Exclusive: 'Wreaking Crew' Director Reveals He Wanted Jason Momoa to Go Naked for Big Fight
If there's any downside to Prime Video's new action-comedy hit movie The Wrecking Crew, it's that it's not playing on the big screen. Starring Dave Bautista and Jason Momoa as grouchy half-brothers trying to solve the mystery of their father's death, The Wrecking Crew has the action, speed, and wit of an old-school 1990s or 1980s action-comedy (think same vein as 48 Hours or Lethal Weapon). In short, its a funny, wonderful ride, and a great throwback to an age of better action movies. Director Ángel Manuel Soto told Men's Journal that vibe is exactly what he was going for.
"It was fun being able to play with real people, real explosions, and real cars, like I was a kid playing with Hot Wheels," Soto says. "It was a dream come true."
As The Wrecking Crew continues to dominate streaming charts, I caught up with Soto to discuss action, humor, and why he tried to get Jason Momoa to go fully nude for the film's first big fight scene. Mild spoilers ahead.
Men's Journal: There's a lot of great action in this movie. Let's break down that highway chase scene. Why'd you go with a minivan?
The original idea was that I wanted to have an even smaller car—one of those Japanese Hondas. I felt that it was going to be a funny image of those two guys almost hanging out the windows. But, Dave's [Bautista] character, he's a family man, so it does make sense he'd have this car. But we wanted to keep it as close to how it really is in real life. We also liked the idea that the only person who could really drive that car, could really crack it, was Valentina [Morena Baccarin].
The only thing we changed was the transmission. It was one of those ones that had the shifter as a dial and the whole transmission is not in the center. And I hate that! I refuse to support that. It's such a boring thing to do. And the parking is like...a button. Just stupid. So, we had it rigged with a stick.
Photo Credit: Jason Laciste / Prime
This movie is so funny and has so much heart. Do you think there's a renewed appetite for this kind of action movie?
I hope so. This is the type of action movie I want to see—the type of action movie I gravitate towards. You can't have action movies and heroes exist in a vacuum where emotions are not important or the hero doesn't ask questions. If there's an emotional part, it has to be the inciting incident that triggers the thing. What I missed from those films in the '80s and '90s is the characters had a solid arc and transformation that took its time, and that didn't happen at the expense of excitement and action.
How much of the jabs and insults between Momoa and Bautista were scripted?
A lot of the insults are ad lib. A lot of the quirky moments were ad lib. Tonally, I wanted the violence to be brutal. I wanted the violence to have a more realistic outcome when it comes to gore, but it's easy for the tone to go in the dark direction. So, we always kept in mind that we're still doing an action comedy. There still needs to be levity to the moments of brutality—like we're playing with your emotions.
The opening fight with Momoa, where he's battling all those guys in his bath towel is a good example of that. I guess the question is, how does a towel stay on during that?
[Laughs.] My real idea to Jason was like, "Let's go full naked!" And he was like, "I don't think so." But you know, a lavalava [wrap], is traditional Hawaiian. And he was like "Okay, boom, that makes sense." We had an idea to end it with a kind of button, a punchline, where he walks away after the fight, and the lavalava gets stuck and you see him butt naked and then he faints. But we didn't use it. It started to go into the slapstick comedy of things. We wanted the balance between light and dark.
Blue Beetle was part of the last run of DCU movies before the reboot. Would you return if James Gunn called you?
One-hundred percent. They know it. Even from the get-go, when Gareth [Dunnet-Alcoce] and I were working on the script, we always had this vision of a three-part journey for Jaime Reyes. His first movie was an origin story, but it all starts local. I wanted to keep it more regional, then start building up as our hero gets more power and knowledge. So, yes, I'd love to complete that story some day.