Acclaimed filmmaker Edgar Wright has made genre classics like Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, but his latest project Baby Driver has him breaking new ground and fulfilling a long-time wish.

The story of Baby Driver is something he’s wanted to do for over 20 years, but the timing was never right. Thanks to a few coincidences and filmmaking magic, cameras were finally able to roll on the long-gestating tale.

The movie is a crime story centering on a young getaway driver codenamed Baby (The Fault in Our Stars leading man Ansel Elgort). His unique skills behind the wheel stem from a traumatic childhood incident and a further twist has him constantly and meticulously listening to music to plan out every step he makes. Whether he’s walking down the street or speeding away from the cops, Baby has the perfect track ready to sync up to any situation.

Kevin Spacey, Jamie Foxx and Jon Hamm are among the solid supporting cast that makes the film unique and Wright’s visual style behind the camera works perfectly with a long and detailed soundtrack.

Edgar Wright and Ansel Elgort recently traveled to San Francisco to talk about Baby Driver. Among other things, we discussed their filmmaking process and why Ansel keeps getting asked strange questions on press tours. This is a transcription of that conversation.

Q: Ansel, this role is a brand new challenge for you as an actor. How did you get involved with the project?

Ansel Elgort: I loved the script and wanted to work with Edgar. Edgar is so particular, deliberate and knows exactly what he wants in a very inspiring way. It’s been an honor working with him because I’ve learned some of his tricks. But at the same time, while being deliberate, he was also open to molding his characters around the people he cast. The same goes for Jamie (Foxx) and Kevin (Spacey): the actors came in and took his characters and made them their own. He allowed Baby to be right for me.

Edgar Wright: When I wrote the script, I wasn’t imagining anyone in particular. I certainly didn’t imagine he looked or was as tall as Ansel, but once he started doing it, I couldn’t imagine anyone else playing the part.

Elgort: We also did weeks of prep, I worked with a dialect coach, a sign language coach, a choreographer, a stunt driver and I really got to feel like I was Baby.

Q: You’ve talked a lot about the music in this film and how important certain tracks are to the heart of the story. Were there any songs you couldn’t use because they had already been used in other movies?

Wright: That does happen. I don’t think I had to change anything because it was in something else. Someone pointed out a Nike campaign used Hocus Pocus, but that didn’t matter because it wasn’t another movie. Earlier this year, I had a conversation with James Gunn over text and told him I want to know your Guardians of the Galaxy 2 soundtrack list because I want to make sure none of the Guardians songs are in Baby Driver. Then we had this cagey conversation where he would ask, “Do you use ELO?” and I would say, “No.” I would ask him, “Do you use Queen?” and he would say, “No.” We went through a lot of the big ones and then realized we were probably not using the same tracks. Quentin Tarantino said something about music, like whoever used it best last owns the track. Guardians 1 uses a song from Reservoir Dogs and kids now know that song from Guardians because they’ve never seen Reservoir Dogs.

Related: The 5 most important musical moments in Baby Driver

Q: Queen is starting to become a signature for you.

Wright: I know. I’ve used Queen in three different movies and T. Rex in three different movies.

Q: The action scenes are obviously choreographed, but how meticulous were the dancing scenes planned out?

Elgort: We had the choreographer there every day even on days where he had to do very little. In the laundromat scene, we had real customers in there while we were filming.

Q: You guys are getting a lot of the same questions on this press tour. Is there one question you wish would go away?

Wright: This is our first day doing press together for this movie, but on the Hot Fuzz press tour with Simon and Nick, everyone kept asking us the same questions and it started to become so surreal. Everyone would ask, “You’ve done zombies. You’ve done cops. What’s next?” We’d hear that every 20 minutes for six weeks and it started to become maddening. Ansel gets a lot of “Is there going to be a ‘Fault in Our Stars 2’?”

Elgort: Yes and also for three movies in a row I would always get in each interview…

Wright: [laughs] Is it weird having Shailene play your sister and your girlfriend?

Elgort: [nods head] This happened for three movies because it was for Divergent, Fault in Our Stars and Insurgent. And even Allegiant, so pretty much four movies of brother and lover.

Wright: [laughs] What was that like?

Elgort: [grinning] It was fine.

Baby Driver is now playing in theatres nationwide.