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Prisoner’s daughter is an emotional character study and family drama that follows a prisoner upon his compassionate release as he struggles to reunite with his estranged daughter and grandson despite his illness. It’s a quietly contemplative study of violence with a star-studded cast — Brian Cox plays Max, the formerly violent muscle of the mob, and Kate Beckinsale plays his daughter Maxine, a working-class woman struggling to care for her son Ezra (Christopher Convery).
Join Cox and Beckinsale Tyson Ritter (All-American Rejects singer) as Maxine’s ex-husband and Ezra’s father, Tyler. He’s a man who likely (and tragically) resembles her father when he was younger – selfish, violent, and not a great father. Meanwhile, Ezra is being violently bullied and has to decide if he should be violent in return, and Max has to decide if he should go back to violence in order to stop Tyler from wreaking havoc on Maxine’s life.
behind the camera Catherine Hardwickethe great director Twilight, thirteen And Lords of Dogtown. She delicately guides Mark Bacci’s text with sensitivity, empathy, and grace. The result is a subtly heartbreaking meditation on violence, family, and redemption through brilliant performances. Ritter and Hardwicke join us to discuss the film.
He’s not the bad guy
Tyson Ritter is the lead singer and guitarist for the hit American band, All-American Rejects. in Prisoner’s daughter, plays Tyler, ex-musician of Kate Beckinsale’s Maxine, and stars the sweet disposition of an artist in the throes of addiction. “I definitely took away from the interactions I had along the way on this trip. You know, the world of music is full of very big egos and very toxic people, just like any performing business, just like the entertainment business in general. Yeah, there was a lot,” Ritter said. of the low-hanging fruit to collect.”
“The heart that Tyler has for his son, and even the light he keeps in his heart for Maxine’s character, Kate, I think that was a really important thing for me, and talking to Mark Bacci, the writer. Not necessarily on the page, when I auditioned.” It is to explain:
The room was still kind of after I finished, and they were like, “Hey, wow, what do you think?” And I was like, I think he’s the hero of the movie. I think the sad thing is that Tyler is quiet, like so many people in broken homes from addiction and violence […] I really wanted to make sure that Tyler was a real human being, not just a bully, not just someone like, “Oh, I’m an angry husband who’s going to beat his wife.” I think that would be one-sided. So I really protected my character.
Tyson Ritter is a father
Ritter found another entry into (and occasional similarity to) his character — he had just had a son. Playing the father, as sympathetically as possible, was an emotional and fragile feat for Ritter, exacerbated by the physical resemblance between actor Christopher Convery and Ritter’s own child.
It was a journey when I saw Chris, who plays Ezra, the other day and he looked like my wife — it had been two months since I had my first child, which was such an inspiring experience — and my wife was like, “This kid looks just like your son, he could be your son.” The more I’ve been given roles, the more people open up suggestions like that to me, I immediately respond to them, and they immediately program themselves in my mind.
And as soon as she said that, right off the bat I was teaching Chris things, and his mom was kind of talking to me, just asking me for advice, and I was taking him under my wing on set and going with him. The relationship, that dynamic with Chris,” Ritter explained. He explained:
“I’m the last person to have a baby. I thought I’d be my fun uncle, drinking a lot of wine at the dinner table every night. And the minute my son came out, I don’t know if you’d have kids, but it completely changes your chemical makeup. You’re suddenly not for you,” And being a musician and a guy who’s been “me me” my entire existence, this movie came at the perfect time for me to really understand what the dynamic between a father and son can be. I didn’t have open sympathy for that, I’d see a kid, and I’d be like, “No, no.” next to me on the plane. No, please no, please. And now I’m just like, “Let the baby cry. It’s such a sweet sound.”
FIFA Las Vegas
One of the more subtle and unique aspects of Prisoner’s daughter Is the fact that it’s set in Las Vegas – but outside the neon lights and tourist traps, and deeper into the suburban fringes and shabby but honest hangovers than the city’s exterior. Both Ritter and director Catherine Hardwicke had ideas about the city’s environment.
Hardwicke admitted that he “didn’t really write for Vegas in the script, but that’s something we kind of came up with, and that could work in the movie. I mean it had a lot of challenges because we shot there in September, which was brutal, 110 degrees, very tough conditions for For a budget movie. But the fact that we’re in the back of the movie, I thought was kind of cool.” And she explained:
You can see the boxing gym where Max used to work, we see the back of the billboard there. We see the alleys, we see the faltering art scene, which is really happening in Vegas. We see homes that do not meet the standards of the sector […] You feel that kind of struggle, the back of Vegas, almost thankless side, that we had in our crew as well. Like our assistant Prop Master was a Britney Spears impersonator. It was really cool, you hear all these stories about the backside of Vegas.
“It was always like this Vegas National Lampoon VacationThat’s what people think, Wayne Newton, Celine Dion, and the humidifier in her dressing room. Like, that’s not it, Vegas is more than just a strip,” Ritter added. There is an arts district in Vegas, you really get a sense of the community that operates next to this giant gambling crackin, the gambling community. And yes, there are gambling addicts in the jungle setting. It has everything a big city has. It is more focused on tourism. “
And I think the cool thing about people who are out there, just like Maxine and Max and Ezra and Tyler are in that ocean […] Everyone thinks everyone dances to the Flamingo dance, or at least that’s what we were presented with at the cinema. It’s not, you know, fools rushing into it. It’s a real city, and it’s probably one of my favorite American cities.
“I felt like this was the perfect place to have this kind of broken American family just trying to figure themselves out,” Ritter added. “I can really relate to this scenario, because I come from a broken home in Oklahoma.”
Violence and the prisoner’s daughter
The character of Ritter is very emblematic of the themes presented in the series Prisoner’s daughter On violence, toxicity, and cyclic structures. The ultimate question in the film confronts nearly every character, but mostly Cox’s and Ritter’s – when is violence necessary; Is it ever?
“That’s how I feel, man,” Ritter began. “The movie feels like a movie, it’s trying to push itself toward a moral conclusion. But life just doesn’t work that way. Where I felt the movie was really grounded is that it doesn’t give you satisfaction at the end if you want to see some kind of revenge.”
He completed:
If you want to see something happen to my character, perhaps as a result of how things turn out, you’re buying the wrong idea […] It won’t end up the way you want it to, because that’s the man of life. And for some people who might be seeking some kind of larger message, it’s there, too. But if you are someone who believes that life goes the way you want it to and if that is what you want to watch, then go for this beautiful Disney movie.
“That’s a big theme for the movie, a cycle of violence and injury and multigenerational violence,” Hardwick added. “How do you stop the pattern that’s set up? Kate Beckinsale’s character chooses another man who somehow resembles her father, and how can that cycle be broken so that your son can come out in balance? So the child learns how to fight, she learns how to stand up for herself, and that’s exactly what You say – when is it necessary? When do you have to stand up for yourself, and not take it too far?
Catherine Hardwicke on Brian Cox
“When I read the script, I was definitely drawn to the idea of all your past mistakes — how can you fix them, how can you deal with your regrets, but actually take action to fix them and do something different, find some evolution, some kind of connection?” Hardwicke asked. continued:
I just thought, with Brian Cox and Kate Beckinsale playing these characters, it could be really intense and beautiful and fun. And Brian, I obviously idolize Brian, as does everyone else, I think. But, you know, this gave him an opportunity to play different kinds of layers that we haven’t seen Succession Or other movies too.
“There is something very interesting about Brian,” Hardwick added. “Personally, he’s fun and funny and warm and just wonderful. But he can really connect with these guys who are deeply men, who are deeply troubled, who have violence and anger, he can almost embody that. I guess you could say that. He told me it felt like He really got that character. He said, “I think I feel him in me, and I understand this character,” and he felt like he kind of knew how to be that character with a lot of reserve.
“He’s been in prison for a long time,” Hardwicke continued of Cox’s character. “He’s learned a lot of patience, and he’s been through the program. He’s changed his drinking. He’s changed his transgressions. So I think in my mind, he’s had a lot of time. He’s mentored other people, he’s mentored his cellmate. So I feel like he’s been through that.” The process, and the whole thing in. He can now be patient with his daughter, even when she says very harsh things when he gets home […] He’s very hardcore, but he suffered so much that he processed all of that.”
At the end of the Prisoner’s daughterYou’ve been through a lot too, but the movie will help you process it. The film is now in theaters courtesy of Vertical.
