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Audience member: When you were shooting the hell scenes in the movie, how much of that was real and how much was added in with computer graphics?
LaBeouf: One hundred percent real, they filmed it in hell. They actually filmed it in hell.
Quddus: They had an extremely great budget.
LaBeouf: There's stuff on the set, of course, but it's all shot on green screen, most of it.
Reeves: When you walk onto a set, say it's the hell sequence, you know, it was about seven times this size. But they build ... certain scenery. So when you walk in, you know, you come in and you're like, "Yeah, this looks like fun." And basically probably the horizon like this element here [he points] would be CGI. So you would have this kind of horizontal kind of practical [real element] and behind it you would have a [computer] generation creating the horizon and what the character would see. But oftentimes in this film there were really live action elements or a real set to walk on, which is really fun to have that. When you just walk into a green room or a blue room there is some kind of fun in that because you get to make everything up. You know, you have a certain kind of freedom in that. But it's also great to be able to have the elements themselves because you can interact with them.
Audience member: In the exorcism scene we just watched, obviously the demon was not real, so how did you shoot that or play off something that was not really there?
Reeves: Well, the effects guys had built the demon itself. So there was a practical, there was kind of a puppet there, there were a couple of people there [operating it]. And I thought what was cool about that concept was that the demon itself has a kind of a half skull, the skull has been cut off in half. And they've taken out the brain, which is kind of the seed of the will, an identity. And it's been scooped out and removed so you're left with this creature that is will-less and it's just acting on its own physical desire to eat. So I like the concept of the demons themselves.
Quddus: Sounds like a lot of people I party with.
[Director Francis Lawrence joins them.]
Quddus: Since you have done both music videos and movies. Who's harder to direct: rock stars or movie stars?
LaBeouf: Be careful, Francis, be careful.
Lawrence: I'd say rock stars are much more difficult.
Quddus: Why do you say that?
Lawrence: For the most part I don't think rock stars really want to be there making videos. I think they want to be there playing their music. And these guys, you know, want to be there every day, and they're passionate about it. So they're there and they're ready and they work hard. And they love it.
Quddus: Great experience for you then. So I'm guessing you're just going to move on from making music videos and never do one again.
Lawrence: I don't know about that. I still like making music videos, you know, it's still fun. It's still a great medium to work in.
Quddus: Just got to work on the enthusiasm of the artist.
Lawrence: Yeah, exactly.
Audience member: How would you describe "Constantine," since it's not your ordinary comic-book movie?
Lawrence: Well, it is based on a comic book, but I tried to sort of not make a comic-book movie. I tried to approach it from a much more realistic angle. I just sort of thought that I'd seen those comic movies done over and over and over again. And they exist in a kind of comic-book world and Gotham-like cities. I wanted this to feel like it exists in reality, so when the audience walks out of the theater they feel that this could actually be happening.
Audience member: Were there any weird supernatural occurrences or happenings on the set?
LaBeouf: Just me being on set. No, but I remember when we first started rehearsing, Djimon [Hounsou, who plays Midnite,] said something about hubu jiboo jabba — what was the word?
Lawrence: That was Keanu, actually.
Reeves: No hubu jubu, no hubu jubu.
LaBeouf: Did you make that up? We had heard rumors about how on "The Exorcist" set people had died and people lost eyes and whatever, so I was scared. Were you scared?
Reeves: No hubu jubu.
LaBeouf: No hubu jubu. He kept calling it hubu jubies. We don't want any hubu jubu happening, which was his word for any weird crap happening on set.
Lawrence: I think we tried to be really careful. Everybody, because of the subject matter, was really sensitive to strange things happening, and you know with all the religious stuff in the film and some of the voodoo stuff we were dealing with with Djimon. So we were careful to not really sort of tread on any real scary territory.
LaBeouf: It wasn't like we were laughing about this stuff. Everybody was taking it pretty serious, which was really scary.
Quddus: Well, with the priest on set, I can imagine. What about you, Keanu?
Reeves: I just didn't want any heads turning around. No curses, didn't want anything floating, didn't want to hear voices coming out of anywhere, didn't want any hubu jubus.
Lawrence: Actually, there was this one set that we shot on for about six weeks and there was this one area of this set, I don't know what it was about it, but there was something. Everybody was really depressed, everybody was really angry, and everybody was starting to get sick. And it was just this one thing, and you could feel sort of a change from room to room. And it was in the back of this one stage that we spent a lot of time on.
Reeves: Shia was also doing that shot where he has to put the cross of Astoria ... Everything kept going wrong and took forever and things were like ...
Lawrence: And the stunt guys got really injured.
Reeves: That one spooky spot.
LaBeouf: Thank God I wasn't there for any of that.
Lawrence: No, but you were there, we were shooting with you when the stunt guy broke his ribs and ...
LaBeouf: Broke his ribs?
Lawrence: Yeah, remember that?
LaBeouf: No, I wasn't there. Thank God I wasn't there.
Quddus: He's got a pleasant memory.
LaBeouf: Let's not even start now, because I'm getting really scared with these chairs and the vibe of the situation. Don't do that, see why, why ...
Reeves: Get out.
Quddus: He's a sensitive young man, Keanu. Come on now.
Reeves: Shia ... Shia ... Shia ...
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Photo: Warner Bros.
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