ESQ: You've done a Nascar movie before, Days of Thunder. Which movie is a truer interpretation?
JCR: Days of Thunder had such a huge budget that we could re-create almost everything we needed. We weren't really at the races. We shot this one during the Talladega 500. I actually got to appreciate the sport for what it is, as opposed to trying to understand it from the outside. And it seems that the Nascar people are more excited about this one than they are when you bring up Days of Thunder. Let's leave it at that.
ESQ: Maybe they aren't Tom Cruise fans.
JCR: I don't know whether it's Tom's fault. I think the sport has progressed a lot since that movie came out. In a weird way, even though Nascar is immensely popular, when somebody satirizes it, it kind of puts it on a cultural map in a way that it wasn't before. They're kind of like, "Oh, it's a flattering thing."
ESQ: Talladega's a wild place.
JCR: You know they have their own jail? The police, they can't take people to the station, so they have a jail inside. I didn't spend any time in there, but I think they put you in a racing suit and make you drink nonalcoholic beer.
ESQ: Your mustache in this movie is pretty respectable.
JCR: What I learned about mustaches is, if you have a mustache and you get into a beef in traffic, people immediately defer to you. You can understand why Saddam Hussein and all those people grew mustaches, because the first thing that people assume about you if they don't know you is that you're serious: "This guy is not kidding."
ESQ: Nascar is rife with corporate sponsorship. In the film, yours is Old Spice.
JCR: We have a few of them. There's Julio's Thongs for Men and Laughing Clown malt liquor.
ESQ: Who would you want sponsoring you in real life?
JCR: To tell you the truth, I don't believe in corporate sponsorship. I've been offered many times to do ads and promotional things. That's not why I got into acting. I think it's a slippery slope for actors to start trading on their personalities.... You just asked a funny question, and I gave you an overly serious answer.
ESQ: That's okay--
JCR: Wilkin & Sons black-currant preserves. That's my favorite jelly.
ESQ: Are you eating that right now?
JCR: No. Room service brought me another brand. I can't mention it according to my agreement with Wilkin & Sons.
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