Jeremy Saulnier broke out nine years ago with Green Room, a bloody thriller about a misfit punk-rock band attempting to escape a crowd of homicidal neo-Nazis. He’d already announced himself as a bold new voice with 2007’s Murder Party and 2013’s Blue Ruin, but his third feature went for the jugular, underscoring the animosity and long-gestating cultural division that would come to define this country during Donald Trump’s presidency.
This week, Saulnier’s back with another topical action drama, the Netflix release Rebel Ridge. The movie—which he wrote, directed, and produced—starts with a tense traffic stop: Terry Richmond (Aaron Pierre), a Black ex-marine, gets pulled over by two white police officers as he’s biking into a small Louisiana town to post bail for his cousin, a murder witness about to head to state prison. They search Terry’s bag, seize his thousands in cash, and tell him to file a complaint. Over the ensuing two hours, and with the help of a young law clerk (AnnaSophia Robb), Terry must outmaneuver, outmuscle, and outshoot a corrupt police force, led by a headstrong sheriff (Don Johnson) and a complicit local government.
Rebel Ridge is many things—a movie-star showcase for Pierre, a gripping, throwback thriller a la First Blood, and an urgent social drama centered around civil asset forfeiture, a type of legal action that allows police to seize any property they suspect has a connection to a crime, even without a conviction. Despite the bigger budget and Netflix sheen, Saulnier’s trademarks are all here—Rebel Ridge bristles with sharp, well-researched details, takes place in a rural, neglected corner of America, and pops with lean, visceral, and grounded action set pieces. Like his entire filmography, the subject matter is personal and about something, but never sacrifices its sense of place and spectacle.
“I really think it's about being genuinely interested in a topic, but mining it for purely narrative reasons,” he says. “I don't do it to teach lessons. I do it to give myself shortcuts as a writer.” –Jake Kring-Schriefels
How did you first learn about civil asset forfeiture?
I became aware of it actually from another project that never ended up happening. I let that go, but I kept getting newsletters and finding articles about civil asset forfeiture from the victim’s standpoint. It was very interesting, intriguing— the unifying factor of it was that it was reviled by the left, by the right, by everybody.
Even when it is outlawed at a state or local level, any law enforcement agency can tap into the federal side and do the exact same thing with impunity. So I thought, what a great way to start, and get everybody behind Terry Richmond. I saw it playing out online when we first dropped the trailer. You've got tons of people that are aware of the practice, and they are unified. It's a bizarrely legal, but totally unjust practice.
When I did see the trailer, I immediately thought about First Blood. I also thought a little bit about Roadhouse. Did you start thinking about this movie with ‘80s action staples in mind? Did they create your structure or template in a way?
My lookbook had First Blood, had some Interstellar (like the shot of the truck and the cornfield), it had Mississippi Burning, Michael Clayton, True Romance. Images really compel me—it's lighting, reflection, dust, dirt, grit, texture. I didn't say, "Let me do First Blood and inject civil asset forfeiture." I said, "Let me do civil asset forfeiture," and realized soon thereafter that that would pit my protagonist against a small-town police force—and here we are. I probably embraced that 13 pages into the script.
Michael Clayton was my other reference, because it offset First Blood. It's this very cool, modern aesthetic, very detailed, and it's research. The characters know what the fuck they're talking about, and the verbal exchanges are amongst my favorite in all of cinema—like Tom Wilkinson, the alley scene with the baguettes. Like, holy shit. I get more of a rise out of that than a big spectacle action movie.
John Boyega was going to star in this before the pandemic halted things and schedules changed. How did you end up finding Aaron Pierre? And more importantly, what did you need to see from him to know he could accomplish both the physical aspects and emotional complexity of a role like this?
We needed a guy fast. We were replacing an actor, and the challenge was for me to not let that influence my decision at all. I'd rather have shelved the movie than move forward without the perfect version of Terry Richmond. So much was on his shoulders. He's in, I think, 130 scenes out of 135, so a full commitment was necessary.
As far as what I needed, a lot of names being thrown at me. My wife was like, "Hey, check out this guy on Underground Railroad.” I literally watched four minutes of one episode of Barry Jenkins' limited series, saw Aaron Pierre, and said, "OK." If there's one thing I can read from afar, it's chops. He had the presence I needed. He had this quiet intellect. I could feel he could handle the complexity just from this one scene that I watched. When I got on Zoom with him the very next day, I knew under two minutes that he was the guy who would be getting my offer. And I also told everyone around me that if he doesn't work out, I was happily moving on to my next project.
We always knew we're making an American action movie, but hopefully with a little more depth to it, a little more veracity, and he would be sure to never indulge in that sort of action movie swagger, or look back over his shoulder and do the wink to the camera. We had some fun with some lines that could be considered one-liners, but always stayed true, always stayed authentic.
Read the full version of this interview at GQ.com.
