Gritty Reality: Training with Experts on Set
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 That's the sound of air rapidly filling the vacuum created by your departing body.”-Ricardo Tubbs
To have his cast members be able to walk the line between justice and revenge, Mann saw to it they prep through a regimen of physical, mental and weapons training before shooting began. He notes that if anyone understands this kind of training, it is an actor. “Agents prepare to go undercover in the same way an actor prepares-knowing everything about the person they are pretending to be,” he relates. “They isolate themselves and focus in.”
To become the elite detectives Sonny Crockett and Ricardo Tubbs, Farrell and Foxx would receive three months of preparation on-site in Miami. Fortunately, the two actors had their fair share of experience with drills. With Farrell's recent training time on S.W.A.T. and The Recruit and Foxx's 2005 work on Jarhead and Stealth, the new partners were up for the challenges that would come in shooting the film.
With cooperation from multiple consulting officers in local and federal law enforcement, Mann developed a strict program for his talent. He exemplifies this necessity in noting, “When Crockett and Tubbs meet José Yero and they're negotiating about the way they run loads in, Colin and Jamie really could do all of those things they're talking about doing.”
Farrell recalls, “We drilled and drilled…going out to the gun range four times a week for two hours a day and shooting off about 500 rounds per day. We were shown tactically how you hold a gun, how to lessen yourself as a target and how to have synchronicity and economy of movement that would allow you to take out your target.”
Mann would also ensure that his core cops were instructed on how to live the U.C. life. “We were in some scenarios that were routine `buys' on a street level,” he reflects. “And then, we would move product from offshore-on boats and planes-simulating these experiences for Jamie and Colin with people who had done this many times.”
The filmmaker describes his staged rehearsal scenes as “street theater, but for real. We were with seven, eight, nine major law enforcement people from federal law enforcement who did major undercover work of a very enhanced, very dangerous nature in foreign countries and the U.S. Some of the scenarios got stunningly real.”
This was welcome, albeit exhausting, news for Foxx and Farrell. Farrell echoes the team's respect in commenting on his tutors, “These guys have gone deep. Working, buying, transporting drugs from South America through Miami. Some of them did it purely for the rush. They have back stories they've developed-fabricated identities where they've created an absolute alternate existence.”
The actor continues, “Michael doesn't have people working on his films who say `in theory.' They are all very practiced in what they do or have done. He's all about, `Why fake it when you can do it for real?' They get 10 minutes to convince somebody that they're the real deal and that they're there to buy or sell product. The downside of a bad take for them isn't a shift in direction or mood for the scene-it's a bullet in the head.”
Mann approached seasoned Federal agents early in pre-production about helping to train actors for Miami Vice on methods of conducting undercover work. One technical consultant notes, “Colin and Jamie were basically put through the same scenarios that our guys would go through, and these scenarios were done by agents that do actual undercover work.”
One example of this training involved Farrell's accompanying undercover officers on what he believed to be a real drug deal. It was explained to the actor that everything dangerous had already taken place and he was assured “nothing's gonna happen.”
In fact, the scenario was set up so one of the fake dope dealers could test Farrell's skills as Crockett by completely overreacting in front of Farrell. According to one of the Federal officers, “We actually had [our undercover guy] jump out the window when the guys showed up. Colin saw this chaos happening right in front of him, and you see him backing away from the deal. I mean, for a split second, he's like, `Oh my God, what have I gotten myself into?'”
But, ultimately, the Federal agent gives Farrell credit for “using his skills to try and get out of the situation. I kept insisting that he was a cop and said, `Prove to me that you're not a cop! Show me if you're wearing a wire! And Colin rips his shirt open goes, `Look, I'm not a cop. I don't have any wires.'” After that, the officer notes that the scenario played out successfully, with Farrell learning that in the world of U.C…anything can happen anytime.
Farrell recalls that the exercise gave him, “a real sense of it…regardless of how much you think you may be prepared for something, in the spur of the moment, the odds shift and the nerves kick in. It was very scary, because for all intents and purposes, this was the real deal.”
Mann offers of his unique training, “If Colin feels competent that he can really do what Crockett does, then it increases his self-efficacy. And how good he knows he is invests moments magically with believability. He is Sonny Crockett. And he can do everything Sonny can do.”
Regarding his actors' drive to become immersed in their roles, Mann knew that-while he wanted reality captured-his first priority was to make the set painstakingly safe for his stars. When charging through South Florida's coastline highways, “Colin is really driving the Ferrari,” he shares. “We put Colin into a Ferrari Challenge Car-a race version of 360-complete with roll cage and racecar levels of protection. If I'm going to have him driving the car, I want him driving that car as if he's a skilled driver and everything he's doing is second nature.” What Crockett does, Tubbs must, so it was the “same with Mojo, the boat,” Mann says. “Jamie got great at driving that boat as the throttle man and he took off and loaded a small plane.”
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