Leslie Grace and Elliott Lester at the Canadian Premiere of THE THICKET | Calgary International Film Festival

Before the Canadian premiere of The Thicket at the 25th annual Calgary International Film Festival, I had the opportunity to chat with star Leslie Grace and director Elliott Lester about the “punk rock” nature of their new Western.

Adam Manery: Leslie, your career started in the music industry, where you have had tremendous success. And Elliott, much of your earlier success was directing music videos for artists like The Fray and Avril Lavigne. How does your approach to each medium differ and what draws you to a project, regardless of the form it takes?

Elliott Lester: Well, look, it’s a completely different discipline, but it’s also the same discipline. In music, I’ve got three minutes to cover a great performance and I’m not always telling a story. In a film, I’ve got a hundred minutes, many different characters, and many different storylines. I think as an evolution of a director, it’s very nice to be able to practice with someone else’s money first before you get your shot to do a big movie. But of course, the principles are similar. You have a camera and a cast. And you just have to hope it works out.

Leslie Grace: Just being able to do something new… the experience. Since I was a kid, I just loved performing and the feeling of being able to emote something that made others feel something—whether it was something they never felt before or something they empathized with based on my performance. I loved that experience. To get to do that as an adult and have the bonus gift of making a living from it with every project is what I’m looking for. To be challenged by a character that will allow me to learn new things about myself.

Adam Manery: What challenged you, specifically, when it came to shooting The Thicket?

Leslie Grace: Oh man, where do I begin? It was so challenging. We all had our own sets of challenges, but I think the one common challenge was nature—the weather. Calgarian winter is no joke. I think it will forever be ingrained in our bodies. It was really hard, but it was also beautiful. We learned that we could all make something beautiful in those circumstances. None of us had ever shot in that kind of weather before, so it was crazy. But it was also so beautiful. Like, in what scenario do you ever shoot with those kinds of landscapes, in the snow, in a period piece?

That, and also educationally – just learning about that time, the turn of the century, and what women were going through in that era was an eye-opener. I read a lot about what was happening back then, just so I could get the context of the world Jimmy was living in.

Being able to show up and be ready at any moment, having the confidence to spar, collaborate, and partner with people I’ve looked up to for most of my life, was a big challenge. It was a beautiful gift.

Adam Manery: It must have been a beautiful gift getting to work with this amazing cast. Peter Dinklage, Juliette Lewis, Levon Hawke – the list goes on and on.

Leslie Grace: Juliette is one of my favorites on the planet Earth in this game. I’ve grown up watching her. It was also a challenge of restraint because when you see people you look up to, you admire and respect them. You want to share the love, but at the same time, you also have to show up and do your job without geeking out.

Everyone—from Peter, to Juliette, everyone. Levon, in his own right, kills it in everything he does. How he brings so much from his familial experience—it was just invaluable. Gbenga Akinnagbe, from The Wire, someone I watched for years, brought a whole set of values to the set that was beyond anything I could have imagined. I feel so blessed to have been part of this.

Adam Manery: How did you manage to pull this cast together?

Elliott Lester: I had an amazing producer in Peter Dinklage, who also stars in the film. He and I collaborated constantly. I’d run names past him. The second person to drop in was Juliette Lewis. I reached out to her, she read the script in five days, and we were on a Zoom shortly after. Before we knew it, we were in Calgary.

But if you want to specifically talk about the “God of Rock” – James Hetfield. It’s a funny story… I was visited in a dream by him—true story. I woke up the next day and called Peter and said, “It’s impossible to make this movie in Calgary without James Hetfield.” Peter agreed. So, we went about trying to find him, and when we did, he said, “Yes.”

And all of a sudden, I’m standing on set, singing “Sandman” with him. That might’ve been the high point of my life. Where do you go from there? Fatherhood? Maybe?

Adam Manery: Elliott, you’ve described The Thicket as a “punk rock Western”. What does that mean to you?

Elliott Smith: It has a certain attitude. You can’t deny it’s a western—it follows the familiar tropes—but the attitude, the way it was cast, the way it was shot, the way it was scored… it just gives it a different feel. Every director has a different point of view, and I felt this was the right one for The Thicket.

Adam Manery: And you, Leslie?

Leslie Grace: Well, you know, this crew was… alternative. We took some liberties within the genre. And when we talk about vets in the game like Elliott—he comes from the music world.

Being able to speak in that language too, which is such a unique approach to shooting a film, allowed us to try new things that many of us—especially those of us coming from music like James and myself—hadn’t experimented with before.

So being able to tell this story in many ways through Elliott’s lens was incredible. He wanted to bring a punk rock western vibe to it. We were ready to flip it on its head at every turn. | The Canadian Premiere of THE THICKET at the Calgary International Film Festival

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