Alita: Battle Angel Stars on Working with Robert Rodriguez

Hey, what's up guys? We are hanging out in the Young Hollywood studio with the cast of Alita: Battle Angel. Hey guys! This movie is insane. I was telling this before we came on here. I love this movie. It's so good. How did you guys get connected with this film? Did you audition? Did I mean how did it all work?

Yeah. I mean I I came in for the role of Tanji. It's always nerve-wracking when you know you're gonna go in for a project that's with James Cameron and Rubber Rodri Yeah. It's always nerve-wracking. Robert Rodriguez. I wait like three or four weeks and then I got the call that uh that they they thought I was good for the team.

That's awesome. And you were here for Bumblebee, too. So you said you shot that before you did Bumblebee. which is exciting.

Yeah.

Yeah, we like like we Yeah, we got the role like it feels like three years ago. Yeah. I auditioned a couple times and then they called me and like every job, I don't believe I'm hired. So I made like of course my reps tell me over and over again and Of course I wanted to do it like no matter what project it was when I saw James Cameron and Robert Rodriguez it was like, "Of course, I'll do anything!" So it's amazing.

Yeah. So cool. I love hearing those those success stories like that. And so okay, yeah. You shot it in Austin. So I was gonna ask, can you see this movie, it's like you're in a totally different world. So you're inside, was it like a green screen studio or something you guys have in Austin, Texas?

It was actually it was actually a whole, I mean there there's obviously green screen elements but there was a whole practical uh Iron City set. It's so intricate that you could open any door and there's, you know, couches and you know, there's there's cabinets with utensils and plates. Like it's it's so intricate that people in the movie would never obviously see that that much detail, but for the actors to be there, you know, it felt it felt so real.

Yeah. That is so cool. Are you really riding that motorcycle then in that film? Like how's that working? You're like, you come he comes up like the bad, you know, cute guy on his motorcycle.

Yeah, there there's actually we actually tried that in so many different ways to make it work. The first time uh it was actually quite uh hilarious to watch. It was just me on that bike and then it was two guys in blue suits, like little like a little like blue men group just like running around.

Yeah. That's amazing. So Yeah. So. That's amazing.

Yeah. And actually you know what what's interesting is like all that kind of like the realities on set. Like when I'm riding that motorcycle and Alita's behind me and we're having all this, you know, romantic conversation. She actually wasn't there at all. Uh so it was just me uh talking to air behind me and then Robert was on the walkie, you know. So I was flirting with Robert Rodriguez, you know.

And then you get pushed away by the little blue men.

Yeah, the little blue man. Alita. Yes. Is amazing.

Yeah, so I was gonna ask how does this work? So Rosa who plays Alita, like when you kiss her in the film, are you kissing her or

I'm kissing Rosa Salazar. Uh And then, you know, then I get catfished and I'm kissing Alita. Um No, she you know, yeah she

So like how does it work with like the digital I'm so like not smart when it comes to this stuff. But it's digital imagery.

Yeah. So she has she has digital mark she has about a hundred digital markers which are just black dots on her actual face. Okay. Uh then she has a helmet. She has a titanium boom that has two cameras that are taking all the data from her face. Every like wrinkle uh not not wrinkle, every uh

Yeah.

Every every every slight every slight movement, every, you know, everything and they're able to capture that reference and then Weta Digital takes all of that reference and then turns that into Alita. So it's not them just making a character. They're actually taking the essence of Rosa and the performance that she gave on set and turning that into uh you know, a real live action character.

What was it like working with these directors? With Robert Rodriguez and James Cameron? I mean, was it intimidating at first or did they make you feel welcome right away?

you you get on set and you hear this really lovely guitar music that's being looped. You're like, where is that coming from? And then you walk in the video village and Robert is just the coolest guy ever just playing the most incredible guitar. He's like, "Hey, how's it going?" So he just like makes you feel like

He really does. Yeah.

So he plays guitar on set. Yeah. Oh my gosh, that's awesome. So what was your favorite part about filming the movie then?

For me, uh filming, I I liked, you know, the when we were jacking cyborgs and stuff like that. All of those night scenes cuz Iron City's like this really uh gritty place when when when the sun goes down. So those scenes were kind of fun to explore that that space.

I liked when we were um on like I think it was one of the first days that we actually weren't that we were actually on location. Um when we were just shooting um when Alita finds her new body and we were like out that desert. We weren't we rarely left the studio, right?

No, yeah, we rarely left the studio. It was it was yeah. It was a little lake. Yeah. Stay parked or something. Stay parked.

You know what was fun, you know, cuz obviously we we worked on so many amazing amazing practical sets. So when I had a chance to work on, you know, a completely green screen space, Um it was the fast the last scene the tube scene that I'm, you know, running up and Alita tries to save me. That was really fun to tackle cuz all of that, you know, we were just on a uh on a uh what would that be called? A uh

That is cool. Yeah. Like a slant?

Like a slant. We we were on a slant. We're on a slant. And that's what they call it, right? It is. Yeah. And uh yeah. So that was really cool to see how they were going to tackle that whole scene.

That is cool. You guys, thank you so much for coming in. Will we see you in some more Alita movies in the future? Hopefully?

Hopefully.

Maybe some sequels. Yes. Go see it. Yes.