Logo text
18 years ago, Emile Hirsch was crushed.
Speed Racer, the most expensive film of his young career, had bombed spectacularly, totaling just $94 million against a $120 million budget. What made the critical and commercial dud even more impactful was that it was the Wachowskis’ first directorial outing since finishing The Matrix trilogy, so there was a great deal of hype, attention and expectation surrounding their follow-up. Hirsch’s starring role in Speed Racer may have been flanked by awards contenders Into the Wild (2007) and Milk (2008), but he knew that being the title character in a major studio turkey would effectively end his six-year run on the shortlist for any film that necessitated a young lead.
But in the following years, the ultra-rare afterlife began to play out, one that films like Blade Runner, The Thing and Fight Club also experienced. Through time and word of mouth, Speed Racer found its audience en route to becoming a genuine cult classic. Hirsch started to see the signs of reappraisal on the film’s tenth anniversary, specifically when he watched his then four-and-a-half-year old son enjoy his first viewing of the candy-colored live-action anime. Shortly thereafter, Hirsch really felt it when the New Beverly — the Los Angeles cinema owned by his Once Upon a Time in Hollywood director Quentin Tarantino — screened the film at midnight.
