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| Lou Diamond Phillips and Dana Namerode in Gangland |
Written by Zach Montague and directed by Vincent Grashaw, Gangland follows a pair of cops trying to keep order on a reservation, but it’s also about the relationship one particular cop has with this complicated environment, and the way that it has shaped him. He’s played by Lou Diamond Phillips, who has a habit of popping up in interesting roles in independent projects, and always makes an impression. When we spoke about the film, I began by asking if it was written for him, as playing a character who is explicitly described as having been mistakenly characterised as Native in the Eighties seems very much on the nose.
He laughs. “We did add that line. We added that line because in conversations with Vincent Grashaw and my good friend Marcus Red Thunder, who was our technical advisor for Longmire for six years, we decided that it adds an extra layer and an extra dynamic if I don't play this as Native, you know? The fact that there are non-Native tribal cops is a reality in the world. And the fact that I married into it, you know, just my whole hybrid, hyphenated background, I think lends a little bit more veracity to the story itself. It adds another layer in the fact that Teddy is now a perennial outsider.”
The community has already suffered at the hands of somebody else who is an outsider, and he's not quite in that position, but he still doesn't quite fit.
“Exactly,” he says. “Exactly.”
It’s obviously another cop partner drama, despite having these additional things going on, but it feels quite distinctive, I say, and he’s pleased.
“I played God knows how many cops and, you know, try to avoid being the lieutenant who's the ‘You're a loose cannon, mister!’ and ‘Be careful out there.’ I look at something like Prodigal Son, where [my character] had a real sort of paternal streak to it. There's a lot of DNA from Longmire in this as well, but in that, you know, I was the bridge. I was the conduit between the white man's law and the reservation. This allows me to embody that a little bit more, and the character, just from the beginning, reminded me of not only my dad, who did two tours in ‘Nam, but military guys that I grew up with.
“I know cops like this, so there wasn't a whole lot of preparation I needed to do. I've been adopted into the Lakota nation, the Cheyenne nation. I'm on reservations and so this one just had the ring of truth to it, to me. The baggage that I was bringing to it was more about how long I've lived and the mileage I've gone through, that I could just automatically apply to this character.”
Gangland, the film’s second title, is pretty generic, but seems more relevant in this context than in many films of its ilk, I suggest.
“It is interesting, isn't it? It goes beyond the term gangland, you know. It was Keep Quiet, which is a title that I really liked, but there are other titles similar to that are either horror films or suspense films or whatever, and I think they were trying to find one that encapsulates the overarching themes for the most part. And you can take something that it feels like you saw in the Eighties, and when you watch it unfolds and reveals many more layers, so the title has been, I think, received well.”
I mention that I recently saw him in Et Tu, alongside Malcolm McDowell, where again he plays a character with a lot of baggage. Is that something that attracts him to particular roles?
“Well, you know, you don't want a boring character. At this point in my life, it's like, what do I hang my hat on? What is there to play? If there's nothing beneath the dialogue, then you're just serving to move the plot forward. And unfortunately that, many times, is the function of supporting characters in television. These kind of rich characters are often reserved for features – although I've been really lucky lately, in things like The Chair Company, and I just finished a miniseries called Count My Lies, where the characters are new and they're interesting and there's something for me to do. If there's nothing for me to do, then there's no particular reason for me to be there other than a paycheck. And I try to avoid that because if I say yes to you, I want to give you my best.”
Back in the Eighties he was labelled as being part of the Brat Pack. Hardly any of those actors are doing interesting work now, yet he is. He’s always managed to find interesting indie roles. How did he pull that off?
“I was just fortunate in what came my way and then also fortunate in what I would go into the room and fight for,” he says. “I had to audition for Courage Under Fire. I had to audition for Longmire and The Chair Company. Those don't fall in my lap. The funny thing is, since I'm the only brown Brat Packer, it meant that I wasn't getting a lot of those leading roles. I was not first on any of those lists, so I've always been sort of an out of the box thought for a lot of people, sad to say.”
I tell him I've heard from other actors that that can be an advantage in terms of getting to play interesting characters, particularly as one gets older, and he nods.
“Yeah, absolutely. The people who are more character actory – I think of d'Onofrio, I think of Spader...I mean, Robert Downey Jr., he's turned into a real leading man of sorts, but he was always a character actor before that. And I think that's one of the things that keeps things fresh for a lot of my peers.”
This, he says, is one film he didn’t have to audition for.
“This one came to me. As a matter of fact, I got a really lovely email from Megan Griffiths, who wrote and directed The Night Stalker where I played Richard Ramirez. She's got a friend, Vincent Grashaw, a brilliant director. They knew each other from the festival circuit. He had this script and I was his first choice for once, and she wanted me to look kindly upon it. So automatically I'm predisposed to want to do it because I have such respect for Megan's level of taste. But then for itself – and Vincent and I hit it off quickly in a Zoom, and the rest is history. We just got right down to it.”
Before we finish, he has a few words to say about his co-star, Dana Namerode.
“Dana's fantastic,” he says with real enthusiasm. “She is an actress in every sense and had worked with Vincent before, so he knew what to expect from her. You know, I try to create a safe space where I'm helping to elevate everybody, and we had a couple of Zoom rehearsals, which can be very helpful, and both showed up ready to play. This was such a small film, with a very very tight shooting schedule, and Dana was ready there on day one. So I'm thrilled that she's going to be getting some attention from this, and I hope it's a launching pad for the rest of her career, because she's really fantastic and a total pro.”
