About Features Reviews Community Screenings Archives Home
March 2004
Walking Tall: An Interview with Director Kevin Bray

By Todd Gilchrist

Walking Tall: An Interview with Director Kevin Bray

Kevin Bray doesn't look like the 38-year old director of two major Hollywood films; he barely looks old enough to be the director of a high school marching band. And yet, his second full-length feature "Walking Tall" opens this Friday, following in the footsteps of his 2002 debut "All About the Benjamins", and it promises catapult to Bray into the ranks of other directors who have made a successful transition from music videos to movies. Kevin spoke with Blackfilm.com recently about his experience working with "Walking Tall" star The Rock, and the underlying messages of his latest film.


ARE YOU HAPPY WITH HOW THE MOVIE TURNED OUT?

KB: The movie turned out a lot better than I expected. Because the process of making a movie has a lot to do with schedules and availability and a lot of other elements get neglected, and we were able to create a complete film under the circumstances. When I walked into it, they said 'we're making WALKING TALL with the Rock and we have to make it at a certain time. And we had a template and a film that we were gonna use as a reference but we didn't have the nuances or any of the stuff we thought this movie should be in 2004 but thru the process I think we came up with something cool.


ARE THEIR PARALLELS BETWEEN THIS AND THE ORIGINAL?

KB: Absolutely. I think the trailer pretty much says I'm not really good at those loglines and all that stuff- but it's about a man who stands up for what he thinks is right.


ARE THERE PLANS TO MAKE THE WHOLE TRILOGY

KB: Oh I don't know. Only if they called it WALKING TALLER, WALKING TALLEST... (laughs)


WHAT WAS THE PROCESS OF GETTING THIS FILM INTO A FINISHED FORMAT?

KB: We went thru quite a few rewrites. We had the original was David Glass and then Channing Gibson, then I think my influence, and the comedy I thought it should be took us in another direction and we brought on David Levien and Brian Koppelman and they were the greatest they were from my kinda time they were unafraid to go after the movie as it was. Previous to that, it was something that might have happened like "Get Carter".


WHAT WAS THE METAMORPHOSIS OF SCRIPT FROM THE FIRST DRAFT?

KB: Just really streamlined and just not being shamed of the simplicity in the plot of this film. And always I felt like that it should be a docudrama almost like you're reading a Calendar section editorial on a guy who did this thing in the Pacific Northwest and had a casino up the street and decided to take it all on his own I wanted it to feel very chronological just simple and previous to that we were trying to get twists, and it was like oh my God he's selling drugs, he's aborting babies or whatever, but it was like don't be ashamed of the simplicity. And then Kopelman and Levine came in and they said "dude, people wanna see the stick and the Rock and they want to feel good about this guy standing up for what he thinks is right", and ultimately that's what the film is about.


THE FILM HAS TWO FAMOUS LEADS WHO FAMOUSLY AND REPEATEDLY GET KNOCKED AROUND. WHAT DOES THAT MEAN IN TERMS OF STUNT MEN FOR JOHNNY KNOXVILLE AND THE ROCK?

KB: That was the interest in the film I am the one who suggested Knoxville during this I have been working on a couple other projects with him, trying to get some things in development. So I knew I wanted to use him, and I knew that was what his audience expected of him and that was what he could do within limits, without breaking his face open and not being able to shoot the next day. And the ROCK the same he's a stunt guy, he's a theatrical performer, so he would take it to the limit, backflips, and just incredibly grueling stuff on camera. And what I wanted to bring was the realism I remembered from '73 I'm older than I look I'm 38, let's just say I'm 28 and I remembered having to go to bed and there was this 9 o'clock movie and I remember hearing the screams from when he's banging things up and it sounded so real. And these two guys I knew they could do it.


WHAT ABOUT THE ROCK'S ACTING?

KB: He has this charisma, and you gotta look at him. And I think talking gets in the way for him. And then as we worked thru the film he was learning as he did the same for all of us, Johnny, myself I had never done a film this big, and we started finding ourselves getting into scenes and building a rapport, and them not being afraid and me being not afraid to let them do more. And then one of the best scenes I think, his encounter with Connie (Neal McDonough) their confrontation was great.


IS IT A SIMILAR SITUATION AS WITH SCHWARZENEGGER, WHO PEOPLE SEEM TO WANT TO WATCH BUT NOT HEAR TALK?

KB: I'm not saying the Rock's not gonna talk. You guys see the dailies when you see some bumpers or trailers on BE COOL and you see what he's doing he's got the thing he's an actor he doesn't have the experience, or the tools just yet but you'll see, you'll be amazed. They're cutting it up the hall from me and I saw the stuff and I thought "that's not the same guy" Afro on and a goatee his body language, he's wearing clothes that are too big for him, he was just making him (his character) look like a little puppy. (laughs). That is not the Rock, but he's got it the talking's gonna be easy.


WHAT WAS THE BUDGET FOR THIS MOVIE

KB: I don't know if I can tell you that can I? Under $75, over $45.


AFTER BENJAMINS, WHAT DO YOU THINK MADE THEM LOOK AT YOU WHAT WAS IT ABOUT YOUR WORK?

KB: Really about rawness. What I brought into them was an animatic from this group called GOMEZ music, and I actually wanted Gomez to score the music for the film, and that didn't happen because the guys were on tour, but that was the vibe of rawness and the urban mix with provincial or country for my styleŠI'll go forward about this, anyway, I brought in CITY OF GOD and AMORES PERROS as references for the action about putting cameras in cars and just going for it. They had seen that in BENJAMINS, what seemed to be a lot of action on a shoestring budget. And they I think they enjoyed the humor and this movie and I don't take myself so seriously and I think that was what they were attracted to.


HOW MUCH WAS CUT OUT?

KB: Nothing was really cut just scenes streamlined to the bare essentials.


WILL THERE BE EXTRA SCENES FOR THE DVD RELEASE?

KB: Extra scenes? I wouldn't be into that and I've suggested not doing so. If it wasn't good enough to get into the film, it's not good now. All kinds of gaggy stuff, a documentary. I'm still timing the film for Monday (the premiere). We're just finishing now so I don't know what's going to be on the DVD. I would love to do a commentary my commentary on the BENJAMINS was so terrible. I was nervous and not forthcoming, and self-conscious all those things.


WHAT'S COMING NEXT FOR YOU?

KB: I have a book by Thomas Berger called MEETING EVIL that I have the rights to, that I really really really wanna make, with umŠ Will Smith. And then MGM is very happy, and I think will be happy and have approached me on a couple of things.


ARE YOU CONCERNED THAT THE FILM MIGHT GLORIFY VIGILANTE JUSTICE?

KB: It does (glorify vigilante justice). I think there was a innocence and simple about what was bad, and hopefully the bad would be considered the objective bad, and then it's must be smite by all. I was personally very concerned because of where we are right now and what we're doing.


DO YOU THINK THE MOVIE WAS A PARABLE FOR THE WAR, IN A WAY?

KB: A parable of justice? I'm really interested in hearing this. There was one thing I didn't get to do in the movie and that was to put a flag on Hamilton's lapel. And then I would have fucking done it and you all would have seen what it was really about and that was what I missed. He is big business (Hamilton) and he is, and this guy was off fighting for something and really the dirt is all really at home. And his town our gas is $2.50 and this person who's making the gas and no business and WalMart and all that stuff is that Hamilton character. So I hope that on a deeper level, you'll see that; plus his everyman-ness and mixed race the fact you people haven't asked about that is pretty amazing, pretty cool it did exactly what I was hoping.


DID YOU RECEIVE ANY ADVICE FROM PETER BERG, WHO DIRECTED THE ROCK ON "THE RUNDOWN"?

KB: I said, "What do you call him?" He said "When he was on my movie, I called him the Rock", because the Rock was who I wanted on the set I don't want Dwayne. And don't be afraid to get in his face he's an athlete he comes from that kind of culture, don't be afraid to tell him you want to get it just right he takes criticism real well". He is just about getting shit right, without letting ego get in the way. The Rock is phenomenal like that, and a very good friend.

Terms of Use | Privacy Policy