Asphalt City is now playing in theaters and ahead of its release last week, we were able to catch up with star and producer Tye Sheridan (X-Men: Apocalypse; Ready Player One) to get more insight into arguably one of the most intense films of his career, where he plays Ollie Cross, a young paramedic assigned to the NYC night shift with an uncompromising and seasoned partner Gene Rutkovsky (Sean Penn).
As per the synopsis, "The dark nights reveal a city in crisis; Rutkovsky guides Cross, as each 911 call is often dangerous and uncertain, putting their lives on the line every day to help others. Cross soon discovers firsthand the chaos and awe of a job that careens from harrowing to heartfelt, testing his relationship with Rutkovsky and the ethical ambiguity that can be the difference between life and death."
In our informative conversation, he walks me through his intense preparation process, how he tackled producing his second feature film, working with Sean Penn, and more.
Watch our full interview with Tye Sheridan below and/or keep scrolling to read the full transcript! Plus, please remember to subscribe to our YouTube channel for more exclusive content!
ROHAN: This might be the most intense role of your career, what were you doing to get into character as this paramedic?
TYE: Yeah, a lot of ride alongs, just working very closely with medics, you know, we were trying to make this movie since 2018, so it's been around for a long time, it's been a labor of love for a long time. And for years, I kind of spent time traveling back and forth to New York and doing ride alongs with medics, going out on the ambulance with them, and working 12-hour night shifts, and so we got really close to their work and their jobs. Two months before we started shooting, we were doing three or four ride alongs a week, so usually Friday night, Saturday night, and then sometimes Tuesday or Wednesdays, and then, we were spending the rest of our time in a classroom kind of environment, just going through the basics of medic school, essentially. And we had some great advisors from Wyckoff hospital in Brooklyn, which is largely pretty much where we shot this film.
ROHAN: Since this is based on a book, how did you go about adapting the story? Were you incorporating real stories as well from the paramedics you were meeting?
TYE: Yeah, I think it's always a tricky thing, you know, when you're trying to adapt a novel to the screen, because it's obviously a different version of the story, and I think you have to do what's best for the version of the story that's going on the screen. So, I think that was definitely the case with this film, and I think a lot of the medics that we ended up spending time with and hearing their stories, those stories ended up becoming a part of the movie. So, it's kind of this melting pot of sorts of, you know, from experiences and stories from the book. The book originally takes place in Harlem, in the ‘90s, so obviously, we went with a much more contemporary telling of the film, and then, yeah, it's mostly set in east New York.
ROHAN: Since this is the second feature you've produced, after The Night Clerk, was there anything you learned on that project that helped make your job a little easier this time around?
TYE: Well, I don't think the process of producing this film is easy at all. There's nothing easy about this movie, this movie was, you know, an uphill battle every step of the way. But sometimes those projects, those really special projects are. If it wasn't difficult, that wouldn't be worth it, right? And I think, yeah, I think time, you know, time is just essential and so valuable. So, on a movie like this, it's the more time that you can get to make the film, the better off you and your your crew are going to be.
ROHAN: You've worked with a ton of great actors throughout your career and on this film you get to star opposite Sean Penn, who is a very accomplished filmmaker himself. What was it like working with him and going through this experience together?
TYE: Great. I mean, he's a super intense guy, in a great way, you know, I think he does bring a level of professionalism to set and he takes his work very seriously, especially, you know, this role as it pertains to conveying the lives of a first responder, of a medic, I think he took that very seriously. And, I think we kind of leaned on each other through the process, you know, we're both kind of in the weeds together, trying to become medics, and look like we knew what we were doing. So, I think it was very collaborative, in that sense, I think that we really leaned on each other through the process, and yeah, he's also a great filmmaker himself. He knows exactly what we need from the scene, and so, I think it's really amazing to work with somebody like that, especially in a film like this where you don't have a lot of time, and you're up against the clock constantly. So, yeah, he just brings a level of intensity, a great intensity and a sense of professionalism, and then seriousness about conveying these paramedics.
Asphalt City follows Ollie Cross (Tye Sheridan), a young paramedic assigned to the NYC night shift with an uncompromising and seasoned partner Gene Rutkovsky (Sean Penn). The dark nights reveal a city in crisis; Rutkovsky guides Cross, as each 911 call is often dangerous and uncertain, putting their lives on the line every day to help others. Cross soon discovers firsthand the chaos and awe of a job that careens from harrowing to heartfelt, testing his relationship with Rutkovsky and the ethical ambiguity that can be the difference between life and death.
Asphalt City is now playing in theaters!