Adam Shankman Reveals How So Many Big Stars Ended Up in ‘Stop! That! Train!’

Veteran director and choreographer Adam Shankman called in all his favors for his new film Stop! That! Train!

“I’m gonna be perfectly honest, the Joel McHale and Paul Scheer of it all were both things that happened in a day,” Shankman, 61, admitted on Obsessed: The Podcast. “I turned everybody, and I was like, ‘If we don’t have some dudes in the front of this movie, there’s not gonna be anybody but drag queens for the first almost 10 minutes, which isn’t really what the movie is.’”

The calls to those two actors went out “the day before” they shot the scenes. “And they just said yes.”

In the film, McHale and Scheer play two of the titular train’s snobby first-class passengers who are forced to cooperate with its stewardesses and President Judy Gagwell, played by RuPaul, to stop the train from barrelling into Los Angeles after its brakes fail from a freak weather event.

“I am so proud of Ru in this movie. We had so much fun,” Shankman said, who met RuPaul in 1994 while choreographing an AIDS benefit.

“Ru just completely gave over to it, and I could really see her enjoying it,” he continued. “It was a great time, and she’s really funny in the movie.”

In the film, RuPaul plays the president of the United States. / YouTube/screengrab

To get so many stars into his film—including RuPaul, Modern Family‘s Jessie Tyler Ferguson, Buffy the Vampire Slayer‘s Sarah Michelle Gellar, and The Simple Life‘s Nicole Richie—Shankman made sure to get them on and off the set as quickly as possible.

“I think the fastest one in and out was Paul Scheer and Joel McHale; they were there for probably a half hour each,” he explained, remembering his phone call to the Community actor.

“I said, ‘I swear to God, Joel, you’re gonna be here for an hour,’” the Hairspray director recalled. “And he was like, ‘Yeah, yeah, right. This isn’t my first rodeo.”

After Shankman filmed the Community actor’s scenes in just minutes, McHale remarked, “My God, you weren’t lying.”

For the rest of the actors, Shankman said he shot their scenes in half a day, much more quickly than for a normal film.

Shankman filmed the entire movie—shot largely in a single interior train set piece that he kept redressing—in just 19 days, whereas the average film shoot can last for months.

“We did this thing so fast… We were shooting like a TV show,” he explained. “Everything required a lot of trust and a lot of like, ‘OK, this is what we’re going to do. This is how you’re going to do it. We’ve got to go. And if it doesn’t work, we still have to move on.’ There was not a lot of time to think about it.”

Adam Shankman called in his return favor for officiating Sarah Michelle Gellar’s wedding to get her into his film. / Fred Prouser / REUTERS

For some actors, like Gellar, the A Walk To Remember director needed for multiple scenes across multiple days. Those, he said, were a tougher sell.

“Sarah Michelle was—that was a little harder ask just because instead of being that one day where she’s just shooting her stuff inside the train, I also needed her on the outside of Union Station for that one little piece,“ he explained.

Shankman, who got his start choreographing for Whitney Houston and RuPaul, called in all his favors for his new film. / Mario Anzuoni / REUTERS

Shankman knew he could make the ask, however, as a return of favor for officiating her wedding with Scooby-Doo actor Freddie Prinze Jr.

“Well, the marriage is still strong,” he quipped. “So I’m feeling good. I’m one for one. That is a great source of pride for me.”

“I’ve done some things that are very strange in my life and career that don’t make a lot of sense to me, and that’s one of them,” he said. “The whole notion of being able to go on and get ordained online for $20 and being able to legally marry people. It’s really crazy, but I’m thrilled that I got to do it.”

Stop! That! Train! premieres in theaters this Friday, June 12.

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