How Lena Headey’s New Action Movie Ballistic Subverts John Wick Expectations | Interview
ComingSoon editor-in-chief Tyler Treese spoke with Ballistic director Chad Faust about his new revenge action movie starring Lena Headey. Faust discussed his transition from acting to directing, changing the script to fit Headey, and subverting expectations from action films like John Wick. Brainstorm Media releases Ballistic in select theaters and on demand starting today.
“When a soldier’s mother (Lena Headey) discovers the bullet that killed her son in Afghanistan was made at the factory where she works, she sets out on a path of revenge against those responsible,” says the synopsis.
Tyler Treese: Ballistic feels very timely. What inspired you to write the film?
Chad Faust: Yeah, I think it was about 13 years ago. I was in an office waiting room, and I read a stat that 30% of the lead that came back in American soldiers was American-made. Some people think that’s just a very obvious statistic. Of course, that goes on. In fact, it’s actually probably quite a bit higher than that. The military consultants that I worked with said there’s a street in the city of Kabul where you can just go buy anything you want, American-made, as far as ammunition, weaponry, artillery, everything. So, the number could be quite higher.
I wanted to find a way to personalize that story rather than politicize it, because I don’t think it’s actually a partisan issue. I think it’s a human issue. Not that I’m even saying that this shouldn’t be the case. It’s just saying that what happens when you put things out into the world, and they come back, you know? I think that, that, that does sort of put a bit of a culpability on our shoulders and hopefully makes us at least a little bit more aware of what we’re putting out into the world. Even as me putting a film out into the world, I wanna feel like I’m responsible for the effect of it.
This is gonna generate some really positive conversation, I feel. I spoke with Lena earlier today, and she said that originally the script was about a father. How was it changing it to a mother, and what layers do you think that change added to the story?
Yeah, I had probably developed the story for about 10 years with it being a father. I was raised by my own dad, and I wanted to make an homage to him and the sacrifices he made to raise me. Then once I started talking to Lena about it, she says, ” Well, what if it’s a mom? Dude, what if it’s me?” I was like, “Oh, you’re right. That’s gotta be you.” Ever since then, it just was just such an obvious choice, and it was meant to be her. From there on, the film just kind of naturally unraveled in the best way to be what it is.
Tyler Treese: You mentioned the lengthy production cycle that this took. Recently, we’ve seen so many John Wick-like action movies that while watching this, I almost felt like it was gonna snap into that mode. As the movie continues, you really start fearing that it will go that way because you don’t want to see her continue to unravel. Was that anything that you had on your mind that you wanted to play with? I just thought it was interesting in response to a lot of the action movies we see that take glee in that sort of action, that here you’re dreading it by the end.
Chad Faust: I think that you nailed it. That’s exactly what I was trying to do. I wanted to play on that part of us that wants that vengeance. I just watched Monkey Man, which I think is a brilliantly directed film by Dev Patel. At the same time, I’m like, “Gosh, do we really wanna be glorifying vengeance all the time?” Because you see it all the time. There is something satisfying about that, and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with like, portraying that, but I wanted to play on the very essence of what that invokes with us and actually show how destructive that can be. There’s no like riding into the sunset after you kill all the people that hurt you. Actually, you now have to reckon with your own response, you know?
I think there’s this sense right now in our public discourse that we are the prosecutor and judge of the courtroom. I think we actually would be better if we maybe looked at ourselves as the defendant and looked within our own hearts about what’s going on with us and what we need to reckon with. This, of course, sets the story up to be that way, just by the fact that she was culpable. Other films, I think, usually make the main character a bit more innocent of what went on. But hopefully, it at least creates a bit of a discussion about what justice could look like.
I was really impressed by Lena’s portrayal of grief. There are these really rough scenes right after she learns her son has passed away, where she’s in the bathroom, and she’s screaming and crying, and it’s just so raw. How was it working with Lena to get that out of her?
I didn’t have to do anything to get it out of her. It was in there, and she knew it was the place to arrive. I think that scene in the bathtub was day one, if not shot one. I think it was like one of the very first things we shot was that darn bathroom. I remember thinking like, “Wow, sorry, Lena, we’re kind of throwing this on you right up the start.” She’s like, “No, dude, it’s fine. Don’t worry about it.” And that just set the tone. I think everyone went, “Oh, okay. Cool. We’re making something good. We’re doing something real here,” and woke everybody up. Okay, this is, we’re not just here to mess around. We’re here to lay down a cold, hard truth.
This is your second full-length feature after Girl. What were the biggest lessons you learned on your debut that you’re able to implement on Ballistic?
I think a lot of first-time directors, this was the case for me, have no sense of how much preparation you need. I think there’s this sense of, I got a good sense of what this scene’s about. Once we’re on set, I’ll kind of find it. I think some people work well that way. I discovered that I needed to really design the film in advance, which means you have to have those locations early, which is hard on a budget level like this. You’re constantly having to make pivots, and you’re like, “Wow, this whole design I had doesn’t work anymore because we lost that location, and now we’re doing this over here.”
So, I think the biggest thing I learned of all was… I think I did this on both films where once I understand where my main actor is going emotionally, that’s how I just bend everything around that psychology. I shoot that psychology, I visualize it. So, I’m constantly kind of feeling where they’re at. Sometimes, if I see in the rehearsal that, like with Lena it’s going somewhere a little bit differently, I might start adjusting the shots to mirror that and express that through the camera.
Do you feel like that inclination that has a director comes from you having experience as an actor yourself? Because that seems like a very actor-first approach.
It is. It’s like a subjective lens. I think some directors might take a more objective positioning and try to step back and watch it from afar, like a play. For me, I want to be in the heartbeat of my actors, you know? I want to kind of be breathing with them, if you will. It is just natural from the training of being an actor for 25 years. It just sort of was sitting there for me.
Tyler Treese: What’s been the biggest thing getting used to you from going in front of the camera to behind the camera?
Chad Faust: Hmm, interesting question. I think it’s a mindset because, as an actor, there’s a bit of a carefree nature to what you’re doing. You have to kind of stay loose. You’re in a bit of like a yogic mindset all the time as an actor because you have to stay almost like a child. You have to be playful and loose. As a director, you just have such a responsibility that it’s very hard to stay that loose. Creatively, you want to stay in that same mindset, but it’s a lot more challenging to do. So, I think it’s one of the reasons I put myself in my films. Because it forces me to keep that part of myself more alive. I think that allows me to feel like I’m a better director when I have to be in front of the camera as well.
I love the scenes with Lena and Hamza Haq. Can you speak to working with Hamza and the relationship between those characters? Because that really adds another layer to the film, and it’s kind of the soul of the story as it progresses.
I cast Hamza after watching one Instagram video where he was speaking to, as he put it, the brown children of the world. He was speaking to them after I think something had happened in Palestine. He was right from the heart, trying to address these kids who may have a hard time understanding what was going on in the world. I was like, “That’s the guy. I don’t need to see his reel.” I did watch his reel, but I’d already made a choice that he’s the guy. He’s such a talented man.
Again, I bent the whole character to where I felt he was coming from as well. I had originally written Hamza’s character, Kahlil, as being much older. About 20 years older than Hamza was, but Hamza just had the soul of a 55-year-old man. So I was like, I’m just gonna make it work. It actually made more sense that he would have a, have had a younger child, and that his loss would’ve been more recent, whereas before it had been something he had kind of healed, and it’s like, “Oh, it’s gonna be a lot more raw for him still.” It was casting him that really brought life into that character. I always liked how I wrote him, but there was a bit of a license taken because I’m not from that part of the world, and I haven’t had the experiences that character has had. Once Hamza stepped in, I was like, “Dude, this is yours. Just make it real and true.”
Thanks to Chad Faust for taking the time to talk about Ballistic.
Source: Comingsoon.net