Posted in: Exclusive, Interview, Movies | Tagged: emile hirsch, Kelli Garner, Mick Davis, shane west, Tania Raymonde, Uncork'd Entertainment, Walden

Walden Director Mick Davis Talks Emile Hirsch-Starred Crime Thriller

Director Mick Davis (Trust in Love) spoke to Bleeding Cool on the Uncork'd Entertainment crime thriller Walden, star Emile Hirsch & more.

Mick Davis is always looking to create captivating and charismatic leads with a just cause in his projects like the TV series Eleventh Hour and 2007's The Invisible as a writer and director. His latest project is Uncork'd Entertainment's crime thriller Walden, which follows Walden Dean (Emile Hirsch), a stenographer whose mind witnessed all types of injustices in the courtroom. After discovering he has a terminal illness, repressed anger deep within him surfaces – taking justice into his own hands in the most gruesome ways imaginable. Davis spoke to Bleeding Cool on why Hirsch was the perfect lead to play the stenographer, how the cast fell into place, why the Deep South was an appropriate setting and other works that inspired the film, which include those from Stephen King.

Walden: Building the Unlikely Hero

Bleeding Cool: What's the inspiration behind 'Walden?'
Davis: I've seen these stenographers in courtroom dramas. They never do anything other than type, and then they leave. I wondered what their lives were like, and then, during the Johnny Depp trial, I watched the court reporter there and was fascinated. I thought, does she go home, feed the cat, or jump off a building wearing a mask and cape to save people's lives? The idea for 'Walden' came along, and that was it.

What figures inspired Emile's character, and why was he ideal for the role?
[Emile] was inspired by the Pillsbury Dough Man. I saw the Pillsbury Dough Man with a bow tie and thought he was cute and cuddly. If you prodded his tummy, he would giggle, and then he could commit heinous crimes because he wanted to bring justice to the people who had suffered. When I had finished the script, Emile read it and responded beautifully to it, and we had a conversation. I had never met him before until then, and then I loved his demeanor, comportment, and shyness. It smacked of Walden for me, and I started imagining him dressed as him and that small town in the Deep South. I knew he had the intelligence to play this character across the board with all the needed layers.

How did the other cast come to play, like Shane [West], Kelli [Garner], and Tania [Raymonde]?
I wanted someone a little sassy to play the love story in Walden. I needed a strong female who would fight for him until she realized she couldn't fight anymore. They put me on a Zoom with Kelli, and I adored her attitude towards the character. She brought so many ideas; one day, when she got to the set, I could sit back and enjoy watching her work. Shane was such a gentleman, and I needed a cop who was born, raised, trusted everybody, and was a stand-up guy in that town. I told him to bring what he is to the character. With Tania, it was a case of you're a tough and fair cop who fell in love with a girl in the Deep South. You moved there. You thought the worst thing going to happen was somebody stealing a bicycle, and sure enough, crimes happen that are reminiscent of what you were dealing with in Los Angeles.

Were there any filmmakers or films that helped influence you in developing your style or something that helped with the story?
It was a mix of 'The Shining' (1980), a little bit of 'Misery' (1990), 'In the Heat of the Night' (1967), and 'To Kill a Mockingbird' (1962). All those influential movies were shot in the Deep South in the 50s and 60s. I heard people say it's a little bit of 'Dexter' as well, and I'll take that as a compliment. Someone else said that Emile was like a small-town version of Jack Nicholson before he reached his potential.

I feel that's accurate. Was there any aspect of production, whether the creative or filming side was difficult or took more time than usual?
Not really. The thing is, I had a great crew and a bunch of actors who knew exactly what I wanted. My approach is to talk to the actors before I work with them rather than do rehearsals because I like to try and get in their heads and see what they think of the character. The actors were prepared, and the only thing that screwed this up was the weather. We had to stop for a half hour whenever there was a lightning strike. We probably lost two days of shooting because of the weather. That was the only thing. Other than that, across the board, everything I needed was there.

Walden, which also stars David Keith, is currently in select theaters and on demand and digital on December 12th.

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