When I did see the trailer, I immediately thought about First Blood. I also thought a little bit about Roadhouse. Did you start thinking about this movie with ‘80s action staples in mind? Did they create your structure or template in a way?
My lookbook had First Blood, had some Interstellar (like the shot of the truck and the cornfield), it had Mississippi Burning, Michael Clayton, True Romance. Images really compel me—it’s lighting, reflection, dust, dirt, grit, texture. I didn’t say, “Let me do First Blood and inject civil asset forfeiture.” I said, “Let me do civil asset forfeiture,” and realized soon thereafter that that would pit my protagonist against a small-town police force—and here we are. I probably embraced that 13 pages into the script.
Michael Clayton was my other reference, because it offset First Blood. It’s this very cool, modern aesthetic, very detailed, and it’s research. The characters know what the fuck they’re talking about, and the verbal exchanges are amongst my favorite in all of cinema—like Tom Wilkinson, the alley scene with the baguettes. Like, holy shit. I get more of a rise out of that than a big spectacle action movie. I became more aware of it. I didn’t know what Billy Jack was until my production designer said, “Oh, this is like Billy Jack,” and then I watched it. I was like, “Oh, fuck yeah.”
Yeah.
In First Blood, [Rambo] is still a man of a certain expertise—he’s a meat-eater, and he’s a badass—but when that incline gets too tall for him, that motorbike comes out from underneath him, and he just starts running, it feels so human and not perfect. That’s what I wanted to embrace in this film with the car work. A lot of filmmakers say, “No green screens.” We had, I think, one blue screen, maybe one green screen, but other than some composite work, we were out there on the road in Louisiana cooking our actors and shooting dialogue scenes in cars, just because I needed to have that level of authenticity that I see in all these ’80s and ’90s movies.
I know originally John Boyega was going to star in this before the pandemic halted things and schedules changed. How did you end up finding Aaron Pierre? And more importantly, what did you need to see from him to know he could accomplish both the physical aspects and emotional complexity of a role like this?
We needed a guy fast. We were replacing an actor, and the challenge was for me to not let that influence my decision at all. I’d rather have shelved the movie than move forward without the perfect version of Terry Richmond. So much was on his shoulders. He’s in, I think, 130 scenes out of 135, so a full commitment was necessary.
As far as what I needed, a lot of names being thrown at me. My wife was like, “Hey, check out this guy on Underground Railroad.” I literally watched four minutes of one episode of Barry Jenkins’ limited series, saw Aaron Pierre, and said, “OK.” If there’s one thing I can read from afar, it’s chops. He had the presence I needed. He had this quiet intellect. I could feel he could handle the complexity just from this one scene that I watched. When I got on Zoom with him the very next day, I knew under two minutes that he was the guy who would be getting my offer. And I also told everyone around me that if he doesn’t work out, I was happily moving on to my next project.
