Peter Dinklage, Juliette Lewis relished character clash in 'Thicket' western

NEW YORK, Sept. 6 (UPI) -- Game of Thrones icon Peter Dinklage says he and the bounty hunter he plays in the new western film, The Thicket, share an important personality trait -- determination.

Dinklage, 55, tried for 10 years as an actor and producer to bring novelist Joe R. Lansdale's story to the screen.

After numerous cast and creative team changes, the coronavirus pandemic lockdowns and various actors' and writers' strikes, the film is finally set to open in theaters on Friday.

Directed by Elliott Lester, it follows Reginald Jones (Dinklage), a former circus performer and gravedigger as he leads a band of misfit heroes on a journey to rescue young Lula (Esmé Creed-Miles) from the clutches of the brutal outlaw Cutthroat Bill (Juliette Lewis).

"To get the movie made took a lot longer," Dinklage laughed when UPI asked him to compare his epic endeavor to Jones' quest to bring Bill in, dead or alive.

"It's that perseverance and the closer you get to something, the more fond you grow of it, when it's just within your reach and the obstacles you have to go through to get it done," he added. "Sometimes you have [hard] days when you think something's not going to happen, but you've just got to keep going."

Dinklage said he's always been a fan of the western genre.

"I think we sort of are guilty of putting westerns in a box -- the damsel in distress, the crooked sheriff, the hero that walks into town, and this really didn't have any of that when I read the book," Dinklage added.

"it really took place in the time in between times, really, when the Industrial Revolution was kicking in and there were cars AND horses, and I found that to be really Interesting."

The idea of making the Bill a woman and having Lewis play her completely reinvented the story as it moved from page to screen, according to Dinklage.

"This opened it up to so many different possibilities and a unique perspective on the villainy of Bill and the kidnapping of a young woman, and what that means, how different that is for a woman than it would be for a man," Dinklage said. "It seems so much more complex for Bill."

Yellowjackets, Dusk Till Dawn and Natural Born Killers actress Lewis said she knew she wanted to play dastardly Bill as soon as she read Chris Kelley's script.

"It was a page turner," said Lewis, 51.

"For me, [Bill] was the embodiment of pain, callous savagery, but like a survivalist, too," she added. "It was really exciting to put that all together, from the [way she looked] and the way she spoke because she survived a near-decapitation."

Bill's face and neck are grotesquely scarred and her voice is distinctively gravelly and guttural.

Lewis said Bill had been hurt so badly in the past that she now wants everyone she encounters to fear her so she isn't vulnerable again.

"When you jump that far, you either can land on your face or it's a triumph," she said about her performance.

"So, those are the stakes, and I look for those and it's my return to film. This is my DNA, my creative birthplace. I relish film. I understand it. I love a single director and a big vision, and, so, I was very excited to do this movie."

Jones chases Bill through the whole movie, but they only share one scene together, a crackling verbal showdown at a trading post.

"These two characters are both survivors," Dinklage said.

"They have very different ways in which they've survived and how, basically, they've come out of [their troubles]," he added. "My character is just as much of a survivor as her character, navigating all the stuff thrown at him, being who he is, his size and all of that in this world, and not being taken seriously, and so they recognize that in each other."

He pointed out that most great stories throughout literature, theater and cinema have antagonists and protagonists that share a commonality.

"Good and evil? It's too abstract. Nobody's good, nobody's evil, there's just how they've lived through their lives and how that manifests and how they treat others."

Lewis chimed in, "What was wild about all of those ingredients is that so little is said, but so much is felt and you can't fake that. You just sort of to bring it and it was like walking a tightrope."

Dinklage said sharing the screen with Lewis was a dream come true for him.

"She's extraordinary and she started her career a bit sooner than I did, so I got to watch her as an audience member," he added. "I sort of was a late bloomer and came into the profession a bit later, but she was always an inspiration to me."

Levon Hawke, Macon Blair, Andrew Schulz, James Hetfield, David Midthunder, Leslie Grace and Gbenga Akinnagbe co-star in The Thicket.