It’s been a whirlwind of anticipation leading up the release of Disney’s Tron Legacy, and not just because the film itself looks out-of-this-world awesome, but also due to its relationship to those iconic French robots Daft Punk. Not only contributing the soundtrack to the film, Daft Punk’s Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Man de Homem Christo appear in Tron Legacy as performers at The End of the Line nightclub on Tron’s ‘The Grid’. But just how involved were the French duo in the making of the film? Well to find out the full extent of Daft Punk’s golden touch on Tron Legacy, inthemix spoke to the cast and crew of the futuristic tech epic to share their experiences on working with Daft Punk.

Garrett Hedlund – Actor – “Sam Flynn”
“You know, I didn’t grow up in a big city and dance music was never really around me…I had heard of Daft Punk but I wasn’t really familiar with their music before this. But when Daft Punk walked onto set there were all these people who just lost it; their eyes went wide, their jaws dropped and they were in awe. There was this one French kid, Inis Shirfra who plays a character in this and he tapped me on the shoulder and was like ‘can…can I….can I talk to them? Nobody ever sees them without their helmets on’. It was crazy! I felt as though I had to be privileged standing next to Daft Punk when they’re not in their helmets. But they’re really just great guys, man. They’re so smart. I spent a lot of time with Thomas and he’s just so smart and so brilliant. They created like 12 tracks before even seeing any frame of footage. Joe would put that behind a scene we would be doing and it just amped you up so much. You’d be like ‘alright, I’m tired, hungry and thirsty but let’s shoot this! This is cool!’...it was so motivating.

They have this obstacle as musicians on this film that instead of having the actors do all the emotional work they themselves have to create that emotion for the audience that goes with every scene. But it’s not about double-underlining an emotion, that’s not necessary, they’ve got to find away to work with the actor’s dynamic and marry it seamlessly.”

James Frain – Actor – “Jarvis”
“I’m a major dance music nerd, so that this film not only has a soundtrack of all new Daft Punk music but that they’re also actually in the film, it was just a really incredible experience. That, more than anything else, was my ‘geek out’ moment for this film.”

Olivia Wilde – Actor – “Quorra”
“[On the challenges of getting into character when shooting on a bare soundstage with the environment to be CGI’d in later on] It can be pretty difficult to adjust to that. One thing that helped me a lot was the music of Daft Punk who did the score for the movie. Early on Joe [Kosinski] gave us all some of the music that Daft Punk had written before even seeing any of the film, these really dark and moody pieces and so I put those on my iPod and before every scene I would listen to them and get in the right frame of mind for the day ahead.”

Joseph Kosinski – Director
“They were interested in Tron and I was interested in them and so we met for pancakes at 101 Cafe in Hollywood and we talked for a couple of hours about film and the scores that we loved and we found that just creatively we were on the same level. The three of us wanted to create a classic film score that sounded like nothing else. It’s a combination of minimal electronic music with classic orchestral themes and blend them together in a new, fresh way. I think they’ve just done an incredible job. They’re geniuses. They’ve done an amazing job on their first film score…they’ve knocked it out of the park. People will be surprised by this soundtrack because it’s not what they would expect from Daft Punk composing for Tron. And that’s a good thing. It’s a good thing for Daft, and I think it’s a good thing for the movie business when someone comes from the outside and does something new. I love it and I hope that other people dig it too.”

Christine Bieselin Clark – Lead Costume Designer
“They wanted to maintain their image, as they should, but they were also really excited about doing a Tron version of their look. We did do leathers, we did do things that were very Daft Punk, but then we put the whole Tron stamp on it and they couldn’t have been happier about how it turned out. We just did a photo-shoot with them and it’s so funny, they seem really excited to just be in the suits. They love it.”

Tron Legacy hits Australian cinemas this December 16th through Disney. Stay tuned to inthemix for more exclusive behind the scenes coverage of the Daft Punk-scored blockbuster and catch up on what you’ve missed over at our All About Tron Legacy page.