Juliette Lewis and Peter Dinklage clash in a new Western flick. Metallica frontman James Hetfield, actress Esme Creed-Miles, son of Uma Thurman and Ethan Hawke, Macon Blair, and Andrew Schulz are all featured in the debut teaser for The Thicket.
Elliott Lester directed the film, which is based on Joe R. Lansdale’s 2013 book.
In the turn-of-the-century drama, Lewis portrays Cut Throat Bill, a “violent killer” whose gang kidnaps the sister of “innocent young man” Jack, portrayed by Hawke.
“To save her, Jack enlists the help of a crafty bounty hunter named Reginald Jones (Dinklage), a grave-digging alcoholic son of an ex-slave and a street-smart prostitute,” according to the description. “The gang tracks Cut Throat Bill into the deadly no-man’s land known as the Thicket — a place where blood and chaos reign.”
Oscar-nominee Lewis, 51, describes Cut Throat Bill as “one of my most favorite characters I’ve ever played.”
“She’s virtually invincible and has experienced cruelty and severe violence,” says Lewis, “but the key to the role for me was her voice, which came naturally when I first read the screenplay. It demonstrates her damaged resilience, profound and terrible.”
“One of the exciting aspects of my work is that you can’t always explain the ‘how’ or ‘where’ these things originate from. It’s like channeling for me,” she explains.
Lewis refers to the picture as a “punk-rock Western” in which “every single person jumps off the screen.”
The film also served as a tribute to her late father, actor Geoffrey Lewis, who was well-known for his Western performances. “Everything about taking on this role reminded me of my father’s legacy as a villain in one of the greatest Westerns, High Plains Drifter.” “I pick up where he left off.”
Dinklage, 55, who also produces The Thicket, describes It as “definitely a passion project of many years in the making for me.”
“The characters of Joe Lansdale’s book sprang off the page in such a cinematic way we had to see it through to the screen adaptation it eventually became,” he recalls.
“The Western genre is such a classic kind of colonization in a region that yet lacks basic rules. “A new beginning for a life on an unknown frontier,” adds the Game of Thrones alum.
“The Thicket depicts this in the same manner that Joseph Conrad did with Heart of Darkness. What awaits you down that unknown path? What is the outcome of the journey? And how can you ever go back to who you thought you were? “Fun stuff as storytellers,” Dinklage remarks.
The Thicket is in theaters on September 6.
