The Thicket's Hawke, Grace & Akinnagbe On Their Stereotype-Breaking Characters & Western Genre Themes (2024)

The Old West wasn't entirely populated with savage killers, as seen in The Thicket. The movie serves as an adaptation of Joe R. Lansdale's 2013 novel of the same name, having spent the past decade in development with Peter Dinklage as both star and producer. The movie revolves around a young man who seeks out the help of a bounty hunter and his business partner to track down a ruthless outlaw who has kidnapped his sister, though learns the harsh nature of the frontier along the way.

Levon Hawke, son of Uma Thurman and Ethan Hawke and brother of Stranger Things' Maya Hawke, stars in The Thicket as Jack, the devout Christian young man whose sister, Lula, is kidnapped. Along his journey, he becomes acquainted with Dinklage's Reginald Jones and Eustace Howard, brought to life by Gbenga Akinnagbe, well-known for his roles in the likes of The Wire and Jeff Bridges' The Old Man. Jack also grows close to Jimmy Sue, played by In the Heights' Leslie Grace, a street-smart woman forced into prostitution whom he helps escape, though is also unprepared for the dangers ahead.

Alongside Hawke, Dinklage, Akinnagbe and Grace, the ensemble Thicket cast includes Yellowjackets' Juliette Lewis as Cut Throat Bill, the outlaw the group are hunting, Esmé Creed-Miles as Lula, Metallica frontman James Hetfield, Arliss Howard, Macon Blair and Ned Dennehy. Hailing from Aftermath's Elliott Lester and playwright Chris Kelley, the movie proves to be well worth the decade-long development thanks to its captivating characters, gorgeous direction and pulse-pounding storyline.

Ahead of the movie's release, Screen Rant interviewed stars Levon Hawke, Leslie Grace and Gbenga Akinnagbe to discuss The Thicket, their approach to their stereotype-breaking characters, building dynamics among one another, and the challenge of shooting on-location for the film.

The Thicket's Main Characters Aren't Typical Archetypes Of The Western Genre

I was just floored by what you all delivered in The Thicket, it's such a great film. So I will start with Levon, then Leslie and Gbenga. What was it about this script and your characters that really drew you in to want to be a part of this project?

Levon Hawke: Well, what I found so special about working on this one is that I think we have this idea that everyone in the West was hard as nails and was completely vicious. What made me really excited about this character is he's more sensitive, and he's a pacifist, and he doesn't want to hurt people. I think that a lot of people in that era, when we picture John Wayne, their masculinity goes in tandem with their violence. What was really exciting for me was to try to find my version of a Western hero that didn't rely on hurting other people.

Leslie Grace: I would say, similarly, I really was attracted to the character of Jimmy Sue, because she's not a female archetype that you usually see in the Western world. She holds her own. There are so many, in all the characters in the script, contradictions. We're all searching to preserve a bit of morality while we're just trying to survive and find as much companionship as we can along the way. But anything can change along the way, so all of that, plus a Western in the snow, was like, "Wow, that sounds really cool." Until we were freezing to death.

Gbenga Akinnagbe: It was interesting, because we have all these wanderers, particularly Eustace and Jones, who found one another. It's in a country that's kind of still very savage and developing and finding itself and its laws, and then areas where there are no laws. You just have to kind of make your way. Eustace and Jones are these two kind of outcasts that, again, found one another, that are just, like, "We can work together to survive. I get you, you get me. There's a partnership that seems to make sense. And we bury people."

Hawke Pulled From His Own Family Life To Inform His Performance

Levon, I will turn to you next. So much of your character's journey is rooted in trying to save your sister from Cut Throat Bill. Having a sister in real life, how much did you pull from your own familial experience to really influence your performance of trying to get Lula back?

Levon Hawke: I would say that that was actually the biggest basis of my character was, I think at the bottom of everything, is his love for Lula, his sister. I actually have four sisters, believe it or not. I've got four other sisters, three of them being younger and one older. They're all my best friends in the world. Just this whole story, I could ground in myself. I'm a person who usually likes to act from imagining things of my past, situations I've really been in. Gbenga, Leslie and I were doing this one scene that was really hard. We have to torture this guy.

It was so brutal where I was really struggling to imagine myself inflicting such cruelty on another human being, and the only way I could get through it and find some justification was really through the imaginations of my sisters. If I actually pictured that my sister was being taken by somebody like Juliette's character in this movie, there's nothing I wouldn't do. I think that that's when the good morality of a character like Jack's just has to crumble, is when one thing he holds so important is non-violence has to face the violent world that he's in. And that's, I think, the most interesting territory of mine in that character.

Gbenga Akinnagbe: It's funny, I think if you had a brother, it might not be so hard imagining torturing someone else. [Laughs]

Grace Walked A Fine Line Between "Sensitivity" & "Feminine Strength"

Leslie, I will turn to you next. You were talking about wanting to avoid making Jimmy Sue a female archetype, and I love how much power she has, but also, in that torture scene, how much compassion she has. What is it like trying to walk that balance of ensuring she's not a weak woman in the West, but that she is someone who will still go to these extremes?

Leslie Grace: I think at times I did feel — and Levon and I had a lot of conversations before starting to shoot, we were kind of personally grappling with where does that sensitivity and empathy for others equal masculine or feminine strength. And what of it is archetypal and not on the surface level, and what of it is actually, like, "No, this is really something that is just of this time and would be true, and is something that you would have to deal with at this time?" So, in the ways that I would walk that line, I would just try and be as present as possible.

It sounds super cliché, but I would just try and be as present as possible and listen. Particularly for that scene, I was outside of the room for a lot of that time, then Jimmy Sue ends up entering once a lot has happened. But I've been hearing the whole time, and even just being able to listen in — like I remember not wanting to move. Obviously, I wasn't in the shot, but I remember not wanting to move from that space, because I wanted to overhear what was happening, as Jimmy Sue would be, in that room, and it really allowed me to walk into that atmosphere in a really specific way.

Dinklage's "Affable" Personality Made It Easy For Akinnagbe To Connect With Him

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Gbenga, I will turn to you next. We made jokes about torturing someone to save a brother, but you and Peter Dinklage have such a wonderful brotherly love throughout this film, and so much of his journey is trying to break down those walls and have that kind of compassion for other people. What was it like finding that dynamic in that rapport with him throughout filming?

Gbenga Akinnagbe: It was super easy finding that with him, because he's such an affable, open actor and guy. We were able to explore their connection, and how to get that across on screen, both in the text and subtext, because not everything needs to be said, just in the moment. Peter is really about crafting the moments, he doesn't have to say it, he believes. He believes you don't always have to say everything, and not talking down to the audience, and I'm of the same mind, so we had fun figuring out ways to get their relationship across, either through the text or subtext.

Jack & Jimmy Sue's Relationship Is As Much About Survival As Love

Levon and Leslie, I wanted to turn back to you. So much of this movie is also about your characters' connection, and I'd love to hear about what it was like for the two of you finding that dynamic and rapport with one another as two people who are compassionate and kind-hearted in what could be a very savage world.

Levon Hawke: I really think what was so special about that dynamic is there's these two people that really lead with kindness in a world that is so unaccepting to people who do that, so I think that's really what makes them fall for each other. And then, what's beautiful, I found, and what we really felt from the moment we first connected was, at the end of the day, they're allies.

They're friends who want the best for each other, and that's what they both need, and that's what they're there to offer. Jack isn't really there to fall in love, he's there to get his sister back, and that's what he's doing. And she recognizes that, and kind of has some admiration towards someone with such a genuine good feeling, and then it just all kind of builds together with so much friendship. That was really what struck me.

Leslie Grace: Yeah, I agree with that. And just to add, I think being able to just talk through some of the things that are more than just skin deep that I feel like sometimes we miss when we get to see a female-male relationship on screen and a young female-male relationship on screen. Especially in this time, it was really nice to have the opportunity to do that, and we both had very, very unique thoughts about how to portray each of the characters' strengths in new ways, and kind of stretch the imagination on that a little bit.

So, it was really cool to have their relationship be based off of what makes sense for the story, is they have a mission. It's to survive, and for Jack, particularly, it's to survive so they can find his sister, and they've got each other's backs. If they can find love in that process, that's beautiful. It's a very lonely world. But yes, their priority is survive, and survive together, and keep each other alive.

About The Thicket

When fierce bounty hunter Reginald Jones (Peter Dinklage) is recruited by a desperate man to track down a ruthless killer known only as Cut Throat Bill (Juliette Lewis), he rallies a band of unlikely heroes including a grave-digging ex-slave and a street-smart woman-for-hire. Together they embark on a perilous quest to track down Cutthroat Bill that leads them into the deadly “no-man’s-land” known as…The Thicket.

A film about vengeance, justice, and unlikely companionship, THE THICKET also stars Esmé Creed-Miles (Hanna), Levon Hawke (Blink Twice), Macon Blair (I Care A Lot), Andrew Schulz (You People), James Hetfield (Metallica), David Midthunder (On Sacred Ground), with Arliss Howard (Mank), with Leslie Grace (In The Heights), and Gbenga Akinnagbe (The Old Man).

Stay tuned for our other Thicket interviews with:

• Peter Dinklage & Juliette Lewis
• Director Elliott Lester

The Thicket is now in theaters and will make its VOD debut on September 24.

Source: Screen Rant Plus

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The Thicket

R

Thriller

Western

Crime

Drama

Set in the harsh Wild West, The Thicket follows a rag-tag group of people, including an ex-slave and a brutal bounty hunter, as they hunt down a mysterious killer who goes by the name Cutthroat Bill. Their journey to find Cutthroat Bill takes them deep into the inhospitable region known as the thicket.

Director

Elliott Lester

Release Date

September 5, 2024

Studio(s)

Orogen Entertainment

Writers

Chris Kelley , Joe R. Lansdale

Cast

Peter Dinklage , Juliette Lewis , Esme Creed-Miles , Levon Hawke , Macon Blair

Runtime

108 Minutes

Main Genre

Crime

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