The Thicket Interview: Elliott Lester Talks New Western, Filming in Calgary
ComingSoon Editor-in-Chief Tyler Treese spoke to The Thicket director Elliott Lester about his new Western movie, which stars Peter Dinklage and Juliette Lewis. Lester discussed filming in the freezing cold, the bond with his cast, and getting James Hetfield in the movie. The Thicket will be released in theaters on September 6.
“When fierce bounty hunter Reginald Jones (Peter Dinklage) is recruited by a desperate man to track down a ruthless killer known only as Cutthroat Bill (Juliette Lewis), he rallies a band of unlikely heroes including a grave-digging ex-slave and a street-smart woman-for-hire. Together they embark on a perilous quest to track down Cutthroat Bill that leads them into the deadly ‘no-man’s-land’ known as…The Thicket,” says the synopsis.
Tyler Treese: I have to ask, first off, how did you get James Hetfield of Metallica in this movie? He’s really great in it and he was surprising to see.
Elliott Lester: I had a dream. I woke up the following morning, and I called Peter Dinklage, and I said, “We have to have James Hetfield in this movie.” And he said, “You’re absolutely right. We have to have James Hetfield in this movie.” So I tried to get hold of James through the traditional means, you know, management or whatever. Couldn’t get an answer. But we knew a director who’d made this documentary called Anvil, which was all about heavy metal, and three days later, we were in touch with James Hetfield, and he wanted to do the movie. We had this Zoom call, and uh, he told us how he wanted to do a dark, twisted Western, and this was something he wanted to do.
Another aspect I really love about this film is that it’s shot in Calgary and it gives the film such a unique look, but you can also really feel the cold while watching. Um, I’m sure, I’m sure this was a tough filming experience. What was the biggest challenge?
Was it a challenge? Yeah, it was a challenge. It was so cold, Tyler. Minus 35 degrees, sometimes minus 75 with the wind chill. We got shut down because sometimes it was so cold. On the crew, we were all bundled up with like wonderful sort of warm coats, but that cast, wow. They did not have the luxury of being warm and they truly were the heroes on this one. I can’t even describe it how cold it was, especially at night.
I feel like that’s a bonding experience too because you’re all kind of just suffering together to make art, which is like a beautiful thing.
You get stuck together. It was a bonding experience because every night I would have these dinners at my home with my wife, and the cast would come over. We would eat and just sit around and like literally be like, I can’t believe we got through that day. It was so cold. But we did it. We got through it.
I wanted to ask about working with Peter because not only is he one of the great stars in this film, but he was also a producer. As you mentioned, he was consulted about bringing on James. Can you speak to just collaborating with him? Because we don’t usually get to see him be this hands-on, and it’s great to see his full creativity shown alongside yours.
He’s remarkable to work with as a producer. He’s limitless. It’s always, if I have an idea, let’s try, let’s try, let’s try. He picks up the phone, he makes the calls, he supports decisions. I felt very safe being a director, being able to sort of run ideas past him, and then we would work it out. He’s definitely one of the best producers I’ve worked with. All the way through to the end now, he’s still around. We’ve become friends. I really cherish that relationship,
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