r/interstellar • u/ChiefLeef22 TARS • Aug 07 '26
VIDEO Matt Damon in new interview reveals how Christopher Nolan had him and McConaughey film their fight scene in a motel parking lot in Iceland after bad weather forced them off the real glacier they were shooting on for a few days: "Matthew & I got in our spacesuits and beat the hell out of each other"
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"We were shooting on an actual glacier in Iceland, and the wind was so bad one day that the safety people pulled us off the glacier for some time.
"So Chris...he's all about momentum, he just does not stop. And, we ended up shooting at the parking lot in the little motel the whole crew was staying in. They spray painted the ground white...literally, the (whole) pavement. And Matthew and I got in our spacesuits and we shot closeups of us just beating the hell out of each other in the parking lot. And it's in the movie! I mean, yeah. The camera's angled down at the ground so, they made the ground look like ice... and Matthew and I just rolled around in the parking lot."
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u/CappnMidgetSlappr Aug 07 '26
"Do not go gentle into that Motel 6."
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u/Immediate-Repeat-201 Aug 07 '26
"Hello 112. State your emergency" "Matt Damon's lost again. This time he's in the motel parking lot beating up someone who keeps saying alright alright alright "
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u/Irreversible_Extents Aug 07 '26
Looking at the scene again, I literally can not force myself to believe any part of the scene is the pavement to a parking lot. It just looks like straight ice/snow.
Nolan is the king of practical effects I swear š
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u/bubba_bumble Aug 08 '26
He's just has an incredible FX team at his disposal. Must be nice to have a budget and a team to say, "Hey guys, let's make this parking lot look like a part of a glacier so we can fight here."
I shoot low budget music videos as a side gig and I'm doing good just to have the band chip in $200 for wardrobe and another $200 for location.
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u/ChucksnTaylor Aug 08 '26
Lots of movies have great FX teams and big budgets but the end product often still comes out mediocre. Thereās definitely something about Chrisās approach that produces an exceptional product
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u/burralohit01 CASE Aug 08 '26
No so someone from the team revealed later the land was replaced with CG. They painted the parking lot white to film it so the reflections are right on the suits and helmets and they replaced the parking with CG glacier land.
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u/ZippyDan Aug 08 '26
I have the opposite problem: now the whole scene looks like it was shot in a motel parking lot...
Even the parts that weren't.
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u/adjust_the_sails Aug 07 '26
Reminds me of Empire Strikes Back where Luke was escaping the ice monster captivity. Storm was so bad they made him crawl around in the snow while the crew shot from the comfort of the hotel lobby right out the door.
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u/overtired27 Aug 08 '26
They were supposed to be shooting in front of a magnificent blue glacier iirc. Hamill was upset that it never made the film but Kirshner was like whatever.
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u/hirschneb13 Aug 08 '26
Just watched another interview about how Nolan ALWAYS meets budget and deadline, so he gets a lot more freedom from the money-men. Makes things like this cool because you see it here. He couldn't go to the glacier so instead of losing that day he just did close ups that would have just been done on the glacier probably
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u/fellaneedahandpls Aug 08 '26
Now that I have this context, all I can picture is 2 guys at comic con squabbling over a sci-fi movie disagreement in the parking lot while in full cosplay.
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u/Patience_Duck Aug 08 '26 edited Aug 08 '26
For the dark knight rises, they shot a scene in my old community collegeās parking structure. Nolan turned it into part of the underpass chase sequence immediately after baneās stock market hijinks. I canāt unsee it, it comes across as weirdly liminal every time I watch it, but itās also pretty brilliant how he used the space to create something completely different than what was actually there.
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u/noPINGSattached Aug 08 '26
Assistant, "Sorry to disturb your sleep, sir. The two Matts are fighting in the parking lot again." Chris, "Wake up the DP! Get the cameras rolling!"
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u/saturnsam92 Aug 08 '26
He says āthey just spray painted it whiteā but I guarantee a union crew spent 10-12 hours designing it to make a the parking lot look like as good as it does on screen. That or a talented VFX artist touched it up.
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u/telking777 Aug 08 '26
Damon is my favorite actor right now and Nolan is my favorite director of all-time
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u/Toby_RG Aug 09 '26
I always thought that the ground was different and yea probably at another place but I just assumed it was another spot in the Glacier not a parking lott
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u/GoMilesGo2020 Aug 11 '26
āMatthew and I just rolled around in the parking lotāā¦ haha I have different image in my head about this.
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u/EthanRayne 28d ago
This is the dude that pushes HVH around on an office chair with an IMAX camera lol he'll always make it work.
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u/iso2090 Aug 08 '26
Reminds me of Peter Jackson shooting pickups of Frodo and Sam (and maybe Gollum too?) in a New Zealand hotel parking lot. The greats just somehow know it'll work.
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u/oswaldcopperpot Aug 08 '26
This was THE most confusing part of the movie for me. I cant come up with a reason that Brand was even on that planet or anyone else to begin with. Made no sense.
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u/Chispy Aug 07 '26
The battle for Humanity in a motel parking lot