Exclusive Q+A with Director Alex Smith

On your web site you explain that SLAUGHTER RULE came about from a Writing and Filmmaking lab at Sundance. Could you explain how that works and how difficult was it to make the movie?

These are two very different questions.

1) With the Sundance Lab, you submit your script. We submitted it three times, over five years, the first two times we were rejected, the third time we got in. First we went to the Writing Lab, in January of 1998, where you spend a week in the Wasatch Mountains of Utah, having several of the best screenwriters in America talk to you about your script. It's kind of like it's a big pinata, and everybody takes a swing at it. But we got all kinds of great advice/suggestions/feedback from folks like Michael Weller (Hair), Peter Hedges (What's Eating Gilbert Grape) and Paul Attanasio (Donnie Brasco, Quiz Show). Then we went home and did a lot of work on the script, and then submitted the new draft for the Directing Lab. That took place in June, and what happens is you go up there for three weeks, and shoot four scenes from the film on DV, with professional actors, and a pro D.P. and a crew. Then you edit the scenes, and show them to a bunch more advisors-- directors, editors, cinematographers, actors, etc. Basically, it's like "Film Camp", and you get to do a trial run on some of the most important scenes in your film. For us it was a huge boost in confidence as far as co-directing goes, and an important lesson in how crucial casting is. Incidentally, three of the scenes we shot at Sundance will be included on the DVD of the film, which will come out on February 18th.

2) It was extremely difficult to make the movie-- it took us almost 10 years to set it up, and raise the financing, and then we only had 24 days to shoot it in. I could write a book about the odyssey of getting the film financed/made/distributed.

How happy are you with the results? What would have been different about the production if you had a bigger budget or could reshoot it?

We are both very happy with the finished film, and quite proud of it. A bigger budget would have allowed us a little more elbow room in which to nail the key scenes and to better cover our football sequences. We both feel the second bedroom scene with Roy & Skyla (where she breaks up with him) could have been even better with a little more time and money-- our sound in that scene is a nightmare, due to the location and our boom guy's leg cramping up so bad that he had to take a pain-killer and that put him out.

How did the casting come about for the roles of Roy and Gideon? Which part was harder to cast?

We knew we wanted David Morse to play Gideon for a long time. We didn't write it with him in mind, but after seeing him in The Crossing Guard, we knew his combo of sympathetic and wariness was perfect. He signed on three years prior to the shooting of the film, so we had lots of time to work with him. Roy was much harder to cast. Ryan came in at the 11th hour, a godsend. We had looked at hundreds of boys, and had almost cast three others-- Jake Gyllenhall, Nick Stahl, & Ben Foster-- and none of the three had worked out because of various reasons. We were in pre-production when we lost Ben, so flew out to L.A. with four days to bag our Roy. And in walked Ryan, and we could tell from a handshake he was our man. We had never seen a frame of film on him, but it was the easiest casting decision we had to make, once he had done an audition as Roy.

What month(s) did you shoot in Montana? Did shooting in the cold present any unique challenges?

We shot in November & December of 2001. We hit a record cold snap during the shoot-- 9 days in a row where the temperature never got above 0 degrees. It made shooting extremely extremely hard on the crew, the cast, and the equipment. I think some of us are still thawing out, and there were a few cases of frostbite resultant. But at least it looks damn cold.

Were you frustrated waiting for a distribution deal? Are you happy with this combination limited release/DVD release/Sundance channel exposure?

Yes, waiting on distribution is a frustrating thing. You want the best for your baby, and you want it all, and it's hard when people show a lot of interest, and ultimately pass, not because of the film's merits, but because of it's tricky marketability. Most distributors want films that will do all the work for them-- sell themselves-- and ours requires some careful thought. Yes, we're happy with how things ended up. Personally, I think the film deserved a better theatrical launch, but because of the timing and nature of the deals our producers made, Cowboy Pictures hands were severely tied in as far as doing a big theatrical launch. Obviously neither company has deep pockets, but both have impeccable taste, and that matters most of all to us. People are aware of the film, and it will have a long life, I hope, through word of mouth more than big corporate packaging.

Which film festival, aside from Sundance, did you get the most interesting/best response to your film?

Well, we won the International Film Critic's Award at the Stockholm International Film Festival, beating out several of the best films in the world in 2002, so that was the best response we got, plus we were wonderfully well treated there. At the Sydney International Film Festival we showed the film to around 1300 people at one of the finest theatres in the world, so that was really, really special. And playing the film at the Museum of Modern Art for the New Directors/New Films Festival in NYC was pretty cool. After showing it at MOMA, Andrew turned to me and said, "well, I guess I can die pleased now."

I read an article where one of you said that the story came about based on a real life story from your high school. Could you explain more about where the story comes from?

Both Andrew and I were cut from our high school basketball team and were recruited to play "Men's League" basketball by a strange Gid-like man in our small town of Missoula. There were rumors he had a thing for young men, but nothing in his behavior ever indicated that, but the rumors were enough for us to consider abandoning him out in a rural place (like Gid, he had no car, so we gave him rides), and the team dissipated quickly. But he remained in our imagination, and both of us, in college, unbeknownst to each other, started writing about him, so we decided to share the story. I guess we both felt guilty about prejudging someone who was lonely, and had had a hard life.

Could you explain the ending of the film? There's a debate over what happens to Roy at the end. Is he happy to stay in Montana? Does he decide that he's gay? Or is he content or resigned about life in general?

I don't like to explain endings. We wanted to keep it a little open-ended, so as not to wrap everything up in a neat package. We did discuss how most coming-of-age stories, from Five Easy Pieces to Spanking the Monkey are about people who leave there small towns, and we wanted to make a film about a kid who stayed. As far as him coming out or not, that's completely left up to the believer. It wasn't something we were aiming for, nor was it something Ryan was playing, but it certainly is a possibility for the character of Roy Chutney. I hope everyone leaves the film running their own separate sequel to the film on their own mindscreens.

Was THE SLAUGHTER RULE shot before or after Ryan Gosling did THE BELIEVER? Did having the star of THE BELIEVER help with distribution or attention to your film?

It was shot after The Believer, but we knew nothing about his work in that film. It wasn't until we were in our final week of filming that he came into our editing bay and showed us a scene from The Believer -- he had just found out that it had got into Sundance, and was doing some ADR work from his hotel room. We couldn't believe it was the same kid. He's amazing. But, as well received/respected as he is for The Believer, he still isn't a big enough box star to help us with our distribution. He will be soon, though, no doubt about it.

The majority of Ryan Gosling fans are teenagers who followed his career as Young Hercules and earlier. What would you say to those fans to get them to watch SLAUGHTER RULE?

I would say that Young Hercules is fantasy, and our film is much closer to real life, and that they may ultimately get more out of watching Ryan as a real kid than in watching him as an anachronistic Greek Myth. If they are fans of his work, they should be fans of all his work. He's doing incredible things on screen now, making really smart, hard choices, and should be commended for it.

The highly charged confrontational scene between Roy and Gideon when Gideon refuses to let Roy go out of a hug - how many takes? Was that difficult to shoot?

I think we did about five takes of that scene-- well, at least from the football rough-housing through the embrace. It was really physically demanding to our actors, and, obviously, even more emotionally demanding, so we knew we only had a few takes in which to get it. We shot that whole scene in one day, which in retrospect, is insane. It was tricky to shoot, because we used an actual location, an old apartment building, and it had no heat, and it was minus 10 degrees outside, and David cracked the wall the first time he hit it, IN REHEARSAL, and it was the 6th shooting day of the week, so our crew was exhausted and high mutinous and we had a huge argument with our producers that night about the budget, so it was enormously difficult. Thank god they were so locked in. I still get goosebumps when I watch that scene, and forget that it's Ryan & David-- it's still Roy & Gid exposing their hearts to us.

What are you working on next?

Oh, about ten things. We just finished a second draft on a Ghost Story set during the Civil War for Touchstone, and have written a spec script about Bootlegging Communists in Eastern Montana in the '20s, and are hoping to adapt a novel about a guy who has to revenge his brother's murder. So we're busy...