Julie Asch Kareus Coen from p 35 welches on his promise to give up a life of crime. Needing diapers, he sticks up a convenience store while masked with a pair of women’s pantyhose, as his wife and Nathan Junior wait outside in the car. Then, all hell breaks loose. After witnessing his crime, Ed ditches him in disgust and burns rubber out of the parking lot. Then, the police arrive. And the store’s trigger-happy clerk begins opening fire with a .44 magnum. Cage’s character quickly hotfoots it away with the cops in close pursuit. What follows is a bonkers chase sequence over the next 20 minutes accen- tuated by composer Carter Burwell’s devil- ishly madcap score of banjo music and yodeling. The scenes were filmed across three different Valley cities, McCallum says, including at a now-defunct Short Stop convenience store on Deer Valley Road east of Interstate 17. (The store has since become a Circle K.) “Shooting the Huggies chase was like three weeks of nights, and we were moving all over town for it,” says. “I remember we had 120-foot-tall [lighting rigs] flying and there was a lot going on.” Hoy says residents near the Short Stop thought an actual crime was in progress. “Someone heard the gunshots as we were shooting that scene and they thought it was a real robbery. And the cops we had there were like, ‘No. Move along,’” she says. “There was an accident out front, too, because was a bunch of lookie-loos were rubbernecking.” There wasn’t as much of a ruckus when 36 the Coens moved filming to a quiet Scottsdale neighborhood near McDonald Drive and Granite Reef Road. Despite some chaotic action — including Cage dodging cop cars, running through homes Randall “Tex” Cobb with Kuhn. while being chased by dogs, and jumping into passing vehicles — McCallum says the locals were into it, though. “We had really big pieces of equipment making a lot of noise and we’re moving them several times a night,” he says. “There’s tires squealing, cars spinning, gunshots going off, and dogs barking, and it’s kind of mayhem, but nobody got upset at us. It was all very cool.” Field says the residents were also having a ball, gathering “four and five deep in their yards” with lawn chairs and cock- tails to watch the filming. “They just had the best time, which for us is an odd thing because in Los Angeles and New York, sometimes you don’t get a warm welcome when you’re shooting in somebody’s neighborhood all night,” he says, “But these people just loved us.” So did the management of a now- defunct grocery store at Horne and Main streets in Mesa where more chase footage was shot. Production shot at the super- market over several nights and upgraded its lighting for filming, Field says. “It was more daylight-balanced, which looked better on film,” he says. “When we went to change it back [store management] told us to they preferred it and wanted it to be kept in place. It was the least we could do after having people shooting guns and having dogs run around in the market.” Hoy remembers spending long hours working as PA at the store, including chas- tising Cage for some unseemly behavior. “There was a huge barrel of bulk sunflower seeds at the market and between takes, Nic would eat the seeds and throw the shells back in,” she says. “And I’m like, ‘That’s kind of gross, man.’ He just went, ‘They’re worth more now.’” >> p 43 MARCH 17TH– MARCH 23RD, 2022 PHOENIX NEW TIMES | MUSIC | CAFE | FILM | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | FEATURE | NEWS | OPINION | FEEDBACK | CONTENTS | phoenixnewtimes.com
