Americana - Full Cast Interviews feat. Sydney Sweeney, Halsey and Paul Walter Hauser Americana is a 2023 American crime thriller film written and directed by Tony Tost in his film debut. It stars Sydney Sweeney, Paul Walter Hauser, Halsey, Eric Dane, Zahn McClarnon, and Simon Rex.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
So Roy, you know, I would actually like to say
he fancies himself a modern day cowboy, but really he's
not a cowboy. He's more of a city slicker who
is in this western world or this you know, South
Dakota cowboy world. But really he's more of a businessman
and a hustler. So I think he fancies himself more
(00:21):
of a cowboy, and he came from the big city
and is living in this Western themed world in dealing
with you know, artifacts, and he's really just trying to
make a buck. So he thinks he's a cowboy more
than he really is, and he dresses the part, but
really he's not. He's a city guy. So that's kind
(00:43):
of fun to play. It's about greed, money, you know,
the American dream, trying to make a buck, trying to
you know, just sort of hustle and and I feel
like everybody in this story is all trying to have
their come up, and it's a matter of who's going
(01:06):
to get it. Tony's very clear about what he wants,
which is good. I like that when a director knows
what they want and doesn't leave too much up to
the actor. He does allow me to improve a little bit,
but when I go too far off the script, he'll
steer me back to where it needs to be. It's
a badass movie, kind of like a modern Cowboys and
Indians but not really, but in that world. I mean,
(01:27):
look at the outfits the cast, I mean, you know,
from Sydney Sweeney to Paul Pauser to Eric Dane, just
an amazing cast and the world.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
I mean.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
Look for me, as a movie fan, I want to
be transported to another world for two hours or ninety
minutes or however long the move, whatever movie length it is.
And that's what this movie feels like to me, even
in reading it. You're transported to this South Dakota world
filled with the Lakota tribe and these shape characters in town,
(02:01):
and it's like a fun, badass movie that it's gonna
have a kick ass soundtrack and look beautiful, and it's
a kind of movie that I know i'd want to
watch and ivery, you know, work on a film. It's
kind of like summer camp.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
I always say.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
It's like you basically go to camp with everyone for
a month, you form these really deep bonds, and then
it's over. So it's always sort of a bittersweet thing.
Because you know that it's a finite amount of time
you have with everybody. But in the past, for me
working on films, you've formed some amazing friendships and relationships.
So every time it's a different learning experience getting to
(02:37):
work with cool, different new people, and so far my
experience on this one has been that it's a very nice,
tight run ship with really cool people.
Speaker 4 (02:47):
What really appealed to me about the script was, you know,
the native aspect, the traditions, returning those relics, those artifacts
to the Native people, you know, in a respectful manner,
but also highlighting that you know, there's there's always a
balance and an angel and demon on each side, you know,
the good and the bad. So I play Hank Spears
in this in this film, and what really really appealed
(03:09):
to me about Hank was his demeanor, his I guess
how some Native man. It shows there's balance, you know,
the reds Dogs is out there, and there's a lot
of comedy and humor, and there there is that with
the Native community, which you know, I don't think is seen.
But then there's also the stone face, the stoic Indian,
(03:31):
the guy that doesn't think anything's funny and not everything's
a joke, and I think that's that's kind.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
Of who I am.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
To me.
Speaker 4 (03:37):
Zohn's one of the legends and icons in the Native community.
You know, he's done a lot for the people, and
I've just been really, really lucky and blessed to, you know,
to try to be a sponge around him, try to
absorb as much knowledge from him as I possibly can.
You know, any second I can get with that guy,
I'm on it. So I could ride a horse before
I could walk. And I was excited when I found out.
(04:00):
You know, I'm gonna be on the horror for this
so and cal is gonna be with me. So I'm
really looking forward to that, and I think, uh, we're
definitely gonna have some fun. There's gonna be a bunch
of characters just coming together and they're all gonna collide
and it's gonna be the big explosion. And it's it's
super exciting, you know, like to see these different different people,
(04:23):
different auras, different energies, different personalities, uh, and different motives
all coming together and they're gonna clash and it's gonna
be it's gonna be an explosion.
Speaker 5 (04:33):
When I read it, I thought, Wow, this is this
is so poetic, this story, the dialogue was so poetic.
Tony's such a terrific writer, and I felt like, you know,
I got I really got the feeling that it was
somewhat of a cross between true romance and No Country
for Old Men, and that's a good company to be in.
(04:56):
But the story was so compelling. H So it wasn't
a hard sell for me. I played Dylan Macintosh and
what appealed to me about Dylan is, you know it
face value, he's the bad guy, but if you look
a little deeper, he's not so much of a bad guy.
I mean, he's a murderer, scoundrel, but you know, he
(05:18):
has some good qualities. I think he's a victim of
circumstance and just desperate. Hall's he's great. This is her
first film. She's doing a terrific job. I like her
as an actress. Sidney and I are pretty tight, and
she's just a super talented pro super precocious. Gavin's fantastic.
(05:41):
He's got such a strong presence for somebody who's twelve
years old to have that is also something that's somewhat rare.
Paul walter Hauser is hilarious and I'm proud to call
him a friend. Tony Toast is I think an inventive director.
He's a visual filmmaker. He's obviously a fantastic writer, but
(06:07):
he's well versed in cinema and uses the camera a
lot to tell the story. Bang Up, heist flick. That's
a cross between true romance and No Country for Old Men,
And at the center of the project is an invaluable
artifact that everybody wants and people will do whatever they
need to do to get it. Westerns are are part
(06:30):
of the DNA of Hollywood and cinema. Some of the
greatest cinematic efforts were from the Western world.
Speaker 6 (06:40):
What appealed to me the most was Tony's sensibility is
tone to the script. It brought back a lot of
memories of films that I grew up with back in
the seventies and just had a nice Midwestern kind of
(07:03):
grit to it along with some danger. It just reminded
me of the old school films like bad Lands and
No Country for Old Men and films like that. So
I played the character ghost Die and Ghost Die what
appealed to me was, you know, he was kind of
(07:25):
based on some of the heroes that I grew up
with within my culture. Russell means Dennis Banks. He's the
leader of a social movement called the Red Thunder Society,
which basically is protecting his culture and pressing on social
(07:46):
issues that are that are facing his people. So what
appealed to me was, you know, I based it on
those heroes that I had growing up, which was, you know,
people of the American Indian Movement. So it was it
was a pleasure to see that Tony wrote about some
of those those heroes that I am.
Speaker 7 (08:07):
I kind of had the image of cal walking around
wanting to go from one world into the Lakota world
in my head for a while, like a year. I
didn't know what to do with it. Cal Is is
oddly autobiographical. I share some similarities with him growing up
(08:28):
in a trailer uh, kind of in rural America. I
grew up next to the Muncashooet Indian Reservation and grew
up watching Western so there's elements there, and so it
kind of started in that place and trying to figure
out a story for him and wanting to kind of,
I don't know, look at the Western and the heritage
(08:50):
of the American West, so I kind of wanted to
do a Western where we gradually realized that the white
dudes aren't necessarily the star of the show. In a way,
it's the women, the children, and the Lakota characters that
are really kind of our focus. But have that emerged gradually.
I wanted to work was on mclarnin again, who plays
ghost I because I wrote for him, worked with him
(09:12):
on Mommere and he's just one of my favorite actors
and I was just kind of desperate to work with
him again. Some of my influences are obviously, you know,
Tarantino and the Cohen Brothers and Martin mcbenna and lots
of seventies films, but that's kind of those are kind
of inspirations, but there wasn't like one exact film that
I was trying to, like do my version of. It's
(09:32):
a little bit of a Medley, I guess in a way.
I was wanting to do an old school ensemble film,
you know, like Robert Altman's films in the seventies. Are
also a director who I love, I named Michael Ritchie,
who did like The Bad News Bears, which is my
favorite movie. Ever, this is not like Bad News Bears,
but did like a movie called Smile, which is about
small town California around a beauty pageant and it's an
(09:52):
ensemble film. And then like you know, nineties has some
great ensemble films, like from Paul Thomas Anderson and stuff.
So these were all the kind of pictures that got
me real excited about films. I kind of wanted to
return in my first film to the kind of films
that made me really excited about cinema. And yeah, so
(10:12):
like the seventies ensemble films, in the nineties ensemble films
were on play.
Speaker 8 (10:19):
I would say Americana is a neo Western crime thriller
about a young boy who believes himself to be the
reincarnation of Sitting Bowl, and between him and a cast
of local characters around him, everyone is after this really
prestigious Native American artifact, a Lakota ghost shirt, and the
(10:43):
movie is an unfolding of all of those parties trying
to get the ghost shirt. What's really fun about casting
a movie like this is there were so many roles.
Because of Tony's writing, each of the roles was character
driven and really specific. I think we were the first
movie to cast it Sweeney after White Lotus. You know,
we both saw the show and I called Tony and
(11:04):
I said, you got to watch the show. I think
I think this is our Penny Joe. Paul Walter Houser
is someone that I had been dying to work with
for literally years. I don't think he is who you
would have expected to see on the page. I really
love unexpected casting choices. Somebody that you don't believe, wouldn't
believe to be in the world, or you wouldn't believe
(11:26):
to be in this set of circumstances. And so after that,
you know, we did a search for cal for the Boy,
and it was amazing that we found Gavin pure stroke
of luck. And then the rest of the cast. You know,
Simon Rex I had worked with on on Red Rocket,
and then again similarly, Eric Dane and Toby Husk. These
were all sort of actors that Tony and I even
(11:50):
Harriet sans Hoom Harris, you know, we had seen her
in that one scene in Licorice Pizza and we're like,
we have to have her to play Sydney's Moms. It
was sort of a compilation of people that we had
seen and remembered really sort of specifically from other work
and agreed on wanting to put in the movie. The
movie takes place in North Dakota, and we shot it
in Albuquerque, New Mexico. But it was really important for
(12:13):
Tony for it to feel like it was taking place
in the middle of the country somewhere, and I think
he achieved that, and he really wanted to make something
that audiences outside of just New York and LA could
really see themselves in A tagline of the movie now
is like welcome to the New West, And so I
think there is there is sort of a bit of
(12:34):
of a cultural capitalist commentary that is an undertone of
the film, frankly, how we've robbed the indigenous of what
was theirs. But I think at the core the movie
really is about people and connections and the importance of
those connections. What I really hope people will take from
(12:54):
Americana is well, I hope they just have a good time.
It is a fun ride, and I think I think
that is in short supply for movies, especially in theaters nowadays.
The emotional connections of the movie, they're really profound, and
I think people will be reminded of the importance of
real family and community and how incredible it is to
(13:17):
make a connection with a stranger. But at the same time,
I think they're gonna laugh, and I think they're gonna
have a lot of fun and sort of be gripping
their seats at certain points, And for me that ride,
I'm excited for people to enjoy it.
Speaker 3 (13:31):
This movie reminds me of a lot of movies I love,
like pulp fiction or Fargo, and so when I read
the screenplay, I thought, well, this is just like the
next iteration of those types of movies that are equal
parts gruesome and heartfelt and have these kind of quirky, interesting,
(13:55):
memorable ensemble casts that I would get to be a
part of. It's a story of thematic elements, ranging from
the desire to not be alone, to the desire of
having or understanding family, to the desire of wanting to
make your dreams come true and maybe doing something really
(14:17):
unethical to get your dreams and your desires met. It's
really a film about thematic elements. I don't see it
as a natural arc of story. It's all these multiple
stories that are colliding and kind of equal parts, serving
one another and getting in each other's way as we
see throughout the messy interactions of all these characters. Lefty
(14:41):
Ledbetter is a really sweet guy who has a lot
to give and wants to give that to a woman
or a family or something. But I think he's like
most people, probably a victim of so social awkwardness, a
(15:01):
victim of maybe not fitting in in the era he
was born and and sort of is destined to become
this kind of sweet old man who's alone on that journey.
When I play him, he runs into Penny Joe Poplin
played by Sidney Sweeney, and thus sparks the real moment
(15:25):
for him to actually have a chance at happiness and
to advance beyond the cold, lonely confines of his life.
I like all these actors everything I've seen them in.
Halsey obviously I hadn't seen in a film, but working
with her has just been incredible. She's like, you know,
I think of Mary Steinbergen when she did Going South
(15:48):
with Jack Nicholson. You know, it was her first film
and she went to to toe with Jack. That's what
Halsey reminds me of. Somebody who is very undeterred and unafraid,
and if she is, she hides it well. Because she's
doing a tremendous job. Sidney Sweeney is a dream dance
partner when it comes to acting. She's so much more
(16:09):
confident than I am and so assured of herself in
such a healthy manner. And she's one of those actors that,
because she's younger than me, I want to like give
her advice until she starts talking and I realize I'm
probably gonna be asking advice. So that's been very humbling,
but fun and wonderful. And yeah, I love Eric Dane
and Simon Rex, and I've been a fan of people
(16:31):
like Zohn and Toby Haas for years, So this is
the kind of cast that I would get excited to watch,
so to be in it is really cool. I would
describe this movie as this is like a fun, memorable
sort of scene eating movie that has all these memorable,
distinct characters played by actors who are having really great moments,
(16:56):
like Eric Dane with Euphoriaan Sydney with everything she's doing,
and Halls each transitioning to acting me and Simon Rex
having a red rocket to Richard Jewell. It's like all
these actors are coming together in a really unique moment
in their careers, and the fact that we have a
screenplay with the prowess and creativity of Tony Toast's words,
like you're not gonna want to miss this thing. I
(17:17):
don't think there's so much I could say about Tony
Toast as a dude and as a director, but like,
and all of it good, But just the takeaways I
have from working with Tony have been like, he knows
what he wants in a really healthy way. It isn't
like a dictator. It's just like this really creative mind
(17:38):
that you respect well enough to you know, see it
through to the end, to really ignore your own desires
and say, what does Tony want for the world he's created.
I compare Tony's directing style to the confidence I had
working with Clint Eastwood and how Eastwood just kind of
(17:58):
has an easy way of going about There's no shouting,
there's just a lot of like whispering and touches on
the shoulder. Tony has a gentle approach the way Eastwood does,
and Tony has the confidence and sense of fun that
like Spike Lee and Craig Glassie have, So you know,
for me, it's like a dream director who lets you
do your thing and trusts you, but also knows exactly
(18:21):
what they want, what they've preordained.
Speaker 9 (18:23):
I grew up in a trailer kind of like Cal's trailer.
I had a mom a little bit like Cal's mom,
traumatized teenage single mother. I was kind of a weird
loner kid, watched a lot of Westerns. I was just
drawn to this little, you know, violent scenario that had
some autobiographical juice to it, and then I just kind
of start Then the rest of the story kind of emerged
(18:45):
with me trying to make a bigger story in which
that kind of made sense, and so that was really
kind of the seed, and then I just kind of
started populating this world with other characters, some drawn from
my life, some inspired by Western archetypes that I was
wanting to update, and then it just kind of took
on a life of its own. I grew up in
rural Washington State, kind of at the base of Mount
(19:06):
right near an abandoned mining town and a couple hundred people,
and very close to the Mucleshut Indian Reservation. So I
think that that border space that that's kind of evocative
of old Westerns, but it's in the modern world. It's
just something I'm drawn to. I've worked on a TV
show called Long Miner for five seasons that's kind of
set in a similar environment, and then I returned to it,
(19:29):
returned to it here, and yeah, I just find that
that that implicit culture clash there, and then just the
mythology of the West and and and the history of
the West in the modern world. There's just a lot
there to mine and and so that's definitely something I
drew upon. In essence, a priceless Native American artifact called
(19:53):
ghost shirt has fallen into the black market, and when
when it's stolen, it creates chain reaction where, you know,
like a dozen different people are now all in pursuit
of this priceless artifact, and they all kind of converge
into a kind of a showdown over who is gonna,
you know, who's gonna get ownership of it. I'll describe
(20:16):
it as a country crime film that turns into a
weird Western. None of these characters are quite one hundred
percent at home where they are, and they're trying to
locate their proper role in this you know, in this
version of the West that that in some ways resembles
the mythic cultural West and the historical West, but now
(20:38):
is very different now, and so that's probably the commonality
between all these characters, I mean overall in terms of
the cast, and I think that's the best thing about
the movie is the is the cast and the performances
as these characters. If you're gonna, you know, take the
time to watch the movie, I think that's the big appeal.
Like Sydney swinging a new role, or Sea Halsey carry
a pretty substantial role in this movie, or Paul Walter
(21:00):
Houser in a way you haven't quite seen them. I
wanted to make a movie from blue collar America that
where the primary audience is kind of like working people
of any stripe, like the ideal audience for me as
someone who just got off their shift, you know, either
goes to the movie theater or comes home, opens up
a beer like I've heard. This movie is kind of entertaining,
(21:22):
strange and puts it on and just and it speaks.
It has characters that you could see in small town America.
It doesn't look down on blue collar small town life.
It's just an entertaining, kind of wild story told in
that world. I think people can expect kind of an
old school movie, like it's it's got a really cool cast.
(21:44):
You don't really know what's going to happen next. It's
a whole bunch, hopefully, a whole bunch of characters that
you're intrigued by, that you care about, that you have
feelings for, that are entertaining. It's a movie where you
can really cheer for unexpected out comes and you can
kind of also, Yeah, I think it evokes emotions. It's
(22:06):
funny in a weird way. And and yeah, it's just
like a like an like an old school movie, you know,
but put some fresh twists on it.
Speaker 10 (22:17):
Tony Toast contacted me. I've worked with him before on Longmire,
so he contacted me wanted my advice on the Native
stuff that he wanted to put in the show. So
he got hold me early while he's writing the script,
and that's how I got involved with him. Well, it's
important to accurately just show our native culture, not how
(22:38):
it used to be, where it was just the white
man showing what they thought Native culture was. Rather, it's
more important to bring in Native consultants and show how
we are actually and our culture because we're beautiful people.
We have a beautiful culture and we're very artistic. That's
within our it's just an within us are artistic people,
(23:02):
and so I'm really grateful that Tony's open to that
from the beginning, from visiting with him on the script,
from the beginnings, open to making sure that he wanted
to get it right. And it's kind of a theme
now a lot in filmmaking major motion pictures, Talvin shows,
they're looking to Native consultants and bringing them in to
(23:27):
make sure that we portray our people the correct way,
appropriate way. There's a big movement going on in the
country right now and there are more and more Native
youth that are getting into professional production. I think with
social media like Facebook, TikTok, those type of things, there's
(23:48):
a lot that are becoming content creators. So it's important
for me even to do workshops and seminars for youth
that are getting into production want become more professional content creators.
Because we have a culture that is beautiful and it's
still strong and it's getting stronger all the time, and
(24:08):
to portray that in the correct and appropriate way is
it's important to me in a time when there was
a systematic attempt of genocide for our people. This ghost
Dance religion was a way of bringing hope back to
the people and knowing that we'll still hold on to
our traditions and our culture. And because of that, the
(24:29):
United States government and the cavalry came in and wiped
them out. But I for me, I see it as
those prayers that they said, they weren't said in vain.
Our prayers don't get answered right away. You know, it's
been approximately seven generations since that ghost Dance was wiped out,
(24:50):
but it's come back. That's the way that I see it.
You know, that ghost Dance shirt is here, it's in
this film, and what it represents is those prayer that
way a life is still here among us and so
that our children, our grandchildren can still hold onto those
beautiful cultural ways that teach our values and our principles
(25:12):
that we can live by loving our family, taking care
of ourselves holistically, physically, emotionally, mentally, as well as spiritually,
just live in a good, solid, holistic life and contemporary
society and still hold on to those values. There are
more and more young Natives that are getting into professional
(25:34):
production and anytime that consultants are active people that are
working in the industry can encourage them the better because
the more we have of our own people that know
about these values and principles and want to continue them
on to inspire and to encourage others. This production can
(25:57):
be a way of life. It can be a career
for them where they can try, they meet amazing people
like our crew. I mean, everybody's amazing. They're all and
they all work together.
Speaker 5 (26:07):
You know.
Speaker 10 (26:08):
A production to me can be a microcosm to how
a community can be, where everybody has their place, everybody
can work together, and when they accomplish that, they can
look back and say, yeah, that's amazing. That's something we
made right there. It's a tangible, something tangible there that
we can look back and be proud of.
Speaker 2 (26:25):
Two years ago, I got sent a script. It was
the most phenomenal script I'd ever read in my life.
I had really been wanting to start acting, but I
hadn't found the correct project that I thought. You know,
we'd be the best one to jump into. The character
I related to the most was Mandy, so I was
super delighted to find out that Mandy was exactly the
character that Tony, the writer and director had in mind
(26:46):
for me. When I started talking to him, I said,
I've never acted before. Don't you want me to audition?
Aren't you nervous? I'm going to be terrible and I'm
gonna suck. What if everyone this whole thing? And he
was like, no, I have faith in you. It's going
to be awesome. So I was the first actor attached
to the movie, and I was so nervous and so
(27:07):
excited to see how the cast is going to develop
who I was going to be acting with. Mandy's a
really complex character, which is something I really like about her.
You know, through the process of kind of figuring out
who she is, I went through a lot of ideas,
you know, is she a villain? Is she not a villain?
Is she a victim? Is she not a victim? You know,
she grew up in a place that had very little
(27:28):
hope for someone like her. She lives under this protective mass.
My son is seven months old and he's here on
set with me, and so I learned how to connect
with Mandy in a way that I didn't even think
was possible when I had initially read the script. So
it's very full circle. Sidney's one of my best friends
(27:49):
in real life. We've worked together before. She acted in
my music video for one of my song's Graveyard a
couple of years ago. That was the first time that
we hung out. We found we were mutual fans of
each other. She was a fan of my music. I
was a fan of her work. It's really awesome to
be friends with someone that you're a fan of, and
it's even better to get to work with that person.
She's so sweet, she's so professional. She was so awesome
(28:10):
and gracious to me. I asked her a lot of
questions about acting since this was my first movie, and
she answered all of them and you know, really helped
me feel more calm. But also as a friend and
as a fan, it was awesome to watch her in
action and to be like, you know, this is why
I love you. You're so good at this, and it
was It was really cool to see him be a
part of Gavin is first of all, just a star.
(28:32):
He is like so intelligent and kind and wise and special,
and I felt like I fell in love with him
right away, which made it a lot easier for me
as Mandy, you know, to feel emotionally compelled toward towards
cal because I was towards Gavin every single day.
Speaker 9 (28:50):
You know.
Speaker 2 (28:51):
I remember when I first reheard so I said to him.
I was like, listen, man, you're the pro. You've done
this a million times. I've never done this before. I
was like, and cal is kind of you know, he's
kind of got to be this strong one and the
mature one because Mandy's a little immature, and you know,
I was like, that's kind of what it's like in
real life. You're the boss and you have to show
me what to do. Paul is incredible. He is so funny,
(29:11):
so smart, so so knowledgeable. He had so much to
teach me, and he is so hilarious. Our babies hung
out together on set, which was really cool. So now
they're going to be friends for life. I would love
the chance to work with him again because I just
think he's spectacularly talented and just like truly one of kind.
(29:31):
Tony's amazing. I literally can't imagine doing this without him.
He's just like a true artist, a true visionary through
and through. He is so so so talented. He's an
amazing writer. The script was so dynamic and it didn't
really evolve that much from the very first time I
read it, which is crazy because that means it was
so good just from the beginning. He's very calm, he's
(29:56):
very patient, very kind and compassionate and like supportive. I
really felt like a team environment with him around, and
you know, he's very vocally affirming, you know what I mean.
He made sure to tell you when you were doing
a good job, which was really really great. It's a Western,
and it's a heist movie, and it's also a you know,
(30:19):
coming of age drama and also a you know, return
home prodigal sun story. There's comedy, it's so stylized. It
is so you know, there's such a commitment to the
ikinn't know. It's kind of sexy but also kind of dirty.
It's just so many things all wrapped into one. It's
(30:42):
an amalgamation of its influences. It's got a spectacular cast
and a lot of people stepping into roles that are
unlike anything that they've ever done before. And there's a
big secret through the whole movie that you're in on
when you're watching, which is super super cool. At the end,
(31:02):
it's awesome. It's the best movie ever.
Speaker 11 (31:04):
I was really attracted to one. Tony's writing. He's an
incredible writer, and I was really excited to work with
him and Penny Joe herself. She has so many big
dreams and things that she wants to do, and she's
stuck in a small town, and I really felt for
her and I loved her journey that she went on,
very similar to No Country. Frold mean, when I first
(31:25):
read the script, I always felt like it was a
mixture of a Tarantino film meets a Clint Eastwood film.
I played Penny Jo Poplin, and she lives in a
small town. She is a waitress at the local diner,
and she dreams of being a country singer like Dolly Parton.
She has so many country idols, and she just hopes
that she gets out and she can live a bigger
(31:47):
life than what she's living, because she knows there's more
out there than what is currently in front of her.
And she has a hard relationship with her mother, who
always puts her down and doesn't listen to her because
the way she talks kind of separates her from her
friends and the rest of the world. And the only
way that she feels confident and free is when she sings.
(32:09):
It's been amazing, You're Koom with Halsey. She and I
have been really good friends for a couple of years now,
and so being able to work with someone who's your
fellow friend and one of her first projects is so
amazing to watch her grow and just jump into I
love working with Paul. He is such an incredible actor.
He when you're in a scene with him, everything else
(32:32):
just disappears around you and it just comes to life
and it feels so real and so natural, and I
really hope I get to work with him again. I
am so happy I got to have a few more
scenes with Eric in this movie, because I had a
few scenes in Euphoria with him, and so being able
to work with him different kind of characters was a
lot of fun. And he's just he's awesome. Working with
(32:53):
Tony Toast is a dream. I am so happy that
I'm getting to be involved in his first director real debut,
and so being able to be a part of this
stream coming to life is always such an amazing feeling
on our side too. And he has everything so precise,
and he is so in love with these characters, and
(33:13):
he's lived with them for so long, so he knows
exactly what he wants and it's amazing working with a
director like that.
So Roy, you know, I would actually like to say
he fancies himself a modern day cowboy, but really he's
not a cowboy. He's more of a city slicker who
is in this western world or this you know, South
Dakota cowboy world. But really he's more of a businessman
and a hustler. So I think he fancies himself more
(00:21):
of a cowboy, and he came from the big city
and is living in this Western themed world in dealing
with you know, artifacts, and he's really just trying to
make a buck. So he thinks he's a cowboy more
than he really is, and he dresses the part, but
really he's not. He's a city guy. So that's kind
(00:43):
of fun to play. It's about greed, money, you know,
the American dream, trying to make a buck, trying to
you know, just sort of hustle and and I feel
like everybody in this story is all trying to have
their come up, and it's a matter of who's going
(01:06):
to get it. Tony's very clear about what he wants,
which is good. I like that when a director knows
what they want and doesn't leave too much up to
the actor. He does allow me to improve a little bit,
but when I go too far off the script, he'll
steer me back to where it needs to be. It's
a badass movie, kind of like a modern Cowboys and
Indians but not really, but in that world. I mean,
(01:27):
look at the outfits the cast, I mean, you know,
from Sydney Sweeney to Paul Pauser to Eric Dane, just
an amazing cast and the world.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
I mean.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
Look for me, as a movie fan, I want to
be transported to another world for two hours or ninety
minutes or however long the move, whatever movie length it is.
And that's what this movie feels like to me, even
in reading it. You're transported to this South Dakota world
filled with the Lakota tribe and these shape characters in town,
(02:01):
and it's like a fun, badass movie that it's gonna
have a kick ass soundtrack and look beautiful, and it's
a kind of movie that I know i'd want to
watch and ivery, you know, work on a film. It's
kind of like summer camp.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
I always say.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
It's like you basically go to camp with everyone for
a month, you form these really deep bonds, and then
it's over. So it's always sort of a bittersweet thing.
Because you know that it's a finite amount of time
you have with everybody. But in the past, for me
working on films, you've formed some amazing friendships and relationships.
So every time it's a different learning experience getting to
(02:37):
work with cool, different new people, and so far my
experience on this one has been that it's a very nice,
tight run ship with really cool people.
Speaker 4 (02:47):
What really appealed to me about the script was, you know,
the native aspect, the traditions, returning those relics, those artifacts
to the Native people, you know, in a respectful manner,
but also highlighting that you know, there's there's always a
balance and an angel and demon on each side, you know,
the good and the bad. So I play Hank Spears
in this in this film, and what really really appealed
(03:09):
to me about Hank was his demeanor, his I guess
how some Native man. It shows there's balance, you know,
the reds Dogs is out there, and there's a lot
of comedy and humor, and there there is that with
the Native community, which you know, I don't think is seen.
But then there's also the stone face, the stoic Indian,
(03:31):
the guy that doesn't think anything's funny and not everything's
a joke, and I think that's that's kind.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
Of who I am.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
To me.
Speaker 4 (03:37):
Zohn's one of the legends and icons in the Native community.
You know, he's done a lot for the people, and
I've just been really, really lucky and blessed to, you know,
to try to be a sponge around him, try to
absorb as much knowledge from him as I possibly can.
You know, any second I can get with that guy,
I'm on it. So I could ride a horse before
I could walk. And I was excited when I found out.
(04:00):
You know, I'm gonna be on the horror for this
so and cal is gonna be with me. So I'm
really looking forward to that, and I think, uh, we're
definitely gonna have some fun. There's gonna be a bunch
of characters just coming together and they're all gonna collide
and it's gonna be the big explosion. And it's it's
super exciting, you know, like to see these different different people,
(04:23):
different auras, different energies, different personalities, uh, and different motives
all coming together and they're gonna clash and it's gonna
be it's gonna be an explosion.
Speaker 5 (04:33):
When I read it, I thought, Wow, this is this
is so poetic, this story, the dialogue was so poetic.
Tony's such a terrific writer, and I felt like, you know,
I got I really got the feeling that it was
somewhat of a cross between true romance and No Country
for Old Men, and that's a good company to be in.
(04:56):
But the story was so compelling. H So it wasn't
a hard sell for me. I played Dylan Macintosh and
what appealed to me about Dylan is, you know it
face value, he's the bad guy, but if you look
a little deeper, he's not so much of a bad guy.
I mean, he's a murderer, scoundrel, but you know, he
(05:18):
has some good qualities. I think he's a victim of
circumstance and just desperate. Hall's he's great. This is her
first film. She's doing a terrific job. I like her
as an actress. Sidney and I are pretty tight, and
she's just a super talented pro super precocious. Gavin's fantastic.
(05:41):
He's got such a strong presence for somebody who's twelve
years old to have that is also something that's somewhat rare.
Paul walter Hauser is hilarious and I'm proud to call
him a friend. Tony Toast is I think an inventive director.
He's a visual filmmaker. He's obviously a fantastic writer, but
(06:07):
he's well versed in cinema and uses the camera a
lot to tell the story. Bang Up, heist flick. That's
a cross between true romance and No Country for Old Men,
And at the center of the project is an invaluable
artifact that everybody wants and people will do whatever they
need to do to get it. Westerns are are part
(06:30):
of the DNA of Hollywood and cinema. Some of the
greatest cinematic efforts were from the Western world.
Speaker 6 (06:40):
What appealed to me the most was Tony's sensibility is
tone to the script. It brought back a lot of
memories of films that I grew up with back in
the seventies and just had a nice Midwestern kind of
(07:03):
grit to it along with some danger. It just reminded
me of the old school films like bad Lands and
No Country for Old Men and films like that. So
I played the character ghost Die and Ghost Die what
appealed to me was, you know, he was kind of
(07:25):
based on some of the heroes that I grew up
with within my culture. Russell means Dennis Banks. He's the
leader of a social movement called the Red Thunder Society,
which basically is protecting his culture and pressing on social
(07:46):
issues that are that are facing his people. So what
appealed to me was, you know, I based it on
those heroes that I had growing up, which was, you know,
people of the American Indian Movement. So it was it
was a pleasure to see that Tony wrote about some
of those those heroes that I am.
Speaker 7 (08:07):
I kind of had the image of cal walking around
wanting to go from one world into the Lakota world
in my head for a while, like a year. I
didn't know what to do with it. Cal Is is
oddly autobiographical. I share some similarities with him growing up
(08:28):
in a trailer uh, kind of in rural America. I
grew up next to the Muncashooet Indian Reservation and grew
up watching Western so there's elements there, and so it
kind of started in that place and trying to figure
out a story for him and wanting to kind of,
I don't know, look at the Western and the heritage
(08:50):
of the American West, so I kind of wanted to
do a Western where we gradually realized that the white
dudes aren't necessarily the star of the show. In a way,
it's the women, the children, and the Lakota characters that
are really kind of our focus. But have that emerged gradually.
I wanted to work was on mclarnin again, who plays
ghost I because I wrote for him, worked with him
(09:12):
on Mommere and he's just one of my favorite actors
and I was just kind of desperate to work with
him again. Some of my influences are obviously, you know,
Tarantino and the Cohen Brothers and Martin mcbenna and lots
of seventies films, but that's kind of those are kind
of inspirations, but there wasn't like one exact film that
I was trying to, like do my version of. It's
(09:32):
a little bit of a Medley, I guess in a way.
I was wanting to do an old school ensemble film,
you know, like Robert Altman's films in the seventies. Are
also a director who I love, I named Michael Ritchie,
who did like The Bad News Bears, which is my
favorite movie. Ever, this is not like Bad News Bears,
but did like a movie called Smile, which is about
small town California around a beauty pageant and it's an
(09:52):
ensemble film. And then like you know, nineties has some
great ensemble films, like from Paul Thomas Anderson and stuff.
So these were all the kind of pictures that got
me real excited about films. I kind of wanted to
return in my first film to the kind of films
that made me really excited about cinema. And yeah, so
(10:12):
like the seventies ensemble films, in the nineties ensemble films
were on play.
Speaker 8 (10:19):
I would say Americana is a neo Western crime thriller
about a young boy who believes himself to be the
reincarnation of Sitting Bowl, and between him and a cast
of local characters around him, everyone is after this really
prestigious Native American artifact, a Lakota ghost shirt, and the
(10:43):
movie is an unfolding of all of those parties trying
to get the ghost shirt. What's really fun about casting
a movie like this is there were so many roles.
Because of Tony's writing, each of the roles was character
driven and really specific. I think we were the first
movie to cast it Sweeney after White Lotus. You know,
we both saw the show and I called Tony and
(11:04):
I said, you got to watch the show. I think
I think this is our Penny Joe. Paul Walter Houser
is someone that I had been dying to work with
for literally years. I don't think he is who you
would have expected to see on the page. I really
love unexpected casting choices. Somebody that you don't believe, wouldn't
believe to be in the world, or you wouldn't believe
(11:26):
to be in this set of circumstances. And so after that,
you know, we did a search for cal for the Boy,
and it was amazing that we found Gavin pure stroke
of luck. And then the rest of the cast. You know,
Simon Rex I had worked with on on Red Rocket,
and then again similarly, Eric Dane and Toby Husk. These
were all sort of actors that Tony and I even
(11:50):
Harriet sans Hoom Harris, you know, we had seen her
in that one scene in Licorice Pizza and we're like,
we have to have her to play Sydney's Moms. It
was sort of a compilation of people that we had
seen and remembered really sort of specifically from other work
and agreed on wanting to put in the movie. The
movie takes place in North Dakota, and we shot it
in Albuquerque, New Mexico. But it was really important for
(12:13):
Tony for it to feel like it was taking place
in the middle of the country somewhere, and I think
he achieved that, and he really wanted to make something
that audiences outside of just New York and LA could
really see themselves in A tagline of the movie now
is like welcome to the New West, And so I
think there is there is sort of a bit of
(12:34):
of a cultural capitalist commentary that is an undertone of
the film, frankly, how we've robbed the indigenous of what
was theirs. But I think at the core the movie
really is about people and connections and the importance of
those connections. What I really hope people will take from
(12:54):
Americana is well, I hope they just have a good time.
It is a fun ride, and I think I think
that is in short supply for movies, especially in theaters nowadays.
The emotional connections of the movie, they're really profound, and
I think people will be reminded of the importance of
real family and community and how incredible it is to
(13:17):
make a connection with a stranger. But at the same time,
I think they're gonna laugh, and I think they're gonna
have a lot of fun and sort of be gripping
their seats at certain points, And for me that ride,
I'm excited for people to enjoy it.
Speaker 3 (13:31):
This movie reminds me of a lot of movies I love,
like pulp fiction or Fargo, and so when I read
the screenplay, I thought, well, this is just like the
next iteration of those types of movies that are equal
parts gruesome and heartfelt and have these kind of quirky, interesting,
(13:55):
memorable ensemble casts that I would get to be a
part of. It's a story of thematic elements, ranging from
the desire to not be alone, to the desire of
having or understanding family, to the desire of wanting to
make your dreams come true and maybe doing something really
(14:17):
unethical to get your dreams and your desires met. It's
really a film about thematic elements. I don't see it
as a natural arc of story. It's all these multiple
stories that are colliding and kind of equal parts, serving
one another and getting in each other's way as we
see throughout the messy interactions of all these characters. Lefty
(14:41):
Ledbetter is a really sweet guy who has a lot
to give and wants to give that to a woman
or a family or something. But I think he's like
most people, probably a victim of so social awkwardness, a
(15:01):
victim of maybe not fitting in in the era he
was born and and sort of is destined to become
this kind of sweet old man who's alone on that journey.
When I play him, he runs into Penny Joe Poplin
played by Sidney Sweeney, and thus sparks the real moment
(15:25):
for him to actually have a chance at happiness and
to advance beyond the cold, lonely confines of his life.
I like all these actors everything I've seen them in.
Halsey obviously I hadn't seen in a film, but working
with her has just been incredible. She's like, you know,
I think of Mary Steinbergen when she did Going South
(15:48):
with Jack Nicholson. You know, it was her first film
and she went to to toe with Jack. That's what
Halsey reminds me of. Somebody who is very undeterred and unafraid,
and if she is, she hides it well. Because she's
doing a tremendous job. Sidney Sweeney is a dream dance
partner when it comes to acting. She's so much more
(16:09):
confident than I am and so assured of herself in
such a healthy manner. And she's one of those actors that,
because she's younger than me, I want to like give
her advice until she starts talking and I realize I'm
probably gonna be asking advice. So that's been very humbling,
but fun and wonderful. And yeah, I love Eric Dane
and Simon Rex, and I've been a fan of people
(16:31):
like Zohn and Toby Haas for years, So this is
the kind of cast that I would get excited to watch,
so to be in it is really cool. I would
describe this movie as this is like a fun, memorable
sort of scene eating movie that has all these memorable,
distinct characters played by actors who are having really great moments,
(16:56):
like Eric Dane with Euphoriaan Sydney with everything she's doing,
and Halls each transitioning to acting me and Simon Rex
having a red rocket to Richard Jewell. It's like all
these actors are coming together in a really unique moment
in their careers, and the fact that we have a
screenplay with the prowess and creativity of Tony Toast's words,
like you're not gonna want to miss this thing. I
(17:17):
don't think there's so much I could say about Tony
Toast as a dude and as a director, but like,
and all of it good, But just the takeaways I
have from working with Tony have been like, he knows
what he wants in a really healthy way. It isn't
like a dictator. It's just like this really creative mind
(17:38):
that you respect well enough to you know, see it
through to the end, to really ignore your own desires
and say, what does Tony want for the world he's created.
I compare Tony's directing style to the confidence I had
working with Clint Eastwood and how Eastwood just kind of
(17:58):
has an easy way of going about There's no shouting,
there's just a lot of like whispering and touches on
the shoulder. Tony has a gentle approach the way Eastwood does,
and Tony has the confidence and sense of fun that
like Spike Lee and Craig Glassie have, So you know,
for me, it's like a dream director who lets you
do your thing and trusts you, but also knows exactly
(18:21):
what they want, what they've preordained.
Speaker 9 (18:23):
I grew up in a trailer kind of like Cal's trailer.
I had a mom a little bit like Cal's mom,
traumatized teenage single mother. I was kind of a weird
loner kid, watched a lot of Westerns. I was just
drawn to this little, you know, violent scenario that had
some autobiographical juice to it, and then I just kind
of start Then the rest of the story kind of emerged
(18:45):
with me trying to make a bigger story in which
that kind of made sense, and so that was really
kind of the seed, and then I just kind of
started populating this world with other characters, some drawn from
my life, some inspired by Western archetypes that I was
wanting to update, and then it just kind of took
on a life of its own. I grew up in
rural Washington State, kind of at the base of Mount
(19:06):
right near an abandoned mining town and a couple hundred people,
and very close to the Mucleshut Indian Reservation. So I
think that that border space that that's kind of evocative
of old Westerns, but it's in the modern world. It's
just something I'm drawn to. I've worked on a TV
show called Long Miner for five seasons that's kind of
set in a similar environment, and then I returned to it,
(19:29):
returned to it here, and yeah, I just find that
that that implicit culture clash there, and then just the
mythology of the West and and and the history of
the West in the modern world. There's just a lot
there to mine and and so that's definitely something I
drew upon. In essence, a priceless Native American artifact called
(19:53):
ghost shirt has fallen into the black market, and when
when it's stolen, it creates chain reaction where, you know,
like a dozen different people are now all in pursuit
of this priceless artifact, and they all kind of converge
into a kind of a showdown over who is gonna,
you know, who's gonna get ownership of it. I'll describe
(20:16):
it as a country crime film that turns into a
weird Western. None of these characters are quite one hundred
percent at home where they are, and they're trying to
locate their proper role in this you know, in this
version of the West that that in some ways resembles
the mythic cultural West and the historical West, but now
(20:38):
is very different now, and so that's probably the commonality
between all these characters, I mean overall in terms of
the cast, and I think that's the best thing about
the movie is the is the cast and the performances
as these characters. If you're gonna, you know, take the
time to watch the movie, I think that's the big appeal.
Like Sydney swinging a new role, or Sea Halsey carry
a pretty substantial role in this movie, or Paul Walter
(21:00):
Houser in a way you haven't quite seen them. I
wanted to make a movie from blue collar America that
where the primary audience is kind of like working people
of any stripe, like the ideal audience for me as
someone who just got off their shift, you know, either
goes to the movie theater or comes home, opens up
a beer like I've heard. This movie is kind of entertaining,
(21:22):
strange and puts it on and just and it speaks.
It has characters that you could see in small town America.
It doesn't look down on blue collar small town life.
It's just an entertaining, kind of wild story told in
that world. I think people can expect kind of an
old school movie, like it's it's got a really cool cast.
(21:44):
You don't really know what's going to happen next. It's
a whole bunch, hopefully, a whole bunch of characters that
you're intrigued by, that you care about, that you have
feelings for, that are entertaining. It's a movie where you
can really cheer for unexpected out comes and you can
kind of also, Yeah, I think it evokes emotions. It's
(22:06):
funny in a weird way. And and yeah, it's just
like a like an like an old school movie, you know,
but put some fresh twists on it.
Speaker 10 (22:17):
Tony Toast contacted me. I've worked with him before on Longmire,
so he contacted me wanted my advice on the Native
stuff that he wanted to put in the show. So
he got hold me early while he's writing the script,
and that's how I got involved with him. Well, it's
important to accurately just show our native culture, not how
(22:38):
it used to be, where it was just the white
man showing what they thought Native culture was. Rather, it's
more important to bring in Native consultants and show how
we are actually and our culture because we're beautiful people.
We have a beautiful culture and we're very artistic. That's
within our it's just an within us are artistic people,
(23:02):
and so I'm really grateful that Tony's open to that
from the beginning, from visiting with him on the script,
from the beginnings, open to making sure that he wanted
to get it right. And it's kind of a theme
now a lot in filmmaking major motion pictures, Talvin shows,
they're looking to Native consultants and bringing them in to
(23:27):
make sure that we portray our people the correct way,
appropriate way. There's a big movement going on in the
country right now and there are more and more Native
youth that are getting into professional production. I think with
social media like Facebook, TikTok, those type of things, there's
(23:48):
a lot that are becoming content creators. So it's important
for me even to do workshops and seminars for youth
that are getting into production want become more professional content creators.
Because we have a culture that is beautiful and it's
still strong and it's getting stronger all the time, and
(24:08):
to portray that in the correct and appropriate way is
it's important to me in a time when there was
a systematic attempt of genocide for our people. This ghost
Dance religion was a way of bringing hope back to
the people and knowing that we'll still hold on to
our traditions and our culture. And because of that, the
(24:29):
United States government and the cavalry came in and wiped
them out. But I for me, I see it as
those prayers that they said, they weren't said in vain.
Our prayers don't get answered right away. You know, it's
been approximately seven generations since that ghost Dance was wiped out,
(24:50):
but it's come back. That's the way that I see it.
You know, that ghost Dance shirt is here, it's in
this film, and what it represents is those prayer that
way a life is still here among us and so
that our children, our grandchildren can still hold onto those
beautiful cultural ways that teach our values and our principles
(25:12):
that we can live by loving our family, taking care
of ourselves holistically, physically, emotionally, mentally, as well as spiritually,
just live in a good, solid, holistic life and contemporary
society and still hold on to those values. There are
more and more young Natives that are getting into professional
(25:34):
production and anytime that consultants are active people that are
working in the industry can encourage them the better because
the more we have of our own people that know
about these values and principles and want to continue them
on to inspire and to encourage others. This production can
(25:57):
be a way of life. It can be a career
for them where they can try, they meet amazing people
like our crew. I mean, everybody's amazing. They're all and
they all work together.
Speaker 5 (26:07):
You know.
Speaker 10 (26:08):
A production to me can be a microcosm to how
a community can be, where everybody has their place, everybody
can work together, and when they accomplish that, they can
look back and say, yeah, that's amazing. That's something we
made right there. It's a tangible, something tangible there that
we can look back and be proud of.
Speaker 2 (26:25):
Two years ago, I got sent a script. It was
the most phenomenal script I'd ever read in my life.
I had really been wanting to start acting, but I
hadn't found the correct project that I thought. You know,
we'd be the best one to jump into. The character
I related to the most was Mandy, so I was
super delighted to find out that Mandy was exactly the
character that Tony, the writer and director had in mind
(26:46):
for me. When I started talking to him, I said,
I've never acted before. Don't you want me to audition?
Aren't you nervous? I'm going to be terrible and I'm
gonna suck. What if everyone this whole thing? And he
was like, no, I have faith in you. It's going
to be awesome. So I was the first actor attached
to the movie, and I was so nervous and so
(27:07):
excited to see how the cast is going to develop
who I was going to be acting with. Mandy's a
really complex character, which is something I really like about her.
You know, through the process of kind of figuring out
who she is, I went through a lot of ideas,
you know, is she a villain? Is she not a villain?
Is she a victim? Is she not a victim? You know,
she grew up in a place that had very little
(27:28):
hope for someone like her. She lives under this protective mass.
My son is seven months old and he's here on
set with me, and so I learned how to connect
with Mandy in a way that I didn't even think
was possible when I had initially read the script. So
it's very full circle. Sidney's one of my best friends
(27:49):
in real life. We've worked together before. She acted in
my music video for one of my song's Graveyard a
couple of years ago. That was the first time that
we hung out. We found we were mutual fans of
each other. She was a fan of my music. I
was a fan of her work. It's really awesome to
be friends with someone that you're a fan of, and
it's even better to get to work with that person.
She's so sweet, she's so professional. She was so awesome
(28:10):
and gracious to me. I asked her a lot of
questions about acting since this was my first movie, and
she answered all of them and you know, really helped
me feel more calm. But also as a friend and
as a fan, it was awesome to watch her in
action and to be like, you know, this is why
I love you. You're so good at this, and it
was It was really cool to see him be a
part of Gavin is first of all, just a star.
(28:32):
He is like so intelligent and kind and wise and special,
and I felt like I fell in love with him
right away, which made it a lot easier for me
as Mandy, you know, to feel emotionally compelled toward towards
cal because I was towards Gavin every single day.
Speaker 9 (28:50):
You know.
Speaker 2 (28:51):
I remember when I first reheard so I said to him.
I was like, listen, man, you're the pro. You've done
this a million times. I've never done this before. I
was like, and cal is kind of you know, he's
kind of got to be this strong one and the
mature one because Mandy's a little immature, and you know,
I was like, that's kind of what it's like in
real life. You're the boss and you have to show
me what to do. Paul is incredible. He is so funny,
(29:11):
so smart, so so knowledgeable. He had so much to
teach me, and he is so hilarious. Our babies hung
out together on set, which was really cool. So now
they're going to be friends for life. I would love
the chance to work with him again because I just
think he's spectacularly talented and just like truly one of kind.
(29:31):
Tony's amazing. I literally can't imagine doing this without him.
He's just like a true artist, a true visionary through
and through. He is so so so talented. He's an
amazing writer. The script was so dynamic and it didn't
really evolve that much from the very first time I
read it, which is crazy because that means it was
so good just from the beginning. He's very calm, he's
(29:56):
very patient, very kind and compassionate and like supportive. I
really felt like a team environment with him around, and
you know, he's very vocally affirming, you know what I mean.
He made sure to tell you when you were doing
a good job, which was really really great. It's a Western,
and it's a heist movie, and it's also a you know,
(30:19):
coming of age drama and also a you know, return
home prodigal sun story. There's comedy, it's so stylized. It
is so you know, there's such a commitment to the
ikinn't know. It's kind of sexy but also kind of dirty.
It's just so many things all wrapped into one. It's
(30:42):
an amalgamation of its influences. It's got a spectacular cast
and a lot of people stepping into roles that are
unlike anything that they've ever done before. And there's a
big secret through the whole movie that you're in on
when you're watching, which is super super cool. At the end,
(31:02):
it's awesome. It's the best movie ever.
Speaker 11 (31:04):
I was really attracted to one. Tony's writing. He's an
incredible writer, and I was really excited to work with
him and Penny Joe herself. She has so many big
dreams and things that she wants to do, and she's
stuck in a small town, and I really felt for
her and I loved her journey that she went on,
very similar to No Country. Frold mean, when I first
(31:25):
read the script, I always felt like it was a
mixture of a Tarantino film meets a Clint Eastwood film.
I played Penny Jo Poplin, and she lives in a
small town. She is a waitress at the local diner,
and she dreams of being a country singer like Dolly Parton.
She has so many country idols, and she just hopes
that she gets out and she can live a bigger
(31:47):
life than what she's living, because she knows there's more
out there than what is currently in front of her.
And she has a hard relationship with her mother, who
always puts her down and doesn't listen to her because
the way she talks kind of separates her from her
friends and the rest of the world. And the only
way that she feels confident and free is when she sings.
(32:09):
It's been amazing, You're Koom with Halsey. She and I
have been really good friends for a couple of years now,
and so being able to work with someone who's your
fellow friend and one of her first projects is so
amazing to watch her grow and just jump into I
love working with Paul. He is such an incredible actor.
He when you're in a scene with him, everything else
(32:32):
just disappears around you and it just comes to life
and it feels so real and so natural, and I
really hope I get to work with him again. I
am so happy I got to have a few more
scenes with Eric in this movie, because I had a
few scenes in Euphoria with him, and so being able
to work with him different kind of characters was a
lot of fun. And he's just he's awesome. Working with
(32:53):
Tony Toast is a dream. I am so happy that
I'm getting to be involved in his first director real debut,
and so being able to be a part of this
stream coming to life is always such an amazing feeling
on our side too. And he has everything so precise,
and he is so in love with these characters, and
(33:13):
he's lived with them for so long, so he knows
exactly what he wants and it's amazing working with a
director like that.
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