The Big Picture

Juliette Lewis and Peter Dinklage bring toe-curling tension to period Western
The Thicket
.
Set at the dawn of the 20th century, Dinklage plays a bounty hunter tracking down Lewis’ Cutthroat Bill.
Freezing conditions made
The Thicket
one of the most challenging shoots for both Lewis and Dinklage.

Juliette Lewis and Peter Dinklage have lit up cinema screens for decades. They have each worked on projects helmed by absolute masters of the craft. Lewis cut her teeth with cinematic madmen like Oliver Stone, Martin Scorsese, and Robert Rodriguez, while Dinklage originally played in projects under gentler souls like Michael Showalter, Alexandre Rockwell, and Tom McCarthy. Now, finally acting against one another in Elliott Lester’s new Western The Thicket, Lewis and Dinklage stir up toe-curling tension in a period of American history rarely seen on film.

Set at the dawn of the 20th century, The Thicket stars Dinklage as bounty hunter Reginald Jones. After being recruited to track down Lewis’ Cutthroat Bill, a ruthless killer, Jones gathers a band of unlikely heroes to embark on a dangerous journey. Following Cutthroat Bill into a deadly unknown territory known as the Thicket. Collider’s Steve Weintraub had the pleasure of sitting down with Lewis and Dinklage to discuss freezing-cold production conditions, sharing the screen with Metallica frontman James Hetfield, and walking through a set of live rattlesnakes.

“Write to Your Congressmen” for ‘The Toxic Avenger’
COLLIDER: Peter, when can I see The Toxic Avenger ?

PETER DINKLAGE: Oh my gosh, I know. I’m in the dark just like you, man. My friend Macon Blair, the writer-director of Toxic Avenger also plays Malachai in The Thicket. I love working with that man, I would do every movie with him if I could. But fingers crossed, it’ll see cinemas soon.

It got really great reviews out of the festival. Anyway, I could go on and on. I just wanna see it!

DINKLAGE: Me too.

It’d be different if it got bad reviews, but it got good reviews!

DINKLAGE: I know. Write to your congressmen. I don’t know what you do in this situation. [Laughs]

Well, me talking about it with you right now hopefully will help.

Juliette Lewis Recalls That Time She Walked Through Rattlesnakes
“I don’t think they would do that today.”
Image via Thicket Alberta Productions Inc

Of all the projects you’ve worked on, do you recall which shot or sequence was the most challenging, whether because of a camera move or dialogue? Do you have one that really sticks out?

DINKLAGE: It’s always a challenge because there’s so much editing and cutting in movies, but the one take to maintain, to keep that suspense. It keeps you with the character. It usually entails some stunt work and things coming at you. I’ve had a couple of those. You need to rehearse. Then if you mess up halfway through, you gotta cut and go back to the beginning of it. You can’t just start where you left off. There’s always a bit of pressure on the actor in that situation because there’s a crew around you waiting for you to get it right. I’ve done a couple of those where it’s fallen on me to not mess up because everybody around me — stuntmen, especially — aren’t messing up, so there’s a pressure. Those I find really challenging, but a thrill when you get it right! I had one on Game of Thrones and I had one of those on Cyrano.

JULIETTE LEWIS: I’m laughing because as you were asking this question, I was like, “The Thicket!” For me, this is the most challenging role I’ve ever played in the complete transformation that it took. Also, the elements we are working in, like it being so freezing. But I do have some real wickedly fond memories of Natural Born Killers and that wild shoot. Woody [Harrelson] and I walked through live rattlesnakes. I don’t think they would do that today.

Image via Warner Bros.

DINKLAGE: Wow! Really?

LEWIS: Now, let me explain: there weren’t a lot of them, but there were live rattlesnakes mixed with fake rattlesnakes. But it was freezing, and I, doing my due diligence, talked to the rattlesnake wrangler and knew that it’s very hard to get them to bite you when it’s freezing. The cameraman was like, “I’m out!” So Oliver [Stone] had to get the second cameraman to agree to it because he was walking backwards.

DINKLAGE: Wow! Through rattlesnakes!

LEWIS: Yeah, through rattlesnakes. Anyway, there are a few things that were challenging — working in prison — but The Thicket was very challenging.

It’s funny you say that. I did set visits in the 2000s and I did stuff they will never let me do on sets again. It’s crazy how it’s changed.

DINKLAGE: I was in a movie once years ago, and because we didn’t have permits, we pretended we were a student film. We were just always risking our lives here in L.A. It was just so much fun.

Peter Dinklage Says Subzero Temperatures Were a Thrilling Challenge

I love both of you in this film. Juliette, I loved your transformation with the voice and makeup. Talk a little bit about finding the voice and the character before stepping on set.

LEWIS: I’m always striving to be very believable so that you don’t see me working behind what I’m doing. All of that has to be in perfect harmony — the clothing, the scar placement, how deep they are. Elliott [Lester], the director, helped a lot with that, with the makeup department. The voice just came to me off of the writing, as an actor given these ingredients to play with. I was fortunate that I could actually put my voice in that register. [Laughs] It came to me, and then your director signs off on things and says yes or, “Keep doing that.” He thought that was the right move. Really, energetically playing this role was the challenge — to play somebody so devoid of their humanity for so long — and I really wanted to go deep within that portrayal.

I was mesmerized by what you must have gone through with the cold and snow. I could see it on screen, and it adds so much realism. What was it like for you as performers at -35°? Was this the most challenging shoot of your career?

DINKLAGE: It was up there as one of the most. It was a cold like I had never felt before. But then you look at the people on the crew who live there and work there, and it’s a different cold for them than it is for you. It’s just adapting, and it takes a couple of days for your DNA to restructure itself, but we adapted. It keeps you awake for sure! We were a low-budget film, and sometimes people CGI breath in films — we didn’t need to do that. We didn’t have the money to do that. It was another cast member — the elements really were. It really helped me. As difficult and as uncomfortable as it was, that’s me thinking as an actor, not as the character. The character lives in this environment, so you have to respond to it like he or she would. That’s the thrill and the challenge.

Image via Tubi

LEWIS: It was uncomfortable the entire time [laughs], but I relished the discomfort because I felt connected to the character I was playing. I feel like she relishes in pain. I felt like Cutthroat Bill was the embodiment of callous pain, to a numb state. It was interesting to be in that. Juliette was a little fussy baby internally, going, “Why would anyone film in this?” But I got up, showed up, and did the thing.

The work looks fantastic when you’re watching it. It might have been a pain in the ass, but it really looks great.

DINKLAGE: It’s 25 days. It was a month we were up there. It’ll be over soon. These characters gotta live the rest of their lives in these elements. We get to come back to L.A.

‘The Thicket’ is a New Kind of Western
Image via Tubi

You captured a time when the Old West was ending, and technology was coming in. Can you talk about how this is a different type of Western?

DINKLAGE: That was always very important to me and Chris Kelley, a wonderful person who adapted the book into the screenplay. I wanted that time period, always, because that’s what these characters are grappling with. These changes and these young people growing up in a time that’s forming itself. It shakes the box of convention of genre when you’re going to see a Western, and the first thing you see is a motorcycle. There were these times in between in history of the Industrial Revolution, and horses next to automobiles, and what that must have been like, and how confusing for the old-timers. It’s like me; I’m older now, and I’m trying to adapt to the internet, still. It’s a time of change, a really important time that parallels the narrative that we’re telling.

LEWIS: I loved those themes when I first read it, with the boarded-up signs of the plague that was going on at that time.

DINKLAGE: Things shutting down, like we dealt with during COVID, these characters are dealing with with the plague. Throughout history, Shakespeare and all the other great writers lasted because they are so appropriate today.

Image via Tubi

I have to wrap with you guys, but I wish I could have talked to you about James Hetfield. I think having him in the movie was just fucking awesome.

LEWIS: Whose idea was that? Was it Elliott or yours? [Dinklage points to himself] Oh, I agree with you.

DINKLAGE: When I hear, “We should get somebody like James Hetfield,” I go, “Or we could just get James Hetfield. Let’s make a phone call.” And he said yes. I had just seen them play in Atlanta like the year before.

LEWIS: What a presence, huh?

I am a huge fan. The great thing about getting him is, all of a sudden, all the Metallica fans might be seeking this film out because you don’t get to see him acting.

DINKLAGE: He’s so good in it, too. He’s so lived-in.

The Thicket is now playing in select theaters. Get Tickets