IR Interview: Brian Helgeland For “Finestkind” [Paramount+]

The Inside Reel

Writer/Director Brian Helgeland talks about inspiration, path, structure, Intention and environment in regards to the release of his film: “Finestkind” on Paramount+.

Transcript

00:00 [MUSIC]

00:10 It's the in between that counts.

00:21 [MUSIC]

00:26 >> We've met many times over the years.

00:28 I always remember payback when we talked and that was 99.

00:32 But I also remember all the scripts that you've written.

00:35 Like there's so many scripts that don't get produced.

00:38 But there's so much work that goes into them.

00:41 And it's great to see something like Finest Kind make its way because

00:46 movies aren't made like this anymore.

00:47 They don't sound like this anymore.

00:49 Could you sort of talk about that and that voice?

00:52 Because you've always had it.

00:54 >> Yeah, I wrote the script when I was 28.

01:01 And that's over 30 years ago.

01:04 And I had been a commercial fisherman for

01:08 a year and a half when I got out of college.

01:12 So I wrote this script very soon after,

01:15 two or three years after I had the experience and was still young.

01:19 And it's written with all that attitude and that sensibility.

01:23 And for whatever reason, I can never get it made.

01:27 It had different stocks and stalls over the years, but nothing really serious.

01:33 So I never thought it was gonna even get made.

01:36 And then when it finally happened, the director version of me is 60.

01:42 And the writer version of me is 28.

01:44 And when I read through the script, I thought,

01:46 I don't think I do this that way anymore.

01:49 But I didn't wanna change it.

01:50 I wanted to respect the version of myself that wrote it in the first place,

01:55 back in whenever, 1990 or so.

02:00 So it's a 90s script in a sense.

02:04 [MUSIC]

02:06 >> It's incredible.

02:07 You live, you die.

02:10 It's the in between that counts.

02:13 [MUSIC]

02:19 >> I got a proposition for you.

02:20 Need you to take my boat out for a run.

02:22 >> You're okay, Pop.

02:23 >> No, because there must be a duality in that,

02:25 cuz you were from Charlie's point of view before.

02:28 And probably now either Tom or you can look at it almost from Tommy's perspective.

02:33 It's interesting in that dynamic.

02:35 >> Yeah, and in fact, I wrote it, I didn't have kids when I wrote it.

02:40 And when I directed it, I had two grown adult sons.

02:45 So I had two brothers to look at a lot and

02:49 see how their dynamic between each other and stuff.

02:51 So definitely I feel like I'm more in the Ben Tommy zone than I am in

02:56 the Charlie zone, and even the Mabel zone for that matter.

03:00 Cuz I was that kid too, that's my hometown, where she went to high school and

03:03 the movie is where I went to high school.

03:07 I had really no role models as far as wanting to get out of town and

03:12 having a sense that there was a bigger world out there, but

03:14 having no sort of way of getting a hold of it.

03:18 So she's partly me too in a sense.

03:21 >> Tom, I was wondering maybe you needed an extra deckhand.

03:25 My brother, I'm curious.

03:26 >> Curious about what, Charlie?

03:27 >> About me, about you too maybe.

03:29 [MUSIC]

03:30 >> We're gonna show you what real fishermen can do.

03:33 We're going to Canadian waters.

03:34 [MUSIC]

03:36 >> What happens if you get caught?

03:37 [MUSIC]

03:40 >> Getting caught is not an option.

03:42 >> Well, but also looking at the casting, because I've talked to Ben and

03:47 Clayton and a lot of people before.

03:49 It's really interesting to see the dynamic.

03:51 It's getting people out of their comfort zone and making them get into it.

03:56 And it's really interesting because the dialogue is whip smart in that way.

04:00 Even if you probably punched it up a little bit, I would think, a little bit,

04:04 Brian, or was it sort of as it was?

04:07 >> Maybe a bit.

04:09 I rewrote just the dialogue for Tommy.

04:12 I rewrote because he's from Texas.

04:15 He wasn't from Texas in the original script, but he's from Texas in the movie.

04:18 So his dialogue got a good going over.

04:21 It maybe claims to, it's a little smarter than I was able to write back then.

04:27 But basically, it's the same as it was, especially between the brothers and stuff.

04:33 >> Nice and slow, turn the knife upward and straight to me.

04:36 >> Yep.

04:37 >> Stay on that open, man.

04:38 >> Yeah, fuck.

04:41 >> It should all just come right off.

04:42 There you go.

04:42 >> Hey!

04:43 >> You have it?

04:44 >> Yeah!

04:45 >> There you go, you're an action.

04:46 >> Man, that was perfect, you see that?

04:48 >> That's beautiful.

04:49 >> Yeah.

04:50 You gotta find that rhythm.

04:52 >> Are you gonna dance while you're- >> Find that shock rhythm, yeah.

04:54 You do a shock dance, it helps you out.

04:55 >> Yeah, I can't even put the knife in it when I'm dancing like this.

04:58 >> I got a lot of natural rhythm anyway, you know?

05:00 >> But there's something really dynamic.

05:01 Because the thing is, is that a lot of movies just try to explain everything.

05:06 But sometimes they don't just do.

05:08 And like the diner scene, and the way the diner scene plays out is just bam,

05:13 visceral in your face, which you don't get quite often.

05:16 It's dramatic, it's intense.

05:18 And obviously, it keys into a lot of the work we did.

05:22 I mean, it's blending sort of that idea of the old school and the new generation.

05:28 Can you talk about sort of seeing that and

05:31 playing that in that sort of set piece, because it's dynamic as hell?

05:36 >> Yeah, no, well, he's underestimated these guys in a sense, the villain Weeks.

05:43 Not the guys that are his age, but he has, when Tommy Lee walks in that

05:49 coffee shop as a kind of sad sack character, which he is.

05:54 What I love about his performance there is he's not pretending to disarm them.

05:59 He's really that sad sack down on his heels guy, and has a plan obviously.

06:07 But yeah, it's just that the younger generation has underestimated

06:13 the older generation in that scene, and

06:16 what he's willing to do to look out for his kid.

06:22 So yeah, those great fun scenes to shoot, those scenes you rehearse,

06:27 and then it just starts to click right away with those guys, and

06:32 then you're off and running.

06:34 >> Let's find a big scar.

06:36 The big one's a different story.

06:38 You gotta flip your knife around, right?

06:39 Hold that, flip your knife around, right?

06:42 You gotta hit it hard and knock it out.

06:43 >> He didn't do that.

06:44 >> You gotta knock it, the big one's unconscious.

06:46 You gotta knock it out.

06:47 Hit it hard, you gotta knock it out.

06:48 >> [LAUGH] >> I'm joking, you don't gotta knock it.

06:52 >> But the fact that you've always written such sharp dialogue,

06:56 it must help with the directing.

06:57 Because not everybody can get that performance out of Tommy,

07:00 having talked so many times.

07:02 Tommy will say, I will say the line, but

07:04 you can see sort of the subtleness here, like there was pinpoint stuff.

07:09 Can you talk about that?

07:10 Because certain people need that.

07:12 I'm like Mel needs it in a certain way, I know.

07:15 But Tommy- >> I think,

07:18 this isn't a criticism, but it's kind of like, well, in sports,

07:22 when they say they'll play to the level of their competition.

07:26 A good team, if they play a bad team, won't try as hard.

07:31 Or if they play a better team, they try harder.

07:33 And it's not about effort, but I think he's experienced enough that he arrives and

07:40 he sees the appetite of the filmmakers and what they're trying to pull off.

07:45 And if you don't have, he's not gonna try,

07:48 he can't raise your ambition for the film if you don't have it.

07:54 So, but if you have it, he recognizes it.

07:57 And I think he's always good, but I think he ups his game a little bit

08:03 when he sees that that's what's going on around him.

08:05 [MUSIC]

08:07 >> Canadian Coast Guard.

08:08 [MUSIC]

08:12 >> Your vessel's been seized.

08:14 [MUSIC]

08:17 >> I got a $100,000 fine.

08:19 >> I'm gonna lose my father's boat.

08:20 [MUSIC]

08:22 >> I never should have trusted you.

08:24 I do not understand the way you're built.

08:26 >> You built me.

08:27 >> Environment, environment's always crucial in all of your scripts and

08:31 in all of your films.

08:32 Can you talk, obviously, it's uber important here because it's that area.

08:37 It's the ocean, it's the unknown.

08:39 Can you sort of talk about using environment to create psychological drama?

08:44 >> Yeah, I mean, the broad answer is that a film should always

08:49 take you to a place you can't go as an audience member.

08:53 And that could be outer space, it could be 1370, or

08:57 it can be the deck of a fishing boat.

09:00 So very few people in the audience are ever gonna experience what it's like to be

09:04 a commercial fisherman.

09:06 Just generally, it's gotta take you to that place.

09:10 And these guys are what they do.

09:13 Tony Scott used to always say to me,

09:17 I make movies about what people do for a living.

09:20 It's just they happen to be test pilots or NASCAR racers.

09:23 But really, all I wanna see is what they do for a living and how they do it.

09:28 And we'll put a story around that because you are what you do, in a sense,

09:32 in those jobs.

09:33 [MUSIC]

09:35 >> I can't help you.

09:36 You're gonna have to do just what I ask you to.

09:38 [MUSIC]

09:39 I like my resources.

09:40 We wanna do business.

09:41 >> Well, Mabel here says you guys are one time in, but if this works out,

09:44 this is it, one time only.

09:46 >> So it's that working from sort of outside in, in a way,

09:50 is what do they do and where do they do it?

09:54 And then that dictates a lot of things.

09:57 So on the ocean, they're very confident and

10:01 know what their place is and how to get things done.

10:05 They're unlucky, but on dry land, they're over their head.

10:11 When they get involved with these criminals,

10:14 they're way out of their league and it quickly unravels on them.

10:18 And so it's sort of that, it's the environment and what they do defines who

10:23 they are and defines the playing fields that they're good at and

10:27 where they're uncomfortable.

10:29 And it's kind of that simple, I think.

10:32 [MUSIC]

10:40 >> Do you know what line you're crossing right now?

10:42 >> I do think fishermen have a very dark kind of sense of humor because they're

10:47 always in sort of a some semi danger all the time.

10:50 So it gets a gallows humor to it.

10:52 And the one last thing I was gonna say is, as far as the story goes,

10:57 is like today, everything, the studios want everything spelled out.

11:01 The characters have to explain why they're good.

11:04 And instead of seeing who they are, there's a lot of explaining who they are.

11:10 Never believe someone when they tell you who they are,

11:12 cuz they don't have a good perspective on.

11:15 Anyways, nice to see you.

11:17 >> No, it's awesome.

11:18 Thank you very much.

11:19 Always great talking to you, Brian.

11:20 Continue success.

11:21 Can't wait to see what you do next.

11:22 Thank you, sir.

11:23 >> Thank you very much.

11:24 [MUSIC]

11:27 >> She set us up.

11:27 [MUSIC]

11:35 >> You live.

11:36 [MUSIC]

11:40 You die.

11:40 [MUSIC]

11:50 (dramatic music)

Category

Transcript

Recommended