KJ Apa Talks ‘One Fast Move’ and Building Out His Character

KJ Apa, who executive produces and stars as Wes in One Fast Move, shares why this movie is one of his most important pieces of work, connecting with Kelly Blatz, the many layers of his characters, and what co-star Eric Dane taught him.

ONE FAST MOVE is an action-adventure thrill ride about a young man down on his luck who seeks out his estranged father to help him pursue his dream of becoming a professional motorcycle racer. With the help of his small town love interest and a motorcycle shop owner who moonlights as his mentor, he begins to break down the walls that his father’s absence had built up.

An Interview with KJ Apa

How the role of EP came about

Temple of Geek: Along with starring in the film, you’re also an executive producer. I was so excited to hear that you stepped into that role. Can you talk about why that was important to you for this project and if it maybe gave you anything, like a new lens to look through when it came to the story?

KJ Apa: Yeah, it wasn’t something that I had even wanted to do at the beginning. It just kind of happened that way because I was really invested with Kelly. I wanted to make the best story possible, so I just ended up naturally becoming a part of a lot of the moving pieces and I’m really grateful to have been a producer on this because it’s one of the most important pieces of work that I’ve been a part of. So yeah, I’m so proud of this movie and what Kelly made.

His relationship with Director/Writer Kelly Blatz

Temple of Geek: I’d love to bounce off of that because I can tell kind of the passion when you’re speaking about it and how much work you put into it. What about it resonated with you that really just struck a chord? Like, ‘I have to be involved in this, I have to be a part of it.’ What was it about the story and the character?

KJ Apa: Yeah, I think first and foremost, it was my relationship with Kelly and meeting him outside of the movie, which was the basis of us meeting but he was someone who at my life in that point of time was someone that I connected to immediately and knew that we had met each other for a reason. Then, we got to share this experience of him allowing me to play this character and trusting me with this character, and it was the first time I’d fallen in love with a character and a story rather and been given the trust to go with my instinct on a lot of these choices that I’ve made. Kelly makes a lot of choices based on how he feels and he usually gets everything right with how he feels. And so yeah, it’s really hard to explain because it felt like a very spiritual experience working on this movie because of the people that I met and especially my relationship with Kelly and what he’s given me as an artist.

The character of Wes

Temple of Geek: Yeah, and I know you were involved a lot in developing the character of Wes. What are some of the ideas and smaller details that you came up with to really help you build out who he was as a character?

KJ Apa: Yeah, I mean, a lot of the conversations that Kelly and I had about Wes, you know, his relationship to speed, adrenaline, death, and his recklessness and how that relates to his racing and his style of racing, him being very much alone a lot of his life and not having a lot of people to turn to in terms of sharing intimate details about his life with anyone was not something that he could do. He never had a father. There were some versions where his mother was there, but I believe that in the movie, what we went with was that she had passed away. But basically, the only way that he’s able to kind of express any of this stuff is on a bike. If he didn’t have motorcycle racing, I always thought he would have been definitely just a lost cause.

But motorcycles were able to pull him into something that gave him purpose and on top of that, it allowed him to rekindle a relationship with his father or get to know his father, and by doing that, he got to unlock certain parts of himself that he was able to then understand. Also with Camila, he’s able to do that because he feels safe to be able to talk about what’s going on with his dad and she’s this kind of positive energy that is so important to the story and for him, because, without that, I felt like it would have got kind of dark. Then Abel, who represents unconditional love that he’s never been able to reach ever in his life. He’s a constant person that keeps saying, “I can take you back. You made a mistake, but I’ll take you back,” and that’s what it means to be a parent and to love a child, which is what he never had got to do and what maybe he’ll now be able to get to do with Camila’s kid. I could talk forever.

What he learned from working with Eric Dane

Temple of Geek: I love it, I could talk to you forever. But lastly, this film just has an incredible cast, that’s one of the reasons I had to cover it. Was there an instance where one of your cast members really helped you unlock something in yourself when it came to your performance that you weren’t expecting?

KJ Apa: There were, yes. Working with Eric was really… he’s such a great actor. He’s such a great actor. He just has an energy that is so big and undeniable. When he’s in a room… I mean, when Eric walks in a room, you know that he’s there and he doesn’t have to say anything, he’s just got that kind of energy. And so, what he brought to his character and the charisma that he brought was epic on epic levels. But what he taught me was how being still is powerful in specific moments. Yeah, that’s what I learned from Eric.