ComingSoon Editor-in-Chief Tyler Treese spoke to Place of Bones star Heather Graham about the unique horror Western movie. Without going into spoilers, Graham discussed the film’s big twist, working with director Audrey Cummings, and more. Distributed by The Avenue, it is out today in theaters and digital.
“On a remote ranch, a mother (Heather Graham) and her daughter fight for survival when a wounded outlaw seeking refuge brings a notorious bank robber and his ruthless gang, all desperate to reclaim a stolen fortune, right to their doorstep in this action-packed horror Western,” says the synopsis.
Tyler Treese: Heather, congrats on Place of Bones. I really enjoyed the film, and I’m so excited to re-watch it because there’s this great twist later on. I won’t go into spoilers, but it recontextualizes everything. So what was your reaction when you read the script and found out that there’s this huge shocking twist at the end that just changes the whole movie?
Heather Graham: I love the twist. I thought that the script, you just didn’t know what was gonna happen. We had a screening last night, and some of my friends came, and they said, “You know, I had no idea where this movie was going. I had no idea what was gonna happen and how it was gonna end.” Everyone was really surprised, and I think that’s cool because it’s fun to tell a fresh story.
Your daughter in the film, Brielle Robillard, is fantastic. How is it building that mother-daughter relationship with her?
I think the main part of my character is that I love her so much, and I wanna protect her. She’s cool, she’s young, she’s up and coming, and she just did a great job. She’s really real. I love how our characters are both really resourceful, smart, tough, and badass.
It’s also very refreshing with Place of Bones to see a female-led western with a female director. That genre has such a rich history in film and we don’t see this very often. So how was it getting to play in that? You get these standoffs, and I feel like a gunfight like that is just on every actor’s wishlist.
Yeah, I mean, I feel like I can’t think of any Westerns at this moment that actually had a female protagonist. So it’s really cool to get to do something like that. Of course, having a gun standoff is really fun. I had a great time. I got to do one of my own stunts and fall over, and it’s fun to be in a gunfight and try to kill bad guys.
I wanted to ask you about working with Audrey Cummings. It looks like she has such a bright future. What really stood out about seeing her work because, uh, she had a lot of fresh ideas for this film.
I really like her so much. She’s an awesome person. She’s, she is a badass. I mean, she’d stand out there in all this crazy bad weather, and she’d already made some cool genre movies. It’s cool because she’s a woman, and she has some female sensibilities, but she also loves genre films. So she’s a great mix of both the masculine and feminine ways of storytelling. And we had a great DP, this guy Andrzej Sekuła, who did Pulp Fiction. So he had a great way of just making the tension exciting.
I really enjoyed Tom Hopper in this film. I just saw him in a romantic comedy, so seeing him as such an intense criminal was such a shift for me. What stood out about him as a scene partner? You have a really intense scene later on.
Well, I think it’s cool because he just looks so movie star and good looking and you expect him to be the good guy, you know, but that he’s just actually such a bad guy in this movie. He’s such a dark, bad guy. I think it’s a cool twist for him as an actor and he’s scary.
The very first DVD I ever bought was Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, and I still just have such a soft spot for that film. It’s the 25th anniversary, so I would love to just get your thoughts on just that legacy. It still holds up very well.
Aw, that’s so amazing. That’s incredible. I’m just grateful to be part of it. I mean, Mike Myers is amazing. I met this father and daughter the other day and they were like, “We bonded when I was growing up watching Austin Powers together.” It’s just amazing that people enjoyed it and that people are still watching it. It’s so cool.
Thanks to Heather Graham for taking the time to talk about Place of Bones.
