Due West stars Adrianne Palicki (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.) as a woman travelling across Texas to receive urgent medical care following an unintended pregnancy, meeting a variety of roadblocks along the way. She's joined in the cast by Henry Thomas (E.T.), Ciara Bravo (Cherry), Matt Lauria (Friday Night Lights) and Odette Annable (Cloverfield).
By no means a traditional "thriller," the movie is still an engrossing, often heart-wrenching story of one woman racing against the clock to make the hardest decision of her life. Palicki shines in Due West, as does Thomas, who plays a pastor pulled into her journey. The film is directed by Evan Miller and written by him and Hardy Janson.
We recently spoke with Adrianne and Henry about their work in Due West, which has already picked up awards at film festivals. During our conversation, they explained their approach to these characters, how they dealt with the movie's important themes, and their collaboration on set.
The actors also opened up about the importance of independent filmmaking, shooting in West Texas, and how Adrianne's iconic role in Friday Night Lights prepared her to take on perhaps the most challenging role of her career.
You can check out the full interview with Adrianne and Henry in the player below.
You’ve both had amazing careers and played some really iconic characters. But was there a particular moment when you were both reading Due West when you realised that this was a story you had to be part of telling?
Adrianne: Well, Evan came to my house and Evan’s one of my dearest friends. And he and Hardy had actually written the character for me. And he’s like, 'I’m nervous to give this to you, Annie.' So he gives me—that’s my nickname—he gives me the script. He gives me a bottle of Cheetos. He gives me a pack of cigarettes. And he’s like, 'Just read it. Take it in. Tell me what you think.' And then I couldn’t talk to him for like two days after because it was just so emotional. And there are two things I’ve ever known in my life. One was that I needed to be an actor at seven years old, and two that I needed to make this movie. So it became kind of Evan and I against the world as far as producing it, trying to get this thing made. And Henry was like the absolute perfect person for the pastor character, like embodied it completely in thought. So I was so excited when he agreed. But Henry, what’s your side of that?
Henry: Well, I came in quite late in the game relative to Adrianne and Evan, of course, and Hardy. So I’m from Texas, and I like the idea of a West Texas story, and I thought that it was kind of timely. And it’s interesting because it’s a story about people and community and all those things that I think we kind of lose sight of once politics and government kind of enter into the sphere. And it was a great story, I thought.
Adrianne, the film delivers some real gut punches during your character’s journey, particularly from a viewer’s perspective. Some of those just floored me when I was watching the film. But was it quite daunting for you knowing where this story was going and what you were going to have to go through as an actor working on this one?
Adrianne: The sad thing is that this stuff happens all the time to a lot of women and all of it, including the rape, including all those things. And so, yeah, going into it, I was nervous as hell. It’s a lot of responsibility, and I just wanted to do right by all these women out there who, you know, it could be my next-door neighbour, it could be my best friend, it could be your mom, it could be anybody who had to go through this. So I just really focused, and it was great that we were all kind of in Marfa together, bonding. It was very separate from home life. So you really got into the mentality of West Texas. But yeah, it was very nerve-wracking. I did not want to do a disservice to anybody. So hopefully people love this movie.
It is an incredible performance from you, and from you as well, Henry. And Mike’s faith is obviously a big part of who he is as a pastor. So how much were you thinking about that in your approach to playing him and some of the decisions we see him make over the course of the film?
Henry: Well, I mean, obviously that’s kind of his backbone, right? Every decision he makes. And it’s interesting because I think the thing that appeals to me about Mike is that people want to do good and they’ll do good however that manifests itself in the situation. And so he’s a pastor but at the end of the day he’s just a guy, and he’s going to go with his heart. And so I think it was an interesting crisis for the character within the context of the story. And that’s always fun as an actor because it gives you a lot to do.
Adrianne: I’ll say this—I just want to give you this, Henry—like the first day on set and the first scene that Henry ever did was the scene where he drops The Woman off at the centre. And that was his first scene in the entire movie that we shot. And I’m like, 'Welcome to Marathon.' But you killed it. It was an amazing performance. It’s such a fine line to walk.
Henry: Thanks. Yeah. You know, it was a challenge, but it was exciting because we’re out there with minimal resources and minimal funds and minimal time. And we’re making a film, and it’s a wonderful feeling when you do that, and then you get to do this, and you know it’s going to get seen because a lot of these films unfortunately will slip through the cracks without audience participation. And a lot of the films don’t even get the chance to have the audience participation because there’s a lack of distributors despite all of the content that’s out there. It’s kind of crazy.
You’ve both mentioned West Texas a couple of times, and it does feel like another character in the film, particularly with the locations we see. So how much did shooting on location really influence both of your performances and what you had to bring to the table as these characters and the histories that they have?
Adrianne: Well, I definitely think it felt very isolating and isolated, which is a big part of, I think, The Woman’s character. She’s very much so alone. And so when these characters come in and help or don’t help, you really feel the warmth of the characters who help her and the community. And then you really feel the emptiness when she’s taken advantage of. So I feel like all of that was just really important; it really made her seem like she was genuinely alone in the world.
Henry: I mean the isolation of that country—it does something to you, I think. And like the people who live out there, they’re a different breed of Texan altogether. But it’s an interesting place.
Adrianne, you’ve obviously been part of some big movies, big TV shows, with high stakes in a sci-fi or comic book setting, but this is a very high-stakes story as well. It doesn’t have that spectacle. It’s just this very real story. Is it quite challenging for you to keep that sense of escalation going from scene to scene, knowing what The Woman is going through as her journey unfolds?
Adrianne: I just think it had to be honest. And honestly, I’m so thankful that I got the opportunity to do Friday Night Lights. And I kind of based The Woman on Tyra, my character, as if Tyra didn’t go to college, what circumstance might she be in? And so it’s a very similar character if you really look at it that way. And I’ve taken Tyra to every single character I’ve ever played. So it was like that was a tap-in. And thankfully that show prepared me to be able to go places very quickly because there’s not a lot of time to work on these things. Thankfully I’d had plenty of time personally with the script because again I became a producer early on. But I feel like that tap-in was just innately there from Meisner and doing Friday Nights, and that’s how we shot.
Henry, it feels like there’s a lot of history between The Woman and Mike that’s alluded to in some of their earlier interactions. Obviously Adrianne said you filmed almost your last scene first, but did you give a lot of thought to maybe their past and the role he’s played in her life leading up to this point where she finds herself?
Henry: Yeah, absolutely. Well, I think that especially when you’re dealing with small towns and communities that don’t really move around that much, everybody knows each other and everybody’s known each other for a long time. And I think the thing for Mike is that he’s kind of amazed that he doesn’t know everything that’s going on. He wants to get to the bottom of it because he feels like he knows everything in the community. He knows everything about everyone in the community, and it’s almost an affront to his being that he didn’t know that there was this kind of thing happening in his town. So yeah, and I grew up in a small town so I think that feeling never really leaves you—your anonymity is already gone.
The issues at the heart of Due West are obviously very relevant and, as you said, Adrianne, unfortunately something that is still happening out there. But did you both find yourselves thinking about those themes while you’re making the film or has it only really hit you since you’ve had audiences start responding to it?
Adrianne: Honestly, it’s an issue that is awful. And the fact that anybody has the right to say anything over somebody else’s body—that theme right there was the reason I had to make this movie because it’s very timely and in Texas it’s very scary. So for people—and the other thing that we wanted to do was make a movie where people started talking. It wasn’t about beating people over the head with the issue and the politics of it. It was about getting people to see a version. This is one version of many versions of this story. And I will tell you many people, especially men, have come up to me in screenings afterwards on either side and said, “Wow, I never thought of it like that,” and taking a really good look at the fact that nobody has their right. Everybody has a different issue, and it’s never easy for a woman to make this decision ever.
Henry: Well, you know, it’s a human issue, and it’s a personal issue. I think to Adrianne’s point, that’s the crux of it. It’s a personal issue, and we’re dealing with the idea of governments making decisions, and that’s always scary, right? So for me as an actor, it’s always the human story that is interesting, and I think it’s art’s benefit to people and humanity to sort of hold up a mirror and maybe offer a different perspective or make you think. The best things leave you with thoughts, and if you feel one way or the other about the issue, it’s an interesting exercise to think about it.
Do you both feel that telling a story like this has to be done with independent filmmaking, as it’s not a story you could tell with a big studio?
Adrianne: Absolutely, because I think the intimacy is really important. And you get a lot of talking heads when you go to big studios—I’m not dissing that and it’s necessary for certain films for sure—but movies like this need to have very few cooks in the kitchen and it needs to be something that is between the director and the actor and maybe one other producer and just going for it and being able to make and create the film that you want. Too much money does not make it better sometimes.
Henry: And corporations normally don’t want to touch issues like this except with a 10-foot pole. So they’d like to collect the revenue, but they don’t want to have their names on it.
Adrianne: Right. Exactly.
Due West is on VOD 7/28 from Cineverse, and playing in theaters at the Violet Crown in Austin, TX from 7/23-7/31 and the Laemelle in Glendale, CA from 7/24-7/31. You can purchase tickets for Austin here and for Glendale here.