Director Andrew Dominik has spent over a decade crafting a small but powerful catalog of films. His debut, Chopper, earned him critical acclaim and three awards from the Australian Film Institute. This success led to a high-profile collaboration with Brad Pitt on The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.
Five years later, his latest crime thriller Killing Them Softly arrives in theaters on November 30. The film follows a mob robbery orchestrated by three men played by Vincent Curatola, Scoot McNairy, and Ben Mendelsohn. Their hit on a card game hosted by Markie, played by Ray Liotta, destabilizes the local criminal economy.
Jackie, portrayed by Brad Pitt, is brought in to restore order and send a message to the underworld. Working alongside a mob intermediary played by Richard Jenkins and a weary hitman played by James Gandolfini, Jackie must navigate a cynical landscape. In my interview with Dominik, he discussed his casting choices and the philosophy behind this gritty story.
ShowBizCafe: How did you come to choose Brad Pitt for the main character’s role?
Andrew Dominik: I know Brad because we’ve worked together before. Brad is not a person that you can cast as an everyday man. I wouldn’t believe Brad in a supermarket, but I do believe him as a mythological figure.
He is like the cool fixer. Brad has a certain mystery about him. No matter what he shows, you always feel like there is an iceberg below the surface. Jackie is a character you have to decipher.
Brad is a generous spirit, so having him play someone completely selfish is fun for him. It allows him to take a holiday from himself. Having someone who retains that mystery really gives the character a kick.
SBC: Did you have to give much direction to someone like James Gandolfini about playing a gangster?
AD: Jim is actually hard to direct because he spends so much time thinking himself up. He is one of the great actors and almost everything he does is usable. He is a sensitive guy and his approach is to find the emotional landscape.
In a way, this movie was the least amount of directing I’ve ever done. I mostly tried to get out of their way. You just need to feel like the director is paying attention and wants you to do good.
You have to have ideas for actors. It is no good to tell them to do it differently without giving them an idea of what they can do. You want the film to live and not be encased in amber.
SBC: Can you talk about the choice in music and if any scenes ended up differently than expected?
AD: The idea of a “soft killing” was to dramatize a sequence that felt like a lullaby. There are three approaches to violence: hide it, make it ugly, or make it beautiful. We chose to make it beautiful.
Scenes always end up differently. With Ben Mendelsohn, I just egg him along and he fills in the rest with very entertaining material. With Brad, I was surprised by how soft he was in the bar scene.
When people get loud or intimidating, it is because they feel a loss of power. He almost horse-whispers in that scene. It is very effective and was not what I was expecting him to do.
SBC: Your film combines gangster tropes with an acute political statement. What is your message?
AD: America is an economic idea as much as it is an ideological one. Everybody is free to get rich, and in certain circumstances, people get away with things because they pay for them. The movie is cynical.
Capitalism is like economic Darwinism or survival of the fittest. Most people selling you insurance are not worried about you being well. They are trying to get rich quick, and the film reflects that reality.
Fans of the leading man can see where this ranks in our list of Brad Pitt’s movies or read about his other projects like The Odyssey.
