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John Corbett on Street Kings

Published April 8, 2008 in Movie Interviews
By Fred Topel | Image property of Fox Searchlight
Street Kings Street Kings

The supporting actors of Street Kings may have a thankless job. They're the faces of corruption that the star has to take down, but they get pretty bangs up in the process of making Keanu Reeves look good. John Corbett plays one of the corrupt cops fighting to cover up his dirty deeds

John Corbett Battles the Street Kings
"They pulled this car up, I think it's called a Go Mobile and it's this car with a five hundred horse power Cadillac engine in it," recalled Corbett. "A guy sits outside of your car and a cameraman is in the backseat. Keanu is in the backseat and I'm driving. Amaury [Nolasco] is in the passenger side. So we're actually driving through the streets of L.A. in a kind of choreographed stunt with the real cars coming at us. A couple of times we smacked off the side of a bus and there's really no special effects. We're flying about 50 miles an hour for almost a mile and a half and Keanu has a handcuff in my mouth and I'm trying to drive, but of course the guy on the side is driving though you never see him. These two are going at it with full force and his fist is swinging by me and the wind is like a hurricane coming by as they go at it, kicking each other. There's no choreography to it. It was just on action that they started going at each other, hitting each other with everything and then the director would yell cut and we'd have to go back again. They'd be sitting there rubbing their shoulders and wiping the blood off their lip. It was pretty intense, that scene there."

It may surprise fans of Corbett's leading man dreamboat roles to see him as a dirty cop. It may be even more surprising to hear about his real connection with the police department.

"Believe it not in 1982 I went through the LA County Sheriff's program and it took about a year. I was working in a steel factory. I was a boiler maker. My dad tried to become a Deputy Sheriff in the late '60s and he didn't make it. So I tried. It took about a year. Every three months or so you go on and you do your physical agility and you pass that and move on to interviews and orals and stuff like that. Ultimately I didn't make it. I wasn't Deputy Sheriff material, but I wanted to do it."



Studying up with real cops for the film only strengthened Corbett's passion for law enforcement. "I've always had respect for cops as I said earlier. I live in Santa Barbara and the only time that I'd ever been to East L.A., and I've lived here for 20 years, was on this movie. So I get down there and this guy has a shaved head and he's covered in tattoos and he doesn't just talk it. He still lives there. His building gets graffiti'ed every night. Every night there's more graffiti and everyday they clean it off and the next day it's back on. They have this whole system down there."

One of the real cops working on the film told Corbett the most hopeful story. "I'll tell you a funny story. When we were doing that scene at the funeral I was talking to a street cop and he told me a cool thing. He said that whenever he pulls over a car, if it's got kids in it he never give a ticket because what happens is that he gives that dad a ticket and that dad drives away going, 'Damn cops…' and the kids pick that up. But now the dad drives away and says, 'Cops are pretty cool…' and the kids grow up with a whole different idea of cops. I like that philosophy."

Street Kings opens to theaters on April 11th.

For the trailers, stills and more movie info, go to the Street Kings Movie Page.


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Fred Topel
Sources: Image property of Fox Searchlight
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