Interview: Gary McKendry, Director of KILLER ELITE!
What follows is an incredibly frank and insightful interview about the significance of violence, growing up in Belfast, the legitimacy of “The Feather Men”, world issues and the difficulties of making your first feature film.
Killer Elite is the new action packed thriller by first time filmmaker Gary McKendry that was premiered at the Toronto Film Festival and is out today in the U.K. (my review HERE). One of the main attractive features of the film is the stellar cast attached. Myself and a few other plucky journos were lucky enough to sit at a round table and interview four people related to the film. Heres 2 of 4. Gary McKendry is a passionate, fresh director from Ireland. He grew up in the violent city of Belfast, which caused him to grow up pretty fast and view the world in an interesting light. His Oscar nominated short film Everything In This Country Must is a sublime 20 minute ode to the difficulties between English soldiers and Irish locals and perfectly captures the atmosphere that only someone who grew up in and around such a difficult time, could evoke. He entered the room, seeming far more down to earth and was incredibly friendly, proceeding to have a conversation with us before the interview officially started. Hes not a star and as he confesses later hes still not really used to being in the spotlight so he just enjoys it while he can, because he might not be there again. What follows is an incredibly frank and insightful interview about the significance of violence, growing up in Belfast, the legitimacy of The Feather Men, world issues and the difficulties of making your first feature film. (As ever our questions in bold, his answers not). Hey guys, hows it going? Nice to meet you!Good to meet you too.Talking with Clive, the first questions that came up were all about the action sequences and one of the things that occurred to me as we were talking about it, is as an actor, he treats it like a continuous scene, but as a director, you know how youre going to cut it. How do you convey that ? How do you convey that to your actors or do you worry about it, because a lot of the pacing and breathlessness is from how youve it together...
Yeah, I think what you do with each actor, you get each one and their individual arc and then you decide how its paced in post. You know, someone said to me today A director has to be ruthless. I think, you have to be giving first, then you have to be ruthless and I think when youre looking for a performance, you let these guys loose and let them do what they have to do, but then youre ruthless afterwards when youre sitting in that edit suite and youre all alone... Thats when you get ruthless and some beautiful things hit the floor... But, youre not loyal to any one performance, youre loyal to the combination of the performances... So, you give a lot, set them free and give them space and then afterwards... You get tough.How did you get the actors on board?
On this movie?Yeah. Youve got De Niro, Statham AND Owen.
Well, I think it was a domino effect. When youre making a movie the first casting is always the hardest and I think the secret to this film was... Jason up front. Jason, I mean, Im sure everyone says this, but Ive never been here before... I might never be here again... (laughs) Jason was my first choice for the role because the guy Danny, has got a large amount of silence... He cant talk to the guys that he wants to get out. He cant talk to the girl about his past... So he has no one to talk to, and I think Jason is famous for action, but I think... What draws me to Jason very much is his stillness. I think Jason plays still like... The only person who plays still like him, is actually, a Steve McQueen quality... for me at least. So, Jason came aboard first, but he came on and took the hard role. I think everyone thought he would take the role that Clive took, which is the defender, the hero kind of role. Jason took the other role, which was the unexpected one and that was great. The thing with this film is you dont know whos the good guy and whos the bad guy. Thats the whole point of the film. You dont know who to root for. Really, a lot of people said to me at the end, Who was the good guy in that thing? and I was like Great. Thats what made it hard to make, so when Jason took that difficult role... it made it a lot easier.The end is quite open actually...
Yeah, I mean...Is there a plan?
Oh, for a second movie?Yeah.
Not consciously. I mean, to be honest... It wasnt really. I think, it was open because... I come from Belfast... The true meaning of the story was... When I read this book, I couldnt believe the respect that were, like... It was written from the perspective of the killers and they could see themselves in each other. So, theyre all quite similar characters... Its like two sides of the same coin, and for me, when I watched it I was like Jesus, these guys are so similar! Jason is going in this direction wanting to go out and Clives going in another direction wanting to get back in, but really they are the same person. At the end of it, whos the hero of the film? You know, I dont come from a world where I believe in black and white. I really dont, and thats what I like about the film. I think at the end of it thats the thing that pleases me most that the audience is going So who was the good guy and who was the bad guy?So, you come from a world where violence is, first of all, not something that is taken lightly, because its hit every neighbourhood in Belfast at some point during the troubles...
Sure.And then in addition to that... The people that we normally, in pop culture, would ionize as heroes are really seen as the villains from the perspective of the streets...
Well you use the word perspective. Where I lived in Ireland the SAS were regarded as heroes, for protecting my side of the community, but as you get older, you meet other people and good friends of mine, who regard them as villains... Because they didnt want the same results that I wanted. So the one thing you gain in life is perspective. Like the Sheikh. I didnt want to vilify the Sheikh in the story, because from the Sheikhs perspective, these men came to his country and killed his sons and by his code, they should die. Thats his law, thats his system. We can stand here and judge him and go Hes a barbarian because were Christians... Hes a barbarian. But we went to his land and we did that. So, I think, theres a thing in the Special forces they call Big Boys Rules and the idea of Big Boys Rules is... When you play Big Boys Games... You play Big Boys Rules. In other words... No foul. No tears. You take what you get and you give just as hard. So, theyve separated themselves from society... They dont expect... You know, they live within a certain code and I think the whole movie is from within the code, thats whats good and thats why I think theres no good or bad. It all depends on perspective. Like, you could sit there and go Jasons the bad guy or equally go Clives the bad guy. You know, its up to you. Who do you want to go with?
How close is the film...To the book?Yeah, to the book.
You know, its really...And you know how close is the book to real life?
(Laughs) Well, now you see, theres two very big questions there... When I picked it up, what drew me to it was the fact that I looked at it and went True story? Fantastic! True story? How can this happen? Well, as I say, I grew up in Belfast, theres plenty of secret societies and political murders and death on the street... (Laughs) Plenty of that where I come from. But you know, at the same time I read this and it was set in London and I was like This is really, really great. The further we got into it, all we got was... The first book was fact, then I looked at a second edition of it and it said it was fiction... Then I saw an interview with the author where he said: Is it fact or is it fiction? Yes it is. (Laughs) How does that help me, you know!? So, I began asking questions and we dug deep and we found yes, certain of these guys were killed... No one could say, They were killed for this reason or killed with this simple plot but, you know, some people denied it, some people were saying it was definitely true and I think unless youre a major politician or a member of MI6 you wont know. For me, what I decided was, my big thing wasnt Did it happen? it was: Could it happen? And that was great because what it did in a certain way was set me free... Im not making a documentary. Im not interested in a documentary... As you said, I come from a world of violence... I know a fight ends like THAT *snaps his fingers*. Its over. You blink? Its done. You pull a gun? Somebodys dead. Thats not cinematic, thats reality. I dont need to pay to go and see reality. Its on my television every night... Whether its Iraq, Iran, or Afghanistan... Or Bolivia... You know, its on television every night and you just get tired of it. I wanted to take that story and make it entertainment. I wanted to go back and so, from looking at it from a perspective of Could it happen? That set me free, to have fun with the story and create something of my own.The whole story is very reminiscent of these days... The beginning, as you said, its the war...
Yeah! Its unbelievable! I mean, you look at what happened in Libya right? The Pan Am explosion, right? You got the Pan Am explosion, the Lockerby bombing, you get, the guy released by the British government... The next day BP gets a contract, right? Now when Libyas falling apart the SAS are in there and MI6 are running around trying to get hold of all the papers. Thats all about oil.So, our story is 30 years ago and is set in Oman, but its not that different really. Well, how does that surprise anyone?
Exactly! Why would you be surprised? I mean really? Come on!Its people and thats what people are. Theyre deceptive, deceitful and they want things.
Yep. And you know the SAS...you know, one of the things Id like to say that when doing this film I tried really hard not to vilify the SAS... From my perspective, where I grew up... Ive nothing but respect for the SAS and believe me, I took a lot of heat from producers who wouldve loved to made the SAS baby killers, because that would have made Jasons role a lot easier. You could have looked at them and gone: Oh, theyre murdering bastards and they had it coming! They didnt have it coming! They were doing what soldiers do. The Sheikh, his sons were doing what his sons were doing and they were fighting for their country, but its a clash of cultures, and you know what? Nobody was doing the wrong thing, its just about perspective. Thats what it was about. Its always about perspective.
You talked about whether it Could be done, rather than if it Was done....Yeah!But that also involves getting it right, in terms of the technology and in terms of the strategies... Is the SAS cooperative in this way or do you have to embellish it a little?
All the executions that took place in the film, took place in the book. There was actually a fourth soldier that died, but we trimmed it down. I mean, the hit with the remote control truck? That happened. As a matter of fact if you look at Lady Dianas death a lot of people say that Dianas death was done by a Boston brakes system. Well, that was the first thing on the internet, its bullshit probably, but it just shows you that its a real technology and is possible. The guy who died on the mountain? Some people say he was poisoned from an injection and died on the mountain from exposure, but other people say that he just died on an exercise. But he died on a mountain, and the other guy... the one with the hammer, they were going to kill him with a hammer and they didnt, they ended up booby trapping a helicopter, in the book. So, all three of those are just the same... Its not like were inventing a lot of stuff here and people are like: Thats crazy! You know, my guys actually built the remote control system on the truck and it worked. (Laughs)Do you personally believe in The Feather Men?
I have been told by a couple of ex SAS guys that there was a secret society, but it wasnt called The Feather Men. Ive heard theres something called... The Scottish Group... I dont know... I dont know if there was something called The Feather Men or not... Do I believe?Yes.
I believe that ex Special Forces guys find it hard to give up... (laughs). I believe, when youre the cream of the crop and youve always been told youre the best? I think its very hard to walk away from that and find a normal place in the real world, and Im sure, you know, originally in the story they were a vigilante force that looked after their own and then this happened and it got out of hand. I think thats quite believable. Im not saying it happened... I dont know... And I dont want to know! (Laughs)
So, Killer Elite is your first feature film...Yeah.How hard is it nowadays, to get a first feature film out, because you co wrote it as well, so its not like you have a big name behind the camera. You have a big cast, but you had to attract them first...
Its very difficult, you know, it wasnt meant to be the first one, there was actually a sort of plan... I would do the short, get nominated and then there was this other small Irish thriller that we had done... A beautiful, small story and then I would ease into this film, but the small one fell through with the recession, it just collapsed. So, you know, the one-two-three steps? I just went from one to three... And its pretty scary... I met Saul Zaentz at a festival and I asked him for advice: What would you say? and he said: Ownership is everything. The thing with this was... I developed this, you know, I optioned the book, came up with the script and got it to Jason, so in many ways... Youre playing a little role of the first producer kind of thing and then when they came on board, you hand it over to them. Thats the only way I stayed on board I think is because they couldnt get rid of me. (Laughs) Im sure they would have loved to. Haha.How are you dealing with being here at the festival, in Toronto?
Its kind of interesting, because Ive been at this festival a couple of times... Ive been sitting in the terraces... (laughs) and you know, not in the pit... And now, Im in the arena, its quite different you know? Its interesting, its your first movie... Youve only so much power... You know? When youve made a movie, and some of the things youre defending...Arent your choice... (laughs) You can only have so much power when you make your first movie... You dont have final cut... You dont have a lot of things...Is this the sort of film you would like to do more of? Action with drama and some politics?
Im more interested in the thriller aspect of it and I think for me, the violence comes from the story. A story about violent men... So the violence is just an extension of the character and thats why its so important for me that the guys did their own action... You know, thats why it was so important that in those fight scenes it was Jason and Clive. Otherwise, thats quite hard to stage. You know, its an extension of who they are... I know thats why they wanted to do it. Thats certainly why Clive was interested, because he lives his life as a violent man in a violent part of society, so he had to do that in those fight scenes and that was essential... But you know, Im not really interested in big action movies... Im more interested in the thriller part of it... This just happened to be a very violent thriller... (laughs)Gary McKendry, thanks for your time!
Thanks guys, pleasure to meet you all!http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8F1wrDsUqYc Killer Elite is in cinema's now. Our review HERE.