The actor and director talk thrillers, working with kids and Watts next job (Spider-Man).
Den Of Geek: I understand this was sparked up by an image in a dream that you had?
Jon Watts: Yeah.
I know it sounds so corny.
Its the recurring dream Ive had since I was like 10 years old.
Were driving around our small town.
Im afraid were going to get in trouble.
Its just like a nervous stress dream that Ive had forever.
It always stuck with me as a really cool image of two 10-year-olds driving a car.
So I was thinking maybe its a police car and maybe theres a movie in there somewhere.
He was like, Well, whose police car is it?
Im like, Ohhh…There we go.
Kevin, what were the possibilities you saw in this when you read the script?
Kevin Bacon: To make a small film that plays like a big film.
It was calledJosh and Sam.
Bacon: Whats that?
Watts: Its about two little kids who steal a car and drive it around.
Its like a really broad, wacky sort of comedy.
I think Joe Eszterhas wrote it.
I was like, Oh, no.
everyone is going to think we ripped offJosh and Sam.
[laughs]
Bacon: Its not really an arthouse movie.
Its an audience pleaser.
Its a thriller but also has this kind of heart.
I find it moving; a very moving picture about the loss of innocence.
And its this one violent day changing the lives of these little boys.
For me, I love being on a set and its fun and feels like my living room.
But theres no sense of wonder.
That ship sailed a really long time ago.
So I found that kind of personally very infectious.
Bacon: I guess where you find those lines is kind of a mystery.
So I dont know specifically where that comes from.
All you have to do is say: What is the logic of this scene?
Where is the sheriffs head at, at this moment?
He knows the nearest place where he could potentially get a car is this trailer park.
So he just has to run.
And people will choose when to laugh or not.
What influenced the way you shot the film?
So its sort of a 10-year-old version ofGerry.
This kid is walking and talking.
You dont get any backstory.
You dont even ever sometimes learn the characters names.
You just meet them and then watch what happens.
So we talked about that a lot when we were writing it.
I would sayBadlandsis my favorite movie.
And that sort of combination of that magical sort of lyricism within a very hard-boiled story.
Those two things colliding was a big influence.
Bacon: Yeah, great.
They are not relating to the world.
They are just being themselves.
I loved working in that way.
And that was actually really well broken down in the script, how you actually did it.
Thats not shit that wasnt in the script.
All that stuff was laid out.
So it was just a question of just staying true to it.
The boys seem so naturalistic in the way they talk to each other.
Did you just channel your own memories?
Watts: A lot of those conversations are conversations Ive had.
The conversation about cuss words being a different language in Russia, I had that conversation.
Looking for arrowheads…just really all of it, so much of it.
I really remembered being 10 and all the details and whats important to you at the time.
Youre always thinking about leaving fingerprints on things like youre being a spy.
Just dumb stuff that really stuck with me.
Does that sort of give you the way into working on a character like Peter Parker?
Watts: I think you always want to be honest to what the character is like in their situation.
I think that applies to every character.
Same thing with high school.
Do you have a vision in your head of what you want to see, to some degree?
But we dont have a script yet, so weve got to figure that out.
[laughs]
Kevin, youve been in the superhero movie machine withX-Men: First Class.
Any advice for him about getting on that roller coaster?
Bacon: Weve talked a little bit about it.
You know what I mean?
Theres still a call sheet.
Its a pretty similar sort of process.
Its a longer one, obviously, and probably one where theres going to be more cooks.
It doesnt matter how you got there.
It doesnt matter how much money it cost to get you there or how many people were involved.
Its like still just the simplicity of whats in your aspect ratio.
One of the most harrowing scenes in this film is when the kids are playing with the guns.
It evoked a lot of strong feelings in me regarding my own position on guns.
In staging that, what did you want to get across to the audience?
Watts: Its not like its a polemic or anything like that.
Certainly nothing good happens with guns in the movie.
But I mean thats just a strong image.
We were just, again, trying to be honest about what would happen.
If two 10 year old kids found those guns, they would play with them.
And that makes for a pretty strong image.
Bacon: And they are also playing with the defibrillator.
Its interesting that people are always mentioning guns.
In the scene when the kids are playing with the defibrillator, she could not handle that.
Bacon: Shes in the audience going, Clear!
That scared her way more than the guns.
I was squirming during that whole scene, and so were others around me.
Watts: Its really rough.
Is it tough to play scenes where you have to be frightening to kids?
Bacon: Ive done a lot of it.
Its probably one of the worst things you could possibly do, pretty much.
Other things are tough, too, all the places that you have to take yourself.
The way I approach it is to have a go at make the kids feel comfortable around me.
Ive seen it done before.
But I think that if I say, Listen, Im an actor and youre an actor.
Im a nice guy.
I dont hold back.
Let me put it that way.
I dont hold back, but I venture to make it clear to them that were professional pretenders.
Have you gotten to see that yet?
Watts: Im not allowed to say.
[laughs]
Cop Caris out now in limited theatrical release and via VOD.
