While it doesn't happen every day, it's not terribly uncommon to read about film productions that wind up demonstrating appreciation for performers by allowing them to take home some kind of personal memento with a link to their character. This typically ranges from little trinkets to costumes, but Ansel Elgort got the chance to take home something a bit more significant after the making of Edgar Wright's Baby Driver. It wasn't just a cool pair of sunglasses or a pair of earbuds -- it was one of the cherry red cars that you see the titular protagonist driving in the movie's opening sequence. He recently told me.
I still know how to get some good rear wheel lockup -- which is what you get when you pull the brake and slide around. I'm into it! I still have the Subaru. I have it, yeah. It's my car! It's stick, and it's amazing, and I pull the E-brake every time I get the chance.
I had the chance to sit down with Ansel Elgort during the Baby Driver press day in Los Angeles earlier this month, and the subject of the star's special movie-driven car came up almost immediately in our conversation. I started the interview by asking about his level of skill retention on the driving front -- having wrapped production on the movie more than a year ago -- and he explained that he not only still has some learned talent, but also that he is still performing them in a familiar vehicle.
So how did Ansel Elgort wind up actually getting to keep what will ultimately be seen as one of the most iconic cars from the movie? Evidently it didn't require much than a few put-in requests, as the young star explained he didn't really need to twist anybody's arm to actually make it happen.
I just kept asking for it, and made sure they gave me one! There were like six of them.
Clearly there were some pretty great people on the set of Baby Driver. It's not every day that you get to leave a job with a badass new set of wheels, but that's Hollywood for you.
Perhaps even crazier still? The car wasn't even the only thing that the production let him keep, as it turns out that Ansel Elgort really has the capacity to do the best Baby Driver cosplay that the world has ever seen:
I took the jacket. I don't know when I'll wear it, but I have it.
Baby Driver, which stars Ansel Elgort, Lily James, Kevin Spacey, Jamie Foxx, and Jon Hamm, is in theaters now, and stay tuned here on CinemaBlend for more from my interviews with the cast and writer/director Edgar Wright!
