With director David Leitch’s fantastic new movie, Bullet Train, opening in theaters later this week, I recently got to speak with Brad Pitt, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, and Brian Tyree Henry about making the action-thriller. During the fun interview, they talked about how they filmed most of the movie on a soundstage on the Sony backlot (you won’t believe it after you see the film), filming the action sequences, how they used old school movie making with new technology, and what someone should watch if they’ve never seen their work. This includes a Cool World joke…

If you haven’t seen the trailers, Bullet Train was adapted from the Japanese mystery-fiction book Bullet Train written by Kōtarō Isaka, the Japanese best-selling and award-winning novelist. Just like the novel, the movie takes place in Japan on the titular bullet train on a trip from Tokyo to Morioka. On the train there are a number of assassins whose assignments are very much interconnected, though they don’t know this until things start to go haywire when the assassins start trying to kill each other.

Loaded with inventive action set pieces, a script that will keep you guessing, and fantastic performances from the entire cast, Bullet Train is absolutely worth seeing in a movie theater. The film stars Joey King, Andrew Koji, Hiroyuki Sanada, Zazie Beetz, Michael Shannon, Logan Lerman, Hiroyuki Sanada, Masi Oka, Sandra Bullock, and Benito A Martínez Ocasio aka Bad Bunny.

Watch what they had to say in the player above, or you can read the conversation below.

COLLIDER: Listen, I want to start with a sincere congrats on the movie. I thought you guys did such a great job. David did such a great job. People are really going to effing enjoy this one.

BRIAN TYREE HENRY: Thanks, man. Thank you.

bullet-train-aaron-taylor-johnson-brian-tyree-henry — Image via IMAX

Let's start with that. So, I like throwing a curve ball at the beginning for all three of you. If someone has actually never seen anything you've done before, what is the first thing you want them watching and why?

BRAD PITT: Ooh, from our old library?

HENRY: From our repertoire? The full repertoire? From the repertoire?

PITT: Oh my God.

HENRY: Should we say about what we think it should be for other people instead of ourselves?

No, just for yourself.

HENRY: Damn.

PITT: No, it'd be so much I could…

HENRY: I'm going to say Atlanta, you should see-

AARON TAYLOR-JOHNSON: I'm pretty happy with The Bullet Train, to be honest. If anyone just saw Bullet Train being the first one, I'd be pretty pleased and happy with that. And that'd be great.

PITT: Oh, good one. Man, you got out of that one.

HENRY: Yeah. I'm going to say Atlanta. Just watch Atlanta. If you haven't seen Atlanta at this point, you're racist. So, there.

PITT: And I'm going to say all my stuff because it's just fantastic. So, just throw a dart.

TAYLOR-JOHNSON: Once you see one, you want to see him all. Isn't that right?

HENRY: Want to see it all. It's like Pokémon. You got to catch all of them.

PITT: Once you've seen me in Cool World, you will-

HENRY: I'm telling you. Guys, stop sleeping on Cool World, man. It's great. It's great.

I guess the Cool World thing is an ongoing joke through the junket?

PITT: It has reared its ugly head a few times. Yes.

HENRY: It's one of my favorite Brad movies, and he doesn't want to believe me.

PITT: He's mean. He's so mean.

HENRY: You're right. That's brilliant.

One of the things I don't think anyone watching this movie will realize is you shot like 99% on a Sony Culver City soundstage, which is incredible because it just shows how far the technology has come with the LED and Volume and everything else. Can you guys talk about the fact, how did you pull this off? What was it like trying to make a movie like this on the Sony back lot on a soundstage?

PITT: You're bang on right. Because it's like shooting the old films, like a Hitchcock film with rear projection, but this is with the latest technology. And it was in the heart of lockdown. So, we're not going to Tokyo. So, what they did was we had several train cars, three train cars, that they could redress and swap around. And these video walls. This was what was so amazing. These, they were like 20 feet tall and a football field long. Maybe I'm exaggerating a little bit. But they'd be flashing the trip from Tokyo to Kyoto. So, you really felt like there was movement. We actually had some of the crew who would get motion sickness from it. I thought it was fantastic.

bullet-train-brad-pitt-1 — Image via Sony

There are some really incredible action sequences in this film. Which one was the one that you were ready to tell David to fuck off? If any. I'm just joking by the way. But you know what I mean.

PITT: Yeah. We tell him that anyway, so.

HENRY: Yeah, we tell him to fuck off as much as we can, honestly.

PITT: Fuck off, man. Fellas?

TAYLOR-JOHNSON: You know, I think it was amazing. You sign up for a David Leitch movie, it is quite brilliant how every one of our characters got a moment to shine in the action sequence in this movie. And we're on these confined train carts. So, you're bouncing around the elements in there, and the environment really gave you that structure to play with it. And so, it was great. I really love the moment where me and Brad get to fly outside the train and climb ourselves back in. They really are pushing some of the action side of things. But yeah, it's just a joy. It's been a joy with him.

HENRY: I don't work with snakes. That's as simple as that. I don't work with the fucking snake on the train. It's like snakes on a plane is one thing, but snakes on a train is not.

TAYLOR-JOHNSON: It's a whole other thing.

HENRY: It's not really that fun. It's not fun, dog. It's not fun. Because snakes are territorial. So, that was a fuck off for David Leitch for sure.