After nearly three decades of planning, the Wyld Stallyns made their triumphant return last month in the cricially acclaimed comedy Bill & Ted Face the Music, which saw original stars Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter reprise their fan-favorite roles as the time-traveling rockstars destined to save the world.
Following the film's simultaneous launch in theaters and on VOD, we were granted an exclusive opportunity to sit down with star Alex Winter to chat about the film's extremely long journey to theaters, getting back into character, developing the script, his transition to directing, his friendship with co-star Keanu Reeves and a whole lot more.
Check out the full interview below:
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ROHAN PATEL: Often, when a sequel comes after a huge gap, it doesn’t necessarily turn out so well because of the length of time that's passed, but this movie is so good, excellent really. What discussions did you have with Keanu when getting back into character? What did you find most difficult?
ALEX WINTER: I think what we liked about the idea when it was pitched to us by Chris Matheson, the writer, that it wasn’t trying to just present Bill & Ted as how you last remembered them, like nothing had happened to them. They were now older, had wives and kids, had been through different life experiences and disappointments and we all just thought that we hadn’t really seen a sequel like this.
It’s rare that you get to step into roles from thirty years ago and don’t have to pretend like they’re the same as they were then and we thought that had a lot of comedic potential. - I mean it could’ve also been terrible, *laughs*, but we worked really hard to ensure it wasn’t - But, yeah, we thought the script had a lot of comedic potential and a lot of heart.
ROHAN: This is such a feel-good movie, and it's taken a very long time to get here. When did you know that it was really going to happen this time?
ALEX: We were happy with the script pretty early on, but it took us a while to get the film financed, so throughout that process, we were constantly working hard on making the script better. The writers kept developing and sharpening it over the years.
We really didn’t know we were going to make the film until maybe six to eight months before we started pre-production. It was a very long rocky road to getting made.
ROHAN: On the first two films, you guys are basically newcomers, but this time you're the veterans, and you had to guide this cast and crew into this world. What was that like introducing Samara & Brigette and Jayma & Erinn into your world as well as reuniting with some of your old castmates?
ALEX: It was a really sweet reunion on a personal level for all of us, I think Keanu and I were both really grateful, once the film was really going, to have Hal Landon Jr., Amy Stoch, and Bill Sadler come back. There were people behind the camera that had worked on the first two, so it was very moving to see everyone again.
We were working really hard to make something fans would like, so we weren’t taking it for granted, but it was quite moving to have everyone back together. We’ve all known each other for a very long time and we’ve all remained friends, but it’s different because you’re actually performing together again and stepping back into these characters.
It was surreal, I mean the scene we did with Bill Sadler - he and I have remained close over the years - but for Bill & Ted to be in a scene with Death, all three of us looked at each other and it was like we’d never left, it was so odd, it really felt like as if a band had really gotten back together. There was this groove we sort of fell back into.
ROHAN: How did the script develop over time, and was the plan always for a return trip to Hell and a reunion with Death before saving the universe? Any other plot points that you were hoping to explore?
ALEX: I think it was always there, the aspect of us reuniting with Death was always there. I think things developed over time, in terms of how the machinations worked and how the dynamics of the scene evolved, we were working on that until we started shooting, but the actual idea of us fighting with him over band heartbreak, typical rock ‘n’ roll band heartbreak, was all there as the script was being written. I was really, really happy with how that scene came out.
A lot of Chris and Ed’s original ideas that they pitched to us, all the way back in the beginning at a dinner at my house, remained intact. Their idea was already very fleshed out in their minds and even at the pitch stage, they already had most of the story down.
ROHAN: Yeah, that scene with Death felt very Behind the Music almost…
ALEX: *laughs* Yeah, absolutely, but with Death. *laughs*
ROHAN: To be honest, I actually didn’t think that first song you guys played at the wedding was all that bad. I mean it wasn’t great, but it was sort of weirdly decent and very funny. Did you have to undergo much musical training to become a rockstar again or did it just come back to you like second nature?
ALEX: A lot of that stuff is faked, but I did take throat singing lessons from the actual teacher who did the throat singing for the film, Alex Grensfeld is his name, he’s really good.
We did a lot of work, Keanu spent a lot of time working on theremin and trumpet and bagpipes, which is absolutely hilarious. He took it extremely seriously, but yeah, acting-wise, we are both classically trained and had a lot of time in prep to work on finding these guys, finding their bodies, and how we were going to play them again.
ROHAN: One of the film’s biggest secrets was that you guys get to play with a bunch of different versions of the characters, mostly evil, or older. What was your favorite version to play? I'm sure the prison scenes were extremely fun.
ALEX: I really enjoyed all of them, the most fun part of doing the film was all the different versions of ourselves that we got to act opposite. They were all really, really fun and the prison one was the most fun because I loved working with prosthetic makeup and the effects were so completely bonkers, but I also really enjoyed the rocker guys who were just so evil and kind of like when we played the evil Bill & Ted robots in Bogus Journey. It was fun to imagine Bill & Ted just that unbelievably deceptive and mean. It was just so antithetical to who they are.
ROHAN: Were there any major sequences that you had to end up leaving on the cutting room floor or ended up not shooting?
ALEX: I mean there are always things that you do that don’t show up in the final movie, but in this case, the script was very economical and it’s pretty much all there in the movie. In the first two movies, we were kind of still finding our way and there were big scenes, entire sequences, that we would shoot that wouldn’t end up in the film, or they’d get majorly rewritten and reshot.
On this one, we had a lot of time in between when the film was written and when it got made that there was a lot of time to develop the script and get it into shape, so we really didn’t shoot stuff that we didn’t use or change giant things.
ROHAN: You've known Keanu for his entire career, long before Speed, Point Break, Matrix, and John Wick, so how has your friendship evolved through these past thirty years?
ALEX: I think it’s always been pretty removed from our work, it’s evolved like any close friendship evolves. We’ve both been through a lot of stuff in our lives, we’ve both been around for a lot of each other’s big personal life moments, so there’s always kind of a separation between our lives and our work lives.
That was what was so fun about the third one because all of that got to intercept again and we hadn’t done that in a really long time.
ROHAN: You’ve shifted over to directing now - something I’ve personally always been interested in - do you find it to be a more difficult challenge or a more rewarding experience?
ALEX: It’s a very different discipline, a very different path completely, you come at problems differently, you prepare differently. I’ve always liked doing all of things, I’ve liked acting, I’ve liked writing, I’ve liked directing, but, to me, they’re very, very, very divided, different disciplines.
I’m very grateful that I’ve had a lot of fantastic career experiences as a writer/director, but it’s been very fun to step back into acting again. I’ve been training for many years because I like to act, but it was nice to get in front of the camera again.
ROHAN: I saw that you directed the two-part series finale of Blue Mountain State, which was on when I was in college, and it's such an epic conclusion that feels very cinematic just because of the scope of the entire production. Do you remember much of that experience?
ALEX: Yeah, it was really fun. It was unbelievably hard, unbelievably hard because we were shooting - I basically had to block to shoot a whole football game and you’re dealing with the sun going down and multiple directions, so I basically had to do a math equation to figure everything out.
They’re great guys, Romanski and Falconer, just unbelievable guys, and the cast on that show is fantastic. It was really, really fun to do. It was hard, we all worked our asses off on those last two episodes, but they were really fun to do, especially shooting the games.
ROHAN: This movie is just so uniquely itself, and is as close to a perfect follow-up as fans could've hoped for. I know you guys intended for the movie to hit theaters first, and it was instead pushed to a digital release. What made you come to that decision?
ALEX: Well, we felt a couple of things. One, the film had taken so long to get made and the fans had played such a big part in us getting financed, so we really didn’t feel it would be right to punt the movie another year, year and a half, down the road. It just didn’t feel fair to make fans wait anymore. So, we really wanted to stick to our original release schedule once the pandemic hit.
We also felt that since it is a feel-good movie - we all make movies for the movie theaters and we love the cinematic experience and I look forward to that returning with a vengeance - but, this is a particularly good movie to watch at home, if you have to watch a movie at home. The way we released it, you can do both, you can watch it where theaters are open or you can watch it at home, so we felt that if we can maybe put a smile on people’s faces, while a lot of people are having a hard time, that wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world.
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