Interview: Director David Gordon Green, Tye Sheridan Talk ‘Joe’

Submitted by PatrickMcD on April 10, 2014 - 7:35pm

CHICAGO – When traveling on a Nicolas Cage trip, it’s best to buckle up. Director David Gordon Green collaborated with Cage on the new film, “Joe,” and actor Tye Sheridan (“Tree of Life,” “Mud”) was Cage’s teenage co-star. Cage portrays the title character, a reformed hellraiser who can’t help but have sympathy for a lost soul.

Sheridan portrays Gary, a itinerant teen whose family life is pretty much destroyed. His father Wade (Gary Poulter) is an unapologetic drunk, and Gary turns to Joe to both get some employment and some guidance. The result from David Gordon Green (“George Washington,” “Snow Angels”) is a gritty story of accidental mentorship, contained in a simmering context that only Nicolas Cage can generate.

Tye Sheridan and Nicolas Cage in David Gordon Green’s ‘Joe’
Photo credit: Roseside Attractions

Both Green and Tye Sheridan came to Chicago for a press tour, and talked about the variations on the themes of “Joe,” and joining forces inside the “Cage.”

HollywoodChicago.com: David, you are taking on some genre types that are very interesting, including the Southern theme and genre in ‘Joe.’ What fascinates you about these archetypes, and how do you want to put a new spin on it?

David Gordon Green: As far as genre, we approached this like a Sam Peckinpah western. I read Larry Brown’s source novel in the 1990s, and got to know him. In knowing his voice as an author, he was trying to communicate the people he knew, places he related to and subject matter he was passionate about, and translate it into literature. Gary Hawkins, a college professor of mine – he actually introduced me to the novel – had written the screenplay and got a hold of me, and that got the ball rolling.

I was finding the story as presented to be very personal, and I wanted to create a movie that felt like a personal spin on a genre, and the genre most exciting to me was a western. This is a story about outlaws, redemption and legacy. This is also a movie in which no one is safe, and no one is sacred. Anyone can go at any moment.

HollywoodChicago.com: Tye, as a young actor who is evolving, what do you think you got out of connecting with a veteran like Nicolas Cage?

Tye Sheridan: Nic and I just really got along. That’s my nature, to get along with my fellow actors, and the same goes with Nic. We liked to talk about old and classic rock ‘n roll, and that was an immediate connection. Nic and David made it very comfortable on set and to be in the story’s environment.

HollywoodChicago.com: David, what was crucial in the novel or the screenplay that became a blueprint for how you were going to approach the production of ‘Joe’?

Green: It was finding the humanity in very questionable characters. Joe is our hero, frowned upon the people in the community, but we found his strength and humanity, and wanted to bring it to life. Nic did the heavy lifting on that character, and he found something we can emotionally engage in and support with our hearts, in the difficulties and dramas that Joe faced in the film.

We also tried to find that in the Wade character, Gary’s drunken father. It was important not just to show the despicable side of him, even as the novel goes into extremely brutal detail. I wanted to show the broken side of him, to find the sadness in a character that was so aggressively repulsive.

HollywoodChicago.com Tye, Gary is a conflicted character, torn between his need for freedom and his family. Was there any way to relate to that in your own life, as far as how you were trying to get to the character in building him?

Sheridan: Yes, of course. Like Gary, I care a lot about my family, and that what holds him back. I don’t have a abusive or alcoholic father, so that was a little different in finding that part of the role, because I’ve always had a strong male presence in my life. So finding a way to not have that, and asking myself what would it be like not to have it is how I approached. I put Gary’s ‘shoes’ on every day during the shoot, and David helped me navigate him.

Tye Sheridan Performed in ‘Tree of Life’ and ‘Mud’ Before Co-Starring in ‘Joe’
Photo credit: Roseside Attractions

HollywoodChicago.com: David, thematically you seem fascinated with the underclass in America with the films that you do. Personally, what do you think restricts these lives as depicted in ‘Joe.’ is it an economic burden or an educational disadvantage?

Green: I think it’s entirely about education, because a guy like Joe makes a good living. Joe pulls in about 70 or 80 thousand a year, which is a good living for a guy who has child support and other dependents. But he has been brought up in a difficult environment without the tools to rationally and practically face his challenges. And within his rural or western attitude has found questionable ways to deal with conflict.

HollywoodChicago.com: So when you’re talking about the ‘western’ genre, are you talking about how civilization can be stripped in a human being, exposing his raw nature?

Green: Joe is a dog, Wade is a snake. You strip off their human faces and they become beasts of the kingdom.

HollywoodChicago.com: Tye, Sean Penn famously said he didn’t understand his role in the ‘Tree of Life,’ the film in which you debuted in. What do you find in that film that either confuses you, or moves you?

Sheridan: Initially when I saw the finished film I was a bit confused. [laughs] I was working on it as an eleven year old boy, there wasn’t much dialogue, and I worked for four months with a second family in a way. I didn’t expect dinosaurs and outer space. I was looking at it almost as a home video in regard to what I did one summer. Which is what it was, it was almost like entering a different childhood, with Brad Pitt as a Dad. It was a fantasy life.

Tye Sheridan, David Gordon Green in Chicago, April 2, 2014
Photo credit: Patrick McDonald for HollywoodChicago.com

HollywoodChicago.com: Was director Terrence Malick an approachable man?

Sheridan: Yeah, he’s a sweet guy. What’s going on was in his head, he really didn’t let it out…

Green: The same could be said for us all. [laughs]

Sheridan: I was a bit confused about the film, so I do understand where Sean Penn was coming from.

HollywoodChicago.com: David, we’ve all now passed into the digital age. For example, your last film [‘Prince Avalanche’] was released through Video-On-Demand the same day as its theatrical release. What is your theory on the future distribution and exhibition of films as we delve deeper into the digital, online realm?

Green: ‘Prince Avalanche’ was really profitable, and that model allows for smaller films – which through their size can’t justify a large marketing budget – to exist in the marketplace. I still enjoy the entry door to the large theater, and design my films to be shown that way. And that may change, as the technical ingredients become more experimental and the audience who sees it evolves.

HollywoodChicago.com: Tye, you’ve now had a pretty solid one-two-three punch with your films, ‘Tree of Life,’ ‘Mud’ and ‘Joe.’ What are you looking forward to next in your career, as far as another film challenge?

Sheridan: There are a couple films in post production, but I’m really excited for my first major studio film, ‘Scouts vs. Zombies.’ We’re shooting in Los Angeles this summer, and I’m ready to kick some zombie butt. [laughs]

HollywoodChicago.com: And David, you’ve just wrapped ‘Manglehorn,’ which stars Al Pacino. What did you get out of him as an actor, that we haven’t seen lately?

Green: For Al, I was looking to get him back to the same character design as in his film ‘Panic in Needle Park’ [from the early 1970s]. It’s not about the ‘Pacino bravado,’ but about the subtle insight and eccentric qualities that only Al Pacino can deliver. It’s a kind of strange story about him as a locksmith, and fighting his demons. I’m excited about it.

“Joe” opens everywhere on April 11th. Featuring Nicolas Cage, Tye Sheridan, Gary Poulter and Adriene Mishler. Screenplay by Gary Hawkins, based on a novel by Larry Brown. Directed by David Gordon Green. Rated “R”