Juliette Lewis on Thicket Bandmate Peter Dinklage and Leaving Yellowjackets

Juliette Lewis has a very good reason why her equestrian skills are so impressive in her new thriller The Thicket.

“I’m a third-string barrel racer with a ribbon,” Lewis says on this week’s episode of “Just for Variety.” “I was a rider. I grew up riding horses before I was 12. So the first thing we did in Calgary (where the film was shot in the middle of winter) was jump on a horse. They wanted to test us on how you ride. I got a really good grade on my riding.”

In the Elliot Lester-directed film (in theaters Sept. 6) based on the Joe R. Lansdale book of the same name, Lewis plays Cut Throat Bill, a brutal, hardened criminal at the turn of the 20th century who kidnaps a young girl (Esmé Creed-Miles). The girl’s brother (Levon Hawke) hires a bounty hunter (Peter Dinklage) to rescue his sister.

Cut Throat Bill, written as a man in the original book, is cruel, Lewis says, and “devoid of humanity, where you can’t feel the other person’s pain and you really revel in their pain. I don’t identify with that.”

But, he adds, “I can imagine how someone could get in there.”

Cut Throat Bill is a great name. I’m glad they didn’t try to change it to Cut Throat Mary.

They asked, “How do you justify Bill?” Her original name is Wilhelmina. I don’t know how Wilhelmina connects to Bill, but it does.

Why would you even justify it?

We didn’t. She didn’t. That’s what I love. I basically got all of those ingredients and then “How do we make this real, a real person?” from a mutilated voice because she survived almost being decapitated, and then you hear her legend before you meet her. She is her own cruelty and everyone thinks she’s a man.

How did you find this voice?

I was in the kitchen and I read a line from the script that said she had a gravelly voice or something, and I just tried it. In different roles, I either use a more bassy voice or a higher, softer voice. I’m glad I could go that low. I didn’t know I could until I tried it. It was hard to scream in that range. So many things were hard, but you’re just trying to do something really real and rich.

Do you leave the set, go to Starbucks, and use that voice to order a cappuccino?

No, I didn’t (laughter). And ironically, if people quote lines from movies I’ve been in, or “Hey, talk like your character,” they’re gone. I’m like, “What?” I don’t even know how to do that. It’s funny.

Which of these characters is the one that everyone always says, “Give me that line”?

It runs the gamut from “Hello Santa” to “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape?” and of course Mallory from “Yellowjackets.” It’s always a compliment when they remember things I’ve said.

The weather is a character in its own right in The Thicket.

It was so cold and so uncomfortable the whole time. That was really helpful for the role I was playing. She’s not a very comfortable person. Sometimes there’s CGI breathing or horse breathing, but we didn’t have to do any of that. We found out about this thick face cream that you have to use because your skin freezes and turns into cracked skin. And they said, “Don’t worry, you’ll get used to it.” Because it was 20 below, I’d never physically experienced that in my life. I was a huge fan of “The Revenant.” I really loved that movie. But when I first heard we were going to snow, I didn’t jump at it because I’m a California girl. It was a challenge.

You shot in just 22 days, so you couldn’t waste any time. No matter how cold or painful it is, you have to shoot.

It’s true. I’m at an age now where I can fondly remember the good old days of the ’90s when we shot in four months. Cape Fear was four months. Natural Born Killers was four and a half months. Now you’re lucky if you get eight weeks. But that’s a testament to how great the people are in every department. And the director of this film, Elliott Lester, was so passionate and kept the enthusiasm and the team spirit going from morning to night.

Before working with Peter, were you interested in Game of Thrones?

I haven’t seen a single episode. I don’t think he knows that. Sorry.

I like your honesty.

I don’t think he cared. I was just a fan of Peter Dinklage. I’d seen his work. There are certain people that you say, “Oh, that. That. Wow, that takes me somewhere.” And there’s such a deep resonance. You can’t describe it when you see someone so fully present in everything they do and so very much their own, but so profound. It’s a highlight of my career and it reminds me of when I worked with Robert De Niro in Cape Fear. There’s a kind of transcendence that happens when you touch on such truth between these two people and we’re barely talking. There’s so much that happens when these characters come together.

Now that you’ve enjoyed working with Peter so much, are you going to watch Game of Thrones?

(Laughter) Don’t write it as a quote, like “I think I’ll watch Game of Thrones now. Peter’s pretty cool.” No.

This is a specific species.

It’s a specific genre. I’m weird. I like music or documentaries. I know, I’m one of those people. But I got into a few shows. I got into “Baby Reindeer” and that’s when it broke my heart. It was so hard.

I need to talk to you about “Yellowjackets.” People were really upset that you weren’t coming back. Did you know you were going to get killed?

I knew a lot. I think I’m good for a show for two seasons. It’s a different kind of job. So what do I say? I can’t wait for the third season. I think the writing staff is phenomenal. They had a lot of storylines that were always meant to be done, so that’s what they’re doing. To me, there’s so much about our industry with shows that is exciting, but it’s in my creative DNA that I like filmmaking. It’s something that I understand perfectly with one director, a finite period of time, and knowing the beginning, middle, and end. And I really like those constraints.

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

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

Has there ever been a role you really wanted to play but had it taken away from you?

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

Have you applied for rights?

That’s what I did for a while. And then there was a remake that I wanted to do, a Fellini film, one of my favorites, Nights of Cabiria. Giulietta Masina, she’s almost like Chaplin in it. It’s moving, funny and whimsical. I really love that film. I don’t know how you can get the rights to it, but for a while it was my dream.

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