‘Hit & Run’s’ Dax Shepard talks about his drive

Ever since Dax Shepard first appeared on the TV prank show “Punk’d,” he’s carved out an interesting niche in films and on television, expertly playing dumb guys who are still sweet and remarkably sensitive. It’s a fitting description of both Crosby Braverman, his character on NBC’s family drama “Parenthood,” and Charlie Bronson, the man in the sights of a shady band of bank robbers in the car-chase comedy “Hit & Run.”

Shepard wrote, co-directed and stars in the film, which opened in Los Angeles through Open Road on Wednesday. He plays Bronson, a young man desperate to get his girlfriend (Kristen Bell, Shepard’s real-life financée) to an important job interview while also trying to stay ahead of people from his past.

Shepard not only filled out the cast with friends and colleagues like Bradley Cooper, Tom Arnold, Kristin Chenoweth and his “Parenthood” costar Joy Bryant but he also included his own 1967 Lincoln Continental and high-tech dune buggy racer in the movie. To bring a level of stunt work not often seen in a low-budget independently financed film, Shepard, a longtime motor-sports enthusiast and experienced driver, even did his own driving throughout.

Shepard sat down recently for an interview on a shady bench in a park near the Los Angeles home he shares with Bell. During the conversation, she happened to walk by with their two dogs, something of a hit-and-run cameo appearance in the course of the couple promoting “Hit & Run.”

It seems you set out to make a movie you would like.

That’s 100% what I did. In the past I sold scripts to the studios and I’ve gone through the development process at those places, and I’m not bitter about it, I completely understand why it works the way it does, they’re trying to appeal to as many people as possible and it’s a huge investment. But this wasn’t a huge investment, there wasn’t a studio, so I really had the freedom to write the exact movie I want to see on a Friday night.... It was really liberating to think, here’s the movies I love, ‘Pulp Fiction,’ ‘Smokey and the Bandit’ and ‘Flirting With Disaster’ and I can now combine those movies into one.

Your dynamic with Bell is so natural. When the two of you watch the film, do you see your characters on screen or does it feel in a way like you’re seeing yourselves?

I think had another director hired us to do this movie you wouldn’t see what you see in the movie. But I think because it was our project and we were in control at all times, we didn’t put a wall up and I’m really glad we didn’t. Because we had reservations against it. We don’t want to be a reality show, we don’t want America to be more interested in Dax and Kristen as a real-life couple. But we did want to give you something really special and show the real connection with these characters. It’s very tricky territory.

Do you think there’s been any kind of shift in the audience’s ability to recognize a car chase with real cars instead of something done with CGI? Can they tell the difference anymore?

I have insecurities about our car chases because I didn’t have the money to blow things up at the end of every chase. So I’ve got to say, when we started testing the film that was something I feared a lot. The single most shocking thing from the reactions from audiences — and they are brutal, they don’t know I’m reading it — they always list their favorite thing as the car chases. And my only explanation for that, because it isn’t “Fast and Furious,” is because it’s real. Whether they want to admit it or not, no matter how good CGI gets, people unplug emotionally as soon as the images generate. That intangible is the thing that makes people like our car chases. They’re actually happening.

It must be a challenge to try to make a movie that’s trying to be smart about dumb fun.

I think I’m a combination of very simple pleasures and the fact I’ve read a lot of books. I don’t think it’s a binary opposition across the board in humans and I think I’m an example that it’s not. I’m hosting gay marriage rallies and I have tons of guns at home. There’s a lot of middle ground in the world and I’m one of those people.

mark.olsen@latimes.com