Poor Juliette Lewis thinks I’m a hyper, agitated person. I’m really very calm, but I had to race to the location of her interview, it being South by Southwest and all. She felt my pain though, a veteran herself of the festival. She and Jonny Weston costar in Kelly & Cal, as Kelly and Cal, two neighbors whose friendship fills voids in each other’s lives. Kelly is a new mother and Cal is a wheelchair bound teenager and they strike up a friendship, innocent enough at first, but this is a drama after all. I spoke with the title duo after I caught my breath.
CraveOnline: Juliette, have you ever played SXSW Music with your band?
Juliette Lewis: I have. I played it twice. One time we did the full racket. We did like seven shows in five days. I can’t remember all the venues we played but I know I played Stubb’s. The Bat Bar, Beauty Bar for sure. I’ve never been here when it’s a film festival, so I’ve not been here as an actor person and I’m quite excited to be here for movies because I know it’s a groovy film festival. I know it’s chaotic. SXSW has its own charm, but at least it’s not in the snow.
Jonny Weston: We’re in an interview in a small room sweating bullets on camera.
You’re referring to Sundance though. I love it there too.
Juliette Lewis: Oh, really?
Jonny Weston: Nice and cool.
Juliette Lewis: Hehe, I don’t know.
Because of the snow or the atmosphere?
Juliette Lewis: Just snow. Snow.
That’s fair. So did you record the songs for the fictional band Wet Nap in Kelly & Cal?
Juliette Lewis: Mm-hmm. This was a trip for me because I got to be a songwriter for a film. That I’m in, yes, but I got to write in the vein of a character because this isn’t my music at all. Jen gave me direction and we talked about it. My biggest thing is I wanted people to dig it. I wanted it to feel like yes, this is a ‘90s song, very low-fi, that very P.J. Harvey kind of blues guitar tone, but also dig it as kind of good. I hope we did that, and I wrote it with my friend Clint Walsh who was my first guitar player from 10 years ago. Then we wrote the last song, “Change.” That just sort of came out of the ether somewhere in my living room but it was really being connected to the spirit of the movie. It’s hopeful but it’s full of melancholy and loss and ultimately a positive optimism.
Jonny Weston: You seem to be connected more to yourself most of the time than most people. I envy that. You have a certain connection to yourself and to what you’re feeling than most people.
Juliette Lewis: That’s sweet. What do you mean?
Jonny Weston: It’s admirable. It’s nice to check out. People do it too much. That’s why I’ve gotta read my cell phone.
What was so interesting about the drama of Kelly & Cal is that in more ways than not, this is a very positive relationship for Kelly and Cal, but there is a point where it would become inappropriate. I completely understand why either of them would want it to go that far, for example being a teenage boy with this beautiful woman being his friend. Was it interesting to figure out that line and where it’s crossed?
Jonny Weston: With my character especially, I was unclear whether I was in love with her or not for a certain portion of time. It’s like when you meet a girl, do you want to just sleep with her or could there be more? Or if she’s just a friend. I think it was interesting to play with that coming and going consistently within Cal, constantly trying to figure out what he can get or if he wants it. It was never just a straight up “I want to marry you for the rest of my life.” It was a very complex mixture and I think it was a huge relief in having someone to talk to and not wanting to ruin that, but then as impulses take over, yeah, it was fun to tinker with that and see where that goes. It was in the script but there’s still so much to play with.
Juliette Lewis: I think you hit the nail on the head because that’s what I was saying, that it gets inappropriate. That’s just the word, going uh-oh, bells are going off, illegal. Or even, why are you going over there? You’re hanging out a little too much. For me, this was so intriguing. First of all, the character herself is really, really quiet and the challenge for me of there’s all that alone time that we see her in her own space. So the challenge of how to tell a story not so much with words but with this restlessness, and then her connection with Cal where to me, he’s a reflection of what she used to be and that she thinks she’s missing. Something, or there’s also a fire that she thinks she’s lacking.
There was all these amazing themes and then with Jonny and I, it was incredible. Just as actors we work in a way that’s compatible, that’s different but it was kinetic where it’s energy and we could bounce off each other in exactly the way that the movie would need. This was another challenging thing for me too, and I never preoccupy myself with an audience liking me, but even when I read it, I was like, “Kelly, you’re being an *sshole” or “you’re being irresponsible” because being a new mom, I think we put a little bit of an ethical judgment, or I do. “But you’re a new mom, you should know better” and she doesn’t. She’s making mistakes.
The new mom is what made me understand why she needs adult contact. Even a teenager is an adult.
Juliette Lewis: Well, that’s good. See, that’s where ultimately I had to have trust and faith in the material, number one, and in Jen [McGowan] the director but I struggled because I’m also dealing with themes within myself that make me uncomfortable, that I’m utilizing to play Kelly and that’s the slight irresponsibility and feeling less than. Things like this that I used for Kelly that I have in my own self.
I found myself writing about what a different role Kelly is for you and then I started feeling bad that I was writing about you playing a mom, just by the sheer math that I’ve been watching you in great movies since the early ‘90s. But, there’s such a thing in Hollywood about when you start playing older roles and mom roles, I’m dealing with some guilt here I think. Is it okay if I appreciate that you’ve still found some new territory to tap into without all the labels I was struggling with?
Juliette Lewis: Yeah, I don’t know where the negative is in what you’re saying but yes, I know what you mean, the confines of Hollywood. I think the nice niche of where I’ve carved for myself is that of an outsider and an insider. To me, I feel I’ve expressed a voice for many, for the voiceless.
Jonny Weston: Here here. Isn’t that what matters?
Juliette Lewis: Then this is new territory for me but I don’t mind. I don’t care about labels or anything. I just care about what I get to unearth and what makes me uncomfortable and what makes me grow, because ultimately I just don’t want to ever play it safe. That’s it.
Jonny Weston: Ultimately it just comes down to what kind of material. You don’t know what your niche is or anything until material shows up at your door. until a good script comes and you’re like, “Yeah, I could play that” and it could be anything. It just has to be good.
We’ve just begun seeing you explore your work. Are you playing the roles you wanted to get into the business to play?
Jonny Weston: I don’t know. I wanted to get into the business because I enjoyed everything, down to studying, down to just every element of it I’ve enjoyed so I don’t even model myself after any specific actor. I have favorites but I don’t want anybody else’s career. I don’t really know. I just enjoy myself at this point. I may do five or six movies and realize there’s one thing that’s missing and I’ll go looking for a young military kid or something, I don’t know. At this point, I don’t know. I just see a good script and I’m like holy sh*t, I’ve got to do this now. I drop everything.
Was that the case with Kelly & Cal?
Jonny Weston: Oh, absolutely. I dropped everything. I was starting another movie and this one was to film after and there was a conflict.
Juliette Lewis: Yeah, we almost lost him.
Jonny Weston: I just want to read good material. I’ll play a woman. I’m willing to forget everything that there is possibly, and not for shock effect. Just for something that is beautiful.
Juliette Lewis: And I think especially in this day and age, there’s not that many interesting, they come and go, but these little nuanced beautiful character driven independent films.
Jonny Weston: And you know it when you see it.
Juliette Lewis: This was I think a role of a lifetime for a young actor. Even when Jen was casting and then I got involved with the casting, we knew we needed somebody that could bring all the fire and emotion to Cal, but also be completely present and root it. I think Jonny’s a wild card which is an exciting thing because there’s not that many of them.
Have you actually seen Zardoz?
Juliette Lewis: No, I’ve never seen this. This was a reference [in the film].
Have you seen any of “From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series” that’s premiering this week?
Juliette Lewis: I’ve been being asked about it. Here’s what sucks. It’s good news and bad news. Good news is I’m in the middle of a TV show called “Secrets & Lies” filming in North Carolina, so I’m literally here for a day and a half. I have two films, Kelly & Cal and another movie called Hellion that I’m promoting tomorrow. So I’m not in party hang mode and if I was here longer I would have seen Robert [Rodriguez] while I was here. We were supposed to get together but now my days got really short.
It’s obviously recast, but did anyone reach out to you and say, “Hey, we’re doing this, there’s going to be a new young actress?”
Juliette Lewis: Not yet, no, but I don’t know what they’ll think. What did Kate become? All I know is she lived and she had a crossbow. It was me and George Clooney at the end.
I just wonder if this new actress is going to get to say the line, “Richie, would you eat my pussy for me?”
Juliette Lewis: This is what every young man knows. This line is the line that any young [man], well they’re not young so much anymore, but they’ll come up to me on the street and want this line. I have to slap their faces.
Well, I wouldn’t ask you to say it.
Juliette Lewis: No, I’m just kidding. It was memorable.
It’s funny because it was a line Tarantino wrote for you to say to him.
Juliette Lewis: [Laughs] Maybe you’re onto something there. I didn’t think about that. Just like there was a closeup of feet. It’s now been known that he has a foot fetish. I didn’t know this.
Jonny Weston: If she showed up to that event, there’s going to be people dressed like her walking around. It’s going to be like Comic-Con.
Juliette Lewis: No, that character was just subtle. We did that just for kicks. It’s wild that it became the little cult classic that it did.
Fred Topel is a staff writer at CraveOnline and the man behind Best Episode Ever and The Shelf Space Awards. Follow him on Twitter at @FredTopel.
