“How do I do this?” : 30 years ago this scene quickly became iconic, the movie star shares his secret

In 1994 Speed ​​appeared on our screens. The action thriller, which has since become a true classic, features Keanu Reeves as Jack Traven, a young Los Angeles SWAT team officer who fights Blackmail (Dennis Hopper), a retired pyrotechnician who threatens to blow up a bus. He has planted a bomb that he can activate remotely. Jack then joins a moving bus that will explode if it starts going 50 miles an hour…

Ian de Bont’s film, which also starred Sandra Bullock, Joe Morton and Jeff Daniels, has since become a staple of the genre – and of the filmography. Keanu ReevesBefore The Devil’s Side (1997) and The Matrix (1999), but after Point Break: Extrême Limite (1991).

and thirty years later speed It still holds up – literally – and remains as exciting as ever with its excellent performances, its intense action scenes and its hellish suspense: we never tire.

today, Jeff Daniels (The Newsroom), who played detective Harry Temple in the feature film, recalls the difficulties that arose during the filming of one of the film’s most emblematic – and shocking – scenes: his character’s death scene.

Harry is Jack’s partner throughout the film and leads the investigation, looking for the bomber he plays Dennis HopperBut the character meets his death when he breaks into a house rigged with explosives.

During a recent interview on the set of The Rich Eisen Show, Jeff Daniels Returning to the subject, he explained how he managed to make Harry’s final moments memorable with a simple flick of his cheeks – a move directly inspired by a scene from Steven Spielberg’s Jaws (1975).

“I remember getting the script… and I died on page 22. I died in the elevator shaft. I said, “You know, my career is in trouble, but it’s not in that much trouble. I will tell you no“, he begins with an explanation.

“Then the agent told me, “Wait, another draft is coming. You will die later. I say, “Okay.” And so it happened, it made it to page 80. I said, “Okay, I will.” And Keanu and Sandy Bullock and I said, “Okay, I’d love to do it.”“

He follows: “And I enter the house. We’re somewhere south of Los Angeles and I’m wearing full SWAT gear. It weighs 80 pounds and I have to slide through the little window and look like Harrison Ford. I agree. And I’m hanging on the windowsill and all that. I finally get in and there’s a moment in gear where I have to turn around, look at the thermostat and realize it’s not a thermostat: it’s a bomb timer and 3, 2, 1 goes off. So I ask myself, “How can I do this? do i make faces What can I do ?’“

Indeed, on stage, Harry does not utter a word, and so his interpreter must make the audience understand that he is dealing not with a thermostat, but with a bomb with a simple emotion or a simple facial movement that he had trouble finding. At first… until he remembered a specific interview…

“I remember an interview that Roy Scheider did for Jaws and they asked Roy, “That moment, Roy, when you saw the shark… Oh my god, that’s one of the greatest acting moments in movie history. do it?’ And Roy said, “Well, I looked at the shark, made sure my cheek muscles pulled up a little bit, and then I let them go.” So I said that’s what I would do. I looked at the thermostat. ‘Cut! dinner!’”

And Harry’s expression at that moment actually means: It’s over for him.

Rediscover the scene in question in the video below:

Since then, the scene has become one of the most memorable in the film, the scene for which Jeff Daniels received praise. Then he starts quoting one of them, mimicking (with exaggerated emotion and humor) the person praising him for his acting: “That moment in Speed, Jeff, I mean, I get emotional just talking about it…To which the actor simply replied: Roy Scheider.

Speed ​​(1994) is currently available – and worth watching again and again – for streaming on Disney+.

Discover the hilarious anecdote told by Jeff Daniels in the original video below: