Escape The Undertaker Director Discusses What It Was Like Working With Undertaker On the Film

In a recent interview with Matt Singer of Screen Crush, Escape The Undertaker (now available on Netflix) director Ben Simms discussed working with The Undertaker on the film, Big E winning the WWE Championship, and much more. Here are some of the highlights:

Ben Simms on working with The Undertaker on the film and the importance of understanding the backstory of his character: “It’s somewhat unwritten, but it’s coming from [Mark Calaway, AKA the Undertaker]. He was amazing to work with on the project. I did as much homework as I could to just make sure I really understood the character and the lore and his ethos and stuff. But yeah, if something didn’t feel right, he would tell me. If it was on point, he was excited about it, I could tell. I’d like to think I did my job because for the most part as far as the story goes and the role that was create feels very on brand for him, and for the New Day.”

On the benefits of working with pro wrestlers on this type of film: “It was honestly an embarrassment of riches. They’re very used to doing live performances week in and week out, so that was very advantageous in terms of being efficient with how we shot things, and being able to adapt and get creative. They would have input and they did everything. All of them did everything themselves. So that was huge. We weren’t trying to do any sleight of hand or trying to hide anything, it’s just these guys in the house doing their thing.”

On Big E “finding” the WWE Championship in a scene in the film and the coincidence of him winning the title after the filming: “Yeah, I took the urn and I willed that to happen [laughs]. Yeah it’s funny how that worked out. There was a lot of talk about how can we make sure this fits into the world of WWE. I can’t say there was ton of planning going into that line specifically, but we wanted to make sure we incorporated stuff from all of their careers. We all worked really hard to make it feel like it’s not just this standalone thing, but it’s within the world they all exist in. So it’s nice that you would pick up something like that because it’s not an accident.”