SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
In the new film "How To Make A Killing," Becket Redfellow is making his confession to a priest just before he's to be executed, and he is not filled with regret.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "HOW TO MAKE A KILLING")
GLEN POWELL: (As Becket Redfellow) Now, there's a rumor out there that money doesn't buy happiness. Dead wrong. Money does buy happiness. We're all adults here. Let's move on.
SIMON: Glen Powell plays the unrepentant convicted killer, and he's joined in the film by Margaret Qualley, Jessica Henwick and Ed Harris. "How To Make A Killing" is loosely inspired, as they say, by the 1949 Alec Guinness film "Kind Hearts And Coronets." It is written and directed by John Patton Ford, who joins us from our studios in Culver City, California. Thanks so much for being with us.
JOHN PATTON FORD: Thank you.
SIMON: What's the trail that brings Becket Redfellow to death row 'cause doesn't he have a huge inheritance waiting for him?
FORD: Sure. I'm not sure how much of that I can answer without totally spoiling the movie, but I can tell you that it starts with a guy who's on death row for reasons we're not totally sure about. We know he killed someone, but we're not sure who or how many. And we know that he's not especially, as you said, repentant or even worried-seeming. So we have a lot of questions.
SIMON: Did he grow up feeling disowned, disregarded?
FORD: I think so. I think he grew up, maybe, like a lot of people, maybe, like a lot of us feeling that he has a potential that he can never quite reach because just a lack of access, a lack of resources. And the concept of the movie, I think, is, I don't know, maybe a reflection of how so many people tend to feel when, you know, many of the most successful are the ones who perhaps had a lot more help than most.
SIMON: Is a schoolboy crush a motivation for him too?
FORD: Yeah. You're talking about a character that's played by Margaret Qualley, who he knows as a little kid, and then she comes back later on. And she's someone who we don't really know how to feel about, and she kind of comes in and out of the story and galvanizes him in unpredictable ways. I think it has a bit to do with how we can all project a certain, I don't know, lifestyle onto people who were convinced have it really well and have it all figured out, only to later discover that, you know, their lives are just as complicated as ours.
SIMON: What made you want to retell "Kind Hearts And Coronets"?
FORD: You know, I saw "Kind Hearts And Coronets" forever ago. I think it was 2012, and I immediately was stunned by how current and contemporary that movie seemed. And I just thought you could make such a terrific contemporary version in the U.S. "Kind Hearts" is largely about the British class system, and it sort of acts as wish fulfillment for people who are from the U.K. who perhaps have a lot of bones to pick with those of upper classes. And I thought, well, the U.S. doesn't have the class system, not the same way that the U.K. does, but we do have an emerging and absolutely massive wealth divide. I'd call that probably one of the more defining issues of my generation. I thought, you know, that structure that "Kind Hearts" has, that amazing concept, would be a way to explore that issue.
SIMON: How do you make people care for someone like Becket one way or another?
FORD: That's a great question. You know, Hollywood has this whole hang-up about likeability, like you have to like a character. How do we get people to like and root for this person? I've always felt that's maybe a little misguided. I think audiences will get on board with a character so long as they see that character as a human being. They don't necessarily need to be redeemable or do things that we, quote-unquote, like, but we have to believe they're a person and believe that they have dreams and goals and weaknesses. And then we'll start, you know, maybe not rooting for them, but we'll at least be curious about the outcome, you know, and I - that's what we try to do on this one.
SIMON: I have read that after film school, with imposing student debt, you spent what's just described as years trying to break into movies and work many jobs. Like what?
FORD: Oh, man. Well, everything. Plenty of jobs before film school and plenty of jobs after. I guess, the first job I had was an assistant to a director who I can't name, and he fired me 'cause I was a terrible assistant. And then after that, I worked as a delivery driver for a catering company. That's actually really similar to the job that the central character has in my first movie, "Emily The Criminal." And, gosh, after that, I worked for another catering company. And, man, anything and everything.
SIMON: Well, is that all stuff you can use at one point?
FORD: Well, I can tell you that I'm not, like, a movie director who was out there making a living as a movie director early in life. I have mostly struggled. Like, if an alien species studied my life, they wouldn't go, this is a movie director. They'd go, this guy works at a restaurant, and his shoes are dirty. That's what he spent most of his time doing. Like, I'm a schmuck, man. I got no business being in Hollywood doing this. I'm a complete moron from South Carolina. Like, I'm an idiot. And I somehow snuck in here and am working. And I'd like to think that the fact that I don't come from a very fancy background might help me write characters. I hope so.
SIMON: Yeah.
FORD: Yeah.
SIMON: Well, what happened? How'd you wind up making two very well-regarded films?
FORD: Oh, that's an easy one. Just I was - I'm just too - you know, just too boneheaded to do anything else. I'm just hardworking, I guess. And I can tell you that, you know, I remember in film school looking around and thinking, well, I'm definitely not the smartest person here or the most unique or the most creative or the most talented or the most anything. So the weapon I have is that I can just work everybody under the table until they're all dead and I'm still alive. And that's what I've been consistently doing, I guess, you know? I like to think that if someone put you out at the half-court line on a basketball court and gave you a ball and said, take a shot, like, you're going to miss for, like, I don't - days. But sooner or later you're going to make a basket, and not because you're good at basketball, but because you just wouldn't stop shooting. And I don't stop shooting.
SIMON: What do you find fun, engaging about making films?
FORD: I like that question. I mean, the whole thing. It's my favorite thing. I love writing. It could be torturous and brutal at times, but coming up with the idea for a story and writing it and finally getting it to work is immensely satisfying. The casting process is a lot of fun. Meeting actors and coming up with ideas about, oh, wouldn't it be fun to get this person to play that person? Unlikely casting ideas are amazing. And then the actual production process is - we always hear it's collaborative, but, like, until you've done it, you don't really know what I'm talking about. Like, it's collaborative on just a next level. There are so many people you're working so closely with, and for long chunks of time and nonstop. They become your family. It's kind of like summer camp.
Like, I feel like - there are, like, two kinds of people in the world. Like, people who went to sleepaway camp and people who didn't, you know? And I went to sleepaway camp for, like, the entire summer, and it was the best. And making a movie is - it's like that for adults, but stressful and you get paid (laughter). And then, like, post production, meaning everything that comes after you shot the movie is massively enjoyable. You know, the editing and certainly the music and the sound. Those are my two favorite parts of the process. So I love filmmaking. You know, hard-pressed to find anything else in life I find quite so gratifying at the end of the day.
SIMON: John Patton Ford has written and directed the new film "How To Make A killing." Thank you so much for being with us.
FORD: Thank you, man.
(SOUNDBITE OF LE SSERAFIM SONG, "HOT") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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