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

Bull Star Neil Maskell on Embracing Leading Action Revenge Thriller

When Neil Maskell accepted the starring role in Bull, it provided an opportunity on a number of levels, not only as an action lead but also working with writer-director Paul Andrew Williams. The film is described as "a revenge thriller like no other. Ferocious, audacious, and blood-soaked, it's about a vicious mob enforcer seeking revenge on the gang that double-crossed him. Ten years after he was last seen, Bull (Maskell) returns home to methodically track down those who betrayed him and find his beloved son. With the ominous warning: 'I'm coming for all of them,' Bull stalks his former gang, leading up to a savage showdown between his wife and her mob boss father Norm (David Hayman)." I spoke to the Peaky Blinders star about working with the BAFTA-award winner, the film's intensity, and his costars.

Bleeding Cool: What interested you in Bull?
Neil Maskell: Paul Andrew Williams, the director, was someone I wanted to work with for years. We did a little bit of a pop video years ago, and I hope that we would one day get the chance to do something a bit more substantial and a little bit more time over it. So I was glad when he told me he had a script and then obviously when the film's called 'Bull,' and you're playing Bull, that's always encouraging for an actor. That combination really a lead role in a film by a director that I really admire.

BC: How do you break down the film's intense action scenes?
Maskell: Some of it was difficult obviously in the film that's so gory and violent. There were logistical issues and kind of having to deal with makeup or selling the violence because it could have been ridiculous. So that was actually the trickiest stuff to shoot sometimes. We were very limited with time. We only had three weeks to shoot the movie. By the time we got to the scene towards the end where I'm sort of confronting Norm and my ex-wife. There's a lot of blood and a lot of sort of various beats of violence. The combination with lack of time, a lot of makeup, and effects to deal with is incredible, really, that Paul managed to get all that shot, and it's so effective and believable in the finished film.

BC: How do you describe your chemistry with your costars?
Maskell: I was really lucky. The film is almost a series of dialogs really with each of the characters that Bull confronts, sort of turns up and surprises with these presents and the range of actors and have experience from Lois Brabin-Platt, who plays my ex-wife or ex-partner, whose first film it was; and Henri Charles, who plays my son, his first film being a real surprise. The stuff they were improvising and coming up with on the day, considering they hadn't done loads of work in the past was just a real buzz and very exciting all the way through the lads in the gang and stuff that we're actors of a great deal more experience than that. We're all just taking a big swing at kind of interesting, differentiate in each role through to David Hayman, who's probably the most experienced actor on the set. He really had faith in the acts of violence that are in the script that you see Norm perform or command that he knew he didn't have to push too hard inside the role. I think he enjoyed making Norm a more observant, quite cold character. Each one was a sort of unexpected. I would never have imagined what each person would have brought to it and David, particularly in that respect.

Saban Films' Bull, which also stars Tamzin Outhwaite, is currently in theaters and on demand and digital on April 5th.

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