Tag: John hawkes

Tyler Nilson and Michael Schwartz are the writer and director team behind the new film PEANUT BUTTER FALCON. Filmed in Savannah, Georgia (standing in for North Carolina’s Outer Banks), PEANUT BUTTER FALCON tells the story of Zak (Zack Gottsagen) , a young man with Down Syndrome who runs away from his care home to make his dream of becoming a wrestler come true. PEANUT BUTTER FALCON opens everywhere August 23rd and co-stars Shia LaBeouf, John Hawkes, Dakota Johnson, Thomas Haden Church, and Bruce Dern.

Writer/directors Tyler Nilson and Michael Schwartz took the time to talk to We Are Movie Geeks about their project.

Interview conducted by Tom Stockman August 23rd 2019

Tom Stockman: Congratulations on PEANUT BUTTER FALCON.

Tyler Nilson: Thanks.

TS: I watched it on my computer the other day. 

 Mike Schwartz: How does it play on the small screen?

TS: Funny you should say that, There are so many beautiful exteriors in your film I kept thinking “dammit, I should be watching this on the big screen”

TN: Yes, we are movie geeks too. With all the shots our cinematographer used and all the lenses, it’s so great for us to be able to see it at the theater. 

TS: I saw over at the Rotten Tomatoes site that it registers 100% on their Tomato Meter. That must make you guys feel pretty good  

MS: It feels really good right now.

TN: We’ve got something to lose!  We can only go downhill from there.

MS: Yes, I look at that every couple of days wondering when it’s going to go down.  It took us five years to make this film, from the idea to where it is now, so for people to watch it at all now, much less to like it, feels really special. 

TS: It’s your first feature, correct?

TN: Yes, we have never made a feature. We had made a couple of shorts and commercials.

TS: And look at all of the people you have in your film! You’ve got Oscar nominees starring in your first film!

MS: Yes three of them!  Bruce Dern, John Hawkes, and Thomas Haden Church. 

TS: How did you get such a great cast for your first film? 

TN: A miracle.

  MS: I think our producers really called in some favors, but not always does it go like that.  I think people responded nicely to our script.  The reason it took us five years is that we wrote the script for Zack and we couldn’t get anyone else to read it for almost a year.  Then we grabbed a camera with our buddy Dave and we shot a trailer starring Zack and with Tyler playing the role that Shia LeBoeuf plays.  After that, people started reaching out to us. Even Shia facetimed us and said he wanted to be in the film.  He hadn’t even finished reading the script and he wanted to make it.

 TS: Let’s talk about this fellow Zack Gottsagen. You say you wrote the part for him. Where did you meet him? 

TN: We met him at a camp for people with and without disabilities. They get together and they play sports and sometimes they make short films.  We were making a film as part of this camp and Zack acted in our film and he was making very smart acting decisions   He been acting all his life and he said that he wanted to be a movie star. That’s what he wanted in life.  We figured that wouldn’t be easy for him because there are not a lot of characters written that have Downs Syndrome or people making movies starring people with Downs Syndrome, but he really wanted to do this. We tailored the script for him. 

TS: Did the fact that he had Down Syndrome affect his ability to memorize his lines? 

MS: Having Down Syndrome is a different ability, I don’t even know if I’d say it’s a disability.  One way it affected production was that Zack was very present on set as well as being emotionally available and intelligent.  He wasn’t just saying the line. He was having a conversation.  Some of the lines he just came up with on his own on the spot.  I think being so present gave him a leg up and made him a better actor in many ways.  It was almost like a superpower instead of a disability. Some of the other actors were intimidated when doing a scene with Zack because he was not faking it, he was living it.  It’s such a high bar to reach and if you don’t match him there, it looks like you’re faking it.  It’s an intimidating thing.

TS: I felt like the chemistry between Zack and Shia LeBoeuf was very strong.  It’s really the heart of the film. Were they buddies off-screen as well? 

TN: Yes. We had an old truck on the set. The truck that John Bernthal drives in the movie. Tyler and I went to pick up Shia. Zack was in the back sitting in an old tire   Then Shia got in the back and we drove down to an old shrimp dock  on the coast and the two of them just hit it off like old friends.  They chatted for hours and watched wrestling together   It was a real friendship. They weren’t faking it. 

TS: Has Zack been a big part of helping to promote this film? 

MS: Yes. He’s taping a Today Show segment today and recently did a People Magazine interview. 

  TS: I know you showed this film at SXSW. Has Zack to some of these film festivals? 

TN: Yes we just saw him two days ago at a film festival in Bloomington. He’s going to be out doing The Tonight Show and Good Morning America soon. 

TS: How does he feel about all of this? 

MS: He loves it. He always gets a standing ovation when we are at a screening   He’s very proud. 

TS: How did Dakota Johnson get involved in your film? This must’ve been right around the time the Fifty Shades of Grey films were coming out. 

TN: Yes, it was right after the last one had come out.  She read the script and wanted to be in our film. We spoke to her on the phone and connected with her.  We offered her the role. There were no auditions for that part.

TS: What would she like on the set?

TN: Perfect! 

MS: Just a goddess. She really loved Zack as well   She was used to doing much bigger films so she came on our set, where we had less money and the actors did not have fancy trailers,  but she really connected emotionally.  It was like a family   Or, in a way, it felt like  summer camp   We really have to give a lot of credit to our producers. If we did not have Oscar-nominated producers, a lot of these actors would not have taken a risk with it. 

TS: What was it like working with Shia LeBoeuf at that particular point in his career?  There was some controversy with things he had done soon before that.

TN: Yes, but he was great.

MS: Yes, he’s had some controversy, but he’s an artist   Working with him was a dream despite what he may have done in his personal life. There is a story that he tells about being with Zack and being at a birthday party and Zack having a conversation with him about what he does off the set.  Zack told him that it was his big chance to be in a movie and to please just be there with him.   Shia said in a interview with Esquire Magazine that Zack changed his life for the better.  He’s on record as saying that this film saved his life.

TS: We find out about halfway through the film that the title PEANUT BUTTER FALCON refers to a wrestling character.  Who came up with that title? 

TN: We were just hanging out with Zack one day and divine intervention, or whatever that thing that comes down to writers is, just sort of came down on all of us. 

TS: It’s a catchy title. It doesn’t make sense when you first look at it. Sort of like VANILLA SKY, but it catches your attention. 

TN: Yes. But there’s THE MALTESE FALCON and The Millennial Falcon, the words just feel good together.

TS: It takes place on the Outer Banks of North Carolina but you guys filmed it in Savannah, Georgia. Why did you choose Savannah?  

MS: Mainly because of tax advantages and access to the crew, but really the story worked well there.  We had the inland waterways and we had the marshes and the whole rural south.  It takes so many people to make a movie, and they have some great people there in Savannah  The Outer Banks is great, but there’s simply not a lot of people there that make movies. 

TS: What were some of the challenges filming in Savannah? 

MS: Probably the same as if we had filmed in North Carolina. It was hot.  There were 14-foot tidal shifts that made sets disappear.  The scene we called the “walk on water“ scene we shot in 15 minutes   The ocean went up 14 feet just a half hour later, so we were in a boat filming on sand that is completely underwater later  

TS: This is your first feature and you two are co-directing. Describe the co-directing process  

TN: We’ve been working together for 10 years  I think we both just had a skill set that worked well together and there’s not a lot of ego.  Half the time he’ll come up with a better idea than I have and sometimes I’ll come up with a better idea.  When you’re on a movie set, things are moving so fast it works nicely that one of us could go connect with Shia a while the other can be talking to a crewmember. It’s almost like it goes twice as fast. 

TS: How long have you guys known each other?

MS: Over 13 years.

TS: Where did you to grow up? 

TN: I grew up in Outer Banks North Carolina  

MS: And I grew up in Sonoma, in northern California  

TS: Tell me about the wrestler guys that appear at the end of your film. How about this big guy named Sampson? 

TN: Those guys are real professional wrestlers.  Guys like Nick Foley and Jake Foley who played Sampson, also known as “Jake the Snake“   Those guys are like wrestling royalty.  We were hoping that those guys would agree to play parts, and we were so lucky that they agreed to  

TS: You said you guys are Movie Geeks. What are your favorite top two or three movies? 

TN: Well I can’t just say two or three. You have to give me 12! 

MS: My list to changes all the time but I really love  movies where dreams come true.  FIELD OF DREAMS to me is one of the best.

TN: I’ll give you three real quick: DANCES WITH WOLVES,  BOTTLE ROCKET, and IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER. 

TS: Good luck with your film and I look forward to seeing it again, next time on the big screen! 

MS and TS: Thanks!