of whom both plays the U.S. president and exec-produces the film. Engineering all this barely controlled chaos? Hairspray director Adam Shankman.