Juliette Lewis on Thicket Co-Star Peter Dinklage, Yellowjackets Exit

Juliette Lewis has very good reason why her horse-riding skills are so impressive in her new thriller, The Jungle.

“I’m a third-place ribbon drum racer,” Lewis says on this week’s episode of Just for Variety. “I was a jockey. I grew up riding horses before I was 12. So the first thing we did in Calgary was [where the movie was shot in the dead of winter] “I had to ride a horse. They wanted to test how we rode. I got a very good rating for riding.”

In the Elliot Lester-directed film (out September 6) based on the book of the same name by Joe R. Lansdale, Lewis plays Cut Throat Bill, a violent, hardened outlaw in the early 20th century who kidnaps a young girl (Esme Creed-Miles). The girl's brother (Levon Hawke) hires a bounty hunter (Peter Dinklage) to rescue his sister.

Lewis says that the character of “Bill Cut Throat”, who was written in the original book as an evil man, “lacks humanity, where you can't feel someone else's pain, you actually enjoy their pain. And that's not what I agree with.”

But she adds: “I can imagine how anyone could get there.”

Cut Throat Bill is a really cool name. I'm glad they didn't try to change it to Cut Throat Mary.

They said, “How do you justify the name Belle?” Her original name was Wilhelmina. I don't know how Wilhelmina got incorporated into Belle's name, but it's true.

Why do you need to justify this?

No, no, no, that's what I love. They gave me all these ingredients, and then I said, 'How do I make this real, a real person?'” Her voice cracked as she nearly survived being beheaded, and then she heard her legend before she met her. It's her brutality and everyone thinks she's a man.

How did you find this sound?

I was in my kitchen and I read a certain line in this script that talked about her voice being husky or something like that, and I just tried it. In different roles, I'll either use a higher base tone or a higher, quieter tone. I'm glad I was able to get down to that low. I didn't know I could until I tried it. It was hard to scream in that range. There were a lot of things that were hard, but you kind of walk the path of trying to make something really authentic and rich.

Would you go outside the studio and go to Starbucks and use that voice to order a cappuccino?

No, I didn't. [laughs]Ironically, if people quote lines from movies I've been in or say, “Well, talk like your character,” they disappear. I'm like, “What?” I don't even know how to do that. It's funny.

Of these characters, who is the one that everyone always says about, “Give me that line?”

They range from “Christmas Vacation” to “What's Up With Gilbert Grape?” and of course Mallory from “Yellow Jackets.” It's always a compliment when they remember things you've said.

The weather has its own character in the “forest”.

It was very cold and uncomfortable throughout the shoot. But that was really helpful for the role I was playing. She's not a very comfortable person. Sometimes they catch their breath or horse breath, but we didn't have to do any of that. We learned about this thick face cream that you have to use because your skin freezes and it'll turn into cracked skin. And they said, “Don't worry, you'll get used to it.” And because it was 20 degrees below zero, I had never experienced that physically in my life. I was a huge fan of “The Revenant.” I really loved that movie. But when I first heard that we were going to go in the snow, I wasn't excited about it because I'm a California girl. It was a challenge.

You only shot in 22 days, so you couldn't waste any time. No matter how cold or painful it was, you had to shoot.

That's right. I'm old enough now to remember the good old days in the '90s when we would shoot things in four months. Cape Fear took four months to shoot. Natural Born Killer took four and a half months to shoot. Now you're lucky if you get eight weeks. But it's a testament to the amazing people in every department. And the director of this film, Elliot Lester, was so enthusiastic and kept the enthusiasm and team spirit going from morning to night.

Were you a fan of Game of Thrones before working with Peter?

I've never watched an episode of it, and I don't think he knows that. Sorry.

I love your honesty.

I don't think he would care. I was just a Peter Dinklage fan. I've seen his stuff. There are certain people that you go, “Oh, this one. This one. Oh my God, this one takes me somewhere.” And there's a very deep resonance. You can't describe it when you see someone who is so present in whatever they're doing and so much of their stuff, but that depth. It's the highlight of my career and it reminds me of when I worked with Robert De Niro on “Cape Fear.” There's a kind of transcendence that happens when you touch that kind of truth between these two people and we're barely speaking. There's all these things that are there when these characters meet.

Now that you loved working with Peter so much, will you be watching Game of Thrones?

[Laughs] Don't put this as a quote like, “I think I'm going to watch Game of Thrones now. Peter is so cool.” No.

It's a certain type.

It's a certain kind of music. I'm kind of weird. I like music or documentaries. I know I'm one of those people. But I've been on a few shows. I was on “Baby Reindeer” and then my heart was broken. It was very hard.

I have to talk to you about the “yellow vests”. People were very upset that you didn't come back. Did you know you were going to be killed?

I know. I think I'm good for a two-season series. It's a different kind of work. So what can I say? I can't wait to see season three. I think the writing team is so amazing. They have so many stories that were always meant to be done, and that's what they're doing. For me, there's a lot in our industry with series that's exciting, but in my creative DNA, I love making movies. It's something I understand very well with one director and a limited amount of time and knowing the beginning, the middle, and the end. And I really enjoy those constraints.

When you signed up for the Yellowjackets, did you say, “Hey, two seasons, that's enough for me. I can't do more than two seasons?”

No, I didn't say that. We worked things out… I mentioned other specific things, but I finished “Yellowjackets” and then went straight into “The Thicket,” which is not a fun movie, but it was perfect for the movie.

Is there a role in the past that you really wanted to play that you couldn't get?

I always wanted to play a jazz singer. You know what I wanted to do? Well, it's a moot point because it's hard to get the rights, but it was Anita O'Day. She wasn't the prettiest jazz singer. She sang bebop and she sang scat, and she, like all singers at the time, lived a wild, colorful life.

Have you tried to get the rights?

I did that for a minute. Then there was a remake I wanted to do of a Fellini film, one of my favorites, “Nights of Cabiria.” Giulietta Masina, she's almost like Charlie Chaplin in the film. It's touching, funny, fantastical. I really love that film. I don't know how I got the rights to it, but that was a dream of mine for a second.

This conversation has been edited and condensed. You can listen to the full interview above or find “Just for Variety” wherever you download your favorite podcasts.