As director of The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, Ben Stiller (who also stars in the title role) wanted to keep everything as realistic as possible, even when filming Walter’s fantasy life. This led to shooting in locations as varied as New York City and Iceland.
In New York, Stiller chose to shoot the epic chase between Walter and Ted in the live-wire dynamics of a typical crowded day in the city. To simulate Walter and Ted flying and bounding through Manhattan on makeshift skates and skis, Stiller and costar Adam Scott were placed in a mobile rig that suspended them while weaving through New York City’s infamous traffic.
“The Ted battle was really fun to shoot,” remarks Stiller. “There we were riding skateboards and rollerblades down Sixth Avenue and 57th Street on a Sunday morning and it was just an amazingly surreal experience. We really tried to do as much of that scene for real as we possibly could — and then we augmented it with the visual effects.” Scott adds, “The battle sequence was absolutely one of the most incredible experiences I’ve had. Ben and I were hanging from wire rigs, battling it out, while the streets were just teeming with tourists. It was really, really intense — I’ve never done anything like it.”
In Iceland, Stiller shot a scene that pushed him to new edges both as director and actor: When Walter jumps into the raging waves of the North Atlantic, Stiller also took his own plunge into the ocean. “It was really important for me that we not do that scene in a tank,” he recalls. “I felt we had to shoot in real high seas, with a real boat there, a real helicopter and real waves,” he explains.
The scene turned out, just as it does for Walter Mitty, to bring a bit more reality than even Stiller anticipated.
“We were about a mile out at sea with seven-foot swells — which, when you’re in the water, are really big,” admits Stiller. “The boat with the camera in it went away to come back and do the shot, but there was this two-minute period where I was just in the water with nobody around. I was in the ocean just by myself with a briefcase, floating there waiting for the camera to come back and was thinking, ‘I hope they can find me when they come back for the shot,’” he laughs. “There was a real sense of danger and it was one of those moments when I thought, ‘Oh, this is what real filmmaking is all about.’”
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty is available starting April 29 on Video On Demand. Check your cable system for availability.
™ & © 2013 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. Credit: Twentieth Century Fox