Emile Hirsch as Speed Racer and Christina Ricci in a scene from Warner Bros. Pictures' and Village Roadshow Pictures' action adventure movie 'Speed Racer' Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures Logo text 18 years ago, Emile Hirsch was crushed.
Speed Racer, the most expensive film of his young career, had bombed spectacularly, totaling just $94 million against a $120 million budget. What made the critical and commercial dud even more impactful was that it was the Wachowskis’ first directorial outing since finishing The Matrix trilogy, so there was a great deal of hype, attention and expectation surrounding their follow-up. Hirsch’s starring role in Speed Racer may have been flanked by awards contenders Into the Wild (2007) and Milk (2008), but he knew that being the title character in a major studio turkey would effectively end his six-year run on the shortlist for any film that necessitated a young lead.
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But in the following years, the ultra-rare afterlife began to play out, one that films like Blade Runner, The Thing and Fight Club also experienced. Through time and word of mouth, Speed Racer found its audience en route to becoming a genuine cult classic. Hirsch started to see the signs of reappraisal on the film’s tenth anniversary, specifically when he watched his then four-and-a-half-year old son enjoy his first viewing of the candy-colored live-action anime. Shortly thereafter, Hirsch really felt it when the New Beverly — the Los Angeles cinema owned by his Once Upon a Time in Hollywood director Quentin Tarantino — screened the film at midnight.
“During the Grand Prix at the end of the film, I could audibly hear the entire audience crying,” Hirsch tells The Hollywood Reporter in support of the film’s new 4K release. “There’s a catharsis and a sincerity and a purity of intention to Speed Racer, and those were some of the things it was knocked for at the time of its release. But I think they’re the reasons why it connects now aside from the technical elements and the fun adventure of it.”
Hirsch’s point about the film’s earnestness being attractive to today’s audience certainly makes sense when you consider how dark and divided the world has become in the last decade. And if its 2008 stablemate The Dark Knight was any indication, Speed Racer’s hyper-stylized look and vibrant color palette may not have been what moviegoers were looking for at the time. But nowadays — after 15 years of blockbusters offering very little color on screen, to the point where many look perpetually overcast — it’s no surprise why DP David Tattersall’s pop-art aesthetic strikes a chord now.
Written by Lana and Lilly Wachowski, the action-comedy chronicles Speed Racer (Hirsch) and his family’s racing company, Racer Motors, as they strive to honor their fallen son and brother, Rex Racer, by becoming champions of the racing world. Along the way, Royalton Industries wines and dines the Racers in order to acquire Speed’s racing skills and their mom-and-pop enterprise. But their refusal to be consolidated leads CEO Arnold Royalton (Roger Allam) to sabotage Speed, Racer Motors and the purity of the sport at every turn.
Speed and the Racer family’s defiance in the face of unchecked corporate power is likely another theme that viewers respond to today since corporate consolidation has only accelerated through mergers and megadeals. For Hirsch, the parallels between the movie’s real-life trajectory and the story itself are apt.
“I told Lana [Wachowski] by text a couple weeks ago that I love the movie so much. I was like, ‘I want to live in a world where people get Speed Racer and get what’s good about it,’” Hirsch shares. “The idea of the public rejecting the movie, I was almost disappointed in humanity. Speed has these pure intentions and this family love. He was fighting for his art like we were, and then corporate capitalism just crushed us both. So this resurgence is weirdly befitting for the movie in a way. It’s almost perfect.”
Below, during a conversation with THR, Hirsch also discusses how the Matrix trilogy may have provided him an advantage in the global casting search for the role of Speed.
***
Despite mixed-to-negative reviews and disastrous box office numbers, Speed Racer has become a genuine cult classic. You’re probably approached on the street about your movies that were loved right out of the gate, but given Speed Racer’s initial reception, is it more meaningful when someone stops you to gush about it?
Yes, because the people who love the film now found it organically. They were either told about it, or they stumbled across it on their own. It’s not a film you check out because the poster [or the streaming tile or Blu-ray cover] says “The Most Acclaimed Film of 2008” or “The Number-One Box Office Hit of 2008.” It was the complete opposite. It was one of the biggest bombs of ‘08. It was panned pretty much unanimously by critics. Even the couple positive reviews it got were not really that positive. They were semi-throwing it a bone. But we loved the film, and we poured our hearts into it. The Wachowskis made an amazing piece of art as far as we were concerned.
Emile Hirsch as Speed Racer in The Wachowskis’ Speed Racer. Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures Were you broken-hearted at the time? Or had you been around long enough to know that you can’t control the result?
We were really devastated. We were disheartened that we weren’t going to make any sequels and continue the world in the film that we loved so much. So, to see it continue to gain this ethereal momentum over the years, I’m honestly quite taken aback by it. It just seemed so unlikely. It doesn’t happen to movies that flop very often. This level of reevaluation for a film is very rare.
When did you first sense that the tide was turning?
About six years ago, I went and saw a screening of Speed Racer at the New Beverly, Tarantino’s place. It was a midnight screening for cinephiles. And during the Grand Prix at the end of the film, I could audibly hear the entire audience crying. There’s a catharsis and a sincerity and a purity of intention to Speed Racer, and those were some of the things it was knocked for at the time of its release. But I think they’re the reasons why it connects now aside from the technical elements and the fun adventure of it. The emotional core just has a profound impact on people, and they don’t forget it.
If I go on YouTube and type in Speed Racer, there are hundreds of videos of film nerd people saying, “This is the movie.” It’s pretty sweet. So, in a certain sense, it’s better late than never. We’re happy about it. I told Lana [Wachowski] by text a couple weeks ago that I love the movie so much. I was like, “I want to live in a world where people get Speed Racer and get what’s good about it.” The idea of the public rejecting the movie, I was almost disappointed in humanity. I was like, “It can’t be.” Speed has these pure intentions and this family love. He was fighting for his art like we were, and then corporate capitalism just crushed us both. So this resurgence is weirdly befitting for the movie in a way. It’s almost perfect.
In 2007, there must have been a great deal of frenzy around the Wachowskis first movie after wrapping the Matrix Trilogy. Did you have to scratch and claw for the role of Speed?
Oh yeah. I auditioned for “The Kid” in Matrix Reloaded and Revolutions when I was 15. I didn’t get the part, but I remember meeting the Wachowskis and just thinking they were so amazing. I was such a huge fan of The Matrix.
Fast forward to when I’m 21 and auditioning for Speed Racer, I had just finished Into the Wild a month before. No one had seen that movie yet, so I was still auditioning. I worked very hard on the audition. Lora Kennedy was the casting director. It was one of those audition casting calls where if you were an able-bodied male from around the world, you were putting yourself on tape for it. They were like, “Anybody can come on in for Speed.” It wasn’t like, “Can I get an audition?” It was more like, “Who hasn’t auditioned for this movie?”
So it took probably four auditions. I’m guessing they had an idea that they liked me early on, but then it becomes about consistency. More and more high-pressure auditions probably gave them an idea of what it might be like to work with me.
Did you experience any whiplash going from Into the Wild’s grounded, location-based shoot to Speed Racer’s green-screen maze in Germany?
(Laughs.) It couldn’t have been a wilder contrast. Into the Wild was the most earthy, tactile, sensory-overloaded experience. I went from being in the river and on the mountain to an imaginative world inside Berlin’s Studio Babelsberg. Speed Racer was actually super refreshing in a sense because I was ready for a change after Into the Wild. I was ready to not be soaking wet in the cold and on a mountain. So it was definitely a change.
The level of technology that they were working with, even back then, was very impressive. The effects team really did their due diligence, and they were so thorough. They photographed locations around the world and digitally uploaded them. So one of the reasons why the effects look so cool is because they’re actually photo-real, and they were collaged and superimposed. They’re not just CGI buildings; they’re actual photos that have been cut out. So it has this hyper-realistic quality underneath it all.
Emile Hirsch as Speed Racer in The Wachowskis’ Speed Racer. Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures Apparently, the Wachowskis’ early footage didn’t get the greatest reception from the studio. Were you aware of any controversy at the time? Or were you shielded from all that?
I think we were shielded from it to a certain degree. There was a whiplash between the aesthetic of The Matrix and Speed Racer. People knew it was the Wachowskis, and they were expecting The Matrix. They were almost punished for The Matrix being the way that it was. People get used to a certain visual aesthetic, and when you change it, they go, “What!?” So there was a certain amount of that involved. Speed Racer was just such a different-looking film for 2008, and a lot of people were not able to accept the visual changes.
Whereas now, in 2026, people are used to very, very different aesthetics. Look at James Gunn’s Superman and the imagination he has with his visuals. It’s so, so intense, but we accept it now. I don’t want to say it’s standard because that does a disservice to it, but it’s accepted in a way now that I don’t think it really was back then.
You also worked with stunt coordinators Chad Stahelski and Dave Leitch before they became John Wick’s Chad and Dave. Were you the least bit surprised that they popped as directors a handful of years later?
Not the least bit surprised. Chad and Dave were amazing. Chad was Keanu’s stunt guy on The Matrix, and Dave doubled for Brad Pitt and Matt Damon. Those guys are such badasses, and they trained us to do all the fight scenes and everything. They would shoot little demo videos of certain fight scenes, and then they would edit them together to show the Wachowskis later. The quality of even those little pieces was incredible. I remember seeing their stunt pre-vis and saying, “These guys know how to shoot really, really well.” So when they became these super-duper successful directors, it was no surprise at all.
According to the internet, you rewatched all 52 episodes of the Speed Racer anime series during prep. You even talked with NASCAR driver Jimmie Johnson. I’ve asked actors over the years whether they deliver their best work after months of prep or when they have to trust their first instinct because they’re coming right off another movie. What have you found?
In all honesty, you never quite know which one it’s going to be. It can be both. When you show up with no prep, it can be fresh in a way you never imagined, and it can be better than you could ever prep it. Likewise, you can prep something that you know you would never be able to think of and do [on the spot]. So a lot of it just depends on the role, the scenes and the character. Sometimes, it’s fun to go in cold in a way. There’s something exciting about that. You discover the scene as you’re saying the lines because it’s so fresh. There’s also something I love about having rehearsed something a million times. There’s a relaxed nature to that that I really like.
What day on the Speed Racer set do you still think about from time to time?
Honestly, the days I spent with the family. The family scenes were really what grounded Speed and helped him discover why he really wants to be a racer. I was also able to work with such great actors. There’s the scene before the Grand Prix where John Goodman, as Pops, and Speed talk about what happened to Rex. There’s the scene with Susan Sarandon where Mom gives Speed confidence amidst his sea of doubt after discussing corporate sponsorship with Royalton. Roger Allam, as Royalton, is so fantastic in the movie. He gives such a delicious performance, and I love watching him every time I see it.
Emile Hirsch as Speed Racer in The Wachowskis’ Speed Racer. Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures I believe the Wachowskis actually wrote a Speed Racer sequel script. Had it gotten made, do you think Racer X would’ve finally revealed himself to Speed?
Gosh, I don’t know. I can’t imagine what the Wachowskis would think of. I’m sure it would be surprising and great, but I’m just not sure.
*** Speed Racer is now available on 4K.
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