HILLBILLY ART FILM: THE CHARM OF THE UNEXPLAINED

During late 2005, actor and producer Walton Goggins, best known for his role as Detective Shane in the TV show The Shield, returned home to Georgia. Along with his long-time friend, writer, director and actor Ray McKinnon, they were busy capturing the footage for their latest film venture, Randy and the Mob.

Walton Goggins returned to Atlanta for the local premiere of 'Randy and the Mob.'

Two years from shooting the film McKinnon, Blount and Goggins are back home to celebrate the release of Randy and the Mob in select theaters. CinemATL caught up with Walton Goggins to discuss the film.

CinemATL:  Randy and the Mob appears to be a light departure from Crystal, which had a very strong dramatic theme. What were the reasons behind such a contrast in subject matter from one film to the other?

WG: It is the ying and the yang. You can't live in pain that long without having a little light. Crystal was the first movie that we wanted to do and explore some of the pain and reflect a lot of things that Ray had experienced in his life. So having gone through that experience and watching Lisa Blount go though that experience; for us, we just lost our minds. After that we said, "let's go get us some light." And we also felt that if we're able to do one movie that was so serious, such a "hillbilly art film" so to speak, and then another one that was so light, then people may take that into consideration when they talk about us as filmmakers because they are so different.

CinemATL: Randy and the Mob is quite an oddball comedy and somewhat Hal-Hartley-like in a way. It's not your typical American comedy.

WG: Thank God it's not your typical American comedy. They just come and go and I don't even remember the names of any of them and that's what's so funny to me. What's the typical American comedy? It is the homogenization of everything in America. It reduces humor to the lowest common denominator and it's for everybody. They're for the least offensive or for the most offensive things that you can say that everyone would find offensive so therefore they would laugh at it. There's been 2 or 3 of those films this summer. For us, we were trying to make a comedy that had heart, that was smart, and has a reflection of our sense of humor, which is very dry. So it is quirky in a sense that there is a quirky character in it and makes it a quirky movie. He is maybe the strangest stranger who ever came to town. We knew that we wanted to create something that was reflective of this small southern town and we had to walk the line as actors and as filmmakers about what's too much. We didn't want to go over the top so we were constantly monitoring each other and ourselves about how to accomplish that. A lot of jokes in the movie unless you are paying attention and you are right there with it, they'll fly over your head or under your feet or out the damn door.

CinemATL: Are there other filmmakers that you admire who have that type of humor or have done similar things?

WG: I am a huge Wes Anderson fan. He's been one of my favorites and has been for a long time. I like his dry sophisticated wit. He pokes fun at himself with the camera and at his characters but ultimately he really loves his characters and I think that we expressed that same kind of love on Randy and the Mob. We had certain things we wanted to get and we found the tonality early on with The Accountant. It is our sense of humor we had in The Accountant, Crystal and now in Randy and the Mob.

CinemATL: A lot of things are left unexplained about your character, Tino Armani. What kind of response do you anticipate from an audience whom is for most time spoon-fed with every detail?

WG: I have anxiety about it every time I watch it with an audience. It is interesting because now that it's been out in the public and in Nashville, we won the audience award and they freaked out for Tino. Everyone has gotten him and they've gone with it. It is a very fine line as an actor because that's what makes the movie risky and that's what makes the movie worth doing aside from Ray playing identical twins and one of them is gay. That's what made the movie so different. Both audiences that I watched it with have turned themselves to its charm and its vulnerability and they've loved it. It is interesting because I was talking to a person yesterday about similarities that Tino Armani has to other characters like Karl Childers from Sling Blade and Forrest Gump but he is not mentally challenged. He has a beautiful mathematical mind in the way that he sees things and it is not unlike the way I see the world, believe it or not. In the movie, the characters do not comment on how odd Tino is. He is accepted very early on whereas in those other films it's a part of that story. Because we don't comment on it much, I think that it's quicker for the audience to accept him for who he is and by the time it gets to "clogging" you just can't laugh... it's soccer we're talking about here.

CinemATL: The element of the magical is a reoccurrence in Ray's films. He explored that facet in Crystal and with this film as well. Do you share the yearning for the unexplained as well?

WG: It's the concept of leaving it up to you and saying "what do you think?" It makes you [the audience] want more. Not everything is life is explained and that's part of our story and that's what this movie does require which is participation from the audience. It is not reduced to the common denominator, you are not spoon-fed and it's more complex than it is at first glance and if you are paying attention you are going to learn that there is a message there. That also has to do with leaving things unexplained because there's a plethora of conclusions that you can come to on your own. It is the great mystery of this character [Tino Armani]; he will never be and can never be explained.

CinemATL: How was it acting with Ray as Cecil, the gay twin brother?

WG: It was very interesting because Ray's been a friend of mine for a very long time and as actors you become the character. Your physicality and what you wear helps inform how you behave. When I saw Ray in that teal pantsuit - I have a lot of gay friends and if I see them in a pantsuit it'd be expected somewhat - but with Ray, I was like "Buddy! I can't really look at you."  Part of me thought, "You're like hot! You freaking me out a little bit." The other thing, I think that made it so easy for the audience to accept both characters (Randy and Cecil) is Ray's ability to pull them off and infuse them in a three dimensional light and break through the stereotypes of those two characters that we are all familiar with. If you go within a 20 miles radius from here, you are going to meet a Randy. You may meet him right down the corner and you are going to meet a Cecil. It's nice because you can identify with those characters.

CinemATL: So what's next in the near future for you and for Ginny Mule Productions?

WG: Ray actually came across this script. This writer named William Gay wrote a short story and these two writers team did the adaptation from Atlanta and we are going to produce it. It is that good. It is this sweet story about an eighty-year-old man looking for permission to die. It's a complex southern story with an eighty year old as the centerpiece and that old man is going to be Andy Griffith. It's a celebration of his talent and his swan song. And I have this television show that I have come up with and I really want to do and I have brought Ray into it as well. So those are the two things that we are concentrating on.

CinemATL: What's the name of the show?

WG: It remains to be nameless. [Laughs] It's very timely and really interesting. It is somewhat based on my experiences traveling.

CinemATL: How's "The Shield" coming along?

WG: I am still kicking. I am still alive and kicking.

Eric Bomba-Ire is the founder of CinemATL.