STACK NZ June 2016 Issue 74

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John Hillcoat loves an
ensemble cast, and Triple
9’s is a belter – Chiwetel Ejiofor,
Woody Harrelson, Casey Affleck,
Anthony Mackie, and Kate Winslet as
a Russian mob boss. He also enjoys
casting against type and taking actors
out of their comfort zones.
“It’s very exciting for them as
well,” the director says. “I’ve
never seen anyone more excited
than Kate Winslet when she was
able to play a villain.
“Obviously she’s played many
complex and interesting roles over
the years, and she’s a real forceful
presence. Villains are such juicy
roles, so for an actress of her
calibre, she was like a kid in a
toy shop.”
Triple 9 also features a number
of familiar faces from television in
supporting roles – The Walking Dead’s
Norman Reedus, Breaking Bad’s
Aaron Paul, and The Wire’s Michael
Kenneth Williams. Hillcoat believes
TV offers actors more risks and
creative challenges than film.
“The idea of a flawed character...
[TV is] celebrating shades of grey
as opposed to the black and white
world of franchise.”
So is television a medium he’d like
to explore in the future?
“I’m in the thick of it,” he
confirms. “I’ve got something I’m
talking to Guy Pearce about. Yes,
definitely going down that path.”
A 999 call triggers a mass response from
the police department, who converge on the
location of the downed officer.
“I’ve heard of up to 300 police officers
showing up after a cop shooting in Atlanta,”
Hillcoat says. “And in LA, I’ve seen a whole
area being shut down – with dozens of
policemen in the area for days on end – for a
resolved shooting that’s done and dusted.
“If we’d had more resources we really
could have shown how crazy it is, but fact
outstrips fiction.”
Has he also heard of criminals taking
advantage of the 999 response in a similar
way to the events depicted in the film?
“I’m not sure whether people do
deliberately use it as a diversion – maybe
they will now that we’ve flagged the idea,”
he laughs.
In recent years the Russian mafia have
usurped the Italians as the go-to movie
mobsters, and Hillcoat reveals that this
is very much the reality in the world of
organised crime, too.
“All the different criminal factions keep
progressing and changing and the Italian
mafia were eclipsed by a greater force
globally, and the stakes keep rising,” he
explains.
“There’s around 500,000 members now.
They don’t have the hierarchical triangle
the Italian mob followed, which makes
them able to navigate the world in a very
different way. There are rumours of up to 70
per cent of the Russian economy linked to
organised crime, which when you think of
Russia’s economy, eclipses the Italian mafia
dramatically.
“The Latino cartels do control drugs
on the streets of America,” he continues,
“and the interesting thing that has given
these criminal groups the edge is that they
all come from paramilitary backgrounds,
which the Italian mafia never had. It’s a
well documented change in the criminal
landscape.”
The director adds that, “everything in the
film, believe it or not, is based on a lot of
research”. And if you’ve ever
seen a John Hillcoat film
– like the aforementioned
Lawless, The Road and The
Proposition – you’ll agree
that the bleak and gritty
milieus he conjures are
incredibly authentic.
“I do spend a lot on time
on research,” he admits. “In
this case the militarisation
of the police and these
criminal groups – I wanted
to get the differences in
detail. Also in the way the
Russian mob has been represented in this
genre; there are exceptions of course, like
Eastern Promises , that really capture that
world brilliantly.”
Additionally, Hillcoat’s on-set advisors on
Triple 9 included a real gang unit who worked
with the actors – they also appear in the film,
along with ex-Latino gang members. “We
didn’t get actual Russian-Israeli mobsters on
screen, though,” he notes.
It’s this attention to detail, verisimilitude
and genre reinvention that sets Triple 9 apart
from the slicker and more generic urban
crime-thrillers.
“A lot of crime films these days seem very
artificial, and I miss the grit,”
Hillcoat says. “Films like The
French Connection inspired
me, with its gritty realism,
which I think makes it a more
immersive experience. And you
get better performances from the
actors when they are fully immersed in
the world we’re creating.”
John Hillcoat with KateWinslet