I even heard somebody mention how this movie is what would happen if Kubrick was making a B-movie on a shoestring budget.
VV: The writing is extraordinary and Craig doesn’t compromise the characters, the twists are very authentic and not what you’d expect. The violence is fun and as extreme you’d want it to be and I think putting all those things together you wonder, “How come I haven’t seen this as much at the movies.” But it’s so fun as an actor to be with a director that knows what he wants and who’s signing his painting but he’s not trying to be liked, he’s not trying to back into something. It’s just something that he wants to do and liberating is the right word to use — you know the target you are hitting and he’s also got great tone and taste so that makes it all the more easier for the actors.
It’s like a ’70s grindhouse movie but done in such an artful way.
DJ: That’s funny you mention that. When I was sent the script and looked at the title I thought my agents were kidding. I had heard of Craig but hadn’t seen “Bone Tomahawk” yet, and I read the cover “Brawl in Cell Block 99” and I say, “You sent me a fucking ’70s exploitation movie?” and then I started reading it and I was like “Wow,” somebody has taken that genre and elevated to, as you said, the level of art.
Vince, your transformation here is astounding. Craig has basically turned you into a human-killing machine. What was the research like for the role?
VV: I already boxed and had done jiu-jitsu, so I had a good foundation of movements, then physically I just lifted to attain strength, because becoming a truck driver wasn’t about becoming lean, but you had to be physically strong, and so there was a physicalness to it. As for the accent I thought to myself, “Let me be as prepared as possible.” I think when you have a 25-day shoot like we had, you’re sort of holding on, so we went through the choreography for the fights, but it’s a lot to remember especially when there’s also a lot of emotion in the role. [There’s] so much hurt and the most important thing was to sit on that and to hold it until it is released. I just came in as loaded as I could and I could ask him as many questions as I could and he would write a biography for my character that was never in the movie but it was a great tool to use to fill myself up. I also thought Jennifer Carpenter [who plays Bradley’s wife] was tremendous and those scenes are so important to the movie, and her availability and emotion were just so perfect.
DJ: I have to tell you that seeing those two people together was so refreshing because they look like real people. They looked like they had a real relationship. Once I read the scene where he beats up the car and then goes into the house to have a conversation with his wife, I said “I’m doing the movie and I don’t care what the part is because this is just genius.” I had never seen anything like that.
VV: Yeah, they connected in a deeper way that you wouldn’t expect it from the situation he walks into, but I thought that was honest, that’s how people would be. They’re both sober, trying to do better, it’s complicated, right? So, I think that there were so much of those things that you want to be kind of real. As for the fighting, Zahler was saying, “Don’t show as much pain. Bradley can take a lot of pain….he has a high threshold of pain” and I think that’s really cool in the movie.
DJ: It is cool, and you buy it tremendously. Also, there’s a psychological thing that happens with beating up that car. When he beats up that car, there’s this brute strength and it’s random and yet it’s surgical at the same time. He takes that car apart, [and] from that moment on you see that character and you know some shit’s gonna happen. I mean, it just sets up the whole goddamn thing. Then you see this tender, wonderfully cosmopolitan man in the next scene with Jennifer — I just loved it. I loved it again when I saw it yesterday.
VV: I also love it when he tells Jennifer’s character, “Give me some time.”
DJ: Oh, one of my favorite moments.
VV: It’s like, “I basically have some emotional uncomfort and you better give me some time” [laughs].
Do you like playing those sort of bad guys, Don?
DJ: Yeah [laughs]. Having played a lot of heroes, sometimes you are stuck with a one-dimensional character and you need to find the rough edges yourself, but when you have a villain like this that is so rich you have to just look for the humanity. And I think with Warden Tuggs, you see a strange kind of compassion, such as when he gives Bradley the time to have the phone. He knows the end-game, he’s in control. There’s a moment of compassion.
VV: A code and a respect.
DJ: A code and a respect.
“Brawl In Cell Block 99” hits theaters on October 6th and On Demand & Digital HD on October 13th.