Jack Huston first came to prominence playing Richard, the war veteran with half a face in Boardwalk Empire. It became one hell of a calling card. For an actor to emote without overdoing it and only have half of his face as a resource is an extraordinary feat in and of itself. Jack has followed in the footsteps of his actor/screenwriter father (Tony), Oscar-award-winning aunt Anjelica Huston, formidable uncle Danny, legendary Oscar-winning granddad John, and great granddad Walter–also an Oscar winner.
Despite being in the line of cinematic royalty, Jack has never rested on his laurels. He’s been giving consistently good performances in American Hustle, Hail Caesar, the criminally underseen Above Suspicion, The Irishman, Manhunt, Fargo (TV), Expats, and Mayfair Witches.
With Day of the Fight, Huston boldly steps behind the camera his granddad made history with. His film debut as a director concerns a boxer trying to tie up loose ends before a fight that will likely make or break him. That boxer is played by Michael Pitt, the remarkably talented actor with a reputation for being “difficult.” Because Jack and Pitt worked together on Boardwalk Empire, and Pitt had boxing experience of his own, Huston not only understood Pitt’s process, he also had the trust that the two of them could work together, and of course, Pitt’s understanding of the sport was more than helpful,
However, as Jack says early on in our interview, this is not a boxing film; this is a film about a boxer.
It is also my favorite film of the entire film festival.
The Contending: Why a boxing film for your first film as a director and a writer?
Jack Huston: I think of this not as a boxing film but a film about a boxer. That’s the primary thing. It’s interesting. It’s a sport that fits with the character as much as it spurred from Mikey, Irish Mike, not the other way around. I didn’t think about boxing and how to make a character fit into this. The sport fits the character, not the other way around. It just felt perfect; that’s the life he had. My grandfather, John, was the West Coast champion of America when he was younger. He was a boxer. I’ve always been fascinated at the idea of it being the oldest sport, the gladiatorial aspect of being down to two hands that you’re going to win or lose with, everything or nothing.
The Contending: And you go in there alone.
Jack Huston: You go in there, that’s it. The only person you can rely on in that ring is yourself. It just feels so base and so utterly raw. For that time, when you’re in the ring, nothing else matters. It’s just you and the opponent. There’s a respect in it. I have a massive amount of respect for that.
The Contending: There’s a tragedy and a beauty that connect with boxing because the skill of boxing is extraordinary. If you watch the footwork, if you really get into it, the shoulder rolls, the defense to offense, and all those things. But then of course, there’s the damage that comes along with being in that sport. The film captured really well that it’s the hurting business.
Jack Huston: It is. And to go down fighting, as any great fighter would, that’s, like you said, the beauty and the tragedy. There’s something beautifully tragic about a fighter. And that’s all they have. Don’t take that away from me.
The Contending: And that’s true because few fighters have college degrees.
Jack Huston: You can’t do anything else. The only thing I can do is this.
The Contending: Exactly. Let’s talk about your fighter. Michael Pitt has long been one of my favorite actors and a guy I wish great things for because I see how much talent he has, and he hasn’t always had an easy road of it. My understanding is you had to fight to get him in the movie.
Jack Huston: Oh, man. I account my career to Boardwalk Empire. That was the turning point for me, without question. Our relationship, Mike as Jimmy and me as Richard, was so beautiful working with Michael because I knew his depth as an actor. There are good actors, there are great actors, and there are also actors that it’s innate. There’s something inside of them that just exudes. It’s like you put the camera on them; somehow, they have magic. It’s a quality; you can’t put your finger on it. And I had that with Mike when I was working opposite him. He always brought the best out of me. He was a very giving actor. He’s a very natural actor. He doesn’t work well with constraints.
He’s that thoroughbred; you’ve got to open the gates and let them run. As soon as you try to shackle them or slow them down, that’s the hard part. But I understood that. I wrote this with every word of Michael’s voice in my head. There was no other actor, to the point where it did come down to me saying it’s either Michael or I don’t make the movie. I wouldn’t do it without him. You have to fight, quite literally, for what you believe in. You’ve got to fight for what you love, and I did. The idea that I would have gone this far hearing every word spoken in my head by Michael and not having him do it…that’s the entire film. He is the movie. He’s the heart of the film. I also think Mike was very aware of how hard I had fought for him against all odds and got him in. I won’t go into detail, but it was tough. It was really tough.
The Contending: While I was watching the movie, when you’re a crazy person like me who sees a thousand movies a year, parallels start flying into your head. One of them was The Wrestler, and Aronofsky had to fight for Mickey Rourke.
Jack Huston: It couldn’t be anybody else. That’s a perfect example. I used that as an example often because I said if you imagine anybody other than Mickey doing that role, the film doesn’t work. It just doesn’t work; it doesn’t play. I said you’ve got to understand, having written this and getting ready to direct this. Without Mike, the film wouldn’t be the same film. It’s not the film I want to make. You have to believe in what you’re doing, especially in today’s world, infinitely more than you ever had to believe in something because you have to consistently double down and fight to get a film made, to get a film released. Our nickname during filming was “Fighting the Day” because that’s what it was. Every single day was a fight: pre-production, production, post-production, find distribution. I was on the phone for four hours yesterday, on a Saturday, while I was traveling, every single second was about the release of the film. It does not stop. But, I think the only thing you can do, the only thing you’re in control of, is make the best film you can make. So you can fight for it because you believe in it that much. And I knew that the only film that I would be able to believe in was a film with Michael in that role.
The Contending: You are being awarded the Achievement in Screenplay Award by the Virgina Film Festival. The challenge of writing a film about one day in a life and Michael’s character making the rounds with the people he cares about before he fights his boxing rounds; how difficult was it to build a film around this one single day?
Jack Huston: I’m so happy you are asking me this question. It does mean a lot to me, because you’ve just noticed something which a lot of people overlook. Do you know how hard it is to ostensibly have the same conversation with multiple people in your life without it becoming repetitive, without it becoming overly sentimental, without it becoming fictitious, trying to keep it centered, grounded, real, and honest? The formula of opening shot and closing shot, I knew where the film started: I knew where the film ended. I wrote it over ten days and it sort of fell out of me. I knew there were going to be certain characters. I knew that his dad, I wrote it for (Joe) Pesci, was the father who was going through dementia like my grandmother was, the abusive father, that whole idea. I knew about a best friend but didn’t know who the best friend would be. I knew that he’d have his coach. I didn’t know how old the coach was going to be.
But then I started thinking about it, and as I was writing, it was amazing because the story is incredibly simple, and at the same time incredibly complex, because it’s complex and human, the humanity of it, of the relationships, the complexity of what we are as flawed human beings and trying to eke out these relationships in an honest way in a day is the history of these things. I knew the ex-wife. I knew the child. A lot of this is based on certain things and parts of my life. You can go down certain rabbit holes, but you’ve also got to keep things at a certain time, a certain section. This is it. What’s the best follow-up? I think it’s a very well-structured story, including how things work, the tone of events, the moments, what they speak about, and how it’s approached. My grandfather always said it’s script, script, script. So, the entire focus was script. Get that right. Get a movie that I know I can make. I love this film. I want to make this film. I knew the shots in my head. I knew how it was gonna be. It was going to where it was a certainty. There wasn’t a single doubt in my mind, and that’s the only way I could have approached this film.
The Contending: One of the scenes that got to me was when he gives his coat away to a cold young girl in a bad neighborhood, but the coat is not all he’s giving away. He’s giving everything away.
Jack Huston: If I talk about people I trust, two people who call bullshit straight away are animals and children. If you want to have your central character loved, you must make them loved by animals and children. If you notice, in the very first scene, he’s with his cat, and he is writing a letter to his daughter; he writes like a child, and he misspells the word, dear, because he never got a good education and he himself is childlike. Mike’s beauty is his childlike spirit. You can’t be angry with somebody who has this innocence inside like everything he’s done wrong didn’t feel like it was done out of malice, or where he’s just not a bad guy. He’s a broken guy. He’s been put through it. He’s made some stupid fucking decisions, but this is a life of abuse, the life of a boxer.
The Contending: The scene with John Magaro as the priest with Mikey is one of my favorite scenes in the film. When Michael says that when he was in prison, he would do anything to make his life unbearable, I just thought that was such an extraordinary thing to say. Then, you have Magaro as the priest sitting there, and Michael walks out of the church. You hold that moment for an extra beat of Michael looking back at John. It is as if this is the last time this will ever happen, and Mike knows it.
Jack Huston: That’s my favorite shot in the film. If I pull Riley (Galvin–Associate Producer) in and say what’s my favorite shot in the movie? That’s the one. He knows. That shot to me; I could almost start crying. He’s there, and Mike’s just looking. Then he walks out, and John looks back. Oh my God. Because that just happened on that take. It wasn’t set. That wasn’t planned. Mike just stopped and stared back at him. I was on John’s face and was there giving him that moment because I could feel it. Mike then walks out, and the door closes, and that makes John turn around. He didn’t even fucking know. That’s so lovely.
The Contending: I happened to be here in Virginia in a bar getting a pint, and the Creedence Clearwater Revival song came on, “Have You Ever Seen the Rain,” which I will never think of the same way after hearing Nicolette Robinson (as Jessica, Mikey’s ex-wife).
Jack Huston: Wasn’t it gorgeous, though? It’s just heartbreaking.
The Contending: It was stunning, and the music is essential to this film.
Jack Huston: It’s a character in the movie.
The Contending: I agree. His father…
Jack Huston: That’s really Joe (Pesci) singing.
The Contending: Mikey’s father was a singer who didn’t make it; his ex-wife is a singer in a club beneath her talents. And the score is beautiful, too, and it drives the movie as he’s going from place to place. What were you thinking about in terms of using music in this movie? Because it’s so specific.
Jack Huston: Yeah, again, I’m so happy. I feel like this film was made for you. And I love this because it’s so true. I wrote every piece of the movie with music in mind or to a piece of music. The gentleman who did my score is Ben MacDiarmid, my brother-in-law–my sister’s husband. It was his first time scoring a film. How about that? It was beautiful because I had a temp score, and we worked so well together. I also knew that I was going to have Jackson C. Frank on the soundtrack. I was going to have Rodriguez. It initially started as “Ooh Child,” and it became “Crucify Your Mind,” the very first song. If you ever want to watch the film and imagine “Ooh Child” over that, you could, but it was very expensive. So that was my sub-in, which I love equally but maybe works even better. But The Magnetic Fields, when it comes in, when they hold hands, and the dying, all those things, were all needle drops in the script. There were specific moments. I also had Philip Glass and Max Richter as my musical inspiration—a lot of The Bad Seeds, Nick Cave, and Warren Alice. I was listening to those types of scores.
Working with Ben, his ego was that this was his first film, so he worked so beautifully in harmony with the vision of the movie, of watching it, that he created things that were completely his but still held the heart and soul of what I imagined in all these places. “Have You Ever Seen the Rain” was inspired by the lovely duet Willie Nelson did with his daughter of “Have You Ever Seen The Rain,” really beautiful. And I was thinking about the period because their daughter would have been born in the late 70s or early 80s when she was a little girl, and he talks about when he and Jessica were walking together, remembering that song she used to sing, the one about the rain. I was wondering, what’s a song that a mother as a singer would sing, and I thought, “Have You Ever Seen the Rain”? It would be such a beautiful song because it was about war and about torture. The rain was actually the bombs dropping in Vietnam; that was the metaphor. I love the simplicity that Mikey didn’t know what the song was about, and he just says it to her, and she realizes at that moment when he says goodbye and gives her the ticket that what he’s probably doing, it’s a goodbye, maybe forever. So, her singing that song in the club later on is her way of forgiving him.
The Contending: You have assembled a supporting cast of some fancy people. Joe Pesci, as you mentioned, Steve Buscemi, who’s always welcome on screen, and Ron Perlman, who was born to play a trainer.
Jack Huston: You can’t imagine any of these people being anybody else. I always loved that. My grandfather said 90 percent of making a film is casting. It’s never made more sense than making this film. When you are directing something, you’ve got so much that you’re thinking about what you don’t want to think about, which is the character you’ve written. You want to say okay, tag, you’re it. That’s yours. And by the way, run, baby, run, fucking turn it into the beauty. I trust you. I’ve cast you. About my grandfather, they said he didn’t say much. And they said if you did something wrong, he would have, but he usually cast you because he thought you were perfect for the role, and that’s yours now. I get to do all of this and think about other things, and that’s why I choose the best DP. That’s why I chose the best rigger. That’s why I chose this guy because I want to know that you’re able to do that part perfectly. And I trust you to capture this. Thank God we had Jim McConkey, our steadicam operator.
The Contending: I think what you’re getting at here is something that I think is common in the working world, which is to say that if you are making a film as a director, you’re the manager, and you want to have people who you don’t have to worry about doing their job so you can do yours.
Jack Huston: That is directing. It’s being able to put the best person in each of these roles. There isn’t such a thing as the bottom to the top. Every part of a watch Is fucking important. If one of those cogs is off, the entire thing falls short. You’ve got to think of it as one giant mechanism, and you’ve chosen all of your favorites that you trust. I love the collaborative aspect of making movies. Anybody can have a great idea and a great point of view. The reason I chose you is I want your input. I trust you. There’s a massive thing of trust, and that goes both ways. So when I say this, you trust me.
The Contending: We should mention Joe Pesci because he’s also an executive producer and, as you said, he sings on the soundtrack. I won’t give too much away, but let’s just say that he has a scene where he does not speak. That was some of the most courageous acting I have seen to show aging human frailty.
Jack Huston: And it was Joe. I’m so happy you say that because we’re talking about an actor who embodies the tough guy. It’s fucking Joe Pesci. To witness something so raw and vulnerable that Joe did for us, for me. When I gave him the script, and he agreed to do it, the entire film hinged on Joe doing the role. Michael doesn’t necessarily bring in the financing. Joe’s an Oscar-winning actor and hasn’t done a film since The Irishman, five years before that. He was coming out of retirement, and it was so huge that the financiers were like, listen, if Joe agrees to it, that’s how you get your money, and that’s how you’re going to get this film financed. So for him to not only agree to do the role but give such a thoughtful performance and what goes into not speaking but giving everything across, he also was the one who said, ‘ Oh, I should be the taxi driver. ‘ He gave me that idea. So I wrote it as that dual there.
I had this big old speech at the end. It was very Harry Dean Stanton, that sort of nihilistic view of us being nothing, the world being nothing. Because Harry was just wonderful, and everybody was like, what the fuck, why do you not care? What do you want people to remember about you after you’re dead? And he goes, I don’t care, nothing. It’s not about that. It’s about what we do today; it’s what we do right now. Be as good a person as you can be. The night before, Joe came in and said his mom used to say to him ever since he was a kid: help the helpless, strengthen the fearful, comfort the sorrowful. When he saw her on her deathbed, it was one of the last things she said to him. At that moment, I said don’t say any of this that I’ve written; say that because I think it’s probably the most beautiful sentiment, and it really says, passing on from the father, that if you’re able to forgive him, you’re able to forgive anybody.
The Contending: There’s an aspect of self-forgiveness that I think is key in the film. Once again, wanting to be careful about not giving away too much for folks who haven’t seen it, there’s a scene where he goes to a grave site and speaks to the gravestone, and it’s largely inaudible, and I thought, what a great choice to allow him this privacy. It’s not for us. It’s for him.
Jack Huston: You know what, man? I’m so happy that you just said the other one was the letter at the end. It worked two ways, and you’ve just nailed it. What he says in those moments is not for us. Referencing another film that did this, and I thought did it beautifully, and the idea of knowing what was said would have killed it, is Lost In Translation. Bill Murray grabs Scarlett Johansson at the end, says something in her ear, and walks away. And if I knew what he said to her, I would have hated it. I love that it was between them.
The Contending: Lost in Translation is my wife’s favorite movie, by the way. Oddly enough, it even reminded me of the ending of The Shawshank Redemption, where the camera pulls away and lets them…
Jack Huston: …have that moment. It’s not for us. I just feel like you so got the movie as well. It just means a lot. It’s great when you get those things. It feels lovely.
The Contending: Your grandfather is a hero of mine. He always took chances in movies and put humanity and character at the center of his films. He made a boxing movie, a great one, Fat City, which I wrote about a few years ago. I want to say that Day of the Fight can proudly stand next to Fat City.
Jack Huston: That means so much to me. I can’t tell you how much it means to me. Honestly. Cause I do think he’d be happy. I think he’d be proud, you’re getting me emotional on that one.
Postscript: After our interview, Jack and I walked to the theater where Day of the Fight was playing. Because our chat ran long, we only caught the film’s last few moments (I had already seen a screener). We politely stood at the back of the theater to not impact anyone else’s experience. When the film ended, nearly everyone in the almost-packed house stood and applauded. It was the largest standing ovation I saw during my entire time at the festival. Jack walked over to me and said, “That’s rather nice, isn’t it? They stood. I replied you’re goddamn right they did. And then we embraced. It’s about as good a day as I’ve ever had on this job.
Day of the Fight will open in Los Angeles and New York City theaters on December 6. Martic Scorsese will introduce the NYC premiere.
