IR Interview: Neal McDonough & Jon Avnet For “The Last Rodeo” [Angel] - Part II - video Dailymotion

The Inside Reel

Writer/Actor Neal McDonough & Director Jon Avnet talk to The Inside Reel about truth, stakes and context in regards to their new film from Angel Studios: "The Last Rodeo."

Transcript

00:00You got to focus, Joe.

00:16I'm in my seat.

00:17I only ask once.

00:19That went well.

00:20Yeah, very.

00:21Be patient with her.

00:22She loves you fiercely.

00:25Can Joe Wainwright keep up?

00:27I'm fine.

00:27Of course you are.

00:28That's a genuine, true legend right there.

00:31Lord, I'm out of for the show on time.

00:33Here we go.

00:35Come on, Joe.

00:36Get in.

00:37Get in.

00:39You're also leaving one thing out.

00:40You were prepared, right?

00:42Prepared.

00:42Well, that was Reveille.

00:43My wife Reveille will wake me up at 3 o'clock in the morning, go, and there'll be a soliloquy

00:48that I have to deliver, and I'll have to, at 3 o'clock in the morning, recite it off to

00:52her, so I have a great life coach and my wife Reveille as well.

00:55Well, he had a partner in producing with him.

00:57But, you know, Neil, the only thing I was worried about was that Neil was ready to do

01:01the movie six months before we started shooting.

01:03And occasionally, at meetings, I'd say, Neil, back off.

01:06Now, John?

01:07Now?

01:07Hold it.

01:08Now, John?

01:08And so he was there and prepared, and so was Michael T., and so was Sarah Jones.

01:13And in that professional environment, and Chris McDonald, I mean, you know, they're there

01:19to work.

01:19And for me, it's to play.

01:22You know, you want to feel like you can do the worst thing in the world, and you'll get

01:27another chance.

01:28Right.

01:28And dare to be bad, because if you don't dare and push yourself, and you're not a little

01:32scared, you're never going to be great.

01:34And that's what we're hoping for.

01:36You know, and again, I don't want to, you know, beat a dead horse, but you look at Neil

01:41when he's not talking in some of these scenes.

01:43Look at his face.

01:44Look how there he is.

01:46You can't fake that.

01:48Nobody can direct that.

01:50That's an actor who's prepared, who's there, who cares.

01:54And, you know, sometimes if you mention it to Neil, it's like, huh?

01:57You know, he's so inherently modest about this stuff, not because he's an introvert.

02:01He's obviously capable of handling himself in any situation.

02:06But the emotional truth that he brought to this was something that was just grounded the

02:11whole story to me.

02:12You allowed us to have fun.

02:14Good.

02:19Come on, focus, Joe.

02:21It's your own, Charlie.

02:22I'm trying.

02:29Finally, listen to the wise one.

02:34Joe, now, he's crazy, and then he's stupid.

02:37I'm grandfathered in, right?

02:38Well, he right about that granddad part.

02:40This is me enjoying myself.

02:42I'll see you at once.

02:43He's acting like a dying pig.

02:47Whoa.

02:47All right, now, we're going for it, man.

02:51Give me a big nod.

02:55He's actually grandfathered in.

02:57He was born before 1993, so he's old enough to decide if he wants to ride the helmet or

03:02a cowboy hat.

03:03Well, John, to ask about, like, the prep, because obviously, you know, it sounds like

03:07Neil was ready to go, but to do all those sequences, you know, and balance the fact

03:12of seeing him in certain ones, obviously, you had some people that you had to have in

03:15some of this as well, of course.

03:18Could you talk about finding the details, finding those moments?

03:21I mean, I love the moment where, you know, you're being taped up, and it's such a small,

03:27it's a small thing, but it's like, get me back out there.

03:30And it's something so precise that I think it had to be everybody working on all cylinders

03:36to make the stakes of that moment reflect the stakes that you feel, then, in the arena.

03:42Again, I blame Neil for, you know, the good stuff.

03:45You know, I did prep it, and a lot of the stuff Derek and Neil wrote about bull riding,

03:50they didn't know what they were doing.

03:52I didn't know anything about it.

03:53So we spent time going to the PBR events.

03:56We educated ourselves separately and jointly.

03:58And, you know, and because of, you know, the people who we were affiliated, which was

04:03the PBR and Sean Gleeson, they basically told us a lot of mistakes that were in the script.

04:09Obviously, I tried to fix them.

04:10And then the really challenging thing was to make the bull riding better than anything

04:17we'd seen and hopefully anybody had seen.

04:20And how do you do that?

04:22It's challenging.

04:23You know, again, I didn't have to worry about my knucklehead friends here other than keeping

04:28him from hurting himself.

04:30Because like many leading men, he's a great athlete.

04:33He can take pain.

04:35And my job is to keep him from hurting himself.

04:38That's right.

04:38But, you know, in that context, you know, we had Buddy Joe Hooker, who's a legendary stunt

04:43coordinator who we've worked with multiple times.

04:45I have.

04:46And then figuring out, you know, how to put the camera position.

04:49And then the ultimate element was the editor, Tom Costantino, who happens to be my son-in-law,

04:55who I can never get to hire because he only works for Seth MacFarlane.

04:58He crushed it.

05:00He did a great job.

05:01He crushed it.

05:02So Tom took what we shot, which was a lot of footage, and the concept we had, and he did

05:09something great with it.

05:10But again, if you look at these sequences, I mean, the audience looks at it once.

05:15Maybe they like it.

05:15They want to see it again.

05:16You look at Neil's close-ups there.

05:19We couldn't find any close-ups in other bull-riding movies that we thought were good.

05:24And more importantly, Sean Gleeson at the PBR was disappointed in them.

05:28So one of the things we wanted to do was to shoot them well.

05:31So even if I could figure out how to do that, and I think I came up with something, you've

05:35got to have the actor there.

05:37You don't have to worry about that.

05:38So if the camera does what it has to, I got my partner over here, and guess what?

05:43He's there.

05:43Joe is focused on winning the biggest pilot of the year.

05:48This match-up is about to be high voltage, and I can promise you one thing.

05:52This man is fearless.

05:54Well, will the Cinderella story continue here?

05:59Tiny Tim and Wayne, here we go.

06:02And then the one thing that we learned beforehand and became very important was a bull ride is

06:26eight seconds if you stay on, right?

06:29So it's all about the anticipation and the build-up of that, and that goes all back to

06:34character and to him and his relationship with Sally and him and his relationship with

06:39his grandson.

06:40You know, these are the things he's bringing there.

06:42And what's Michael T. saying to him?

06:44Focus.

06:45If you can't focus, you've got no business being on a bull.

06:49And what does Neil say?

06:51I'm trying.

06:52You know what I mean?

06:53And he is trying.

06:55So, and what Michael T. is saying is correct.

06:58So the stakes are very high on a lot of levels, including on the most personal level to his

07:03character.

07:04And in this case, Neil, because he was writing a story that was so personal.

07:09But I want to say one thing.

07:11So Sean Gleason, who's the head of the PBR, this is his baby, right?

07:14He's been with PBR since, I think, 1997.

07:18So to win him over was obviously the goal for John and I and everyone else involved.

07:23We had a screening two weeks ago in Dallas.

07:25And at the end of the screening, and here we are nervous because John created these new

07:30shots that had never been seen on a bull.

07:32Certain things of guys walking down the chutes that had never been seen in PBR.

07:36All these new things added to what the pre-existing shots of PBR really are.

07:41We sat next to Sean and the film's over.

07:44He walks up to me, he puts his big bear claws on my shoulder and goes, that is now my new

07:49favorite film of all time.

07:50As tears were welled up in his eyes.

07:52I was, wow.

07:53To get that compliment from Sean Gleason to say, that stamp of approval, you nailed it,

07:57John.

07:58You did what you had to do.

08:01Wow.

08:02So you did both of you.

08:03One of the things I think I do well is I listen well to the actors.

08:07If Neil has an idea, I don't say explain it.

08:09I say do it.

08:10Sarah had some ideas.

08:12I listened.

08:12They were great.

08:13Michael T, the same thing.

08:14Again, I've worked with all these actors.

08:16Most directors, you have to explain it to them.

08:18And then it takes 15 minutes of conversation.

08:20And by the time you get to shooting it, it's not organic anymore.

08:23Right?

08:24With John, it's like, I've got an idea.

08:25Great.

08:25Do it.

08:26Don't you want to talk about it?

08:27No.

08:27Do it.

08:28And then we see what it is.

08:30And guess what?

08:30Often, if not more than often, they're good ideas because they understand the characters.

08:36So in some ways, it's both being encouraging and staying out of the way.

08:41You know?

08:41And what Sarah brought made that last scene, which I'm not going to talk about.

08:46So good.

08:47This ain't the senior circuit.

08:54Good luck.

08:54You're going to need it.

08:56Joe Wainwright competing at over 50 years younger.

09:00I'm grandfathered in, right?

09:01You're right about that granddad part.

09:04Come on, Joe!

09:06His grandson's sick.

09:08And he's got to earn money.

09:10That's why he's evil.

09:11He's got to earn money.

IR Interview: Neal McDonough & Jon Avnet For “The Last Rodeo” [Angel] - Part II

Category

Transcript

Recommended