Heather Graham on Starring in Western Movie Gunslingers With Nicolas Cage | Interview
ComingSoon Senior Editor Brandon Schreur spoke to Heather Graham about the new Western thriller movie Gunslingers. Graham discussed working with Nicolas Cage and Stephen Dorff, filming action scenes for the movie, and more.
“When the most wanted man in America surfaces in a small Kentucky town, his violent history — and a blood-thirsty mob seeking vengeance and a king’s ransom — soon follow,” the official synopsis reads. “As brothers face off against one another and bullets tear the town to shreds, this lightning-fast gunslinger makes his enemies pay the ultimate price for their greed. Academy Award Winner Nicolas Cage, Stephen Dorff, and Heather Graham star in an action-packed Western thriller about true justice in the wild west.”
Gunslingers is now available to watch On Demand and through various digital platforms.
Brandon Schreur: To start, I just kind of want to ask you, in general, what was it that drew you to this project, Gunslingers? When you were reading the script for the first time, what about it stood out to you the most and made you want to be part of this movie?
Heather Graham: Randall Batinkoff, who is a friend of mine, is one of the producers and he also acts in the film. He sent it to me, and I’ve always wanted to work with him. Of course, when you hear that Nicolas Cage is in a movie, that’s exciting. And, Stephen Dorff, I’m also a huge fan of Stephen Dorff. I thought my character was fun. I liked that she was a feisty badass in this Western world who is just trying to protect her daughter. And I thought it was really fun, this whole town with all these outlaws and all the interesting characters that live there.
Yeah, I really liked that aspect of this movie, too. Just kind of exploring this town and the wanted people who live there. You mentioned Stephen Dorff, he’s someone I wanted to ask you about. You have a lot of scenes with him. Your character is tied to him for reasons that are revealed later on in the movie. I thought you guys had really good and natural chemistry together. What was it like being scene partners with him and how did you find that connection between the characters?
Of course, as an actress coming up in the business, I’ve watched his work for a long time. I’m a huge fan. Of course, Somewhere, he’s so great in that, and so great in so many things. And, you know, he’s a cute guy. So I was really excited to work with him, I feel like he’s really an artist who really cares. He works really hard. He’s also got that Western, manly, guy vibe, which is kind of perfect to play that sort of Western, strong but silent, ‘Is he good or is he bad?’ kind of hero.
Totally. I’m a huge sucker for movies that take place over the course of just a day or two. While there might not be many flashbacks about how these characters get themselves into this situation, we learn everything we need to know about them based on how they react to the events of the film. I think of something like The Thing or After Hours. I feel like Gunslingers fits in there, too, just because a lot of it is set around this one, big standoff. Going off that, what I’m wondering is if that makes it more difficult for you to get into character. We learn some things about Valerie toward the end, but a lot of this movie takes place over a day. Is it harder to get into character when you’re playing a role like that? Do you ever find yourself writing her history in your head to help you lock in?
Yeah, I definitely do write a history in my head. I have this acting coach named Warner Loughlin, and we come up with a whole backstory, whether it’s in the movie or not. There was one backstory scene in it that I think got cut. But, basically, yeah, I come up with a whole backstory that I make really juicy for myself so that I know it, even if it’s not completely spelled out in the script.
That makes sense, totally. I also want to ask about the Nicolas Cage of it all, who you mentioned. You never fully know what you’re going to get when Nic Cage shows up, and he’s so much fun in this movie. I couldn’t take my eyes off of him. What was it like working with him and what kind of vibe did he bring to the set?
I love that he’s so brave and bold. He’s so creative. It’s just really fun — I mean, I only really have one scene with him — but it’s just exciting to look into his eyes. I mean, look, I can think of every movie I’ve watched that Nicolas Cage has been in that I loved. Raising Arizona. Or whatever the Cher movie was called again.
Moonstruck? Yeah.
Yeah, Moonstruck. Or Wild at Heart. It’s just pretty cool to be with this iconic person — Adaptation — who is someone you grew up thinking that you want to be an actor from watching their stuff. So, it was really cool to get to be in a movie with him.
Oh, yeah, I’m sure. There’s a scene that happens pretty early on in this movie that I wanted to ask you about. It’s right when you come to this town or Redemption, you go up to your hotel room, you tell your character’s daughter to turn away, and then you dig a bullet out of your leg with a knife. That was the moment that made me squirm. Can you tell me about filming that scene and how you went about making it look so real?
Well, you know, we had the cast of a fake leg that I just put over my leg. But it’s really interesting because, basically, my character, I just really wanted to get away from my husband, because he’s really abusive and I feel like my daughter’s life is in danger. So, I pretty much was willing to risk my life to get away and to try and find Stephen Dorff’s character. So I’m trying to keep it together for my daughter so she doesn’t get scared. And I did like having that scene because it’s kind of like that badass Western scene. In real life, me, I’d probably faint. But in that movie, or in that story, you need to survive. You’ve got your kid there and you have to do whatever you can to survive. I think my character is really resourceful — like, I don’t know if I’d know how to perform surgery on my own leg, but she figured it out.
Gunslingers isn’t the first Western that you’ve starred in. I know you were also just recently in the Place of Bones movie. I’m wondering if this is a genre that you’re specifically interested in. Is this something you want to keep doing more of? Whenever you are in a Western, are there any classics you find yourself going back to and rewatching to get into the right mindset?
I mean, I think it all goes back to the script. I’m happy to be in any movie if I think the script is good and interesting. Of course, Westerns are such a classic genre. Usually, life doesn’t fare so well for women in Westerns. So, it was fun to do Place of Bones, where it was a female-driven story. But, yeah, I’ll take an opportunity to work with talented people, be it a Western. It is fun to learn about what life was like and do all that research.
Sure. And I’m sure from a production standpoint, it’s probably fun, too, because the set looked cool, and all of the costumes and everything. It looked like a lot of fun just to be part of this project.
I think that every guy wishes they could be in a Western. I just think that, like, every male actor, they just love Westerns. So it’s fun! I feel like men love Westerns and it’s fun to work on something that you know that is going to be loved so much.
Totally. I also wanted to ask about the action in this movie. There’s so much of it — once it starts, it really doesn’t stop. I have to imagine that there’s a lot that was involved when it comes to staging the choreography. And I know a lot of that is between the Stephen Dorff and the Jeremy Kent Jackson characters, but were there any action scenes you were involved in that were especially difficult where you had to move around a bunch? Were you ever doing your own stunts for this or anything?
I was in the stagecoach, when that started taking off, and that was kind of fun. And I had a gun that I got to pull out. We were hiding behind the tables during the shoot-out. I didn’t have as much action, though I did just do a movie called They Will Kill You where I got to do a bunch of fight scenes and work with stunt people. That was really fun.
They Will Kill You was actually what I was going to ask you about next. I know that you’re going to be in that with Zazie Beetz. There was an article that described it as a mix between Ready or Not and The Raid — immediately I was like, ‘Yup, I’m in, that’s entirely my thing.’ I know there are probably some things you can’t say about the movie, but is there anything you can tease about They Will Kill You?
There’s a lot of action. There’s also a certain kind of sense of humor to it, while also still being scary. And, you know, Zazie is quite a badass. But I am too!
Thanks to Heather Graham for discussing Gunslingers.
Source: Comingsoon.net