Posted in: Exclusive, Interview, Movies | Tagged: ashley benson, Brett Gelman, McVeigh

McVeigh Stars Ashley Benson & Brett Gelman Discuss Intense Biopic

Ashley Benson (Wilderness) and Brett Gelman (Stranger Things) spoke to Bleeding Cool about the Decal biopic McVeigh, controversy & more.

It's hard to fathom that we are closing in on the 30th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing of the Alred P. Murrah Federal Building in 1995. While anti-government extremists Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols were brought to justice at the cost of 168 lives, the tragedy helped shape American attitudes toward domestic terrorism. Director and writer Mike Ott, along with co-writer Alex Gioulakis, brought the duo's life to screen trying to provide an account of their lives before the infamous tragedy in the Decal biopic McVeigh starring Alfie Allen and Brett Gelman as McVeigh and Nichols, respectively. Gelman and Ashley Benson, who plays Cindy, an original character for the Ott film, spoke to Bleeding Cool about the ensemble cast, the film's controversial subject matter, and working with Allen to deal with the cathartic nature of the project.

McVeigh Stars Ashley Benson and Brett Gelman on Bringing Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols' Lives to Screen

Bleeding Cool: What intrigued you about McVeigh?

Gelman: First, one of the reasons was getting to work with this phenomenal actress and human being right here [Benson laughs], as well as Alfie Allen, Anthony Carrigan, Tracy Letts, being in something with them that's a high-profile cast, not to mention I loved Mike's script. I loved Mike's work, and I thought the subject matter of this character would be phenomenally challenging. I like to be challenged very much, and so it was a chance to play somebody I'd never have in a type of story I'd never been in before. It was a story that needed to be told, and judging from Mike's previous work, he would tell it in a brilliant and original way.

Benson: Same for me. I obviously was very aware of who McVeigh was and the whole incident that happened. When I got the script, I didn't know which way it would go. I thought Mike did an amazing job in telling this story. Everybody who was involved cast-wise, I was so excited to be on a project with them. It was a crazy thing to film, and it's a very important story that needs to be told. There are a lot of people who don't know about McVeigh and those who remember the exact day and were there. Whatever it is, it was a crazy moment in history, and it had never been brought to film before. There's been documentaries, but I was excited to be a part of this film.

How would you describe the set that Mike ran and the type of creative he is?

Benson: Mike knew how he wanted this to play out. He's been working on this for years. I signed six years before we even started filming, so I was with him since day one, and he was passionate about this film and telling this story. He did an incredible job at making this film and not just making it about the bombing and all that. You don't even see that in the movie. It's more the backstory, getting to know why they were doing this, and getting to know the characters. It was a very interesting way of telling it. It leaves you with an eerie and emotional feeling at the end of the movie. It makes you think, have a conversation, ask questions, and do even more research about the subject.

Gelman: He ran, like Ashley said, an incredibly passionate, 110% invested in telling the story, and [he was] so excited. He had, like, almost a childlike exuberance about him, while at the same time, paying a lot of weight to the questions we were asking. That was like a big thing, and to go off what Ashley was saying, there was like a mysterious feeling on the set of every scene being a question mark because we don't know what happened. We don't know why these people took the turns they did, and that sort of mystery hung over the set and added to the much-needed darkness of the movie.

Aside from the script, was there anything that helped you guys get the headspace of your characters of Cindy and Terry?

Gelman: I did a lot of research on Terry and McVeigh on that whole world they came from. If you do research, it's going to clearly lay out for you what they thought, what they wanted to do, what they believed in, and what it came from. You, then, must fill that in with yourself and enter it in a way that I do not share. I mean I have the opposite view of Terry and Tim, and so I had to fill all that in with my own things and substitutions, which often the "substitutions" were the opposite of what their thoughts and values were, but with the same emotion and passion to humanize the character.

Benson: Cindy was a fictional character, but I had done so much research with Mike before filming, and I wanted to be able to get in there. First, see how Alfie was going to be as Tim, he set the tone for our scenes, it was finding how to have a connection with this person, and still being unaware of his motives throughout the film. She's falling for someone who is planning to do a horrific thing she's completely unaware of. Cindy showed a different side of Tim as a human being, his longing for connection, and feeling lonely and unwanted. Cindy helped him feel he was accepted and that he wasn't alone.

Can you speak about Alfie's presence in the film and the way you guys bounced off each other? Was there anything you guys did between your scenes to maybe loosen up the cathartic nature of the film?

Gelman: Alfie and I spent a lot of time hanging out on set at times, it would be clear he would need to take a moment for himself, but we also spent a lot of time talking on set and I felt that reflected an aspect of Terry and Tim's relationship. They spent a lot of time together, and the more time I spent with Alfie, the more it was…the time that Terry and Tim are spending together has a more relaxed, second nature to it. There was a lot of that, but I mean, it wasn't like we were yucking it up. It was a lot of deep conversations, talking about our lives, and things like that, so that helped in the playing of those scenes.

Benson: That was the case for me too. I had known Alfie a couple of years before we started filming, and we'd become friends. It made it a lot easier to go into the set, allow him to be in the right mindset for his character, go off him, and make sure the connection is there. It was more of a quiet set for me. It should be, it was a hard topic, and I know that it was a hard thing for Alfie to do, and he did such an amazing job. I was in awe of him in all the scenes that we were filming. It was just incredible to see how he portrayed Tim.

McVeigh, which also stars Anthony Carrigan and Tracy Letts, is in theaters, digital, and on-demand.

Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!

Stay up-to-date and support the site by following Bleeding Cool on Google News today!