Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with a fun chat I had with Michael Winterbottom about his adaptation of Jim Thompson’s THE KILLER INSIDE ME. I loved the movie at Sundance and I’m glad it’s starting to get out into the world finally. So, here’s the phoner I had with Winterbottom about the Sundance reaction, his casting Casey Affleck, Jessica Alba and Kate Hudson and how he approached the tone of Thompson’s disturbing novel. Beware of some casually dropped spoilers from Mr. Winterbottom near the beginning of the chat Enjoy!
Quint: Hello.
Michael Winterbottom: Hello.
Quint: Hey, how’s it going man?
Michael Winterbottom: Very good, thanks.
Quint: So I saw the movie at Sundance and KILLER INSIDE ME ended up being one of my favorite movies of the festival.
Michael Winterbottom: Thank you.
Quint: I really regret not being there for the big premiere screening, where all the craziness went on.
Michael Winterbottom: Yeah. We needed some supporters there. (laughs)
Quint: I don’t know, I would have to believe you would almost have to take that as a badge of honor though because if you take on this property and you make this movie and it doesn’t offend somebody, you probably didn’t do a good job.
Michael Winterbottom: Yeah, obviously (Jim) Thompson’s books… In rereading the book, it is kind of shocking in the brutal way that he kills both Joyce and Amy, so you want it to affect people like that. Never the less I think it’s just one of those things where the first time you screen it anywhere and you get “This is disgusting. The festival should be ashamed of itself” and walking out, so it was a little bit of a surprise when you get that kind of gut response the very first time you show it to anyone.
Quint: That can only build up the anticipation of the movie, I think. You were never going to get the Sunday School teachers for this movie anyway. And the violence in the movie is harsh, but not without meaning.
Michael Winterbottom: Well exactly. I think even by the end of the screenings at Sundance, some people are more like… “Actually I didn’t see what all of the fuss is about. I don’t see what’s so shocking about it.” I think, for some reason, although it is called THE KILLER INSIDE ME and although it’s based on a famous book, I think some people… Because they knew nothing, they were more shocked in a way, which I guess in some ways is good. It’s good if people… Sometimes the problems with a film is the people know so much about a film before they see it that they kind of already have a version of the film in their head that they are comparing it to. I think since then, when we have had screenings, the responses have been different. There has been a lot less sense of people being surprised by the violence.
Quint: Listen, I like big goofy stupid action movies like the next guy. I unabashedly loved CHARLIE’S ANGELS for being just a ridiculously over the top fun popcorn movie, but I also love seeing a movie that makes the violence count. Do you know what I mean? Where it’s not glamorized. It’s brutal, it’s ugly, it’s painful. I think that has value to it and I think that there’s more value to that than a movie where somebody can get shot in the head and walk away.
Michael Winterbottom: Yeah and also, for me, Casey (Affleck) gives a really powerful performance. This film is told from his point of view and he’s in every bit of the film and so I think you have time to kind of wonder about Lou as a character why he does these things. I think that’s part of the book for me, when you are finishing the book you have the sense that he destroys these… It’s like his own sort of self loathing or insecurities that kind of generates the violence. And in the book, as he goes on, it’s like “Why doesn’t he just put an end to this? He wants an end to his life. He himself just sort of wants to… He feels so uncomfortable, he just wants to end it all, so the end of it is based almost on a wish fulfillment, that he can set fire to his dad’s house and his dad’s books and burn down all of the stuff he feels that’s really shit.
Quint: Casey was so key to making this movie work. If he’s not somebody you like, then you are going to be wasting two hours you know? That’s kind of the great thing about his character, that it’s somebody who is sympathetic, somebody that you don’t really feel the threat from, in that he is somebody that you could know. Just having spent a little time in and around Texas, you see that personality a lot, that small town kind on the surface personality. How crucial was it to you, artistically, finding your Lou Ford?
Michael Winterbottom: As you say, it’s essential. It’s Lou’s story and he’s telling the story as well. He is in every scene. He’s in virtually every shot of the film, so that was the part we cast first. When I met Casey I immediately thought he’d be great for the part and I think in particular because Casey has the ability to suggest there’s something else going on in his head besides what he’s actually doing. That is the essential Lou in a way, the internal Lou. The Lou, as he sees himself, is different to the Lou he acts to the world. He puts on this front for the world and then when he’s at home, he’s a different person, so you want to constantly trying to work out “What is really going on in his head?” “What does he believe?” “What doesn’t he believe?” “What bit is the fake bit where he’s real?” “How much does he see that what he is doing makes no sense?” “How much is he lost in his world?” He’s a very unreliable narrator in the book and you have to have that sense of someone you are trying to work out, really. I think Casey is a great actor generally, but I think that’s his particular strength, that he is able to make you curious about what’s going on inside his head. That was the first thing we decided on, then after that in a way it was also kind of good casting him, because then a lot of other actors wanted to work with him because I think a lot of actors really respect him. So then it became easy casting the other parts as well.
Quint: And speaking of the other parts, the ladies in the movie are fantastic. It’s the best that I’ve seen Jessica Alba and I think it’s the best performance from Kate [Hudson] since ALMOST FAMOUS. Again, you have to be able to cast somebody with a personality, especially with the ladies, that you have to buy them as real people, but you also have to feel protective of them in some way.
Michael Winterbottom: Yeah, absolutely. They are difficult roles here. Because it’s so much Lou’s film all of the other characters, not just the women, but all of the main characters, only come in quite briefly. Every scene is basically with Lou and one other person and he sort of takes you around to all of these other characters, so none of the other characters get that long into the screen time, but they are obviously really important. You have got to find actors who you can get to understand or get interested in them very quickly. I agree, Jessica and Kate are really great in their parts, but we were also looking at having a great cast all around. So people were able to come and do two or three scenes, but still have an impact; people like Elias [Koteas], Ned Beatty, Bill Pullman, and people like that. I think it’s partly a lot to with writing because a lot of the stuff takes right off from the book, so partly that they are quite meaty scenes. The difficulty was that there was almost too much going on in scenes, rather than too little which helps in a way. It helped to get good actors, but I think also because of Casey. I think people were attracted to the part and also in the scenes… Usually you have a choice between him or Kate or whoever it is and so I think they were all able to work with Casey and get quite a lot out of him as well.
Quint: And also the overall tone of the film I think was struck extremely well. It’s very poetic and unthreatening, which is just like Lou in a way, but when you turn a corner, man you turn a corner.
Michael Winterbottom: (laughs) My idea was to try to keep it as close to the book as possible. Thompson’s style… his storytelling is very quick. You go straight into the story. By page seven or eight, he’s met Joyce. He’s been hit by her, he has hit her, he has sex with her and so the story starts very quickly and in a way you are always catching up a little bit with what’s going on and as with all great writers it’s very simple. It’s very direct in prose, so we just tried to shoot it very clean, simple, and straightforward and hoped that we could catch something in the spirit of the book.
Quint: Yeah and I’m glad that you kept it a period setting too. If this had been through any sort of studio system or any of that kind of thing, they would have wanted a “modern day take on it,” but so much of the tone…
Michael Winterbottom: Part of the attraction of the book for me was that you could film… You keep it as close as possible to the book. I think the setting is great in the book and Thompson’s a great storyteller, so it’s better to be as faithful to his world as possible and often on set if we were talking about what was going on in the scene, if there was a question for me or Casey or someone, we’d just look in the book and quote the book back. “He says here this…” So I have done adaptations where it is tricky, because you are making a film based on a book, but moving away from the book, but in this case I liked the idea that Thompson put down and I was just trying to go copy what he did.
Quint: And there’s something a little bit more… For one, the time period is a little bit more innocent feeling, like just the immediate feeling of that time and it’s also more vulnerable. It’s like with technology we have become more protected and Lou couldn’t get away with half the stuff he could get away with then, just the fact that it was a forty-five minute, an hour drive out to some of these places and everybody was so isolated.
Michael Winterbottom: Yeah, and you get a good soundtrack out of it as well. (laughs) I think also, there’s a sense in which… It’s obviously a pulp book and there are genre conventions as well. This world is rooted in that 50’s Texas world and obviously he knew that world incredibly well, but it’s also a world which makes you think of your own world, about how you behave in the world you are in or how you behave yourself. It’s not just a social document on how this character could only be created by this environment, this society, and a critique about what’s going on in this small town in Texas in the ‘50s. It’s more, I think, like looking at the way in which people behave and people still behave like that. People still fuck up. People still do things which are incredibly self destructive. People still are full of the same desires and frustrations here, so although I like the idea of keeping it as it is in the book, I don’t think it’s specifically a look at a story that happened in ‘50s Texas and could only happen then. It’s much more a story which in a way could apply anywhere. People do the same sort of things that Lou is doing, but in a way it’s a look at what people were doing then. All of the things that people do now, they were doing already then.
Quint: So what are your plans next? What are you moving onto after this?
Michael Winterbottom: Well, we were just messing around doing six conversations with Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon who I did films with a while ago, Tristram Shandy and also 24 Hour Party People. We just did six conversations with them. Then we are hoping to do a film set in Palestine in the 1930s called PROMISE LAND, with Jim Sturgess. It’s about British police chasing the Jewish underground. It’s sort of this police film about them trying to capture a guy called Abraham Stern, one of the leaders of the Jewish underground and Stern trying to blow them up. It’s sort of a thriller.
Quint: That sounds good. Cool man, well I really appreciate you taking the time to talk to me and good luck with the film.
Michael Winterbottom: How is it in Austin?
Quint: How is it? It’s beautiful. It’s been nice and springy. We get like three weeks of spring and then it’s going to go hot and unbearable.
Michael Winterbottom: We originally were hoping to be based in Austin when we were making this film, but we ended up being based in Oklahoma.
Quint: Yeah? I had a friend who worked on it. He’s an Austin guy and he went up to Oklahoma.
Michael Winterbottom: I think most of the crew was from Austin, yeah.
Quint: He’s such a big fan of yours. He’s like “I’m going to go” and then he’s like “Oh my God, I’m in Oklahoma and I have nothing to do except go to the Action Figure Museum” or whatever was around there.
Michael Winterbottom: I apologize for not making it in Texas.
Quint: It’s okay. I’m glad it got made and it looked great, so the locations worked out for you.
Michael Winterbottom: Great, well it’s good to talk to you.
Quint: All right cool, talk to you later man.
Michael Winterbottom: Bye.
Quint: All right, bye.
I really do hope you guys seek out this flick. In such a disappointing summer it’s like a breath of fresh air. Shocking, violent, sure… but also a fantastic thriller and brilliant character study featuring some amazing performances. Currently the film is on IFC’s Video On Demand everywhere and is running theatrically in the bigger cities and expanding this weekend. Check your local listings as the commercials used to say in my day. -Quint quint@aintitcool.com Follow Me On Twitter
