God told me to

>> Bill Paxton on his directorial debut and starring role as a muderous Christian father in Frailty

by MATTHEW HAYS

Actor Bill Paxton’s CV is packed with a broad range of roles, from good-boy characters (Titanic, Apollo 13, Twister) to nasty and/or cowardly types (Aliens, A Simple Plan).

For his directorial debut, the haunting Frailty, Paxton is clearly drawing on his dark side. The film, shot from a Brent Hanley screenplay, has Paxton playing a twisted patriarch, a single parent with two young sons who is suddenly seized with the idea that God is telling him to kill certain evil people. He kidnaps said people, clubbing them unconscious and then dragging them into his barn, where he axe murders them in front of his children. (Just imagine what those two kids are going through as their father, claiming to be under the direct orders of God, chops up various neighbours into pieces. How embarrassing!)

As a gothic suspense-horror film, Frailty serves up the goods. Paxton has had a long history with scary movies, something he mines cleverly here. His work in show business came with a set dressing stint for Roger Corman; he even worked gathering props for Brian De Palma’s genre landmark Carrie. As well, he appeared in both James Cameron’s Terminator and Aliens, as well as Sam Raimi’s suspenseful tragedy A Simple Plan. Paxton uses a good deal of restraint and minimalism in Frailty; it’s what you don’t see, the off-screen hatchet jobs (that you can hear) that will really make your hair stand on end. And the film is loaded with a neat, Twilight Zoney-snappy closure.

The film’s release was delayed twice from an original fall date, but as Paxton discusses here, it had nothing to do with 9/11, as has been widely reported in the press. (Though an extremely dark film, it is difficult to see how events in the film could be linked thematically to the terrorist attacks.)

Paxton spoke to the Mirror from L.A. about irritating press coverage, his major influences and what’s appropriate for children to see on the big screen.

Mirror: So I read the piece on you in the Sunday New York Times…

Bill Paxton: Yeah, that was completely ridiculous. My second profile in the Times and the writer had his agenda all ready to go. Suddenly the movie’s tied into 9/11 which is the last thing I want. It’s ridiculous. He spoke to me in October, and that was all anyone could talk about then. The movie was not pushed back because of the terrorist attacks, it was pushed back because of fiscal reasons. The studio had put their money into Monster’s Ball, because of the push for Halle [Berry], and now the spring quarter is where they’re going to make their expenditure on this movie. The studio has to be careful how it spends its money. This is the biggest release for Lion’s Gate, ever. It’s going out on 1,500 plus screens.

Genre busting

M: This is your first feature as director. Some directors have complained about getting pegged as horror directors, in particular Wes Craven who’s complained about it bitterly. Did you have any trepidation about starting out in horror?

BP: None whatsoever. I think this is as much a psychological thriller and a crime thriller as it is a gothic thriller. Night of the Hunter, is that a horror? Yeah, I guess it is, but it’s also a regional noir. Horror has come to have this connotation of slasher movie, this is no slasher movie. But hey, of as a murder thriller. But I’m not afraid of horror. The reason I chose this script in the first place was to do something visually stylized. I wanted to show some director’s skills as well as a chance at the part, which is great.

M: You’ve got two really good child performances in this film. Child actors are tricky to handle. Were you at all worried having two young children in a script that contains such horrifying material?

BP: I see a lot of child performances and I just worked with a child actor this age on a film I acted in in Europe. I watched as the director really pushed for an emotional, pity-me performance for this kid. What I love about Matt O’Leary’s performance [O’Leary plays the older boy in Frailty] is that he’s never looking for pity through his performance. He’s got this tremendous stoicism. He’s not pulling on the audience’s heartstrings, which I think makes the performance all the more strong.
I wasn’t worried about the effects on the kid, not at this age. We don’t show anything. It’s all rubber axes too. They were having fun, running around on the set. A bigger worry for me is what will happen to them in the Hollywood system. I called the parents of both boys and said, “Look, I want to cast your kids, but are you ready for them becoming public figures from this”’ It’s a very cruel business, especially for child performers. They want you when you’re young and cute and then a summer goes by and—

M: And you’re Danny Bonaduce—

BP: Yeah. That can be a tough thing—to have some of the biggest moments of your life happen before you’re even an adult. It’s hard enough being an adult actor.

God in the machine

M: Religion figures prominently in this film. Are you a religious person?

BP: I grew up in a traditional religion. But I wouldn’t call myself religious. For me, the film has more to do with science fiction. I’ve always been drawn to the supernatural. The film does rely heavily on the Old Testament though. But I’m also thinking of the classical Hollywood thriller, from Night of the Hunter to To Kill a Mockingbird to the original Invaders From Mars. My character’s not a religious man, though, he’s a man who has a vision. He’s either a lunatic or Joan of Arc. You just don’t know, that’s what makes the movie.

M: Any word from Jerry Falwell or Pat Robertson on what they thought of this film?

BP: No. I think it might even be the liberals who hate this movie. Who knows? But I don’t want to project who’s going to take umbrage with this film. I didn’t make it to be controversial. I thought it was an original, entertaining and scary story. The movie’s actually very straightforward. Perhaps some on the right will like the film, thinking it’s a calling to capital punishment. I just see it as a family tragedy.

M: Any major inspirations in terms of directing?

BP: I guess crime stories have always intrigued me. If that show Autopsy is on HBO I can’t take my eyes off it. I used to be completely hooked on Unsolved Mysteries. I couldn’t wait to hear Robert Stack say, “Perhaps you can help solve the mystery! Call the toll-free number on the screen!” I guess from me I’ve read too much of the stuff. There’s something about murder out yonder, when people are isolated and stuff goes undetected for a long time. People from the country have always had a natural fear of the city. By the same token people from urban areas have a healthy fear of the country.

M: Like Ed Gein [legendary real-life murderer who inspired lead villains in Psycho, Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Silence of the Lambs, among others]…

BP: Oh my god! Ed Gein! He was making furniture out of people!

The tasteful axe murderer

M: You’ve said that in the hands of another director you felt that your character might be handled sensationally. I’m wondering, how can an axe-murdering, Christian fundamentalist, Texan father not be handled sensationally?

BP: I think the application of where the camera fixes on, in particular the violence in the film. I imply all those things in the movie, but don’t show it. It wasn’t that I was trying to be the next Alfred Hitchcock or Robert Aldrich, but I did look at their films, in particular Psycho, and the way in which that film implied violence. They were very clever in the way in which they implied what was going on. The only way to make this film palatable, as it was so intense, was to apply this more classical technique. I did try to use restraint. The script pushed this stuff a lot further. There was a description of a kid wearing a Charlie’s Angels T-shirt and blood spattering all over him as I axe murder someone. I just said, “Whoa, I don’t know if I can go there, as a father of two kids.”

M: How old are your kids?

BP: Eight and four.

M: Did you show it to them?

BP: The eight year old has seen it twice and he really liked it a lot. But I’ve got to explain that, so I don’t sound like I’m completely reprehensible. He was on the set for a lot of the shooting. He even yelled out action and cut at one point when he was visiting. He realizes that dad does these make-believe parts and that they’re make-believe stories. Maybe that’s what did it to me: my father took me to a lot of gruesome films when I was a child. He took me to all sorts of adult films. His rationale at the time for me and my older brother was that he didn’t believe in censorship but really he just didn’t want to go to a Disney movie. I remember being eight years old and seeing Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte. My brother hid behind the popcorn stand. He was always more sensitive. I just seemed to lap it up. But make no mistake, Frailty really isn’t a children’s film. :

Frailty opens Friday, April 12