Posted in: Exclusive, Interview, Movies | Tagged: Aaron Gilhuis, Queen of the Ring

Queen of the Ring Composer on Ash Avildsen, Pro-Wrestling & More

Composer Aaron Gilhuis (Me) spoke to Bleeding Cool about bringing pioneering wrestler Mildred Burke's story to life in "Queen of the Ring."

While comic books largely stayed on the pages before going to film and TV, the closest thing fans had to real-life superheroes they could see in person was the professional wrestling ring. Some of the most famous figures emerged, like Frank Gotch, Gorgeous George, and Bruno Sammartino. Among them stood Mildred Bliss, better known to fans as Mildred Burke, the pioneering wrestler who became a feminist icon, ushering in generations of female wrestlers. Burke's story is told in Sumerian Pictures' Queen of the Ring, based on the Jeff Leen book The Queen of the Ring: Sex, Muscles, Diamonds, and the Making of an American Legend. She is played by Emily Bett Rickards in the Ash Avildsen film. Composer Aaron Gilhuis, who worked on the AppleTV+ series Me and Life by Ella, spoke to Bleeding Cool about how he got involved in the biopic, its blues and folk overtones, and how acclimated he was to pro-wrestling before taking on the project.

Queen of the Ring Composer Aaron Gilhuis on Telling Mildred Burke's Story Through Blues and Folk-Inspired Score

Bleeding Cool: How did you get involved with 'Queen of the Ring?'

I had worked with the producer Aimee Schoof on a previous film, and she thought I'd be a good fit for this project, so she started telling me about 'Queen of the Ring' and wanting me to get in touch with Ash [Avildsen], the director. She said, "Why don't you try a demo for this scene and show them what you could bring to the project?" In the first scene, I scored in the film, there's a tryout scene for Millie to try out for Billy, who is Josh Lucas' character, and it was a stripped-down bluesy folk Americana-type score, which we went with.

I went with it during that scene from a small town in Kansas, and it's a playful wrestling scene to show her chops a little bit. Ash liked it a lot, and Amy loved it. When Ash was in town next, Amy took him over to my studio, and we chatted about the film, themes, and what he was hoping to achieve with the score, and I pitched a few ideas I had. He seemed interested in hearing a thematic idea for Millie's character, so I spent a few days coming up with what I thought would be a good theme for her in her story, and then he loved it, and that's how I got on the project.

How do you describe working with Ash as a creative?

He's a curious director. He's constantly throwing stuff at the cut, at the edit, and music, and trying different things out. I love that about him. He's constantly trying things and "What if we did this? What if we tried this? What if one of his famous suggestions, what if we put in 'Dust in the Wind' during the scene, like our own rendition of it? What if we tried this down here for the score?" He's a collaborative person, and he never told other departments exactly what to do. It was more, "What if we did this? How do we get this?" It was always a conversation. Always searching with his vision in mind, trying to achieve his vision and encouraging those around him to try different things and see what works.

When you were conceiving the idea for scoring the film, was it unlike anything you've done before as it relates to previous projects, or did you feel you had a handle on it right away?

I was talking to Ash about this. It's interesting that everything I have done in the past sharpened the skills I needed to achieve what we needed in this score. I had a lot of guitar-based scores. I play a lot of different instruments. I grew up playing instruments, recording, and writing songs. This is a solo-instrument guitar-driven film in the beginning, mixed with folk instrumentation, Americana, blues, fiddles, guitars, banjos, and things like that. I had a lot of projects I've scored in that world already. I was quite familiar with and able to tackle that approach to it, so that was great. We also did a ton of cover songs for this movie as well, and I have done a lot of different cinematic covers with a band I'm in, licensing, and things like that. Being able to jump into these covers, as well as the genre of the score, was perfect. It was a perfect fit, and everything I had done prepared me quite well to jump into this without too much stress.

Did you grow up following pro wrestling?

I did not know much about pro wrestling growing up, but it was interesting to hear the foundations of the women's wrestling movement through the story and see how impactful these characters were. I thought the people I've met along this process and how these women were trailblazers in the industry were fascinating.

Did you research outside the service level to get a feel for, say, each character, or was it something that was like, "I've seen what was on the screen and then devised whatever you came up with?

The main story was focused on Millie, so we didn't have the screen time to focus too much on the other characters, which is a shame because I know how influential they were in their time. It was all Millie's story, so I asked as many questions as I could. The film had a lot about her life. The book has a lot more about her life than was not in the story, but it was Millie's story, and I focused on capturing her world and what her world sounded like through this story. That was my focus.

Was it something you worked exclusively with Ash, or did you work with anyone else on this?
Ash is the director, and he led the charge. The editor, Craig Hayes, also provided good feedback, and Aimee Schoof, the producer, also provided feedback. We deferred to Ash's vision, and he led the charge on this, so it was a close collaboration with him to work these scenes out, the temes, arc, and everything like that.

Queen of the Ring, which also stars Tyler Posey, Francesca Eastwood, Marie Avgeropoulos, Deborah Ann Woll, Cara Buono, Adam Demos, Martin Kove, Kelli Berglund, Damaris Lewis, Gavin Casalegno, and Walton Goggins, returns to select theaters on May 9th.

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