Posted in: Exclusive, Interview, Movies | Tagged: Bull, david hayman, exclusive, interview, Neil Maskell, paul andrew williams, Saban Films

Bull Director Paul Andrew Williams Talks Revenge Film & Complications

Writer-director Paul Andrew Williams is used to being resourceful on an indie budget but had to find some creative ways to get his vision on the screen as pandemic restrictions came in. His latest film, Bull, is a revenge thriller about a vicious mob enforcer (Neil Maskell) seeking revenge on the gang that double-crossed him. His ten-year journey finds him back home to methodically track those who have wronged him and find his beloved son leading to a savage showdown between his wife (Lois Brabin-Platt) and her mob boss father (David Hayman). I spoke to Williams about his inspiration behind the film, casting Maskell as the lead, the difficulties he encountered during filming, and the difference between film and TV.

"I think it was always just about how far someone would go to protect their family or their son and that relationship," Williams said. "Also, the sort of the group of men involved in the film, they were very similar to people who used to come into a bar I used to work at, and I was just fascinated by these types of people. That was what made me want to get what I want to write these characters, these types of characters." For his main character, he found the Peaky Blinders star perfect for what he wanted. "Neal is someone who has a lot of authenticity in genuinely being scary and caring. I think he plays both ends of the spectrum incredibly well and in all the other stuff that comes in between. I always wanted to work with him about a decade ago. It just so happened that he was up to doing this."

When it came to filming the intense action film, Williams ran into the typical constraints he usually does on an indie project. "It was so low budget, and we shot it over like 18 days, and we had like 36- 37 locations," he recalled. "We were just moving nonstop and had very little time to do a lot of the scenes. Whenever you do a low-budget job, you got a crew who might be very good, everyone stepping up and doing a job higher up the career level. It's getting used to a whole new team; you need to do stuff. Plus, it was in a pandemic, and there are obviously lots of restrictions on what we could do, where we could go, and stuff like that."

As COVID regulations were implemented, Williams found himself having to change a few things on set. "Because we were shooting in really small spaces, and it was at the height of restrictions, so the whole idea of having three people in the room and shifting everyone in and out was always really hard," he explained. "I think that whenever you're doing stunts, you need time to prep, but even with the time, I think we were just being so quick, basically. I remember we were shooting the scene that I don't want to give too much away, but the one when Bull is under the bridge looking for his son. We literally had 40-45 minutes to shoot the whole scene, and that includes lighting. It was just absolute bedlam, but some people have real jobs where they do real things, and we just make stuff. I tended not to be too upset about it."

The biggest problem Williams found was filming crowds. "Not enough people [in certain scenes]. For example, in the fairground, ideally would have loads of people, but we only were allowed 10," he said. "Mainly numbers really most things in terms of the pandemic, it didn't really cause too much of a problem other than money. The money was the thing that we struggled with, and that was always the problem in terms of how we did stuff. I'm used to it as I started in very low-budget filmmaking, and I'm very used to someone saying, 'You need to do it like this. That's all we can do.' You go, 'Okay, well, I'll make the best way possible.'

Prior to filming Bull, there was a stretch where Williams focused on TV, including the miniseries A Confession, the TV movie Murdered for Being Different, and shows like White Dragon and Broadchurch. "You always want to be as involved as possible with any project," he said. "I think a film is much more contained. There's only an hour and a half of it, whereas most of the TV I've done has been like between six and eight hours, which you just like so long. For me, it feels like a much more focused period of time to work. Also, if it's your script, you've got perhaps more say and more control with film. However, you probably have fewer things to control because you don't have the same money you might get from a TV job." Saban Films' Bull, which also stars Tamzin Outhwaite, is currently in theaters, on-demand, and digital. Check out our interviews with Maskell and Hayman here.

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