WAMG Interview: Actor John Carroll Lynch – Director of LUCKY

Actor John Carroll Lynch first caught the attention of moviegoers in 1996 when he played Frances McDormand’s husband in FARGO (“People don’t much use the three-cent stamp”). A native of Boulder, Colorado, Lynch spent the next decade popping up in supporting roles in a variety of films including VOLCANO, FACE/OFF, and GOTHIKA. It was his chilling, scene-stealing turn in David Fincher’s ZODIAC in 2007 that made moviegoers really take notice and when he went from being ‘that Norm Gunderson guy’ to ‘John Carroll Lynch, – dynamic character actor’.  Lynch continued to impress in roles on the big screen in films like GRAN TORINO, SHUTTER ISLAND, JACKIE (where he played Lyndon Johnson), and THE FOUNDER, where he played one of the McDonald brothers. On the small screen he’s entertained audiences as John Wayne Gacy on American Horror Story and even had his own stand-alone episode of The Walking Dead. Now John Carroll Lynch has directed his first film. It’s a drama called LUCKY starring Harry Dean Stanton as a 90-year old atheist on a spiritual journey. LUCKY, which co-stars Ron Livingston, Ed Begley Jr, David Lynch, James Darren, and Tom Skerritt, is currently on the festival circuit and will be opening in theaters across the country this fall. John Carroll Lynch took the time to talk to We Are Movie Geeks about his directorial debut and about working with the legendary Harry Dean Stanton. This interview was conducted the day before Harry Dean Stanton’s death at the age of 91.

Interview conducted by Tom Stockman September 14th, 2017

John Carrol Lynch with Frances McDormand in FARGO and in David Fincher’s ZODIAC

Tom Stockman: I’d like to say I’ve been a fan of your acting for many years, from FARGO and ZODIAC and beyond.

John Carroll Lynch: Thank you.

TS: My favorite John Carroll Lynch moment though is when you sacrificed yourself by walking through the lava in VOLCANO

JCL: Ha! That’s taking it back. That’s some real world stuff right there.

John Carrol Lynch in VOLCANO

TS: Let’s talk about LUCKY. I was fortunate enough to watch it over the weekend and really enjoyed it. Congratulations.

JCL: Thank you so much.

TS: How did this movie LUCKY become your directorial debut?

JCL: One of the writers, Logan Sparks, is a good friend of mine. The writers were getting the piece together and they approached me. They had written it with Harry Dean Stanton in mind, obviously. They really wanted it to be a party for him. They had asked a friend of his to direct and they wanted to know if I wanted to play a part in the film. I read it and thought it was a lovely script and agreed to play a part. Then they were struggling to keep in touch with the director. He was very busy doing a lot of different things. During the summer of 2015, they called me. Logan knew that I had been wanting to direct for a long time and they asked if I was interested in directing, since it wasn’t working out with this other guy, who just didn’t have time to commit. So I talked to them about what I thought the movie should look like and feel like and we started working on the script from there.

TS: You said you’ve been wanting to direct film for a long time. When did you decide that you wanted to direct?

JCL: Oh, I’ve been wanting to get in the director’s chair for 10 or 15 years. I’ve never directed anything, not even short films. I’ve tried to leverage myself into the director’s chair with several television projects that I’ve been involved in, but most of the time that happens in the third season of a television show and while I’ve had a wonderful career, I have not been in any third seasons, so I didn’t get there that way. I’ve been writing with a writing partner and all the pieces that we have written have ended up being more ambitious than a first time director should tackle.

TS: What were some of the unexpected challenges of directing a movie for the first time?

JCL: There were a lot of challenges that I did expect, but there were a lot of days making this film, especially in preproduction, where I had a level of discomfort. I wasn’t quite sure whether I liked doing it or not. Then I remembered, back when I was learning how to act, this is how it felt then as well. I realized that the discomfort that I was feeling was about learning, about not knowing and figuring it out. There was so much to learn. While I had been around production a lot, reproduction was new to me. I absolutely loved it, especially collaborating with the DP and the art director and the costume designer and the producers on the project and building the mold for the piece. And postproduction as well, I just fell in love with all the aspects of that, things that I have never done before.  The real challenge was the kind of quick study that I had.

TS: Where was LUCKY shot and how long did it take to shoot?

JCL: We had a very short schedule. 18 days, which is a especially short when you have an 89-year-old actor in every scene, so we staggered the schedule over more weeks than three. We shot through most of the month of June in 2015 and then part of July. We shot mostly in Los Angeles with two days where we shot in Cave Creek, Arizona.

TS: Let’s talk about Harry Dean Stanton. He’s 91 now. You said he was 89 when the film was shot. What was his energy like?

JCL: His energy was needed because it’s a lot of work. I had done an 18-day shoot just before this as an actor and I’m twice his size and half his age, and I was exhausted, so needless to say, it was a lot for him to take on. And on top of that, he was really close to the material. It was inspired and based on his life and his personality and his character. This was some very personal material, and because of that he was proprietary in a way that I don’t think he would’ve been in a feature that wasn’t based on him. There was a lot of negotiation around what was in the movie and who Lucky was and who Harry Dean is. One of the basic tenants of Harry Dean, one of the things that he is absolutely rabid about, is that he’s not acting, and he’s not going to do that. He’s himself, and that’s one of the challenges for a director, to direct someone who’s not going to act.

TS: You said the movie is a tribute to Harry Dean Stanton. There’s a wonderful scene in LUCKY where Harry Dean Stanton swaps war stories with another old vet that he meets played by Tom Skerritt. Tell me about that scene. Was Harry Dean Stanton telling his own story there?

JCL: Yes, Harry Dean tells the story of the LST (Tank Landing Ship) that he was on in World War II. It’s in the guise of Lucky, but it’s his true story. He was a cook on an LST in the Navy and then was assigned as an anti-aircraft a guy on that ship. That was absolutely his story. Now Tom Skerritt’s story was a construct, but it was inspired by true stories that were told to the writers by various family members that had served in the war.

TS: Skerritt was likely too young for World War II.

JCL: Just barely.

TS: And those two actors were reunited from ALIEN almost 40 years later, which will be of interest to fans of that film.

JCL: Yes. That was the first time they had worked together since ALIEN.

TS: What about the Mariachi music? Did Harry Dean Stanton provide some of that himself? I know he has a Mariachi band.

JCL: Harry Dean was so deferential to the Mariachi band were used for the film, and they were fantastic.  He just loves Mariachi music, and the song played in the film, Volver Volver, is one of his favorites. He had performed it many times before, so yes, that came from him as well. LUCKY all kind of a flowed from him. This story was created to emphasize or to encapsulate the worldview that Harry had come to after 89 years of life.

TS: He’s a great actor. What about David Lynch? How did he get involved in this project and what was he like? No relation, I assume.

JCL: No relation to me and no relation to Ryan Sparky Lynch who was a gaffer on the Film. Harry Dean suggested David for the part since he had been in seven of his films. They’re very close friends. I had seen David’s acting before and had seen him with Henry in a documentary called PARTLY FICTION.  That relationship on screen in that documentary certainly convinced me that Lynch would make a wonderful choice for the part of Howard and he really exceeded expectations in every way. He’s just tremendous in the film and was very generous to appear in it since he was in the midst of postproduction on Twin Peaks. He worked for us for two days and that’s a lot of material for just two days.

TS: As an actor you’ve worked for, among others, Joel Coen and Clint Eastwood and David Fincher. Is there a Director out there that you would like to work with as an actor that you haven’t had the chance yet?

JCL: There are plenty. I just watched a new, terrific movie by Taylor Sheridan. I’ve had the chance to work with Karyn Kusama who I think is tremendous.  I’d like to work with her again. There are a lot of directors that I’ve worked with and would aspire to work with. I’d love to work with Quentin Tarantino. There are so many wonderful directors out there but now that I’ve directed myself, I’d love to direct again. I’ve learned a lot and I’d like to apply it to other movies and other material.

TS: I saw you in JACKIE last year where you were convincing as Lyndon Johnson. Do you enjoy playing real life characters and does that bring a special challenge?

JCL: It does, especially with someone is iconic as LBJ. My father was an aid to a senator, John Carroll, when he was at law school in DC in the 1950s and he knew Lyndon Johnson. It was funny that my father, who is 86, said that you know you’re an old fart when your youngest son is playing LBJ. My dad had a small part in LUCKY. He’s in one of the bar scenes.

TS: And Beth Grant played Lady Bird Johnson in JACKIE and she has a plum role in LUCKY as well.

JCL: Yes, she was very nice to come aboard LUCKY. We were so fortunate that she said yes and she did a terrific job in the movie. So much of the casting was Rolodex or contact list casting, people that you could get with one phone call. That’s how she came aboard and Ron Livingston came aboard, and obviously how David Lynch came aboard.  And also James Darren who had worked with producer Iver Steven Behr on Deep Space Nine.

TS: I remember James Darren from Time Tunnel.

JCL: He’s had an incredible career, just amazing.  Started as an actor, became a singer, and then went back to acting then back to singing, and now hopefully he’ll get more chances to act.

TS: How has LUCKY been received so far?

JCL: It’s been an amazing ride so far. You make a movie that you hope is going to be good. You’re risking people’s money because you don’t have distribution to start. You get it at a festival and it’s extraordinarily well received.  The reviews are great so now a distributor comes aboard and you get distribution for the feature and they’re really supporting it.

TS: Have you been traveling to these film festivals with the film?

JCL: I went to South by Southwest. I’ve gone to a few of them, yes, and I will continue to as the movie goes towards its national and Canadian releases.

TS: You said you’d like to direct again. Are you looking at scripts? What are your plans?

JCL: My writing partner and I are writing a feature right now and other writers have some projects that I want to foster. I think it will come that way, the same kind of work that LUCKY came about. With luck, this will do well and if it does well financially, investors might be interested. That’s kind of what you hope for. Clint Eastwood’s idea of bringing it in on time and under budget and making a movie that makes money is an intoxicating thing for people in the film industry.

TS: I look forward to seeing LUCKY again, next time on the big screen. What’s next for John Carroll Lynch acting wise?

JCL: I’ve done two small screen things. No-End House, which is coming on next weekend and running for six weeks. It’s a horror anthology series on the Syfy channel and I think it’s going to be really good.  Then I did this crazy show called Crawford that will be on Comedy Central in late winter or early spring. It’s written and directed by the same person that made Trailer Park Boys. It’s really funny, a  family comedy about pot, cereal and raccoons. It’s crazy.

TS: Sounds interesting. I look forward to that. Congratulations again with LUCKY. Terrific film and thanks for taking the time to talk with me.

JCL: Thank you very much I really appreciate it.