The Big Picture

National Anthem
follows a young man’s journey in a community of queer ranchers and rodeo performers in New Mexico.
Mason Alexander Park’s was encouraged to ad-lib, adding to the authenticity of the dialogue.
Director Luke Gilford recommends a Western movie that inspired him while making the film.

National Anthem may be Luke Gilford’s directorial debut, but he’s no stranger to making art. He’s photographed some of Hollywood’s biggest stars, including Kristen Stewart, Jeremy Allen White, Hunter Schafer, and Bella Hadid, and directed music videos for artists like Troye Sivan and Kesha. His pictures have been displayed in prestigious venues around the world, including MoMA in New York and FOAM in Amsterdam, as well as The New York Times, Vanity Fair, and Vogue. In 2020, he published his first photography monograph, National Anthem, which documents America’s queer rodeo subculture — something near and dear to his heart since he grew up going to rodeos with his family.

It makes sense, then, that his first narrative feature is a film adaptation of the same name. The drama follows Dylan (Charlie Plummer), a 21-year-old construction worker who joins a community of queer ranchers and rodeo performers — including the magnetic Sky (Eve Lindley) and outgoing Carrie (Mason Alexander Park) — and finds himself in the process. This is one of Park’s first film roles as well, though they’ve already accumulated an impressive resume that includes stage and TV projects like Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Quantum Leap, and The Sandman.

Collider got the chance to speak with Gilford and Park about balancing chosen and biological family plotlines, favorite ad-libs, and the Western movies they’d recommend.

National Anthem (2024) National Anthem follows a 21-year-old construction worker named Dylan, played by Charlie Plummer, who joins a community of queer rodeo performers in rural New Mexico. This new environment allows Dylan to explore his identity and seek his version of the American dream.Release Date July 12, 2024 Director Luke Gilford Cast Charlie Plummer , Robyn Lively , Eve Lindley , Mason Alexander Park , Rene Rosado , Kimberley Christann Pember Runtime 99 Minutes

‘National Anthem’ Explores Chosen Family Without Forgetting Biological Family

COLLIDER: First of all, congratulations on this movie — it’s such a beautiful, special movie, and I’m really excited to talk to you guys about it. I love that the movie focuses on chosen family and biological family. I feel like it’s really rare that we get both playing a really big, complex role in a single movie. Luke, I’m curious why you wanted to include the arcs with Dylan’s little brother and his mom in addition to sort of him finding his people at the rodeo.

LUKE GILFORD: I really wanted to show this process of one finding chosen family but also coming to terms with and sort of healing the connection to the biological family. I think that so often in stories like this, it’s about finding the chosen family, and that’s it. And then like, “Too bad about your biological family — happy pride.” I just really wanted to offer something that was about kind of the discovery of both through that process of discovery in oneself.

And also, I think that, in this world that we’re living in, the mom sort of represents this kind of older way of thinking — a bit more conservative. And I wanted to show that, you know, even the proximity to this community opens her up to new possibilities and opens her heart, opens her mind beyond these confines of the labels and boxes that can’t really contain who we are. And the same thing for the brother, too, that the way that he’s given a space to explore is a healthy and normal part of growing up. So yeah, it was very intentional.

Mason Alexander Park Loved Ad-Libbing on ‘National Anthem’
Image via Variance Films

You’ve talked a lot about how you encourage improvisation, and I think that really shines through in how natural dialogue feels. One of my favorite lines is actually from you, Mason, when you’re like, “Ugh, this one is so transphobic.” Because I feel like it just really captures how queer people actually talk to each other. I’m curious if you can talk about finding those moments of authenticity, not only with Luke as a director but also with your fellow actors.

MASON ALEXANDER PARK: Well, thank you. That was one of my favorite ad-libs. I knew when I said it, Luke came over and was like, “I’m using this.” Because it was — the wind really was transphobic. [Laughs] But the really amazing thing about this film and about the community that Luke sort of built within everybody who worked on it was there was this inherent trust and this built-in comfort that I think we all had with each other as artists, as creatives, and just as people.

And so Luke put together a group of people that he obviously trusted enough to be able to say, “Okay.” We would talk through certain moments, but a lot of times things would just happen, and things would come out, and it was always encouraged. It was never an affront to the creative process, which I think allowed us to really make the most out of certain moments if something organically was happening and we were responding to the world around us like we would in real life, which you don’t get every day — and especially not when you only have 17 days to shoot on 35-millimeter film. Like we had no business improvving — we had no business improvving — and yet, we still got such an ‘okay’ with certain things.

But also, the script was just in such remarkable shape that it really informed so much of it. So yeah, I am forever grateful that Luke allowed me to be myself and to show up as myself and say stupid, silly things that I would say in real life as Carrie. And that, you know, I got to act opposite people like Charlie [Plummer], who are just so brilliant at really being present and really taking in what’s happening in the moment because then that makes it actually a useful tool rather than a distraction.

Luke Gilford Shares What Western Inspired the Film
Image via Variance Films

Luke, you’ve talked about how you realized the rodeo could be a very homophobic place, and I feel like the Western genre has historically felt kind of similar exclusionary in ways but has gone through sort of a renaissance in the past couple of decades. Do you have any recommendations for people, particularly queer people, who maybe want to branch out and start watching more Westerns?

GILFORD: Oh, that’s a wonderful question. I would say that, for this film, in particular, it was, you know…well, let me back up and say most Westerns are about violence. That is so much of what the cowboy represents is dominance through violence. And so much of what we wanted to create was to represent a cowboy that is softer and is not afraid to feel and learns the language of the heart as well.

And so to me, I was looking to films like Paris, Texas, which, you know, the conflict and the sort of drama in that film — or the tragedy, rather — is not of country or of state but is really a personal tragedy. And so that was a huge intention for us to kind of follow that lead of a spiritual journey of the characters and to contrast that with these wide-open epic landscapes as a symbol of those emotional landscapes that the characters go on. So I would start there.

National Anthem is available in select theaters starting July 12th and expands nationwide on July 19th.

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