Jon Watts Interview for Cop Car

Jon Watts is a name you may of only just heard of, but we can assure you it’s for a good reason. Whether you’re here for his newest film – gritty-thriller, Cop Car, or news of Watts helming a certain web-slinging project, the man himself sat down with us to give us some insight into what went into creating his newest film, his experience of inspirational, albeit haunting dreams, and tattoos.

Cop Car was a delightful, well, maybe delightful is the wrong word for it, but a very gripping, and dark film. It was wonderfully interwoven with elements of childlike naivety and innocence, certainly. But in regards to Kevin’s character, we obviously have a corrupt sheriff who clearly goes above and beyond the law. With your experience writing for the Onion News Network, you’re no stranger to satire and commentary. What I’m wondering, is if there is some underlying social commentary within Kevin’s character regarding the police force in America today?

You know, for me the story operates on its own level and there are obviously things in it that you could read into, but I was never trying to make a polemic. There are just things that are around in the world, in that if a little kid goes into a police car; they’re going to find a gun, it’s there. I was more using the things that already exist in the world rather than making a comment on it necessarily.

What was the inspiration for Cop Car? Does it perhaps come directly from personal experience with joyriding when you were a little boy?

Haha, no! This sounds crazy, but it’s based on a recurring dream that I’ve had since I was a little kid. In it, I’m ten and I’m in the passenger seat of my mum’s car, and my friend Travis, who’s also ten, is driving. We’re driving around our small town – the town from the film – and passing people that we know, but nobody is saying anything or stopping us, in that weird dream logic sort of way. He’s going faster and faster and I’m getting more and more nervous that he’s going to crash and then I wake up. It’s a stressful dream that I’ve had since I was a kid and I’ve always thought that there was something to that image.

So, in a way, you’re actually Harrison?

Yeah, if there’s every a situation where one kid is tougher and the other is a wuss, I’m the wussy kid.

That’s quite strange, but they do say a lot of creative thoughts come to you in dreams.

Yeah, and it’s always sort of stuck with me in that way, I’ve always thought there’s something to it. I said, ‘Maybe if they have a police car for some reason, that’s interesting’ and my friend Chris Ford, who I wrote it with said ‘Well, who’s police car is it?’ and we were both like ‘Oh, now we’ve got a story,’ and really, after that, it was easy.

Well, I have to ask, did Travis make it in the film? I think you’d be doing us all a favour if you could clarify that. Though, we obviously understand that his fate is supposed to be ambiguous.

Yeah, I have an idea of what happened, but what’s more exciting to me is what other people think happened. I think the best interpretation of what happened comes from Heys [Wellford], who plays Harrison. Someone had asked us that whilst when we were screening the film and I turned to Heys and said, ‘Heys, what do you think happened?’ and his response was fantastic. Out of no-where, he says: Well, I think that my character – because they’ve been through such a traumatic experience – I don’t think that anything that happened after the window got shot out of the police car is real. I think it’s all his hallucination, them being chased by Kevin, the car being run off the road and driving towards the light, has all happened in his mind and they’re still trapped in the back of the police car.’ That was pretty great. If it’s open to interpretation to that degree, I think that’s so much better.

Now I want to start talking about your filmmaking career, reflecting most recently with Cop Car. Obviously this is the first theatrical film that you’ve written, produced and directed, how much of a strain, or how empowering was it to have that much control over the film?

It was great, because I produced it with some of my closest friends, so I felt like everyone was on the same page and had the same vision for the project moving forward. It was really great; we were shooting in my home town with my family in on the crew too. There were no problems, I mean; when a lot of money is involved you have to be extra clever and extra cautious in that sort of situation, otherwise it was just a fantastic experience.

So does that mean you think you’ll actively try and maintain control over those three aspects of future projects, or do you think you’d like to specialise in one role?

I think it really depends on the project, I think I’d be open to anything. Obviously I was a producer on Cop Car because we wrote it and we shot it in my hometown, so I was very literally a producer. I like doing everything though.

Obviously this is a discussion about Cop Car, but I was wondering if you might be able to spare a moment to talk about… future projects. You know the one I’m talking about. I know you’re going to be under-wraps about it, or men in dark suits are going to visit both of us…

Haha, yeah, I have a constant sniper-scope on me right now! I’m allowed to talk about Spider-Man, yes, but I can’t give away any details.

Well, first of all, we want to get some directorial insight! What are your initial feelings about the project, are you excited? Are you a big Spider-Man fan?

I’m so absolutely excited, it’s insane. I still don’t quite believe it, but there is so much work to do that I have to start believing it. Every day is a Spider-Man day.

Now, I have to ask, word on the grapevine is that you have a Spider-Man tattoo on your chest, is this true?

Oh man, that is NOT true! That is some sort of prank that was played on me that became something on my Wikipedia page! I thought about it, thinking… ‘should I keep it up?’ But then I realised I don’t want people to think I’m crazy. I definitely didn’t want people to think that’s how you get a film deal! I doubt people who work at Marvel had to get a tattoo of Iron Man on their face or something, I don’t want people – anyone – to follow in those footsteps!

Alright, back to business! You have a background in comedy what with The Onion, but Clown and Cop Car – even though there are some dark comedic moments – are probably more serious, or dark, both in terms of genre and content. At this point in your filmmaking career, is this you sampling many different genres and styles to see which you prefer, or are you just making movies you want to make?

I think it’s a little bit of both. I mean, I love movies, so I feel like every time you make a movie you’re sampling a lot of your influences, but it is true that after each one you think ‘I really loved doing this, I would love to do a little more of that,’ it’s a constant evolution.

Now, finally, is there a film you’re dying to make? Something you desperately want to work on?

Oh, there are like ten! What’s great is finally getting the opportunity to make all of these ideas that we’ve been thinking up over the past ten years when nobody would listen to us, and now there’s a possibility that each and every one could finally get made.

Cop Car is available in digital HD now, and DVD and Blu-ray on 19th October.