Pretty much everyone on earth has had to put their lives on hold in some respect in the past several weeks with the Coronavirus pandemic taking hold of the world. While clearly many people are dealing with the most dire of situations as a result of the illness, many others are suffering indirect consequences of the cancellation of major events and shelter in place orders. Though most everyone agrees that these measures are paramount in slowing the spread of the disease, in the film world it is heartbreaking to realize the impact that this whole mess is having on filmmakers who were looking forward to showing their films at major festivals this Spring. I was originally scheduled to interview director Scott Teems as he and his team celebrated the screening of their film THE QUARRY at the SXSW Film Festival back in March. It's old news now, but a couple weeks after the fest was canceled and the shock was still very fresh, I was able to reschedule my interview with Teems via phone from the safety of our homes.
In THE QUARRY, a mysterious stranger (Shea Whigham) comes to town assuming the identity of the traveling preacher he killed out on the road. As the man begins to put down roots and gain friends and followers, the police chief (Michael Shannon) begins putting together the pieces to a much bigger puzzle. THE QUARRY is one of those dusty slow burners that takes it time unraveling with great effect. Teems continuously ramps up the tension from scene to scene while cleverly understated performances by Whigham and Shannon offset a more visceral turn from newcomer Bobby Soto in the tragic role of local troublemaker Valentin. THE QUARRY is a definite must-see for fans of dark and twisted tales that take their time to gradually unfold.
Aside from the fact that I loved Teems take on "Texas Noir" with his somber story of a mysterious stranger in a town of tangled webs, I was also interested in hearing his take on the current state of the world from a filmmaker's point of view, and how he and THE QUARRY have been affected. I hope you enjoy our chat.
Kellerman:
Hi there, how are you doing today?
Teems:
I'm well, thanks.
Annette Kellerman:
Good. We were supposed to meet under completely different circumstances at the SXSW Film Festival.
Teems:
Yeah. No kidding.
Kellerman:
How has that been, kind of shifting everything. You work on this film for so long, you put your entire life into it. And then you finally have your time at the festivals to celebrate all your hard work, and then it just, it disappears. Can you talk a little bit about that?
Teems:
Yeah. I'm still processing to be honest. In the grand scheme of things, losing a film premiere is a small thing, but it still hurts. And, because you're right- you work for years and years to bring the story to life, and not only do you want people to see it in the way it was intended- which is in a theater, in a big group of people, to share that experience- but the festivals are special because they also allow you a time to celebrate with everyone you made the film with, and with the community, the film community. That's the beautiful thing about festivals, especially SXSW where I've played before. The community is so strong and rich, and the love for film is so great. To lose that was heartbreaking, it really was. Then to add insult to injury, it's looking more and more like almost certainly we will lose our theatrical release as well so... a lot of people are dealing with that. And so it's tough, and that's the state of the world in this highly unprecedented situation.
Kellerman:
Yeah. It's like nobody knows. Everybody's operating by a different set of rules right now. It's kind of crazy. But I'm glad at least we can connect by phone to talk about it and let people know about it when they finally get the chance to check it out. Now, you adapted this with a co-writer, correct? From a novel.
Teems:
Yeah.
Kellerman:
Did you find it? Did you option it? How did you find this material and, can you talk about adapting it from the novel for the screen?
Teems:
Yeah. I found this book more than a decade ago actually, right after THAT EVENING SUN my first film had come out, I was looking for the next thing. Stumbled upon the summary of this book online somewhere, I think it was Amazon, and it grabbed me immediately. The idea, it just had one of those sort of classic setups that intrigued me. The stranger comes into town kind of set up, but is he who he says he is? One of those classic mystery, thriller, suspense setups. Yeah, bought it, read it and was really intrigued by it. And the book is set in South Africa. Damon Galgut is a South African writer. It was written in the '90s as a post apartheid set story about racial strife in that nation. But it's immediately relevant to what's going on, and what has been going on in our country.
Kellerman:
No doubt.
Teems:
The book was set in the of plains and coastal region of South Africa. Stark, open plains. It felt very much like...I saw Texas in my mind immediately. Having the racial component, the racial strife, conflict component immediately spoke to me as like Texas, and sort of white/Mexican conflict. It just felt easily transferable because the idea was universal. The premise was universal at its core. Stranger comes to town- that can be anywhere. So it allowed it to be transferred and it became an easy thing. So, I optioned the book with Laura Smith, my producer, we optioned it together. I'd been working on the script and we brought my friend Andrew Brotzman on to help me work on it.
Kellerman:
Nice, nice. I'm surprised to find out that the original story took place in South Africa because your adaptation falls firmly in a category I like to call "Texas Noir." It's got the femme fatale, it has the law, it has the outsiders, the locals. Did you draw inspiration from any films in that Texas Noir type of sub genre?
Teems:
Yeah. Well I think for the last 10 years especially, any film you make in that world sort of, rests in the shadow of NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN.
Kellerman:
Yes.
Teems:
And I, even though that's a relatively recent film, I have no qualms saying it was a huge influence and inspiration to me. It remains still. I think it's one of the best films made in the last 20 years, if not the best. And so, it absolutely influenced and inspired me along with several other films. Namely, I'd say PARIS, TEXAS is a big one for me, but there's elements of lots of films in this story. NIGHT OF THE HUNTER- there's definitely elements of that. But really it's just that I love the simplicity of setup which allows you to create tension, and create that suspense when the set up gives you an ending where you know you're going to somewhere. Meaning is he going to get caught or is he not, you know it's heading to some sort of confrontation. That allows you to have that space. I think so much of the tension in a movie like NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN comes from that idea that you know you're headed toward a confrontation of some sort. And because in every scene has tension built into it from the outside pressing on it, and you don't have to manufacture tension from the inside. And it's all about atmosphere, tone, mood, and things can breathe, things can sit, things can be open and empty and sparse, because that tension is always there. And that's what I think makes a good Texas Noir.
Kellerman:
Yeah. Definitely. I love ... That was one of the questions I was going to ask, which you kind of covered it, but just maintaining that uneasy vibe, that ramping up the tension in every single scene, definitely comes through. And just like, all the tricks that you employ to maintain that, because that's not easy. I mean to always kind of hold that tone, the visual pallet, and even the score. Can you talk a little bit about the score and how that contributes to it and what kind of input you had there with your composer?
Teems:
Yeah. Heather McIntosh wrote the score, and this is the second film she scored from me. She scored my documentary I made a few years ago, and I think she's wonderful. I first met her through Craig Zobel, who she scores a lot of his work. And she's from Georgia, I'm from Georgia, we had this connection, and knew a lot of the same people, and became quick friends, and I just loved her work. She's a cellist, and so most of her scores are cello based. Heather has a great sense of melody, and it's very musical, and I love strong themes in my scores. I'm not interested really in just sort of definitive drone noises. I like to have something that, a voice that speaks into the movie and guides us through. And Heather is wonderful at creating these themes and ideas and those cues, she's really great at that. And there came an evolution where we played around with several different ideas until we landed on this one theme that kind of became the base. It's important to me because I think that that builds part of that tension that you're talking about, the tension and suspense. The uneasy feel can really be accentuated with a strong score that recalls themes, and that builds in sort of the repetition in the callback, and tells a story through music. And, that's something that's very important to me, and we worked really hard. And Heather always goes an extra mile, she's always willing to keep going and she's never satisfied, and always revising and working and pushing until the clock runs out. And, that's why I like working with her.
Kellerman:
And, it definitely comes across, like you said, that callback, just that underlying theme, kind of undulating throughout the whole thing is, I think wonderful and vital to the storytelling and noir vibe.
Teems:
Oh, cool.
Kellerman:
Clearly we have to talk about the casting in your film, which is incredible. I mean, it's hard to imagine anyone but Michael Shannon in the role of Chief, he's incredible. And then, a huge standout, Bobby Soto is incredible as Valentin. A real surprise for me. And then Shea Wingham, he has very minimal dialogue throughout but, has a really powerful, intense performance. Can you just talk about working with the actors, and some of the nuances of their roles?
Teems:
Yeah, yeah. Well, Shea has always been one of my favorite actors and he seems to be just about in everything. But he's never had a chance to be the lead in the movie really. And, to give him that opportunity was really, I feel really fortunate to be able to do that. And this movie only happened because of his interest. After I wrote it, I put it away, I tried to make it 10 years ago, could never make it. And, it just sort of went away as movies sometimes do. It was sad and I mourned it and it was gone, and then Shea got his hands on this script through Kristin Mann, my other producer, and his interest sparked the whole thing coming back to life. And, he's such a powerful internal actor, Shea is, he's got so much going on in his behind the eye, which you have to have in life, it's the same way. And this is a movie where these two guys are feeling each other out, and they have to be able to tell that story through silence, through looks. And those two actors do that as well as anyone. I'd actually given the script to Mike 10 years ago, and he read it back then when I was trying to make it the first time, but he was unavailable because he was going off to make Superman.
Kellerman:
Right!
Teems:
So that's how long ago that was so he wasn't available in this window we were trying to get it made. And so to have that come back around and then his relationship with Shea and with, he also knows Kristin Mann, she's worked with him before, and so that those relationships brought Mike back into the picture. And Bobby Soto was so great. You know he's done very little work. He acted some as a child and then took a long time off, came back and ended up getting cast in David Ayer's movie THE TAX COLLECTOR which is coming out this year. And, he was brought to my attention through Jack Wigham at CAA, and I just met Bobby. There wasn't anything to watch, so I just went and had lunch with him. And he's just a remarkable guy, has an amazing story that actually sort of echoes some of Valentin's story in terms of just sort of having to be a father figure to his little brother. And Bobby's just a remarkable human, he's a really lovely person, and who's overcome a lot in his life, and I was inspired by him. And I cast him sort of based on that lunch we had. And, sometimes you just get a feeling, and I ended up seeing a little bit of what he did in the David Ayer movie, but that was just confirmation to me because I just knew I liked this person. When I'm casting, a huge part of it is, am I interested in the person? Am I interested in ... Do they have a life outside of this world, entertainment industry? Can we have a conversation?
Kellerman:
Right. Do I want to hang out with this person? Do I click with this person? Yeah. That's so cool. Michael Shannon's performance is amazing as always. He has such an incredibly charismatic presence, and he seems pretty dialed back in this, for the most part.
Teems:
Yeah. My favorite Mike Shannon performance is always the ones that are the quieter ones. I love the work he does with Jeff Nichols, that just can bring out the best in Mike. The warmth, Mike has a great warmth that I think is not always tapped into by some film makers, and I love his charisma, which allows you to like, and feel for this chief, even though he's doing some terrible things. So I love that conflicting emotions that he creates, and it's a real, just gift to a filmmaker to have that kind of actor in your movie.
Kellerman:
Absolutely, absolutely. Well I guess we should wrap it up. Thank you so much for chatting with me, and I can't wait to spread the word about the film's release, even though it's more limited than what we had once hoped. And, I look forward to what comes months down the road after everybody shelters in place, and comes up with lots of good content going forward. Thank you so much, appreciate it.
I hope you enjoyed my conversation with Teems. It's interesting how things have changed so much even in the weeks since our interview- thank the film gods for streaming! On that note, I definitely recommend checking out THE QUARRY when it opens On Demand on April 17th. Check out the trailer below.
Rebecca Elliott
Rebecca Elliott
aka Annette Kellerman
