From writing to directing to producing to acting, Alex Kaluzhsky is making a name for himself in the film industry. Between his two most recent major movie projects, The Taking of Pelham 123 and Solitary Man, Alex set aside some time to share with us what it’s like to be caught in the gunfire on set and work alongside two of Hollywood’s best actors.

CT: In The Taking of Pelham 123, you worked with John Travolta, who plays an armed hijacker of a subway train and holds passengers for ransom. What can you tell me about your character?

AK: I’m one of the hostages. I have an encounter with John Travolta, and then through my tech-savvy skills and computer, I help begin the take-down of the bad guys.

CT: Since it was shot in the streets of NY, did you have any bystanders watching you film?

AK: Yes. They had this logistically huge shootout and basically shut down 20 city blocks. There was heavy machine-gun fire and a lot of blood, so there were a lot of people watching that. People actually put it on YouTube.

CT: This looks like it is going to be such a great action movie! Can you tell me any secrets about production?

AK: The way we shot it was very interesting because you’re in the train with the conductor and you’re zipping along, passing other trains and passing the stations and you’re screaming.
All the extras and actors are running around screaming for their lives, and we’re shooting past bystanders on the train looking at us as though we were insane. It’s always funny for those people who aren’t in film to see how silly the making of some of the more serious sequences are.

CT: What was it like working with John Travolta?

AK: Travolta was great. He’s someone you’d anticipate to have a certain level of guardedness, but he’s such a sweetheart. He just comes on set, very open and kind and accessible and just told stories about how he started. It was incredible to spend that time to pick his brain.

CT: Tell me about your next movie, Solitary Man.

AK: It was another really great cast with Mary-Louise Parker, Michael Douglas, Jenna Fischer and Danny DeVito. It’s a drama about Michael Douglas, a car salesman who is indiscrete with his relationships and women, and how his life unravels due to the personal choices in his life. I’m the potential boyfriend of one of the actresses and Michael Douglass sort of swoops in and steals her away from me.

CT: Was Michael Douglas more serious or did he joke around on set?

AK: He was another one you’d expect to be closed off and inaccessible. But on the first
day, he came up to me out of nowhere and introduced himself. We had this night where we went to the bar after we had a shoot, and some of the crew and the cast were performing a sing-along. There was Michael Douglas singing a Beatles song and eating pizza. It was a bit surreal.

CT: I’m sure it’s hard not to be in awe when you’re around Travolta and Douglas.

AK: Yeah, on Pelham, that first day at the rehearsal and through all the preparatory stuff, I was fine. Then I get on set the first day and they’re like, “John is coming,” and
I started getting butterflies in my stomach waiting for John. Whether or not you want to admit it, it kind of gets to you.

CT: So, what’s the red carpet like?

AK: I’m also a writer and director and producer, so I had a film that I wrote and directed. It was a short film, so (on that project) I got to walk the red carpet and see what that is like. The intensity of the light bulbs and the reporters being just a few feet away is intense, definitely something that takes getting used to.