Featuring a tour de force performance by Matt Damon, Stillwater follows the story of an Oklahoma man confronted with cultural differences and language barriers in a new country. The film, written and directed by Tom McCarthy, follows Damon’s character Bill as he moves to France to try to help his estranged daughter beat a murder charge. The film arrives in theaters on July 30.
Damon spoke to Screen Rant about what drew him to the role and the research he underwent to take it on.
Screen Rant: We really don't see films like Stillwater in theaters anymore, and you really disappear into the character of Bill Baker. What was it about the project that really caught your attention? I'm sure that Tom McCarthy helped you jump on a project like this.
Matt Damon: Yeah, definitely. Tom would be the first thing on the list, I'd say. But the screenplay was beautiful. I thought it was just heartbreaking, and I'd never played a guy like this.
It was a very specific thing this kind of roughneck culture down in Oklahoma and Texas. And thankfully, we had some guys that we could go to down there who really gave us incredible access and really helped us build the character.
You and Tom spent a little time in Oklahoma. Can you talk to me about hanging out with the locals and how that helped inform the character of Bill Baker?
Matt Damon: Totally. At first, I think they were kind of wary of us - and for good reason. "What are your intentions? You're making a movie about a roughneck? What are you all doing down here?" Because I think these are the kind of guys that Hollywood would look down their nose at, or the cultural elite might look down their nose at and stereotype in a movie.
I think once they realized what we were doing, and that this was a movie that had tremendous compassion and empathy for Bill's character, they really wanted us to help us get it right. Everything about the guy comes from them. It's a very specific look: the jeans look like they do because they have fire-retardant on them, you know what I mean?
Every single thing has a reason for being the way it is. And if I showed you my phone, I could show you pictures of 15 or 20 guys that look exactly like your friends from Enid, Oklahoma. It's a look.
Abigail Breslin plays your daughter in this film. Can you talk to me about the strained relationship we see between Bill and his daughter, Allison (played by Abigail Breslin)?
Matt Damon: Yeah. What happens a lot with these roughnecks - what can happen - is because they take this job out of high school and they go to the oil fields. When the fields are up, they're gonna make a lot of money. They've got a lot of cash in their pocket and they're 19 years old and it can lead them down a certain path.
Our backstory for Bill is that he lost a number of years to addiction and fast living and had this daughter when he was young. But was kind of an absentee dad, and so he carries all this guilt and regret and shame around his failings as a father. So when his daughter is in prison now in her mid-20s he has this impulse to try to help.
She tells him she has new evidence, and he wants to help, but he doesn't know anything about the justice system. He doesn't have any of the skills that he would need to help, but he wants to try to help anyway.
Bill does kind of get to be the dad he always wanted to be with Maya, who's played amazingly by Lilou Siauvaud. She blew me away with her performance.
Matt Damon: She's amazing. The first day she worked, we were just like, "Alright, we have lightning in a bottle. How do we keep this fun for her?" Tom and I sat down, and we just went, "This is ours to mess up at this point."
I've seen it happen with kid actors - what can happen is an aunt or an uncle comes in and is like, "You should do your happy face." Know what I mean? The kid starts getting notes from everywhere and is like, "What's going on?" And we were like, "We've got to just treat this like she's throwing a no-hitter." Get everybody away from her in the dugout. Let's make sure we just keep this really fun for her and joyful because she's naturally going to do what she's going to do.
from ScreenRant - Feed https://ift.tt/37bfNVS
Reviewed by Riyad
on
July 30, 2021
Rating:
No comments: