00:00When I was like 16, 17, I had this really embarrassing interview where I went to the
00:07premiere of Tron 2 and I was like going through puberty and I was very excited and very overwhelmed
00:14by a very loud red carpet and so I was like yeah I'm so excited to be here and it's like the most
00:19mortifying video ever which is definitely gonna be brought back. I just like Barbra Streisand
00:24myself there but anyways.
00:30I'm Tiffany Taylor for The Hollywood Reporter here at San Diego Comic-Con 2025 with Cameron
00:38Monaghan to talk all about Tron Aries. What's up? How was the panel for you yesterday? I mean it
00:43really was the talk of Comic-Con with the light show, the footage shown, the Nine Inch Nails
00:48soundtrack. Yeah was it actually? That's actually really good to hear. It's always a trip when you're
00:53in Hall H. I think I've done it two or three times now and every time it's like when you're
00:59up there you can't hear anything including yourself. You can't even hear each other really, you just
01:05kind of hear this like low rumble and all the speakers and everything they're all placed
01:10out for the audience so it's not really for us. So most of the time when you're speaking
01:14you're kind of like am I actually speaking like talking English right now? I just want to make
01:19sure that sentences are coming out but you don't get like a lot of response back you know so it's
01:24it's nice to hear. But that being said like the soundtrack is amazing. It looks awesome. It sounds
01:31awesome. Like this is a movie that's built to be seen on the biggest screen possible. I'm so excited
01:37for seeing it in IMAX and you know getting some friends together to to watch it. I think this is
01:43one of those movies that I'm gonna get a couple crews together to go to the movie theaters and
01:47go check out you know. I'm a fan of the Tron stuff so it's it's cool to be able to be a part of it.
01:52Yeah Jared Leto was saying you know how I mean like the Tron original movie is just so special
01:57to him. What's your relationship with the first two films like? Weirdly I think I have more of a
02:01connection to the second one than I do the first. I had seen the second one before I saw the first
02:07when I was like 16, 17. Man why do I keep mentioning this? Whatever. I had this really embarrassing
02:15interview where I went to the premiere of Tron 2 and I was like going through puberty and I was
02:22very excited and very overwhelmed by a very loud red carpet and so I was like yeah I'm so excited
02:28to be here and it's like the most mortifying video ever which is definitely gonna be brought back. I
02:33just like Barbra Streisand myself there but anyways yeah like I had seen the second one. I loved just
02:40visually what Joseph Kaczynski did with that movie. Went back watched the first and also I'm just like a fan
02:47of like everything related to Tron. I played this video game that was related to Tron for like way
02:52too many hours when I probably should have been doing school when I was a teenager so just a big
02:57fan of Tron stuff. It's just it's cool. The color palette, the sound, the light, everything. It's
03:02awesome. You were saying you've been in Hall H before. When's the last time you were at Comic-Con?
03:07That's a good question. I know that we definitely came to Comic-Con for Shameless. I was on a show
03:15called Gotham that I believe came here. I was in a movie called The Giver with Jeff Bridges who was
03:20also in Tron as well so that was really cool to be able to act with Jeff again. I didn't really have
03:27much with him this time around but it was just nice to be able. He's a good person to have on a set
03:32like he really holds it down. He's just always like yeah man we're just gonna you know we're gonna
03:36jam we're gonna get out there. It's like jazz man. You gotta it's the notes you don't play man. You
03:42know like he's just like it's a beautiful energy and something I love about Jeff is he always he's
03:48the exact same on off-camera on set uh offset like he's a terrific actor but he's so like naturally
03:56unaffected. He doesn't have like this like artifice about him. He's just like here I am. I'm present
04:02and this is he's the dude. The dude abides you know. I saw an article about the panel yesterday
04:07and they were saying he was really just embracing and embodying the dude. Like he brought that
04:11presence. Yeah yeah no I mean he's got like he's written like philosophy books about like the Tao of
04:17the dude and kind of how you know like this like living uh centered and without attachment and it's it's
04:25a really beautiful it's like very Buddhist way of uh existing and you know you really see it with
04:31the guy. He's just he's centered and he's there and uh it's a joy to be around. It's a really nice
04:36energy. Yesterday Jeff was talking about working with Jared on the film who's known to be a method
04:41actor. For you what was it like working with Jared Leto? I mean yeah it was nice you know I really in
04:47scenes uh I only really knew him as Ares and my character is a fellow um program that were were kind of
04:57these militant uh programs that were are engaging in a mission together and so he was commander and it
05:03was kind of nice to be able to like going into the project I had prepared a lot uh for five months
05:10beforehand. I had like a very strict sort of like diet and schedule and workout regimen and all these
05:16things. I just wanted to like strip back and kind of just live like a soldier basically leading up to
05:22it and so it was nice because when we got to set it was like all right I I've got my like officer
05:28who's going to now like give me commands on the set and so we only really interacted with each other
05:34in that way and then really like we've met each other now for the first time like at comic con which
05:41was cool. Did you keep that soldier routine going off camera while you were filming? Yeah yeah no that
05:46was uh I was I was working out twice a day every day for for four months leading up to production
05:54and then during production as well uh wasn't really like hanging out or talking to anybody else I was
06:00just like I want to just like live in Tron and for a little bit I'm going to be connected into like
06:05the computer plug into the grid and you know be this guy um but I wish I could say more there's more
06:12to the character uh but I can't say the thing with him but anyways it doesn't matter. You were saying
06:18yesterday that you know digital is better than analog you liked being in the grid rather than in
06:22the real world for you are you like a digital tech gadget guide you always want the latest technology or
06:28are you a little old school sometimes? I am actually really old school so I don't know it was a good
06:33bit though right but um no I'm I'm like I I love like cameras and like anything that has like gears
06:41and winding levers and that kind of stuff and I really like old film cameras so I collect them
06:47and I like to refurbish them and rebuild them a lot I look at like parts and put them back together
06:52and um I specifically love like medium format film cameras so I'm a big believer in film I think that
06:59you can do just as much wonderful stuff with like digital cameras but I just really like how film
07:05functions I think it's just mechanically really amazing and that's just like that's my geeky stuff
07:10right now it's just I I absolutely love cameras so you like a gadget but a an old school gadget
07:16yeah yeah is it an artifact I don't know like I think even now some of the most amazing most of
07:23like the I think it was the majority of the best picture nominees and most of the Oscar nominees
07:28were still shot on film now they're doing like the Vista Vision stuff and the um the IMAX stuff and
07:34all of that because there's still needs to be like a gimmick but I think like 35 millimeter film is
07:39still kind of the gold standard there's cool stuff that you can do with all sorts of camera technology
07:44anyways this is now just getting very nerdy on that front but I can talk about this all day
07:48yeah I didn't mean to say it was bad in an artifact way but just yeah like
07:51oh dear you I know but like the film community is really upset with you all 12 of us we're up in arms
07:56all right Harry our camera guy might be upset he's a he's a camera aficionado but uh for you with this
08:03movie you know you're talking about uh film versus digital but with Tron Aries you know how much of it
08:09was practical sets or practical effects versus CGI it was honestly I was surprised by there was more
08:16practical stuff built than what I thought there would be I mean there's a lot of stuff uh that takes
08:22place in the real world which uh I may or may not really be interacting with that much but when
08:29we're on the grid I was still surprised there's some really beautiful sets that they had built in
08:34Vancouver and like on my downtime um I would love to just like go and walk around the sets and take a
08:40look at them because the craftsmanship was gorgeous and they did a lot of stuff with color for this one
08:46as well that was really amazing that they had a very um unique version of red there was a very
08:52specific version of red that Yoakam the director really wanted to hit so we had all these beautiful
08:57sets painted with this gorgeous red and it was just it was really amazing uh but that being said all
09:03the digital craftsmen as well there's a lot of stuff that you can that you do in the grid that you can
09:09only do digitally and with Tron it's sort of like this thing where every generation kind of gets this
09:16Tron movie that's sort of a milestone marker of the technology of computer generated stuff you know
09:22and we had it in the 80s and we had it 15 years ago and now we're having it again where we're seeing
09:27just how far filmmakers can go people at the top of their game to be able to create something that's
09:33I think it's going to blow some people's minds and I mean and already the presentation at comic con just
09:38all the promotion here has blown people's minds I saw a video of a bunch of like motorcycles
09:42looking like light cycles driving around San Diego did you see that oh yeah yeah the uh the
09:47motorcycle gang came by we had a cast dinner last night and we all came out and checked out the
09:53motorcycles which was really cool I mean it's it's hard not to look cool when you're in black and lit
09:59up with like these red lights I mean um yeah it's it's it's really nice I mean there's still so much
10:05cool stuff that they haven't even revealed in this movie so I can't wait for people to see that
10:09do you ride a light cycle in the movie I wouldn't be able to say either way but I can say that I did
10:16a bunch of really cool stuff like specifically action stuff that I was super excited to get to do
10:22I've kind of always wanted to get like a cool action set piece in a movie and so uh we worked
10:27with a stunt team for a couple weeks leading up to to the shoot and that stuff I'm really excited for
10:33people to see we know you can't tease too much but we're so excited to see it and since we're here at
10:38comic con I want to do some fun uh popcorn bucket questions with our crypto superman popcorn bucket
10:44so pull one out all right what's something that makes you hulk out your biggest pet peeve oh my god
10:51okay uh not using your turn signal all right that's why we have them we we have the little lever
10:57all you have to do is you just you flick your freaking your pinky just your pinky finger you just
11:03you flip that okay that's what you have to do man sorry the sound guy is pulling down the thing
11:09right now but hey I hulked out you see this is you don't want to make me angry you won't like me
11:13that was perfect you killed it what's your favorite comic con memory I mean you always remember your
11:21first and uh I came here with the shameless cast maybe season three I want to say and the shameless
11:29cast you know like to roll deep they were a good group of people and we had a lot of fun that not
11:36only the the panel but then the night after I remember we kind of painted San Diego red so that
11:43was a good time it's no surprise that they party hard I like to hear that yeah that we you know we're
11:48still responsible but we partied in our own ways um let's see if you could have one superpower what would
11:54it be and why uh teleportation because then I wouldn't have to see the guy that doesn't use his
12:00turn signal when I'm in traffic I would just be able to go to the destination if we can just get
12:04can we just invent teleportation you know like forget flying cars let's just get right to I'm here I want
12:10to go there and we skip all the middlemen is that a plan that really would be the dream I'm always late
12:15for everything so I could definitely yeah use that that's my I feel like even if there was teleportation
12:21I'd still end up being five minutes late to everything it's just how it would always wind up
12:25a couple more questions about uh Tron Aries I did want to ask you you know why do you think Nine Inch
12:29Nails is just the right group to soundtrack this movie because the soundtracks you know of the first
12:34two films are so iconic yeah of course I mean you know the last one death daft punk I used to I still
12:40do I like I would put that on when I was like studying a lot that would be something that if I was
12:46reading and I just kind of wanted to get into like a nice flow state I would put on that daft punk
12:52soundtrack but you know now that they're broken up uh looking at who's like the best film scorers around
12:59right now to me it is Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross you know like the stuff that they did for challengers
13:04recently I don't think that they got enough flowers for it it was really absolutely unbelievable and
13:10what I like too is they're bringing a different vibe this movie is a little bit more sinister a
13:16little bit more dangerous and they have kind of like a darker harder edge to some of the music
13:21that they're bringing as well but still being like really driving and really exciting and energetic so
13:25I can't wait for people to see it especially or hear it on that IMAX sound system is going to sound
13:31absolutely amazing have you heard more of the music than what we've heard is the I've I've heard a
13:36couple pieces they also they gave me a really nice uh 45 LP of a couple of the the tracks that is
13:44shaped like one of the Tron data discs so that one's definitely gonna sit in my collection that's
13:50going to be a centerpiece in with the vinyl so speaking of some analog stuff we know it's the
13:54marriage of analog and digital right there that's amazing we can't wait to see the movie Cameron thanks
14:00so much for hanging out in our comic account lunch with us thanks for having me
14:06you
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