‘Wild Horse Nine’ Team on Blending Genres, Shooting on Location, Malkovich’s Oscar Buzz

What inspired the project and the challenges of shooting it on location; efforts to represent Chilean people, places and history on screen

Geographical place central in work

MARTIN MCDONAGH Well, I went to Rapa Nui, as it’s known, about 15 years ago, with the hope that it might be a character or a location that could be interesting in a movie, and found that it was because it’s so beautiful and the Moai are iconic. And one of the things I found was that there were all these wild horses running around, which was a revelation to me. I tried different variations of a story, usually with an older guy and a younger one. Sometimes they’d be like a father and son, once they were two actors. Sam read some of these versions. But it never quite gelled until I started thinking about what the CIA did in Chile in the ’70s, knowing that Rapa Nui is a sort of dependency of Chile. And it’s when that idea came about four years ago that everything seemed to fall into place. But I think the work that I’d done about the father-and-son sort of relationship remained in the idea of these two guys who are bickering, but love beneath the surfaces remains.

Shooting on location

GRAHAM BROADBENT No, it’s further, two-and-a-half thousand miles off Chile. Between Chile and New Zealand is this island. And yes, it’s the most remote inhabited place on the earth.

Getting a film set up?

BROADBENT Having worked with Martin quite a lot [this is their fifth film together], I knew that real location was an important part of the way he would make the film. It’s a very beautiful place, but there’s no food facilities or really anything there for making a film. We were lucky enough to work with a company called Fabula in Chile, Juan de Dios Larraín’s company. And we began our first approach there because they don’t need or want film crews there — there was one film made there in 1997, Kevin Reynolds’ film Rapa Nui — and they don’t need any more tourists, because there are many there already doing a sort of bucket-list three or four days to see the heads. So we began the conversation with the council, and they thought there may be something extraordinary to be done in helping us with the film. The Moai are sacred and extraordinary, so we had to be very careful with those — it’s a UNESCO World Heritage site as well — so we took everything in, and we had to take everything out afterwards. But we loved being there. And we used a hundred of the local people as crew, construction, drivers, and things like that. We took in a crew of people from Santiago, Chile, and the U.K., as well. We were there about three months, and it was an extraordinary experience for us all.

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri–Rockwell’s Oscar

SAM ROCKWELL The two central characters were actors at one point, and then they were CIA people. There were a lot of different drafts. But I signed on right away.

Malkovich and Martin

JOHN MALKOVICH The two projects before [that McDonagh approached him about] were both ones that Sam was in, Seven Psychopaths and A Behanding in Spokane, and I wasn’t available because I was doing another movie. This time I read it and immediately said, “Yes, I think it’s fantastic.” And I met Martin in December, almost two years ago now. Then we rehearsed in January in New York at the Public Theater. And then I went down in mid-February.

Working with Martin

STEVE BUSCEMI I was at the Venice Festival four years ago when Banshees was there. Martin and I had met a couple of times, but we had never had a conversation. In Venice, we got to hang out and drink together and laugh and crash parties. I think I may have bribed him and said that we must work together, and I’m so grateful that he remembered. Also, I’ve known Sam for over 30 years and a few movies [1992’s In the Soup, 1994’s The Search for One-Eye Jimmy and Somebody to Love, 1998’s Louis & Frank and 2002’s 13 Moons]. And John and I did Con Air, and he was one of the producers on Ghost World. So yeah, it was a no-brainer — I remember being on a flight back from LA and landing and getting all these messages from my manager, “Call me immediately!” I was like, “What happened?!” “We got a script from Martin!” And I read it that night and just couldn’t sleep; I was just so excited.

Chilean actress

MARIANA DI GIROLAMO I appreciated that Martin wanted Chilean actress to play this role. I was born in 1990, the first year of democracy, but I’d known about that period and what happened in my country since 1973. My parents were students back then, and it’s just something you grew up with — it’s an open wound for us. Most of the responsible ones died in impunity, so it’s something that is very terrible. We see Monica with a lot of hope in the beginning, full of life. She believes strongly in this new project for a better future for all of Chile. After she’s faced with the other side of the story, with the character of Chris, I think that her heart broke, but he gave her the strength that she needs to embrace the future, the atrocities that happened. So I feel very honored to play this character, and to be part of this movie that I really love, and to be with these amazing artists that I really admire.

Martin as filmmaker

ROCKWELL Martin’s just become a master filmmaker, an auteur, dare I say that word, and I feel so lucky to work with him. He also has the key components that you need to have: empathy and compassion. He likes actors, he can look you in the eye and say, “Good morning,” and he’s not a dick, so that helps. He started out writing plays, and he didn’t want to write plays, he wanted to make films, and he’s fucking doing it very well.

MALKOVICH Martin is a fantastic storyteller, and that’s a huge part of the equation in making very good films. And as a director, he has very specific ideas of how a scene could and should play. He shoots beautifully. And I think the editing of this film is so well-modulated, the way you go in and you come out of it, and you go back in and you come out of it — it’s just beautifully formed. The film, for me, was a huge challenge, because it’s a huge part and a fantastic part and you don’t want to mess it up. But Martin gave me one of the greatest notes I’ve ever had in 150-odd movies or whatever: during one of the scenes with the heads, when the girls come and say, “Why are you here if you’re just going to make fun of the place?” Martin came over after a couple takes and said, “More David Attenborough.” [laughs] You don’t get notes that good.

Blending genres

MCDONAGH The Wild Bunch is one of my favorite movies ever, outside of the obvious John Ford ripoffs, so the idea of a doomed gunslinger was always part of what the story was going to be. But also keeping the horses front and center — the one horse that John connects with is one thing, but keeping them all in play was very important too.

Movie juggles dark stuff humor

MCDONAGH My natural tendency as writer is to try and make the dialogue funny to entertain myself. But then when the subject matter is darker, you’ve got to somehow strike kind of a balance between it all. The thing I’ve learned as the films have gone on, more as a director than as a writer, is to leave room for the quieter, sadder moments, which aren’t necessarily dialogue-based at all. Sometimes the thing that can be cut from a script or from a shooting schedule is a man looking out a window, or alone in his room, or on his bed smoking a cigarette — but it’s in those moments that everything happens, especially with an actor as amazing as John. That’s where all the regret and guilt and sadness enters the film, I think. Sometimes the comedy can take care of itself, as long as you ground it in truth.

Oscar Buzz for Malkovich, age 73

MALKOVICH For me, it’s lovely to be part of great story and terrific movie. I don’t think much about awards. I’m not in competition with any of the wonderful colleagues I’ve made movies.

Wild Horse Nine:

‘Wild Horse Nine’ Team on Blending Genres, Shooting on Location, Malkovich’s Oscar Buzz

PROFESSOR / CRITIC / AUTHOR