ComingSoon Editor-in-Chief Tyler Treese spoke to The Thicket stars Peter Dinklage and Juliette Lewis. The duo discussed the fresh take on the Western genre, their characters, and more. Directed by Elliott Lester, The Thicket is out in theaters starting today.
“When fierce bounty hunter Reginald Jones (Peter Dinklage) is recruited by a desperate man to track down a ruthless killer known only as Cutthroat Bill (Juliette Lewis), he rallies a band of unlikely heroes including a grave-digging ex-slave and a street-smart woman-for-hire. Together they embark on a perilous quest to track down Cutthroat Bill that leads them into the deadly ‘no-man’s-land’ known as…The Thicket,” says the synopsis.
Tyler Treese: Peter, I feel like every actor dreams of being in a Western shootout. There are some really fun action scenes. I love your bar fight. That’s a really fun scene. But how satisfying was it to be involved in these great Western shootouts?
Peter Dinklage: Oh, they’re great. I grew up on Westerns. I love ’em like other genres. They’re just so fun. You get to just dive into this world that is not your world. So, I love extreme genres like science fiction and Westerns because they have nothing to do with what your day-to-day is. In modern times, we don’t think about the real basic level of these people who were just trying to survive. They didn’t know when their next meal was coming or when the next bit of shelter was going to be provided. So, going into that sort of mindset is really thrilling to think about.
We shot up in Calgary, where if you weren’t in proper clothing or heated places, this is weather that can kill you. So to be confronted with that low of a temperature and wind chill every day really put you in the mind of people who had a lot less clothing and a lot less shelter than we do in modern times. That thinking in terms of that really keyed me into the world of these characters and this character specifically.
Juliette, I was just blown away by your performance as Cutthroat Bill. Did you know that you had this type of performance in you, or did this even surprise you? You’re so intimidating, and it shocked me.
Juliette Lewis: Thank you so much. No, I don’t know. You have to believe something, but you’re reaching for something, and you don’t know if you’re gonna land it. But it took a combination of ingredients to play the role. For one, the writing was so great, the script was so great, and that helped me. There was a description about her voice in the writing that clued me off into how she might sound, but it just sort of came to me.
You just sort of practice, and you gotta get outta your head and just like suspend belief, and I want to fully transform and make people believe I’m this savage, but also somebody so godless or so disconnected from their own lost humanity. That was quite something to conjure. It was uncomfortable. It was as uncomfortable as the environment to do it. So I thank you for the validation about it.
Peter, one thing I liked about the film was it takes a while for you and Juliette’s characters to get face to face. It really builds the tension. Then when you do, we get this really great exchange with you two. How was Juliette as a scene partner? Because you just feel the tenseness in that conversation.
Dinklage: Yeah, I mean, as an actor, I wanted more and more and more with scenes with her, but within the narrative, it sort of loses more because we are the two sides of the coin there in terms of our characters. But yeah, all the actors are great, but whether it’s the script or working with Juliette, that scene just really, really worked in a very simple and honest way because it’s kind of the only time these two characters, despite their differences, they understand each other more than anybody else in the film understands each other. They both come from a place of pain, of real survival and just how it manifests. The response to the pain that has been inflicted upon both of them separately is the difference in their characters. I don’t think it’s villain and hero. It’s just two opposing forces that have a commonality of survival.
