On the 'Run' with Dax Shepard

Dax Shepard has shown his ability as an actor with his wonderful role as Crosby on NBC's "Parenthood."

With his new car-chase comedy thriller "Hit and Run," which came out Wednesday, the 37-year-old actor shows that he's more than a one-trick pony. Beyond starring in the film - alongside his fiancee Kristen Bell and close pals Bradley Cooper and Tom Arnold - he also wrote it and co-directed it.

In the film, Shepard plays a guy in witness protection who puts his life at risk for the woman he loves (Bell). And with a ton of car chases.

amNewYork spoke with Shepard.

What was the atmosphere like on set? A party. It felt like an elongated six-week birthday party for myself. People genuinely had a blast and they got to do s--- they don't get to do in movies. I had actors do doughnuts in cars who had never done that before.

Are you a fan of car chase films? Absolutely. My favorite movie as a kid was "Smokey and the Bandit." I've probably seen that movie 100 times. I watch it at least 3 times a year for my whole life.

Did you do all your driving? Yeah, 100%. That's my real Lincoln and that's my real off-road racer car. So I'd be damned if I was going to sit around and watch someone else go sideways in my Lincoln.

What was your first car? My first car was a '76 Pontiac Catalina. It was a total piece of s--- that I bought on the side of the road in Northern Michigan for $400. And then my next car was an '84 Mustang GT that I rebuilt the engine of and drag raced. That was my first kind of foray into building a dream car.

How many cars do you have now? I'm light right now. I have three cars, three motorcycles, a race car and a racing go-kart.

Were all the cars in the movie yours? All the GM products were lent to us by GM. Thank god, because I worked for them, they were very supportive and we could not have made the movie without them. We had two Corvettes, we had two [Cadillac] CTS-V station wagons [and] then we had a bunch of background cars. I really want that station wagon, by the way. If the movie [is] a huge hit, I'm really praying that they just give me a nice CTS-V wagon with a ribbon around it.

Do you think there's a stigma about driving a station wagon? No! That's the ultimate baller move - to have a 556-horsepower station wagon. Nothing can be cooler than a fast station wagon.