Connect with us

Interviews

Interview: Writers/Directors Tyler Nilson & Mike Schwartz On ‘The Peanut Butter Falcon’

It’s the breakout movie from the SXSW Film Festival that’s winning hearts and after screening at last week’s LFF, The Peanut Butter Falcon arrives in cinemas this week, a film inspired by its remarkable leading man.

Signature Entertainment

He is Zack Gottsagen, an actor with Downs Syndrome, who by chance bumped into writers/directors Tyler Nilson and Mike Schwartz at an acting school. His dedication to his craft, enthusiasm, and determination not to be held back from achieving his ambition to be an actor impressed them so much that the film was the result, the Huck Finn-esque tale of a young man who dreams of being a wrestler and, accompanied by a carer from an old people’s home and a thief on the run, takes a road trip to find his grappling hero who he hopes will train him.

Nilson and Schwartz had made a number of shorts together, but making the leap to their first feature was more of a challenge than they could ever have imagined. Talking to THN’s Freda Cooper, they recall how they started with nothing and raised the money to make the film, learning their craft as they went along and eventually putting together a cast that includes Shia LaBeouf, Dakota Johnson and, of course, Zack Gottsagen himself.

Read the interview in full below.

You’ve known each other for some time, you’ve worked together for some time – what do you think makes you work together so well?

Tyler Nilson: For me, I suppose I chose a partner that is better than me at a lot of things. I trust Mike a lot. We both study storytelling in film and things like that from different angles our whole lives so I really trust Mike’s perspective on certain things and we watch each other’s blindside and he’s quite an enjoyable and agreeable person to spend time with. I think it not only makes me a better storyteller to be around and learn from him but us better as a whole.

Mike Schwartz: I’ll echo that. I think us together – we’re much better as a team than I would be myself. I’m sure that Todd would be great by himself but I do enjoy the element of having a teammate. Sometimes making a film is really tiring and for The Peanut Butter Falcon it took us five years and there were a lot of moments in there that it looked like it wasn’t going to happen. I wanted to give up and to have a teammate there going ‘no, we got this. Let’s keep going. I’ll carry the load for a little while; you rest.’ That was a really valuable thing.

So it works better working as a team rather than in isolation.

Tyler. Yes, for me. I think some people are better in isolation but for me, I’m quite a social animal and so, with a partner like Mike… we’re travelling all the time and I have never really written anything great alone, to be honest, but I’ve written great stuff with a partner; with Mike, so I really trust… when we get together, we pull some beautiful divine energy from the ethers together and I think that works nicely.

Mike: I think creatively it’s also convenient that we want to tell the same types of stories and we have the same vision. I think if we didn’t align that way it wouldn’t work. Even though we get along famously as friends, I think it’s fantastic that we share creative vision as well.

Related: The Peanut Butter Falcon review

Signature Entertainment

The story was inspired by your leading man, Zack. Would you describe him as a natural actor?

Tyler: Very much so.

Mike: I’d go both. I think a lot of the time a great actor – great at anything – I think you have a certain amount of natural talent, and you train on top of it. Zack is a natural entertainer, I’llsay that, and then a trained actor. He’s been studying acting longer than Shia. Since he was three years old he’s been studying acting and he’s had that end goal and desire. He even works in a movie theatre as an usher just to be close to movies. He teaches acting classes right now; went to a mainstream performing arts secondary school…

Mainstream.

Mike: Mainstream, yes, and he had to fight through that. There’s a lot of teachers that didn’t want to teach him because he had different abilities. He sometimes talks about it. Like his frustration that no one really believed in him, and he wasn’t getting a shot. That’s something that Tyler and were aware of and we tried to include in our representation of a character with Downs Syndrome that there is frustration and there is hopes and dreams; there is laughter and there is sadness. Often times when I’ve seen a character with Downs Syndrome written it’s not as well rounded. It’s either the person who suffers or the person whois this floating ball of light; magical, in a way that is way beyond grounded. We really wanted to have everything represented.

Having seen the film, the frustration that you’ve talked about there, I remember him showing that. How much was actually improvised? I got the feeling that there was actually quite a lot.

Mike: I think it’s interesting. I think our actors knew the story really well, so when you’re playing jazz you know the chord changes – then you can play jazz on top of that. Our whole cast knew the film really well, and then we were able to improvise on top of it. It doesn’t take much for it to feel like that – percentage-wise, I think 90-95% was on-book, but those moments that are off-book; people who have seen the trailer, seen the movie, there’s a moment where Zack says ‘rule number one is party.’ That’s improvised. Little moments when they’re slapping each other gently on the faces or patting each other on their faces is improvised, and we’re always on the lookout for ways to make it better. So, if Zack finds a way to make it better, let’s do it. If Dakota finds a way to make it better, let’s do it. If Shia finds a way to make it better, let’s do it.

Signature Entertainment

How did you get that cast together?

Mike: Tyler and I only wrote the script. We didn’t have agents, managers or any of them as friends so we couldn’t get anybody to read it. So, we had to go out and shoot a proof-of-concept; a five-minute trailer to show the world that Zack could do the acting job. So, we went out and shot that – four of us – Tyler played the Shia Labeouf role – and Zack played Zack. I ran the camera with our friend Dave, and we started showing that to people and very quickly they said ‘that’s a world that I want to be a part of’; I’ll read the script now – most of them, Shia didn’t even read the script. He saw the proof of concept and said…

That was enough?

Mike: That was enough. I’m in. I wanna make that.

How amazing.

Tyler: I think Shia’s an actor’s magnet. People were excited about working with him. Excited about doing a bit of a moon-landing as far as a film goes – never seeing a film starring someone with Downs Syndrome at such a high level with actors of such calibre. So I think people were pumped about coming in and being of service and working with Zack and the proof of concept and working with Shia. We had great producers, and with the proof of concept convinced Albert (Berger) and Ron (Yerxa), the guys that produced Little Miss Sunshine to come along and – they had worked on Nebraska with Bruce Dern, and worked on The Lowdown with John Hawkes… I don’t think they…

Mike: No, they didn’t know Thomas Haden Church but…

Sideways.

Mike: Yeah.

Tyler: Yes, the guy who cut Sideways Kevin Tent also works with Alexander Payne a lot – he cut Sideways and other Alexander Payne stuff – he did Nebraska, so even when we were shooting Bruce Dern said ‘You gotta get Alexander’s guy Kevin Tent…’

Mike: And then Kevin Tent came on to cut our film and we learned so much from him.

I was going to ask how you got Bruce Dern because he seems to be in everything at the moment.

Mike: He’s having a good year! He’s having a Dern-aissance.

How did you get him?

Mike: Albert and Ron. I mean, we loved him. We really made it clear to Albert that… I think Albert was hesitant because you know, it wasn’t the main role in the movie. I said, ‘please, please call Bruce. Please get him to do this.’ Then Bruce said yes. He’s perfect.

Well, thank you very much for a very perfect film.

The Peanut Butter Falcon is released in cinemas on Friday, 18 October.

Latest Posts

More in Interviews