ComingSoon Editor-in-Chief Tyler Treese spoke with Surrounded director Anthony Mandler about the Western drama movie (watch and read more interviews). The movie is set to release digitally on June 20.
“Five years after the end of the Civil War, a former soldier disguises herself as a man while traveling west to lay claim on a gold mine,” reads the movie‘s synopsis. “After thieves ambush her stagecoach, she’s forced to guard a legendary outlaw while the surviving passengers look for help. A battle of wills ensues, blurring the line between captor and captive, as both try to survive the harsh landscape.”
Tyler Treese: Anthony, I love the action in this movie. What was your approach to filming these classic Western shootouts and making sure the action seemed grounded but exciting?
Anthony Mandler: That was taken on the first camera test day, so it was one of the very early images of her taking the role and really sort of embodying Mo. I’ve always been a fan of Westerns — from the original early days of Shane, obviously Unforgiven … there are classic tropes that you have to satisfy when you’re making a Western. Action is obviously one of them, but because of the mechanism of weaponry at that time and having six-shooters, the action is a little bit different, right? We’re used to rapid fire, we’re used to close contact. People fought at a distance in these vast landscapes where terrain and sound and light played a big part of it.
So I wanted to make sure that there was a keen visual sense to it, but that we didn’t over-context what was happening, right? Today we’re sort of desensitized with people shooting 20 times, and that being what we’re used to. People were a little more careful with their weaponry, and they took weaponry more seriously. What’s nice to me is to watch a character that you’d never expect to wield a weapon the way she does, in the very early minutes of the movie, do things that seem exceptional, and other people start to pay attention to that. We start to tend to this tension of who is Mo Washington and where did she come from?
In this movie, you get to work with the late Michael K. Williams, and his scenes are fantastic. What really stood out about working with him and seeing what he brought to his character as The Stranger? Those are some standout sequences.
Well, we’ve got a photo of him from 1998 today with us behind me that sits in my office. Michael was a dear friend of mine and someone that I loved and admired as a human being and as an artist. It’s really my honor to bring this movie to the screen. It’ll be his last performance we’ll see. Michael brought a depth and an energy to everything he did. The way he embodied characters was the way that he essentially managed his own pain and stress and trauma. So in a sense, there was this tension of relationship when it comes to love and trust, violence and peace. What I love about this character is how he comes in from out of the night and he’s absolutely the character that she should trust the most.
But in the course of one scene, we learn a deeper story. I think that that movie within a movie, which is really this crux of being able to trust the time and the people you meet … I mean, in a way, her relationship with Tommy Walsh goes from unexpectedly distrustful to surprisingly trustful at the end. And in a way, they have no choice but to have this final duel, but you, in a sense, could easily just have seen them ride off in the sunset and take up some life of crime together.
You’ve done so many great music videos. Those are usually done quickly and at a budget. How has your background in music videos really helped you hone your approach and voice as you’ve transitioned into feature films?
I was a photographer before I directed videos, and obviously, after my video career, to commercials and made Monster and have worked in at a very high level in the studio system and then sort of independently … it all relates to sort of making choices, being able to feel something. Every director’s different. Some directors need storyboards and need previs. I think that photography and music videos, and short form commercials taught me to go somewhere, feel it, take pictures, come home, visualize, and just sort of imagine the sequence enough times that you know what it is.
Then it’s about communicating that to your team. So my process is really very hands-on. I don’t like to over-storyboard. I like to go see locations, spend time there, visualize the sequence, dream it, and then figure out, “How do we do it?”
I really enjoyed Monster and Surrounded tackles a lot of similar ground with looking at social issues and exploring the shades of gray. Can you speak to finding these projects that clearly really resonate with you and have some solid depth to them?
As a filmmaker and storyteller, I think social context is really important for me. I look for that in every script, everything we’re developing — even if it’s a bank heist movie. I’m not interested in just pure aggressive action for action’s sake. Although I love being entertained by movies like that, I think that I’m interested in a character’s journey and a crossroads. And if you can format that against action or sci-fi or robot movie or Marvel movie, then it gets great.
You look at The Dark Knight, you look at Heat, you look at Three Kings, you look at these movies, and on one level, they’re genre, and on the other level, they’re incredible character stories about people. So Monster, yes, is about the trial of a 17-year-old kid for murder, but that’s on one level. On so many levels below it, it’s about the context of time and our broken system and about sort of getting away from his parents and being curious.
Same thing with Surrounded — it’s a Western on many levels, but in a sense, it’s two people meeting in the middle of nowhere that share trauma and actually see how their lives intermingle. It’s the cross-section of journey and destiny … I mean, it explores so many things. It’s white privilege meets underserved narrative. So the duality and the complexity that goes along with that duality as it relates to a genre is what’s interesting to me as a filmmaker.
You’ve worked with The Weeknd, and he’s always had such an artistic flare to his videos. Now he’s moving into acting with The Idol. What really stood out about just working with him?
I love Abel. I’ve worked with him a lot over the years. He’s an incredible visionary, and was when I met him in 2013 as a young kid. I think he’s someone that will continue to push the boundaries in everything he does.
