'Dead Shot' Interview: Directors Tom and Charles Guard

Moviefone speaks with directors Tom and Charles Guard about 'Dead Shot.' "We wanted to explore identity and the idea of toxic masculinity being a sliding scale."

Opening in theaters, on demand and digital on August 18th is the new action thriller ‘Dead Shot’ from directors Tom and Charles Guard (‘The Uninvited’).

What is the plot of ‘Dead Shot’?

When a border ambush goes wrong, a retired Irish paramilitary Michael (Colin Morgan) witnesses the fatal shooting of his pregnant wife by British Sergeant, Tempest (Aml Ameen). Now wounded, and presumed dead, he escapes, taking his revenge to the dark and paranoid streets of 1970’s London.

Dead Shot

"Revenge digs two graves."

Not Yet Rated1 hr 32 minAug 18th, 2023

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Who is in the cast of ‘Dead Shot’?

'Dead Shot' stars Aml Ameen ('The Maze Runner') as Tempest, Colin Morgan ('Belfast') as Michael O'Hara, Mark Strong ('Shazam!') as Holland and Felicity Jones ('Rogue One: A Star Wars Story') as Catherine.

Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with Tom Guard and Charles Guard about their work on ‘Dead Shot,’ the themes they wanted to explore, their directing process and style, their influences, the film’s music, the story’s lack of heroes and villains, its historical significance, Tempest’s guilt, Michael’s revenge, and what casting Mark Strong and Felicity Jones brought to the project.

(L to R) Thomas Guard and Charles Guard behind the scenes of the action/thriller/drama film, 'Dead Shot' a Quiver Distribution release. Photo Courtesy of Mark Mainz.

You can read the full interview below or click on the video player above to watch the interview.

Moviefone: To begin with, can you talk about developing the screenplay with writer Ronan Bennett and what were some of the themes that you were excited to explore with this movie?

Charles Guard: Well, the idea of the cat and mouse was something that we really responded to when we read Ronan's original draft, and we he had set up a really interesting relationship between these two men. The stuff that we wanted to really explore was kind of issues of identity not so much the political aspects of the story, but the more universal aspects of the story like Michael's need for revenge and where that takes him. Also the idea of almost toxic masculinity being a sort of sliding scale, being represented in this very pure form by these characters like Holland and Keenan, and how those kinds of characters can somehow manipulate and trap younger characters who perhaps have more innocent intentions or desires, characters like Michael and Tempest, who very quickly fall under the spell of these incredibly dangerous men.

MF: Tom, can you talk about your directing process on set? Do you and Charles share duties, or split them between the two of you?

Thomas Guard: Well, it was very fluid and open and we don't divide roles. We talk. There's no kind of division of labor, and we like creating within a core group. We find creating an open environment where everyone can talk, discuss and collaborate is always the most successful way of making a film. We really felt we had a great crew people like Mattias Rudh, who's a fantastic cameraman, Tom Sayer, the art director and production designer, and also the actors. It was all very much part of the same conversation that everyone was in it together trying to make this thing.

(L to R) Thomas Guard and Charles Guard behind the scenes of the action/thriller/drama film, 'Dead Shot' a Quiver Distribution release. Photo Courtesy of Mark Mainz.

MF: While the movie is set in the 1970s, it reminded me of 80’s movies like Michael Mann’s ‘Thief’ or the late William Friedkin’s ‘Cruising.’ Were those movies and filmmakers an influence on this film?

CG: Very much so. ‘The French Connection’ was our jumping off point really. We wanted to tell a story that had that kind of propulsion. When you watch those 70’s movies, you watch actors reacting in the moment and deciding, and the course of the narrative seems to be right there. You're not sat back watching it unfold. You are really in the driving seat as the stuff is happening and as they're having to change direction. So we very much were trying to create that same spontaneity and immediacy of the storytelling, but also the visual style.

MF: Tom, can you talk about adapting the visual style specifically for this story?

TG: It was interesting. You talk about the early Michael Mann films, because we love those films like ‘Thief,’ and there's a kind of hard-boiled purity about them where they're very no nonsense and bare bones, but yet he somehow touches on great characters at the same time. By giving you very little, you actually get quite a lot. I think that was definitely, maybe a subconscious influence with us because we just like that type of storytelling where less is more, and both in terms of the narrative and the script, but also in terms of the visuals. We try to just pare things down as much as we can to get maximum impact.

(L to R) Colin Morgan as Michael O’Hara and Dara Devaney as Twomey in the action/thriller/drama film, 'Dead Shot' a Quiver Distribution release. Photo Courtesy of Mark Mainz.

Related Article: 'Dead Shot' Exclusive Clip

MF: The film utilizes synth music, which was also reminiscent of early 80s crime dramas. Can you talk about your choice of music for the film?

TG: Well, Max de Wardener was our fantastic composer and we didn't try to set out to do a historical film. It was never meant to be just a pastiche of 70’s films. We were just taking a lot of influences from just stuff we love and trying to make it our own. He gravitates to and has a great passion for that type of synth music from the late 70’s and early 80’s. When we were discussing stuff, it just started. We started to hear a voice through those sounds and it seemed to fit with the film, so we developed it.

MF: The movie has protagonists and antagonists, but no one is really a good guy or a bad guy in the traditional sense. Was that by design?

CG: Well, it was incredibly important to us because we felt that that was one of the things that made it incredibly relevant to today and very modern. That as much as we seem to love labels in our lives today, they very often don't really reflect what is on the tin anymore. So we felt it was really important that you didn't know who to root for. That was kind of tapping into, again, that 70’s thing where you're watching a character and you are kind of living through the moment with them. It's almost like you are forced into thinking, well, I would do the same as that person did right then, but then you kind of have to reflect on it later. So it is just an interesting way of approaching a narrative we felt to today. But yeah, no heroes and no villains was definitely something that we were pushing.

Aml Ameen as Tempest in the action/thriller/drama film, 'Dead Shot' a Quiver Distribution release. Photo Courtesy of Anne Binckebanck.

MF: Tom, can you talk about the guilt that motivates Tempest throughout the film, and working with Aml Ameen?

TG: Well, Aml was fantastic, and he really gave a great entry point for us. We talked a lot about the character before we started shooting with him, and we loved this sense. What emerged very strongly was this idea of someone who feels trapped in a certain system, guilty for what he's done and determined to do right by it in some ways. But then as he starts to try to do right by it, he actually realizes that he's doing terrible things and he starts to feel angry about that and that anger leads inevitably to more violence. We thought that that was a complex arc for Tempest, and it felt, especially when you compare that to Michael's journey, which is kind of almost the opposite. He begins with revenge and determined for revenge and violence, but then actually starts to thaw and want something else. He’s almost after freedom, but the two crossover with tragic consequences.

MF: Charles, can you talk about the revenge that Michael seeks, and Colin Morgan’s performance?

CG: Well, Colin was amazing. He committed to the film and he just gave us everything. He's from the area where the film starts. He's from South Hamar, so it was very much his backyard. We talked to him a little bit about what we felt, what we wanted from Michael, but we let him kind of go to places. He very much brought a lot of his own personal history, and he did it in such a beautiful way because it was so silent and you really felt it. We absolutely loved putting the camera on him because you felt his thoughts. He was so transparent in his face and in his eyes, and you felt the sadness, the sorrow and the depth of this time really, the depth of the Troubles, the depth of the sadness, and the devastation of it all. The tragedy of it really. We felt incredibly fortunate that he was with us, and he was prepared to go on that journey with us. It was amazing.

Aml Ameen as Tempest in the action/thriller/drama film, 'Dead Shot' a Quiver Distribution release. Photo Courtesy of Anne Binckebanck.

MF: The Northern Ireland conflict is the backdrop to the story, how important was it to you to make that seem as authentic as possible?

TG: We certainly did a huge amount of research into the period and the conflict, but we were very determined to focus on more universal aspects of the conflict that perhaps weren't so specific to the time and to the place and to the people just to access something else, because we were keen to make it appealing and of interest to as wide of an audience as possible. Whilst people in the UK and Ireland are very familiar with the troubles and what it means and the legacy of it, we are aware that people outside of these countries perhaps don't have so much experience of it. So we wanted to still make it of interest to them. So we tried to focus more on mythic ideas of revenge rather than sectarianism and individual party politics and things like that.

CG: I was going to say beyond that, the level of authenticity to the moment and to the fictional elements of the story, we were very keen that they felt, even though they were fiction, we wanted to make them feel exactly how they felt to people at that time so that when people who did live through that time watched the film, they could say, and they have said, that that level of paranoia and the level of confusion is exactly how they remember that time. That being very faithful to the authenticity of realizing that was very important to us. We felt a tremendous responsibility in doing that, to tell it as it was.

Mark Strong as Holland in the action/thriller/drama film, 'Dead Shot' a Quiver Distribution release. Photo Courtesy of Mark Mainz.

MF: Finally, did it elevate the project to have actors the caliber of Felicity Jones and Mark Strong join the cast?

CG: I think we were just incredibly fortunate to have actors of that caliber working in roles that were not necessarily the principal roles. It was beyond amazing to work with them. It allowed us to tell the story in a really interesting way, because they were the ones that would've been overlooked in other times and in other stories, but they were the ones that we were actually focused on. When you've got just extraordinary actors like Felicity and Mark, we were just totally spoiled really, for being able to kind of contextualize the world with such an extraordinary sensitivity and depth that they brought to their characters.

TG: Immeasurably the whole thing became elevated in a very exciting way. With Felicity, there was a scene early on when she was on the phone and as the scene was originally written, it was, she's on the phone to Keenan (Tom Vaughan-Lawlor) in the phone box, and we ended up enjoying shooting her from so many different setups and points of view, and we just loved her performance. We couldn't stop shooting her, basically. We filmed for ages. We got so much material and we ended up using all of it. We ended up taking that material and then turning it into three different scenes during the course of the film. You don't often get opportunities like that with performers to explore things, but actually she was really interested in taking things as far as she could and seeing where she could go with it. We loved going on that journey with her.