Having previously directed documentaries and shorts until this year, filmmakers Tyler Nilson and Michael Schwartz burst onto the narrative feature scene with “The Peanut Butter Falcon,” which won the Narrative Spotlight Award at SXSW Film Festival. A boldly idiosyncratic independent film with a heart of gold, the modern-day Twain-inspired adventure story doubles as one of the most crowd-pleasing buddy comedies in years. The film stars Shia LaBeouf, Zack Gottsagen (both of whom create undeniably infectious chemistry), and Dakota Johnson.
Ahead of “The Peanut Butter Falcon’s” wide release, I spoke with writers and directors Nilson and Schwartz on making Gottsagen a movie star, finding Twain in their story, the casting process, nurturing onscreen chemistry, creative influences, and more.
What was your inspiration for this unique story?
Schwartz: We wrote it specifically for Zack, the actor that stars in the movie with Down Syndrome. We knew him for three years before we started writing the script and had worked together on a short film at a camp for people with and without disabilities. And he wanted to be a movie star. He’d been acting since he was three years old, and went to a performing arts mainstream high school. And we were having a frank conversation that to be a movie star for anybody is really difficult, but especially him because there’s not a lot of roles written for people with disabilities. And he just said, “Cool. Sounds like we’ve got to do it together. You and Tyler can write and direct, and I can be the movie star.”
Did you always know it was going to be a Twain-esque tale of adventure?
Schwartz: You know the TV show “Chopped?” The cooking show? Tyler and I approached it like that. We knew that we had Zack to build a story around. We knew that we had friends on boats in the Outer Banks of North Carolina that we could use for free, and that we could shoot without permits out there. And we planned to make it really small. And we knew that we liked the feeling of classic literature, and put that all together and came out with a story that seemed to find its tone, that also just came from us, and wanting to make people feel good, and wanting to tell stories that make people feel good.
Nilson: I long for simpler times often. And there’s something about shutting those cell phones off and just sitting quietly on a raft with a real good friend that can be very self-reflective. And we wanted as writers, or maybe even selfishly, to write that cathartic experience because when you write it, you’re living it. And so, Mike and I spent a lot of time with Zack on the road doing cool stuff, sort of just having those quiet moments, and listening to him, and listening to his hopes, dreams, and wishes, desires, and all that kind of bled into the script.
Shia and Dakota are extremely in-demand actors in the industry. How did you land these two actors on a smaller-scale film like “The Peanut Butter Falcon?”
Schwartz: The truth is, it seems like something bigger than ourselves was looking out for this movie and looking out for this story, and a bunch of miracles happened. I couldn’t tell somebody else how to make this happen if they wanted to. The script came out pretty well and people liked it. But even then, not a lot of people would read it, and we had to go and shoot a five-minute trailer for the film with Zack to show what the world felt like and that he could do the acting job. For Shia and Dakota, they’ve said once they saw the proof of concept and they saw Zack acting, that they knew they wanted to tell that story and tell it with him.
Zack is the breakout star in this film. And the familial chemistry among the three leads is awesome. It’s the heart of the movie. Did you do any on- or off-set activities to help build that chemistry naturally off-screen?
Schwartz: Yeah. It was like summer camp. We all fell in love with each other very quickly. Zack is a person who is elevated, emotionally, and everybody starts out at 100% with him. There’s no walls up; there’s no skepticism. He just comes in ready to love, and that is easy to catch. Shia said that he was disarmed immediately, within the first hour hanging out with Zack, and I know Dakota was the same. When everybody is feeling safe and is having fun, it snowballs. We threw Shia and Zack in the back of an old pickup truck the first day we were all on set and drove down the coast. We were going to the set where Shia’s character, Tyler, works as a fisherman. And the two of those guys just sat in the back of the truck, and Tyler and I were up front, and you could see them having a conversation. They were doing rap battles. Shia and Zack would watch wrestling every Monday and Tuesday night in between rehearsing their scenes for the next day.
And Dakota – when she showed up – was taking Zack to get pedicures and out to dinner. Her dad came to set one day, and Shia was used to getting Zack for a couple hours at night. And Zack said one day, “Oh. Actually, I’m going to go hang out with Dakota and her dad tonight.” And Shia got a little jealous, but playfully. And everybody just really wanted to spend time together. And we did. And we shot in Savannah, Georgia. People weren’t going home at night. If you shoot in Los Angeles, you’re on set for 12 hours, and everybody goes home and does their own thing. But in Savannah, we all just had family dinners together every night. We’d go to the beach. There was a lot of swimming. We really hung out morning, noon, and night, working, not working; it never stopped.