The Big Picture

Collider’s Perri Nemiroff held an exclusive Q&A with Kelly Blatz about his first action film,
One Fast Move
.
Blatz shares his love for motorcycles, talks about how he was inspired by the bike racing community, and discusses the improvised filming tools used for the race scenes.

Riverdale
‘s K.J. Apa learned to ride motorcycles and helped shape the film by inspiring and collaborating with Blatz.

Adrenaline, romance, and leather jackets are all waiting for you on Prime Video in Kelly Blatz’s second feature as a director, One Fast Move. The film dives into the niche world of motorbike racing, where Riverdale’s K.J. Apa loses his memorable red hair and wide-eyed charm to play a determined aspiring racer with a chip on his shoulder. In addition to Apa, the film stars Maia Reficco (Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin), Eric Dane (Grey’s Anatomy), and Edward James Olmos (Battlestar Galactica).

Collider hosted an early screening and an exclusive Q&A with Blatz, where Perri Nemiroff asked him about his experience directing his very first action film. Blatz talked about bringing his love for motorcycles to the screen and sharing that love with Apa by tossing him in the deep end during his early training. Blatz also delved into how difficult it is to create a high-speed motorcycle film, especially for his first attempt at action. He created impromptu filming tools, interacted with the vibrant community surrounding the races, and was constantly inspired by his crew. You can hear all about his passion for riding in the video above or follow along via the transcript below.

One Fast Move (2024) A young man seeks out his estranged father to pursue his dream of becoming a professional motorcycle racer. With help from his love interest and a motorcycle shop owner, he begins to break down the walls his father’s absence had created.Release Date August 8, 2024 Director Kelly Blatz Cast K.J. Apa , Eric Dane , Edward James Olmos , Maia Reficco , Austin North , Jackson Hurst Runtime 107 Minutes Writers Kelly Blatz Distributor(s) Prime Video Expand

‘One Fast Move’ Was a “Great Challenge” for Kelly Blatz
Image via Prime Video

PERRI NEMIROFF: My first question for you is a general question about motorcycles, because I feel like anybody who watches this movie can totally tell that it is made by someone who loves them. Can you tell us a little bit about what sparked that love?

KELLY BLATZ: I didn’t start riding motorcycles until late in my life, in my late twenties. The minute I got on two wheels, I felt like it was a part of me. Once you start riding, for those of you who do or don’t, it becomes like a form of meditation. I was always scared to ride motorcycles for some reason. Once you do, and you get past that fear, it helps you kind of face other fears in your life. For me, because I had so much love for it, I wanted to write a love letter of a film to motorcycles. I’m not a motorcycle racer, but I realized that there wasn’t a motorcycle racing film for some reason. I decided it was a great challenge and decided to write this film.

So you go into making this film already loving motorcycles. Was there anything new you discovered about them or something you wound up loving even more because of your experience making the movie?

BLATZ: Absolutely. I wasn’t very familiar with sport bikes and race bikes. I ride cruisers and classics. Race bikes are different than just sport bikes—they’re the suped-up, hyper versions, custom-built superbikes. Once you get on the back of one of those, it’s like nothing else. It’s a feeling that you really can’t describe; you just have to try it. There’s that line in the film which is, “The faster you go, the calmer you feel,” which really came from my own life. If you’re going fast, you can’t think about anything else because the stakes are so high and so your mind ends up getting much, much, much calmer at higher speeds.

I was reading a little bit about how you started working on an outline for this story in 2017. What is the biggest difference between how you pictured the film turning out back then compared to the finished film that everyone gets to see on Prime Video now?

BLATZ: Before you shoot a film, you visualize it, and you start to have sort of an essence or a feeling. You have a lot of films that are inspirations, and you have a sort of tone and a palette that you imagine. But for me, once you start putting the pieces together and the cast together, and you start bringing on the creative team, it starts to tell itself what it is, and you have to listen to it. So, you shoot the film, and every day, you have to half-know exactly what you want and half be open to what actually is happening on the day. Once you finish shooting the film, you see all the footage, and it’s completely pulled apart. Then you have to craft the film, and it starts to look like a combination again of what you imagined and what it wants to be. I can say that at the end of the day, this film is exactly what I’d hoped for, but also something I didn’t even expect.

K.J. Apa’s Passion for ‘One Fast Move’ Helped Shape the Script
“I would adapt the script to what he was thinking about.”
Image via STX Entertainment

I read you had decided KJ was perfect for this role after seeing a single clip from Songbird. What was it about that clip that signaled to you that he was the star of your movie?

BLATZ: I was writing the film, the actual script, during COVID, and there were a couple of films made during that time, and one of them was Songbird. As I’m writing it, I see this trailer pop up, and I see KJ on a motorcycle. There was something about him and his presence where he had this sort of tough exterior, but you could tell that something was always going on in his mind. He had this emotional sensitivity, as well, that he was sort of covering. It was really that essence. And seeing him on a motorcycle, I thought, “That’s the guy that I’m thinking about when I’m writing this.” Luckily, when I finished the script and got the script to him, he responded to it and became like a brother to me. He’s just an amazing, amazing guy.

You go into making this movie knowing he’s perfect for the role. Along the way though, what is something that he unearthed in the character of Wes that maybe you, even as the writer of the movie, never realized was there?

BLATZ: What’s interesting is KJ came in about a year before we started shooting because he was shooting the sixth season of Riverdale, and we were going to shoot between those seasons, but we just didn’t have enough time. So, he ended up being on it a year before we started shooting. During that year, he had so many ideas. He would call me, like, “I was up all night thinking about this scene,” and he would have all these ideas, which was amazing for me because it made me think about the script in a different way. I would adapt the script to what he was thinking about. I think it’s pretty rare to have an actor, for a year while they’re working on something else, be thinking about your script. It was just a blessing because the script only got better because of his passion for it.

How Kelly Blatz’s Acting Experience Influences His Direction

Let’s talk a little bit about your approach to directing actors, because I feel like many people know you are also an actor, a very experienced actor. Can you name something that a director did for you in the past as an actor that you appreciated and wanted to bring to your set, but then also, what is something that you wish more directors had done for you that you now strive to give your own actors?

BLATZ: These are great questions, by the way. Personally, the greatest thing you can give an actor is freedom and trust on a set because actors, their instruments are themselves, which is their emotions. They have insecurities and fears, so when you build trust with an actor, and you give them the space to say, “Hey, nothing that you do is wrong. You can do a cartwheel in this scene, and it’s totally right.” When you give somebody that license, then the anxiety goes away, and you start to see true emotion come through. I learned that as an actor because I’ve been on sets where that’s not the case, and someone’s like, “Hey, you got to do this right now. We’ve got five minutes, and you better cry.” That just makes you tense up and not want to cry. That was a huge lesson for me as an actor.

To answer your second question, I don’t want to talk ill about anybody, but I think sometimes it becomes too much about the visuals, which is so important, but like, “Hey, you really need to do this right now because time is money,” and actors just shrink into a corner when you do that. It’s kind of counterproductive.

I’m thinking about something else that I read in our press notes. I think Maia [Reficco] might have said that no take was ever the same on this set. I don’t know if you remember this with this much specificity, but can you give us a particular example of two takes you got for a scene that were so incredibly different, and you had to choose between the two?

BLATZ: Especially with the stuff with KJ and Maia, when it was just a scene of them talking at a bar or by the lake, I would say, “We have what’s scripted, but I’m going to just roll, and I want you guys to just see what happens and say whatever you want.” In that way, every take was different, and I would just keep going and going. For me, honestly, what I’ve learned most about directing is to try not to direct. Try to just leave actors alone because when you give them the space and time, stuff happens. For instance, that scene by the lake, there were so many different things said, and it was just a gift to be able to pick and choose moments and sometimes even just looks that happened from something that was not in the script that I was able to use to craft that scene.

I feel like, more often than not, people say, “What has the director brought out of the actor?” I want to flip it around, especially because you and KJ grew so close. What is something he brought out of you as a director that maybe helped you exceed your own expectations for your work?

BLATZ: KJ is one of the most passionate, committed artists I’ve ever worked with in any medium. When you have somebody who is that passionate and committed and obsessive, I thought that I was, but I was way down here. He brought that out of me. I have some collaborators here today—my good friend Augusto [Piccio], who did all the title and graphic work and was a huge inspiration for this film. I have to give a shout-out, I love you. And Lukas Valderrama, who is my assistant and right-hand man on this film; I have to shout out to him. When you collaborate with wonderful people, they bring the best out of you. With KJ, he brought the best out of me because he made me want to wake up knowing that someone else cared just as much as I did. When you have that, I think anything is possible. It’s hard to work in a vacuum.

‘One Fast Move’s Racing Scenes Were the Most Difficult to Film
Image via Prime Video
 

Of all the scenes in the movie, going into filming, which did you think was going to be the toughest to shoot, and ultimately, was it or did a different one catch you by surprise?

BLATZ: I haven’t shot action before. My last film was about three people, mostly in rooms. [Laughs] I brought on an amazing group of people who knew what they were doing and could guide me through it. So, the races were intimidating to me because there’s danger involved — there are so many moving pieces. You have these bikes going 150, 160 miles an hour. The races were intimidating, and they were challenging to shoot because of that. The weather came in, we had lightning storms almost every day in Georgia, the tracks were wet, you dealt with different personalities, the heat was insane, they were wearing leather. So, I would say that the races were challenging but ultimately the most rewarding, definitely.

You just mentioned that your first film was very different, but a lot of those lessons can still carry over. What is something about your feature directorial debut that you found coming in handy on your second movie?

BLATZ: I love movies and stories about people, usually about three to four people for some reason. That is really the nucleus and the North Star for me. In that way, this film wasn’t different than my first film. It was a few characters who are intersecting in each other’s lives and are changed, or not, by it. For me, I need to make sure the character storyline is the most important thing that I make work. The racing is secondary. The stuff that we did in Dean’s house or at a bar, I approached the same way as I did my first film. The racing was separate; there were a lot more people involved, but I also wanted to make sure it didn’t feel like two different films. I wanted to make sure that they were cohesive, as well.

KJ Apa Learned to Ride Motorbikes Through “Trial By Fire”
Image via Prime Video

One thing I was reading is that KJ didn’t really know all that much about riding motorcycles before he joined this project. For anyone out there who might want to get started learning how to ride, what is the first tip or trick you would give them?

BLATZ: A quick anecdote: KJ didn’t know how to ride, and a year before we started shooting, he came to my house. I have a couple of bikes, and I showed him how to shift gears. I just jumped on my bike, and I said, “Okay, follow me,” and just threw him in, trial by fire. He had to learn and pick it up. I feel like that was a great way to do it because he had to make the mistakes and figure it out, and also feel the danger and how to manage that. I think that was a really great way to do it. For someone who wants to ride, that’s a way to do it. I would say start on a scooter. Scooters are good to start; that’s what I did. [Laughs] Take a great course. There are great two to three-day courses where you can learn the basics, and you can get your license the next day.

I know you had a bunch of professional riders and stunt performers on this, but what is something that’s actually KJ in the movie that might make people think, “I cannot believe that’s the actor doing that?”

BLATZ: All that riding at the top in the opening credits was KJ, and he was flying on that bike with no helmet. That was the last day of shooting. They would not allow KJ to essentially ride without a helmet on the bike, but he wanted to—and we wanted him to—and so they said, “Okay, you can do that, but the very last day of shooting. We’re not going to be involved,” which was one of the most fun days of shooting. It was just the cameraman, the sound guy, a few others, and KJ just flying on the back roads on his bike.

I love hearing about the unexpected magic you can find on set. Can you name a day when you were filming a scene, things weren’t going to plan, but you found a creative solution, a way to pivot, and now a scene in the movie is even better off for it?

BLATZ: There’s the scene where Camila and Wes have a fight outside the diner. That night was very particular. There was a three-hour lightning delay, and we had essentially about three hours to shoot this scene outside this diner and the time continued to dwindle away. We were like, “I don’t think we can get this scene at another time.” The actors said, “We’re going to be ready.” Finally, we had about 20 minutes before wrap, and they jumped out. The scene had a certain urgency and intensity because we had 20 minutes. It just stopped raining, so there was a little bit of rain happening, and it really lent itself to the energy of the scene.

‘One Fast Move’ Puts the Audience on the Track
Image via Prime Video.

For anyone out there who might want to make a motorcycle racing movie of their own, what is one “do” and one “do not” for effectively photographing races?

BLATZ: [Laughs] For me, a plus was that I didn’t really understand how complicated it was going to be. I think that was a plus because it was like an “ignorance is bliss” sort of thing. But I would say, the way to shoot races is to strap cameras to race bikes. That’s the most practical way. You build tools that will keep up with the bikes. We used a helicopter, as well, because the helicopter was the only way to keep up with race bikes. A drone can’t go that fast. As far as the don’t—I would not shoot in July in Georgia. I would say that for sure.

Those are two good examples right there. I was also reading a lot about motorcycle authenticity and all the people you had involved who made sure that everything was accurate. You had a motorcycle journalist on set, and your editor has riding experience. Can you give us some examples of things that they flagged, things that maybe would have been a red flag for someone who knows their stuff, but because they spoke up, now it’s in the movie and it’s authentic?

BLATZ: If you talk to motorcyclists, and you say, “Hey, what will make you turn this off immediately?” They say the sound of the bikes. They say, “If you do not have the right sound or the right bike, we will turn it off. Immediately, we’ll be very upset,” which happens more often than not. I spent a good amount of time while writing the script choosing the right bikes and making sure that we were going to have the right bikes at the right time with the right sound. That was really the most important thing. But also making sure that the lingo and the language are right. I worked with a lot of racers in the script-writing phase while we were shooting and in post. My editor was an ex-club racer, as well, to keep it in check at all levels of the production.

8:06 Related ‘The Bikeriders’ Norman Reedus Explains the Fun Way He Surprised His Cast on the First Day of Filming “I said, ‘Man, you have a lot of good-looking guys in this movie. Can I try something? Can I go in the other direction?'”

Image via Prime Video
 

You mentioned earlier that there aren’t really any motorcycle racing movies quite like this. Why do you think that’s the case?

BLATZ: I’ve been asking myself that question. When I ask others that question, they say, “I think it’s because it’s hard to do.” And I didn’t know that beforehand. [Laughs] I just said, “We’ll make it work.” But I’m not really sure. I think it’s not a particularly popular sport in America, much more overseas and in Europe. I think it is growing, and I think that was part of the reason I wanted to make the film. I love things that are in niche worlds. I went to club races, and this racing is not MotoGP; people aren’t making millions of dollars. These are people who are paying money to race. I thought the passion and the commitment and the characters that I met while I was going to these races were so interesting. I really wanted to shine a light on a particular niche community that otherwise wouldn’t have.

I’ll lean into that a little more. Can you name a particular quality or thing about those communities that became really important for you to include in your film?

BLATZ: We were lucky enough to shoot a few real races at the track about a month prior before shooting. You show up in the pits, right? At a MotoGP pit, the highest level you have is buses and VIP sections. When you go to these places, there’s a mom who’s grilling bacon in the morning, a baby is in a playpen, and everyone has their dogs. It’s just a sense of community, almost like camping. Everyone’s helping each other out. It’s very much community-driven. For me, that was just so compelling. We went around all those races, and that’s how we got all the racers. We said, “Hey, we’re making this film. We’d love for you to be a part of it, and we’d love for you to just be you. Bring your family, bring your tents, your bikes, your dogs. We just want to set up this environment to shoot.” And they were all there and showed up every single day.

What ‘One Fast Move’ Taught Kelly Blatz for Future Films

Can you name a new tool in your directing tool kit that you know you gained from making this movie that you would be excited to utilize on your next one?

BLATZ: Is there going to be a sequel? Maybe we can do the sequel, and we’ll just use the same techniques I learned on the first one. [Laughs] It was a much bigger production. Honestly, every production I have, I learn so much because I try to surround myself with people who know much more than I do. I have just learned so much from working with a bigger team and a bigger group of people. I would say I always try to surround myself with wonderful, empathetic people who are talented and who want to bring their talents, and I want to give them the freedom to use their talents in a film. I would say that’s the thing I continue to learn, is just bringing good people into your life.

My last question before giving it to the audience is my personal favorite question. I think it’s very important to keep asking. In this industry, people give each other awards, which is super cool, but I find that nobody tells themselves a good job nearly enough. I want to know something you accomplished making this movie that you’ll be able to look back on and say, “I am so proud of what I did there.”

BLATZ: I made so many friends on this film who are like family to me now, from actors to crew members—friends and family I brought onto this film. Hopefully, we can all look back on this film with a sense of pride in the fact that completing a film is very difficult. When you bring all these people together, you have this one mission to just complete something. Hopefully, it makes sense in the end. I think the friendships that we built on this film are the most important thing that I will take with me moving forward for sure.

Blatz Talks About the Post-Production Process on ‘One Fast Move’
Image via Prime Video

AUDIENCE: I want to ask the question that everybody here is wondering. The scene where you shot KJ’s Adonis-like physique, was that a one-take kind of thing? I noticed some exaggeration on his abdomen area.

BLATZ: [Laughs] That’s how committed he was. Motorcycle racers are very, very ripped; it wasn’t just a vain thing. The first time he took his shirt off, the whole crew was like, “What? He has, like, 12… there’s like two extra abs going on. He’s inhuman.” I think I would do a couple of extra takes just for the crew members who wanted to see a couple of extra takes. Let’s just say that, and he was fine with it.

AUDIENCE: During the actual filming process, did you already have in mind what you wanted to bring back in post? Did you have a certain amount in production, and did you take that process with you right away to post, or was it simultaneous?

BLATZ: When you’re shooting, you’re trying to gather as much as you possibly can to be able to use in post, especially with racing. With the racing, we have this amount of days, we have these story points we need to hit, but let’s just shoot the hell out of it, as much as we possibly can from every different angle. So, going into post, it was two things: One is the character aspect of it. My editor was already putting together the film, in a way, while we were shooting, just to make sure we were covering things. That stuff was very deliberate, and we kind of knew what those scenes wanted to be. With the racing, it was different. We edited this film for about a year, and we continued to work and to pull out different things and try things, because when you have to make a million decisions on a cut of a race, you question all of those decisions. You have to let it sit, and then you have to try things. It was equally having what we knew we had while discovering and playing with the material that we had in post-production.

AUDIENCE: I’m just curious how many days you had to shoot the movie. It seems like there was a really exaggerated timetable with losses to thunderstorms and lightning, so what was the overall shoot like?

BLATZ: I’m going to minus the thunderstorms, carry the two. It was 25 days of principal photography, and I believe it ended up being seven days of second-unit photography, which some of those days were overlapping. We were doing both at the same time, which, for me, is a luxury. It’s a luxury to make the film. I’m so grateful to be able to make the film. People were saying on the crew, who are more experienced, “This is a very tight schedule.” But we ended up making it happen.

One Fast Move is available to stream now on Prime Video in the U.S.

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