CANNES – In Tom McCarthy’s “Stillwater,” Matt Damon plays Bill Baker, a “roughneck” (oil rig worker) from Oklahoma who is trying to help his daughter Allison prove her innocence for a murder she was convicted of in France. The film, which debuted to mixed reviews at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival, attempts to mix humor into its sometimes messy dramatic thriller mix. At one point, a newfound French friend asks Bill if he voted for the now former president of the United States, Donald Trump. The answer was no, but not because of his politics.
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“I think Oklahoma was I think the redest state in the last two elections,” Damon says. “We talked to those roughnecks. They are always gonna vote – I mean, they are in the oil business. Their livelihood depends on that. I don’t think it was a question, at all. We didn’t want to make it expressly political. And I think he is who he is and he’s from where he’s from. And the movie has a lot of empathy for him and so do we.”
Damon continues, “He says no, I didn’t vote and their reaction is ‘whew’ and he goes, ‘No, I didn’t vote because I was in prison'”
The Oscar winner’s comments came at the official press conference for the film which also featured McCarthy and his co-stars Abigail Breslin, Camille Cottin and newcomer Lilou Siauvau. McCarthy and Damon say they spent a lot of time on the ground in the Sooner State to get “guidance” for Baker’s character. Damon says guys from Baker’s background don’t apologize for who they are what they believe ever.
“The roads are big. The trucks are big. Everything is big and far away,” Damon says. “And being invited into their homes and a backyard barbecue and the guitar comes out and somebody starts singing church songs. It’s culturally a very specific place and very different from how I grew up.
It was really fascinating and these people were wonderful to us and really helped us. “
The parallels between the infamous Amanda Knox case and Allison’s predicament are somewhat obviously. McCarthy says he was pretty fascinated by Knox’s case as he’d just become a father to a young daughter. He distinctly notes, however, “It served as an initial inspiration, but not more beyond that.” The “Spotlight” director collaborated with Noé Debré (“Deephan”) and Thomas Bidegain (“A Prophet”) on the screenplay. McCarthy was trying to process the turmoil going on in the U.S. following the 2016 election and found the French screenwriter’s perspective very help in the writing process.
“I think the film obviously is about many things. I think certainly on some levels it deals with what we perceive to be America to be, obviously, and I think that’s obviously personifyied in Bill Baker when he comes to France when he comes to visit his daughter,” McCarthy says. “Ultimately it’s a film about relationships. A film about connections. It’s a film about liberation, possibly redemption, possibly not.”
“Stillwater” opens nationwide on July 30.