'Need for Speed' Leading Lady Imogen Poots Is No Stereotype

As you might expect for a film called “Need for Speed,” there is plenty of testosterone to go around. Male cast members — Aaron Paul, Dominic Cooper, Scott Mescudi, Rami Malek, and Ramon Rodriguez — share the majority of screen time and love flexing their muscle cars.

However, there is one leading lady in the mix who holds her own: Imogen Poots (“That Awkward Moment”), who proves not just an independent and attractive young woman, but one who knows her way around an engine.

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In our latest installment of Instant Commentary, director and (veteran stunt coordinator) Scott Waugh, along with his “Speed” stunt coordinator Lance Gilbert, burned through one of the movie’s high-octane scenes and shared some of the surprise specifics in the film, one of which is Poots’s character, Julia.

Waugh explained how they pulled off the scene in heavy traffic and how Poots holds her own throughout the film.

"This is when he’s trying to scare her," Waugh explained of a driving scene in downtown Detroit in which Paul’s character is trying to drive so erratic he’ll scare Julia out of the car. "It was really fun because Aaron got to weave in and out of traffic at really high speeds and try and freak out Immy. [That] was fun because she doesn’t really have a driver’s license anyway in real life so driving fast is innately scary [for her] to begin with.

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"It was really fun and the best part is all this chaos is going on. … I feel like it was a moment in the movie that defines her. It’s kind of symbolic of how men sometimes perceive women in a certain way and it’s not the right way."

“Need for Speed" is now in theaters.