Writer/Director Brian Helgeland talks about inspiration, path, structure, Intention and environment in regards to the release of his film: “Finestkind” on Paramount+.
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Short filmTranscript
00:00 [MUSIC]
00:10 It's the in between that counts.
00:21 [MUSIC]
00:26 >> We've met many times over the years.
00:28 I always remember payback when we talked and that was 99.
00:32 But I also remember all the scripts that you've written.
00:35 Like there's so many scripts that don't get produced.
00:38 But there's so much work that goes into them.
00:41 And it's great to see something like Finest Kind make its way because
00:46 movies aren't made like this anymore.
00:47 They don't sound like this anymore.
00:49 Could you sort of talk about that and that voice?
00:52 Because you've always had it.
00:54 >> Yeah, I wrote the script when I was 28.
01:01 And that's over 30 years ago.
01:04 And I had been a commercial fisherman for
01:08 a year and a half when I got out of college.
01:12 So I wrote this script very soon after,
01:15 two or three years after I had the experience and was still young.
01:19 And it's written with all that attitude and that sensibility.
01:23 And for whatever reason, I can never get it made.
01:27 It had different stocks and stalls over the years, but nothing really serious.
01:33 So I never thought it was gonna even get made.
01:36 And then when it finally happened, the director version of me is 60.
01:42 And the writer version of me is 28.
01:44 And when I read through the script, I thought,
01:46 I don't think I do this that way anymore.
01:49 But I didn't wanna change it.
01:50 I wanted to respect the version of myself that wrote it in the first place,
01:55 back in whenever, 1990 or so.
02:00 So it's a 90s script in a sense.
02:04 [MUSIC]
02:06 >> It's incredible.
02:07 You live, you die.
02:10 It's the in between that counts.
02:13 [MUSIC]
02:19 >> I got a proposition for you.
02:20 Need you to take my boat out for a run.
02:22 >> You're okay, Pop.
02:23 >> No, because there must be a duality in that,
02:25 cuz you were from Charlie's point of view before.
02:28 And probably now either Tom or you can look at it almost from Tommy's perspective.
02:33 It's interesting in that dynamic.
02:35 >> Yeah, and in fact, I wrote it, I didn't have kids when I wrote it.
02:40 And when I directed it, I had two grown adult sons.
02:45 So I had two brothers to look at a lot and
02:49 see how their dynamic between each other and stuff.
02:51 So definitely I feel like I'm more in the Ben Tommy zone than I am in
02:56 the Charlie zone, and even the Mabel zone for that matter.
03:00 Cuz I was that kid too, that's my hometown, where she went to high school and
03:03 the movie is where I went to high school.
03:07 I had really no role models as far as wanting to get out of town and
03:12 having a sense that there was a bigger world out there, but
03:14 having no sort of way of getting a hold of it.
03:18 So she's partly me too in a sense.
03:21 >> Tom, I was wondering maybe you needed an extra deckhand.
03:25 My brother, I'm curious.
03:26 >> Curious about what, Charlie?
03:27 >> About me, about you too maybe.
03:29 [MUSIC]
03:30 >> We're gonna show you what real fishermen can do.
03:33 We're going to Canadian waters.
03:34 [MUSIC]
03:36 >> What happens if you get caught?
03:37 [MUSIC]
03:40 >> Getting caught is not an option.
03:42 >> Well, but also looking at the casting, because I've talked to Ben and
03:47 Clayton and a lot of people before.
03:49 It's really interesting to see the dynamic.
03:51 It's getting people out of their comfort zone and making them get into it.
03:56 And it's really interesting because the dialogue is whip smart in that way.
04:00 Even if you probably punched it up a little bit, I would think, a little bit,
04:04 Brian, or was it sort of as it was?
04:07 >> Maybe a bit.
04:09 I rewrote just the dialogue for Tommy.
04:12 I rewrote because he's from Texas.
04:15 He wasn't from Texas in the original script, but he's from Texas in the movie.
04:18 So his dialogue got a good going over.
04:21 It maybe claims to, it's a little smarter than I was able to write back then.
04:27 But basically, it's the same as it was, especially between the brothers and stuff.
04:33 >> Nice and slow, turn the knife upward and straight to me.
04:36 >> Yep.
04:37 >> Stay on that open, man.
04:38 >> Yeah, fuck.
04:41 >> It should all just come right off.
04:42 There you go.
04:42 >> Hey!
04:43 >> You have it?
04:44 >> Yeah!
04:45 >> There you go, you're an action.
04:46 >> Man, that was perfect, you see that?
04:48 >> That's beautiful.
04:49 >> Yeah.
04:50 You gotta find that rhythm.
04:52 >> Are you gonna dance while you're- >> Find that shock rhythm, yeah.
04:54 You do a shock dance, it helps you out.
04:55 >> Yeah, I can't even put the knife in it when I'm dancing like this.
04:58 >> I got a lot of natural rhythm anyway, you know?
05:00 >> But there's something really dynamic.
05:01 Because the thing is, is that a lot of movies just try to explain everything.
05:06 But sometimes they don't just do.
05:08 And like the diner scene, and the way the diner scene plays out is just bam,
05:13 visceral in your face, which you don't get quite often.
05:16 It's dramatic, it's intense.
05:18 And obviously, it keys into a lot of the work we did.
05:22 I mean, it's blending sort of that idea of the old school and the new generation.
05:28 Can you talk about sort of seeing that and
05:31 playing that in that sort of set piece, because it's dynamic as hell?
05:36 >> Yeah, no, well, he's underestimated these guys in a sense, the villain Weeks.
05:43 Not the guys that are his age, but he has, when Tommy Lee walks in that
05:49 coffee shop as a kind of sad sack character, which he is.
05:54 What I love about his performance there is he's not pretending to disarm them.
05:59 He's really that sad sack down on his heels guy, and has a plan obviously.
06:07 But yeah, it's just that the younger generation has underestimated
06:13 the older generation in that scene, and
06:16 what he's willing to do to look out for his kid.
06:22 So yeah, those great fun scenes to shoot, those scenes you rehearse,
06:27 and then it just starts to click right away with those guys, and
06:32 then you're off and running.
06:34 >> Let's find a big scar.
06:36 The big one's a different story.
06:38 You gotta flip your knife around, right?
06:39 Hold that, flip your knife around, right?
06:42 You gotta hit it hard and knock it out.
06:43 >> He didn't do that.
06:44 >> You gotta knock it, the big one's unconscious.
06:46 You gotta knock it out.
06:47 Hit it hard, you gotta knock it out.
06:48 >> [LAUGH] >> I'm joking, you don't gotta knock it.
06:52 >> But the fact that you've always written such sharp dialogue,
06:56 it must help with the directing.
06:57 Because not everybody can get that performance out of Tommy,
07:00 having talked so many times.
07:02 Tommy will say, I will say the line, but
07:04 you can see sort of the subtleness here, like there was pinpoint stuff.
07:09 Can you talk about that?
07:10 Because certain people need that.
07:12 I'm like Mel needs it in a certain way, I know.
07:15 But Tommy- >> I think,
07:18 this isn't a criticism, but it's kind of like, well, in sports,
07:22 when they say they'll play to the level of their competition.
07:26 A good team, if they play a bad team, won't try as hard.
07:31 Or if they play a better team, they try harder.
07:33 And it's not about effort, but I think he's experienced enough that he arrives and
07:40 he sees the appetite of the filmmakers and what they're trying to pull off.
07:45 And if you don't have, he's not gonna try,
07:48 he can't raise your ambition for the film if you don't have it.
07:54 So, but if you have it, he recognizes it.
07:57 And I think he's always good, but I think he ups his game a little bit
08:03 when he sees that that's what's going on around him.
08:05 [MUSIC]
08:07 >> Canadian Coast Guard.
08:08 [MUSIC]
08:12 >> Your vessel's been seized.
08:14 [MUSIC]
08:17 >> I got a $100,000 fine.
08:19 >> I'm gonna lose my father's boat.
08:20 [MUSIC]
08:22 >> I never should have trusted you.
08:24 I do not understand the way you're built.
08:26 >> You built me.
08:27 >> Environment, environment's always crucial in all of your scripts and
08:31 in all of your films.
08:32 Can you talk, obviously, it's uber important here because it's that area.
08:37 It's the ocean, it's the unknown.
08:39 Can you sort of talk about using environment to create psychological drama?
08:44 >> Yeah, I mean, the broad answer is that a film should always
08:49 take you to a place you can't go as an audience member.
08:53 And that could be outer space, it could be 1370, or
08:57 it can be the deck of a fishing boat.
09:00 So very few people in the audience are ever gonna experience what it's like to be
09:04 a commercial fisherman.
09:06 Just generally, it's gotta take you to that place.
09:10 And these guys are what they do.
09:13 Tony Scott used to always say to me,
09:17 I make movies about what people do for a living.
09:20 It's just they happen to be test pilots or NASCAR racers.
09:23 But really, all I wanna see is what they do for a living and how they do it.
09:28 And we'll put a story around that because you are what you do, in a sense,
09:32 in those jobs.
09:33 [MUSIC]
09:35 >> I can't help you.
09:36 You're gonna have to do just what I ask you to.
09:38 [MUSIC]
09:39 I like my resources.
09:40 We wanna do business.
09:41 >> Well, Mabel here says you guys are one time in, but if this works out,
09:44 this is it, one time only.
09:46 >> So it's that working from sort of outside in, in a way,
09:50 is what do they do and where do they do it?
09:54 And then that dictates a lot of things.
09:57 So on the ocean, they're very confident and
10:01 know what their place is and how to get things done.
10:05 They're unlucky, but on dry land, they're over their head.
10:11 When they get involved with these criminals,
10:14 they're way out of their league and it quickly unravels on them.
10:18 And so it's sort of that, it's the environment and what they do defines who
10:23 they are and defines the playing fields that they're good at and
10:27 where they're uncomfortable.
10:29 And it's kind of that simple, I think.
10:32 [MUSIC]
10:40 >> Do you know what line you're crossing right now?
10:42 >> I do think fishermen have a very dark kind of sense of humor because they're
10:47 always in sort of a some semi danger all the time.
10:50 So it gets a gallows humor to it.
10:52 And the one last thing I was gonna say is, as far as the story goes,
10:57 is like today, everything, the studios want everything spelled out.
11:01 The characters have to explain why they're good.
11:04 And instead of seeing who they are, there's a lot of explaining who they are.
11:10 Never believe someone when they tell you who they are,
11:12 cuz they don't have a good perspective on.
11:15 Anyways, nice to see you.
11:17 >> No, it's awesome.
11:18 Thank you very much.
11:19 Always great talking to you, Brian.
11:20 Continue success.
11:21 Can't wait to see what you do next.
11:22 Thank you, sir.
11:23 >> Thank you very much.
11:24 [MUSIC]
11:27 >> She set us up.
11:27 [MUSIC]
11:35 >> You live.
11:36 [MUSIC]
11:40 You die.
11:40 [MUSIC]
11:50 (dramatic music)