Writer/Director William Shockley and Actor Dermot Mulroney talk to The Inside Reel about expectation, structure and perspective in regards to their new Western from Quiver: "Long Shadows".
00:27Using genre to sort of examine certain ideas, you know, obviously here with a certain aspect
00:37of this man and how he approaches, we're talking about dollar.
00:41Could you talk about using sort of that device to sort of explore certain ideas, you know,
00:48whether it be existential or on a base level with a Western in how he approaches, obviously,
00:55his journey, if you will?
00:58His twist, if you will.
01:00Yeah.
01:00And I don't want you to give away, but just.
01:02Yeah, no, I think that's really why the movie got greenlit, to be honest, was the journey
01:06that Marcus Dollar goes on.
01:08It's really never been explored on that level in a Western.
01:11And that was very appealing to me and my partners.
01:16And then you couple that with just great relationships, you know, tragic loss, good over evil, right
01:25over wrong, redemption.
01:26And with a second chance at life and love, and then a beautiful mentor like Dermot playing
01:32Dallas Garrett, weaves it all together.
01:35You know, I had a, you know, I can let Dermot speak to his part, but it was key to find someone
01:41like Dermot for that, to weave the story together with Marcus Dollar.
01:45To walk the line, as you will.
01:48Welcome to Purgatory.
01:51My mom, Paul, would kill my horse, Steve.
01:53You carry sorrow a mile deep.
02:00I had a feeling you'd be back one day.
02:03Sorry what happened here, folks.
02:05Six years I've been thinking about coming back here.
02:08Might be time for the Mexican to earn some bread and honey.
02:11Marcus, do you want company?
02:13You don't have to do that.
02:18Hey, you!
02:20Find her.
02:23Dermot, we've talked about this, and you were in another Western, an existential one a couple
02:28years ago at Sundance, about 10 years ago that we spoke of.
02:32But can you talk about, yeah, finding, because he has to walk this very fine line in terms of
02:38his identity, if you will, but also, you know, his being helpful, but also being mysterious.
02:46Can you talk about, that's a tonal thing, you know?
02:48Absolutely.
02:49And you mentioned a movie I hadn't thought of in relation to this.
02:54I think you're referring to The Rambler.
02:55So many Westerns carry that same mystical spirit, sometimes even supernatural.
03:04And of course, Sam Shepard's, one of his two films, Silent Tongue, that I appeared in with
03:11that incredible cast, that also had these other elements from other worlds.
03:19You know, I love the title for this, Long Shadows, and you're seeing different shadows of a self.
03:27I meet the lead character as a young man who needs guidance through to the adulthood.
03:36So the film has all these wonderful, iconic story pieces that fit so well in a Western,
03:47and then really help you almost in a, thanks to William's take on it, such a, almost a modern
03:53way of looking at the trauma of the past.
03:56You can see forever up here.
04:01It is my secret, either way.
04:15You're afraid of high places.
04:20And why do you come up here?
04:23I've been sad.
04:26To think.
04:37Drama is an interesting word, but I mean, the idea or the psychology or the identity of
04:42Dollar, William, can you sort of talk about that?
04:46Because it requires a certain direction to everyone, not just your main actor, but also
04:51to the Dermot, to Jacqueline, all these people and how they interact with them.
04:55Could you talk about finding sort of that balance of energy in directing the scenes, being obviously
05:00an actor yourself?
05:01You know what's needed.
05:01Well, that's what was so cool, like working with Dermot.
05:05You know, we speak the same language, and he's a rock star.
05:09So he had no trouble grasping my thoughts.
05:12So it was easy for Dermot to weave what I was feeling about how Dallas Garrett should be portrayed.
05:17And then with Jacqueline, she's equally, I mean, Jacqueline Bissette, give me a break.
05:22She's an icon.
05:23And Jacqueline came like a caged lioness.
05:26She was ready to go.
05:28So, and we talked, I talked to Jacqueline a lot prior to her arriving to set.
05:32So I got to know her, had dinner with her.
05:35She gave notes on the script in advance.
05:37So there was no, there was no question with Jacqueline.
05:40And then Dominic Monaghan was equally, Dominic's a fabulous professional, understood, you know,
05:45how to weave his character into the story and took, you know, just, hey, Dominic, it's
05:50this.
05:50He's like, I've got it, mate.
05:52You know, so it was beautiful.
05:54When you get, you know.
05:55Both performance, high degree of difficulty for both of them.
05:58But Dominic really takes that character on, makes such a strong performance in the film.
06:05William and I struck a, yeah, I think you said it, just sort of, you know, that's even
06:10what the character required, which is sort of this spirit balance.
06:14But in that, we really collaborated, William, if you recall, on the very specifics of the
06:20look of the character, how he was meant to be a reflection of some of what William wanted
06:26to say, some of what I brought to it from my life.
06:29So that was an amazing meeting of the minds, not great minds, but, you know, sometimes
06:37you put mediocre minds together and it's a great combo.
06:41But I definitely felt that when I started working with William, yeah.
06:45Our orphan boy stands trial tomorrow.
06:48And the Mexican girl knows everything.
06:52It's only a matter of time till they string our necks.
06:55He told you to find them.
07:00It's what I get for sending a half-man like you.
07:03Shut up.
07:05You're the one who killed Myra, not me.
07:08Myra was giving drugs to my girls.
07:11I wasn't trying to kill her.
07:13I was trying to teach her a lesson.
07:15Well, I'll not pay for your sins.
07:20You make out your savoury of these soiled doves, us bollocks.
07:24You're the devil.
07:24You watch your tongue.
07:26Well, the thing that you were talking also about a reflection, talking about Blaine,
07:29because Blaine has to show this vulnerability.
07:32And yet he looks up to your character, Dermot, as sort of a representation of, you know,
07:38and I love that one flashback, which I don't want to give away too much,
07:42when you're in town on the horse and he recognizes a gunslinging element.
07:46That's very great foreshadowing.
07:48But it's also, it's almost like a mirror reflection, how you want to be perceived and the perspective you're looking at.
07:56Could you talk about perspective and perception in that way?
07:59Yeah, well, there's so much left to mystery in this story.
08:03And I guess you'd call them twists come even unexpectedly because of the way the filmmakers set up classic Western feels.
08:16So it really gives you a turn.
08:19Any film, any story telling like that where there's a twist at the end, you know,
08:24it's really a fun project to sort of reverse engineer it, you know,
08:30so that you're not giving too much away or you're not leaving red herrings.
08:35There's like none of that in this movie.
08:37It's so wonderful not to have something, oh, I think he's going to be the bad guy,
08:41or that must have been what happened.
08:44This tells it straight like it is.
08:46I just mean that's something where you kind of lose the intensity of a movie
08:51if you're trying to mislead people on purpose so you can, this just really comes.
08:55Well, it isn't trying to be too clever for its own good.
08:57Yeah, or try to cover your tracks a little bit.
09:00This doesn't do that, and guess what?
09:02It really, the trap snaps shut when you least expect it.
09:06It's a wonderful, wonderful, what would you say, third act in this film?
09:11What that gang did to him?
09:13I don't know!
09:15He's fighting demons.
09:17They're all fighting demons, was he?
09:18I saw the man who killed my pa.
09:20How can you be so sure?
09:21I'll never forget his face.
09:23Calling the man out ain't a halfway gang.
09:26You going to teach me how to draw?
09:27Let's kill or be killed.
09:36You're asking for the grave.
09:37I told you to find them.
09:40I hope I will see you at end.
09:42Marcus Tower must and will stand trial for murder.
09:45I mean, William, can you talk about, you know, structure?
09:49Because the thing is that you know Westerns well, you know what works, but then looking
09:54at what Dermot was saying, sort of classical structure, but also making it sort of because these people, it silences so much more than too much exposition, if you will.
10:04A hundred percent.
10:05I mean, having started my life as an actor, there's nothing better than just to let something breathe.
10:11You know, a great actor just can look at you and you feel a thousand different things.
10:16So we let this film breathe.
10:17We let it be human.
10:20You know, we took our time.
10:21We're not, you know, we didn't feel the, at least I didn't feel the need to go, bam, bam, bam, bam, here it is, here it is.
10:26Like Dermot said, you know, mislead.
10:29It was just like the story is honestly complex enough.
10:32And we tell it in a way that we go back to the past from time to time to weave the future and the current moment together.
10:39So if you, if you stay off your phone and just keep watching the movie, you'll, I think you'll be quite entertained.
10:45I'm trying to steer you clear from winding up like me.
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