The Fast & The Furious: Tokyo Drift: Lucas Black interview
Compiled by Jack Foley
LUCAS Black talks about his role in The Fast & The Furious: Tokyo Drift and what it was like to learn Japanese and work in Tokyo.
Q. Tell us about Sean, the character you play in The Fast & The Furious: Tokyo Drift?
A: He’s a normal mechanic, just a regular school guy. He loves cars, fixes up his car and races cars. If he’s going to pick a fight he wants to pick a fight that’s a race and he does at the beginning. He wants to show off in his car instead of sports or whatever it is. But that gets him in tough situations and that carries on throughout the movie.
Q. How was it learning to speak Japanese?
A: It went well. The first couple of times I had to speak Japanese it didn’t have to be perfect, it could all be mangled up because it was the first time being there. It wasn’t too hard just saying it over and over a couple of times and it was fairly easy for me because, thank God, it wasn’t a whole monologue or a whole paragraph. It was just a couple of lines here and there so I could deal with that.
Q. What was it like filming in location in Tokyo?
A: Coming from a small town in Alabama, I never thought I’d be in Tokyo. It’s a huge city with lots of people. It’s cool to see at first and then learn about the people and things there, but I got homesick quick.
Q. How was it working with director Justin Lin?
A: You know, he’s great as far as him being as young as he is and having the position he does on this set. Just his demeanour and the way he’s focused and knows what he wants – he’s always, always working on something. If he’s not working on set, he’s always re-writing or editing stuff, or doing all the graphics or whatever needs to be done. He’s non-stop.
Q. How did you enjoy the driving and which was your favourite car?
A: The Evo, as far as drifting goes, was the best one I’ve been in but it had some modifications. They worked on it because it was a four-wheel drive and they converted it into real wheel and changed some steering on it, some braking and it works well as far as drifting goes. The Z is also good, the Nissan. I don’t drive it in the movie, I just have to hop in it. But those two cars are awesome for drifting.