‘BLACK CREEK!’ ACTION STAR CYNTHIA ROTHROCK ON MAKING HER FIRST WESTERN! PLUS UPDATE: STARTING AT 8 TONIGHT, THURSDAY, TCM WESTERNS: “TCM SPOTLIGHT: THE DEFINING FRONTIER”

R. Marcus Taylor, Keith Cooke, Cynthia Rothrock,

Richard Norton, Don 'The Dragon' Wilson

‘BLACK CREEK!’ ACTION STAR CYNTHIA ROTHROCK ON MAKING HER FIRST WESTERN!  PLUS WESTERNS TO CATCH AT THE TCM CLASSIC FILM FESTIVAL, AND MORE!

When Cynthia Rothrock first appeared on the action-movie scene in 1985, she was exactly what the industry needed: a striking blonde actress who just happened to be a record-holding martial arts master in several disciplines. The undisputed Queen of Martial Arts films has since starred in 70 more action films, and a few comedies, but she never made a Western until 2024. Black Creek will be released early in the summer of 2025. It is a somewhat whacky, wonderfully entertaining revenge Western, and Cynthia has loaded the cast with faces that may not be that familiar to most Western moviegoers, but will be a thrill to action movie fans, as it includes many of the best on-screen fighters in the business, including R. Marcus Taylor, Keith Crooke, Don “The Dragon” Wilson, and Cynthia’s most frequent costar, Richard Norton. Before our interview, which was punctuated with her disarmingly girlish laughter, she’d sent me a link to the then nearly-finished film, and when I emailed back that I’d enjoyed it very much, she replied, “Glad you liked my film. A lot of love and hard work went into it.” I told her that was obvious.

Cynthia Rothrock: Oh, thank you. We did this movie in 14 days, if you could believe it, and I was just so excited because everybody just gave their all, and it was such a hard shoot. We had freezing nights because I wanted the look to be eerie, you know: candlelight and lanterns. We had to light up everything, so everything took longer, but it was worth it. But it was so cold -- like 4:00 A.M. doing a fight scene, your muscles would freeze up. I had all these guys standing around the corral, and they were like, “We're doing this for Cynthia.” They were such troopers. It was such an amazing thing. I created this Facebook page for Black Creek, and we have so many people from different countries that came over, and were working on this film. They became this really tight-knit close family, where they hadn't met before. It's just beautiful to see how everybody is so involved in this project. It's so cool.

Henry Parke: You have a very impressive list of movie credits, but I believe 2024’s Taken from Rio Bravo, starring Alexander Nevsky, directed by Joe Cornet, is your first Western. 

Cynthia Rothrock: Right. That was just a cameo I did as a favor 'cause Alexander as a friend of mine.

Henry Parke: You do a very nice job in it. I was wondering if you sort of looked at it as a dry run for Black Creek?

Cynthia Rothrock: Well, I learned what I didn't want to do, because of it. I liked their Western town, I liked the setting, but we went with Mescal Movie Set instead, because it had a better feel. It was actually more difficult, because Mescal didn't have electricity, so we had to bring in generators, which was another big expense. Some of the people that worked on Taken from Rio Bravo, because they were from Arizona, worked on mine too. So it was a really good connection for my film. What really gave me this idea is, I love Westerns, and if you Google “woman gunslinger,” you get Annie Oakley or Selma Hayek. And I go, gosh, I wanna be known as a gunslinger that can really fight, you know? My inspiration came from Yellowstone because I just loved Yellowstone. I liked the gritty darkness of it. So when we decided to do my own film, because I've done 70 films – but this is the first time I've decided to take the helm and do my own film. Robert (Clancy) and I were coming up with stories, and he’s like, “What do you wanna do?” And I said, “A Western.” He looked at me like I was crazy. “A Western?” “Yeah.” And he's like, “Okay…”

Keith Cooke, Cynthia, Brandy Futch

Henry Parke: I was surprised that you designed and made many of the costumes yourself.

Cynthia Rothrock: Costuming was so expensive. We're like, oh my gosh, that's not in our budget. So (Robert Clancy) and I both did the costumes for the whole entire movie. We researched everything: you can't have this on your boot, you can't have an emblem, no rubber soles, you can't have zippers -- every little detail. We started two years ago with the Kickstarter program. It's funny because, when I did the Kickstarter, all my male peers -- you know, I grew up in this male dominant world?

Henry Parke: Clearly.

Cynthia Rothrock: Being, in the early days, the only female competing against men, I just kind of looked at them as my peers. And a lot of them were saying, don't do a Kickstarter. You're not going to make it. It's going to be embarrassing. There's one actor that has done some big movies, and he failed at (crowd-funding), and they're like, if he failed, why do you think you could do it? And I went, I'm going for it. And we became like the second highest funded action picture in the history of Kickstarter.

Henry Parke: That's great.

Cynthia Rothrock: You know, this was a fan-based production: if it wasn't for the fans supporting us, we wouldn't have been able to do this movie. One of our top incentives for Kickstarter was they could be in a fight scene, or they could have a line in the movie. And we had a lot of people do that. We had people from Greece, England, Australia, a lot of different countries coming just to do this. They did a phenomenal job. We had some working with acting coaches, we would do readings every month and go through the script with everybody. And even if they only had one line, we'd still involve 'em. That's a really good memory for me.

Henry Parke: How many people took part in the Kickstarter program?

Cynthia Rothrock: We had over 500 people. People were saying it was a fluke, right? You'll never do it again. Well, we have the graphic novel for Black Creek coming out as well. We did an Indiegogo campaign for that, and we came in 220% above what we asked for. I just can't wait for everybody to see this because I'm just so proud of it. I'm so proud of everybody – with 14 days and the limited budget -- what we pulled off.

Henry Parke: May I ask what your budget was?

Cynthia Rothrock: It was about $425,000.

Henry Parke: Oh my goodness! I work on a lot of low budget films, so I’m very aware that that is a small amount of money to have something that looks so elegant, and your art direction, your production design, is so impressive.

Cynthia Rothrock: We were drawing how we wanted it to look, and the stunts; we were so, so much involved in this. But I've had a lot of people do favors for me. Our music team is sensational. Doing our main song, and then the ending song, is Jim Peterik, who won a Grammy, and was nominated for an Oscar, for Eye of the Tiger that he co-wrote for Rocky III.

And Benjy Gaither, and he currently has a number-one hit song he wrote for George Strait, Three Drinks Behind. And Mark Shearer -- I've never met him, but he’s been a fan of mine. And these three people teamed up and did all our music. And what we would have to pay for that is crazy! We've just been so blessed! And I'm hoping that someone will say, wow, look what she did for two weeks of shooting and this money! If we give her a million or a million and a half and 20 days of shooting, what can you pull off?

Henry Parke: Is this your first screenwriting credit?

Cynthia Rothrock: Yes, it is. First time as a co-writer; first time as a producer. And it was a whole different experience for me, because usually I'm sitting in my trailer and just studying my lines, but now I have no time to sit in my trailer. I knew the script inside out because I was one of the writers, so thank God for that. But I had to be on set all the time to make sure everybody was happy doing their parts, dealing with any issues. It was an eye-opening experience for me, being there way early every morning and then being the last person to leave.

Cynthia gets the drop on Keith Cooke

Henry Parke: You said that you were a big Western fan and that Yellowstone inspired you. Do you have any other favorites that inspired you?

Cynthia Rothrock: Tombstone, Outlaw Josey Wales. I remember when Sharon Stone did The Quick and the Dead, I was like, wow, that's really cool that she was doing that role. I liked a lot of the old Westerns that you would see on TV. When I was a kid I’d read about Annie Oakley, that she was this tough woman back in that era, tough with the guys. And it's funny because I grew up in that same kind of situation, you know?

Henry Parke: Tell me a bit about your character, Rose Jennings.

Cynthia Rothrock: She's a little rough; she likes to drink, she's got a little bit of a potty mouth, and isn't afraid of anybody. She’s very close with her family, but it's hard for her to settle down in one place. She takes off for a while, and when she comes back, she finds out that her family was killed. And then all hell is loose. She's getting these people (who killed them), and saving the rest of her family.

Henry Parke: I was kind of overwhelmed by the physical demands this movie places on you. Wearing so many hats, did you have to do a lot of training while making the movie?

Cynthia Rothrock: No, because I was on-set every day, and if it wasn't me rehearsing my scene, I'm with the other actors because none of these actors got to practice. My stunt coordinator knows how I like to move. And everybody is different; they all had their own fight styles, and he was familiar with them. So we put together a composite so they can watch it and study it and say, Hey, is there anything in here you don't like? And then of course, when you get to the set, we would just be rehearsing while cameras were setting up. And if there was something that wasn't good for someone, we would change it on the spot. It was almost like the old Hong Kong fighting: learn it, shoot it. That's how I got my start. I did seven movies in Hong Kong before I came to the United States and then started doing films. My first movie was in 1985, with Michelle Yeoh, we did Yes, Madam.

Cynthia and 2023 Best Actress Oscar-winner

 Michelle Yeoh in Yes, Madam!

Henry Parke: I just watched it on Prime, under the title In the Line of Duty II: The Super Cops. It was hysterical.

Cynthia Rothrock: That was my first, and I thought I'd just do one movie, you know? I'm kind of an out of the box person. I never really want to do something that's the same, the same, the same. I always want to try to put some unique flare into it. There was something so unique going to Hong Kong. I didn't think it was going to turn into a career. I thought, oh, I'll just go there and I'll do one movie. And it's funny, in my mind, I was thinking, well, maybe I'll be on the poster and I could show my kids someday, saying, “Hey, look, your mom was in a movie.” It really wasn't my intention that I was going to become an action film star.

Henry Parke: Was Black Creek your first time riding a horse in a film?

Cynthia Rothrock:  It was my first time riding a horse on my own. I've gone on trails where you follow the leader. I didn't want to look like I didn't know what I was doing, so the horse wrangler told me, don't put your two hands here, do this here. And actually I got really comfortable with the horse. There's one scene where there were two horses on the side, and me, and they shot some rounds off down below, and it freaked the horses out -- the two horses on the side started bucking. And I just turned my horse around nice and calm and went down the hill. It was funny because someone said to Robert, “Wow, how long has she been riding?” And Robert said, “About two hours.”

Henry Parke: With so many of the smaller westerns, they have no time with the horses, and they have inexperienced riders, and everyone's shouting, “We have to put together a posse and get after those guys!” And they jump on their horses, and walk slowly out of town.

Keith Cooke, Don Wilson, Brandy Futch

Cynthia Rothrock: I know! I did have an incident on-set with the horse wrangler. The horse was so big, and I'm five foot three, and no matter what, I could not get my foot into the stirrup and get it up over the horse. And so he lifts me up, and I'm like five, five and a half feet off the ground. And he dropped me, and I fell on my right, on my back and on my head. We were off to the side, so nobody saw it. And my hat saved my head, because my hat was kind of like a little helmet, and my belt saved my hip, so I didn't get hurt, but it took the air out of me. And the wrangler goes, “You're a karate girl. You should be used to this kind of stuff.” I said, “When I get on the horse, can I get an apple box to stand on?” He says, “Oh yeah.” And I'm like “Why didn't you think of that in first place?”

Henry Parke: This is the first feature directing credit for Shannon Lanier.  Where'd you find him?

Cynthia Rothrock: We had two directors. Shannon was directing the acting scenes. I met him, we talked, and he seemed to have my vision, and he worked in low budget film. I said, “Look, I’m bringing this guy in from Germany for the fights; when it comes fighting, I want him at the helm. I want him with the camera, to direct that,” and he said, “Okay.” So all our acting scenes, Shannon directed, and all the fight scenes, Mike Moeller directed.

Henry Parke: Mike Moeller has quite a resume, doing stunts on the Hunger Games, Matrix, and John Wick films among others. Very impressive.

Cynthia Rothrock: He's so awesome. It's funny, because we brought his stunt team over, and I wanted him to fight me. And he's like, “No, I don't want to fight. I just want to do the choreography.” And I went, “Okay.” And when he saw the trailer, he’s like, “Oh, I should've been in it! I'm fighting in Part Two!”

Henry Parke: I guess you have to be very physically capable to be on a Cynthia Rothrock set. I notice even your cinematographer, Aaron Johnson Araza, is a former stunt man.

Cynthia Rothrock: Yeah. Well, they're moving pretty fast, getting down low with the camera -- it’s good because he understood the action, and that helped us. Aaron would be directing some of the scenes, and we’d go, wow, that's a great shot! It was a collaboration, with everybody pulling this film together.

Henry Parke: What was the most challenging part of making Black Creek?

Cynthia Rothrock: We had 150 people on-set on our first day. So we did the hardest days right in the beginning. I think the most challenging part during the whole movie was, are we going to get all these scenes in? Some of the fight scenes, I wanted more to them, and we had to cut them down because of time. I'm definitely planning that on Black Creek 2, every fight scene has one whole day to shoot. And I must thank James Marlowe. He has the Marlowe-Pugnetti Company; he’s a fan of mine, and he came on as an executive producer. We've become really good friends, and he is definitely my guardian angel, helping us with post production, with editor Ben Ho, getting the right sound person, and just being a mentor through it; he is definitely a big part of bringing this movie to fruition. We put him in as a partner, and when we do Black Creek 2, we'll involve him. (Note: since the interview, it’s been decided that James Marlowe will direct Black Creek 2: Retribution, which is already written.)

This interview is really exciting for me because you're not in the karate world, you're in the Western world. And that's what we want to do as crossover, not only having Martial Art fans, but get Western fans loving this movie as well. And it's unique because you don't really see Westerns where everybody does Martial Arts

Henry Parke: You certainly don't.

Cynthia Rothrock: (Kickboxing legend) Don “The Dragon” Wilson said to me, “But Cynthia, how could everybody know martial arts? There weren't martial arts schools.” I said, “Don, because the Chinese were there. They came in for the gold rush; they all knew it. They taught it.” He goes, “Oh. Okay.”

Just as I was finishing my editing of this interview, I learned that Cynthia Rothrock’s close friend and Black Creek foe Richard Norton had just died. It would be their last of more than a dozen films together. I asked her if she would like me to include a remembrance of him.

“I am beyond words and deeply shocked by the sudden passing of my dear friend and fellow martial artist, Richard Norton. The martial arts world has lost a true legend. We shared an incredible journey—starring together in numerous action films, from China O’Brien, Millionaires Express, Rage and Honor to Lady Dragon. I was thrilled to have him join the cast of Black Creek as the formidable antagonist, Damien Sinclair. His performance was nothing short of extraordinary. Our final fight scene together will forever hold a special place in my heart—a moment I’ll always cherish as the last dance of the “Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers” of Martial Arts action. Richard’s talent, kindness, and dedication to Martial Arts will continue to inspire generations to come.”

WESTERN HIGHLIGHTS AT THE TCM HOLLYWOOD CLASSIC FILM FESTIVAL

Me and Shirley Jones -- and a few others -- at the

2014 TCM Fest screening of Oklahoma!

From Thursday, April 24^th through Sunday, April 27^th, The Turner Classic Movies Channel will hold their wonderful annual Classic Film Festival in Hollywood. Screenings and other events will be held at the Chinese IMAX Theatre, The Chinese Multiplex, The Egyptian Theatre, The El Capitan Theatre, and around the pool of The Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. While the big packages for attendees can run in the thousands of dollars, individual screenings are only $20 each, although there’s no guarantee you’ll get in. This link will take you to the official Festival website, with complete details: https://filmfestival.tcm.com/

Among screenings of particular interest to Western fans, on Friday they’re showing 1940’s The Mark of Zorro, directed by Rouben Mamoulian, starring Tyrone Power, Linda Darnell, and Hollywood’s greatest actor/swordsman (just ask him), Basil Rathbone. 

On Saturday they will premiere a restoration of 1958’s Gunman’s Walk, directed by Phil Karlson, and starring Van Heflin and Tab Hunter, and introduced by Keith Carradine. 

Gunfight at the O.K. Corral

Also on Saturday, on the big Chinese Theatre IMAX screen, they’ll be showing a 35mm VistaVision print of 1957’s Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, directed by John Sturges, starring Burt Lancaster as Wyatt, Kirk Douglas as Doc, John Ireland as Johnny Ringo, Earl Holliman as Charles Bassett, and Dennis Hopper as Billy Clanton.  

And on Sunday morning, 1955’s Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma!, will also be presented on The Chinese Theatre IMAX screen. Directed by Fred “High Noon” Zinnemann, this, the greatest of Western musicals stars Gordon Macrae as Curly, Shirley Jones as Laurey, Gloria Grahame as Ado Annie – who can’t say “no,” and perhaps the only singing film performance by Rod Steiger as Jud Fry! And the film will be discussed by Shirley Jones’ son, Shaun Cassidy.

UPDATED 5-8-2025: TCM FOCUSES ON WESTERNS IN MAY WITH “TCM SPOTLIGHT: THE DEFINING FRONTIER”

Every Tuesday and Thursday night in May, Turner Classic Movies will feature Westerns, 46 in all, in generally chronological order, focusing on various aspects of the genre. I’ve included links to a few of my related articles, for more detailed information about the films.

Thursday, May 1^st – The Foundation, focused on silent films, from The Great Train Robbery (1903) to The Iron Horse (1922).

Tuesday, May 6^th -- The Quintessential Cowboy: John Wayne and the Idea of America, included the film that should have made him a star but didn’t, Raul Walsh’s The Big Trail (1930); and John Ford’s film that did make him a star, Stagecoach (1939); Howard Hawk’s film that proved even to his harshest critics that Wayne could act, Red River (1948); and the epic that was so epic-ish that it took not just Ford, but Henry Hathaway and George Marshall and Richard Thorpe to direct, How the West Was Won (1962).  

And now, the ones we haven’t missed yet!

Thursday, May 8^th -- Rugged Individualism, will begin with a look at great paired actor and dire ctor individualists like James Stewart in Anthony Mann’s The Man from Laramie (1955), Randolph Scott in Budd Boetticher’s Ride Lonesome (1959) , and Barbara Stanwyck in Sam Fuller’s Forty Guns.  A weird choice is James Cagney in Lloyd Bacon’s The Oklahoma Kid (1939), which is better than you’d expect, and does feature Humphrey Bogart as a Mexican bandito. Rounding out the program are a pair of Eastwoods, Hang ‘Em High (1968), the pretend Spaghetti Western from Ted Post, and Clint’s first self-directed Western, High Plains Drifter (1973).

On Tuesday, May 13^th – Social Commentary in Disguise, is dominated by post-war, noirish Westerns. The Ox-Bow Incident (1942) looks at mob rule, individual responsibility, racism, and lynching. Henry Fonda deserves all of the attention he gets for this William Wellman film, but equally affecting are Dana Andrews, Anthony Quinn, and Harry Morgan. Jacques Tourneur’s Wichita (1955), was one of the Joel McCrea starrers – here as Wyatt Earp – that were so good that they turned a poverty row studio, Monogram, to a major, Allied Artists. Elmore Leonard’s novel was the basis for Martin Ritt’s Hombre (1967), a pressure-cooker of a movie that looks at anti-Indian and anti-Mexican racism, with Paul Newman as the multiracial center.  Sergeant Rutledge (1960), John Ford’s courtroom drama starring Woody Strode as a black sergeant accused of the rape and murder of a white child, is so uncompromising and blunt that it’s astonishing that it was made, no less released. Rounding out the program is one of Sergio Corbucci’s finest, and most rarely seen Westerns, the snow-bound The Great Silence (1968), starring Jean-Louis Trintignant, Klaus Kinski, and a pre-Blaxploitation Vonetta McGee.

Thursday, May 15^th -- Heroism and Sacrifice are themes that are unforgettably explored in John Sturges’ TheMagnificent 7 (1960), which made stars out of 6 (and Brad Dexter had a very respectable career), made an unlikely Western star of Eli Wallach, and featured future Chinatown cinematographer John Alonzo as one of the townspeople who hires the 7.  It's followed by Sergio Leone’s A Fistful of Dollars (1964), which turned Clint Eastwood from TV actor to superstar, and triggered Spaghetti Western mania in the U.S. Fred Zinneman’s High Noon (1952) is next, for which Gary Cooper won an Oscar, as a lawman whose town abandons him at the first sign of danger – heavily influenced by screenwriter Carl Foreman’s experiences during the Red Scare. My Darling Clementine (1946), starring Henry Fonda as Wyatt Earp, and Victor Mature as Doc Holliday, is arguably the best movie about the O.K. Corral, although not the most accurate, despite or because of John Ford’s relationship with Wyatt Earp.  The program ends with a 2022 short, High Noon on the Waterfront, about the personal and professional risks taken by the people who made those two films.  

Tuesday, May 20^th, A Changing America: Disillusionment and the Rise of the Antihero is the theme, featuring film stories fomented and fermented during the late 1960s’ and early 1970s’ mélange of disappointment and cynicism. George Roy Hill’s ButchCassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) made charming rascals out of bank-robbers, and Sergio Leone’s The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly (1966) made lovable scamps out of mercenaries: both wonderful Westerns, and Butch’s William Goldman screenplay is often cited as the best screenplay ever filmed. Eleven years after his final Leone film, Eastwood directed his remarkable anti-war Western, The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976), considered by many to be the zenith of Eastwood’s Western career, as an actor and as a director. Finally, Robert Altman’s McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971) stars Warren Beatty and Julie Christy as a frontier gambler and a whore in a cheerily grim yet sentimental movie that defies meaningful description.

Thursday, May 22^nd, Cultural Breakthroughs features Westerns that opened their stories beyond the usual white males.  Delmer Daves’ BrokenArrow (1950), tells the largely true story of the friendship between ex-soldier Tom Jeffords (James Stewart) and Cochise (Jeff Chandler).

In William Wellman’s Westward the Women (1951), written by Frank Capra (who'd hoped to direct), stern and sour Robert Taylor reluctantly takes an all-female wagon-train from Chicago to California, doubting he’ll get half there alive. It balances Capra’s charm and Wellman’s toughness beautifully. Despite the low-expectations of Blaxploitation films, Sidney Poitier’s Buck and the Preacher (1972) is a thought-provoking and entertaining surprise. Buffalo Soldier-turned-wagon master Buck (Poitier) leads freed slaves west with the reluctant help of Preacher (Harry Belafonte), who murdered his master and took over his scam. Ang Lee’s Brokeback Mountain (2006) is the contemporary Western that had traditionalists up in arms, until they learned that Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal were portraying shepherds, not cowboys. The final film in the program is the documentary Bearing Witness: Native American Voices in Hollywood (2024).

On Tuesday, May 27^th, American Psyche might nearly be called American Psycho, focusing on the dark side of the West. In John Ford’s The Searchers (1956), the fictionalized search for Comanche captive Cynthia Anne Parker gave John Wayne one of his most compelling, and least likable characters. 

King Vidor’s (and several others’) Duel in the Sun (1946) might have been a good Western if producer David O. Selznick hadn’t been so driven to top his Gone with the Wind, that he forced an epic out of a potboiler plot. Anthony Mann’s Winchester 73 excels with James Stewart as a man obsessed with hunting down the fellow whose coveting of a perfect rifle led to murder.   In Robert Wise’s nearly all-at-night Blood on the Moon (1948), Robert Mitchum is drawn into a cynically manipulated range war.

On Thursday, May 29^th, the series ends with The End of an Era, a look at “end of the West” Westerns. Featured are two very different, but very sentimental films from SamPeckinpah, the gently charming The Ballad of Cable Hogue (1970), and the anthem of doomed manly camaraderie, The Wild Bunch (1969). Sergio Leone’s Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) is the Spaghetti Western epic that has never been topped. And John Ford’s The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) studies the regretted compromises men needed to make for the West grow, through the characters of lawyer James Stewart and cowboy John Wayne.   

ONE MORE THING

Until I have a chance to write at length about the late Val Kilmer’s immense contributions to film in general, and Westerns in particular, here’s a link to his first lead in a Western. In 1989 he played the title character in Billy the Kid, a Ted Turner-produced TV Western that was scripted by Gore Vidal, based on his novel, The Left-Handed Gun, which had first been the source for the 1958 Paul Newman film.

AND THAT’S A WRAP!

Please check out the March/April issue of True West Magazine, featuring my article/interview, Kris Kristofferson: A Texan at Oxford.

And here’s the link to my newest piece for the INSP blog, What Makes a Great Western Movie, wherein I try to reverse-engineer some classics to figure out what makes them work.

https://www.insp.com/blog/what-makes-a-great-western-movie/

And if you haven’t snapped up a copy of my book, The Greatest Westerns Ever Made, and The People Who Made Them, wait no longer!

Here’s the link to the Amazon page, but feel free to order it from your local independent bookseller – we have to keep them in business too!

https://www.amazon.com/Greatest-Westerns-Ever-Made/dp/1493074393?_encoding=UTF8&linkCode=sl1&tag=insptv-20&linkId=40670747d047d3241c54003bcabb179f&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_tl

Happy Trails, Henry

All Original Content Copyright April 2025 by Henry C. Parke – All Rights Reserved

‘DELIVERANCE CREEK’ STAR CHRISTOPHER BACKUS INTERVIEWED

On Saturday, September 13^th, Lifetime will premiere ‘DELIVERANCE CREEK’, an original Western movie written by Melissa Carter, directed by Jon Amiel, produced by the tremendously successful novelist Nicholas Sparks (if you missed my review last week, go HERE )

Set in the South during the Civil War, it focuses on Belle Gatlin Barlow (Lauren Ambrose), a woman whose husband has gone off to war, leaving her to manage their farm and raise their three children.  Between an amorous lawman she encourages (after all, her husband might be dead), and amorous banker she discourages, Union soldiers and runaway slaves, who returns to complicate her life but her brother Jasper Gatlin, a Confederate guerilla soldier, portrayed by Christopher Backus.  Certainly by 21^st Century p.c. standards he may not be the most morally and ethically upright man in the tale, but guess what?  He’s the most interesting, both because he’s the most complexly written, and because Christopher Backus has a star’s innate ability to draw the eye, and make you care.

I first met Christopher back in 2011, on the set of the Western YELLOW ROCK, when he was the well-dressed member of James Russo’s gang, who were trying to enlist the help of Michael Biehn in finding a lost father and son.  In DELIVERANCE CREEK Backus has been promoted to running his own crew, trained by Bloody Bill Anderson and Quantrill.  He’s tal and handsome and charming and dangerous as a diamondback.  And if DELIVERANCE CREEK goes to series, which it should, his part will grow and grow.  On Friday afternoon I had the chance to talk with him about how his career began, Jasper Gatlin, and his hopes for the future.

 HENRY PARKE:  Hello Chris.  We actually met a few years ago, on the set of YELLOW ROCK.  And you were the only one I never really got to talk to.  Every time we started, you were needed on-set.   So I had to wait until your next Western.

CHRISTOPHER BACKUS:    I remember that.  Well at least it wasn’t too long, and I’ve got another Western on my résumé.  

HENRY: At what age did you know you wanted to become an actor?

CHRISTOPHER: I was late to becoming an actor.  I had graduated high school, and was trying to figure out what I was going to do with my life.  I was 19 or 20, never in a high school play or things of that nature.  But as I got older, I was out of sports, and all the creative genes I’d been hiding kind of wanted to come out. 

HENRY:  Was there any incident that triggered it?  Any moment that you knew?

CHRISTOPHER:  It was just sort of chance.  I was struggling with what I was going to do, and casting director Christian Kaplan asked if I was interested in reading for a film, PEARL HARBOR or PANIC ROOM – I can’t remember which one was first.  He thought I had the right look and asked, want to come in and give it a shot?  Just through the process of preparing for it, I realized how I liked being lost in someone else, bringing this imaginary character to life.  Obviously I didn’t get either job, but it didn’t deter me from trying to figure out how to get to the next level; I was just winging it at that stage.

HENRY:  I understand you were born in Orange County.  Did you grow up ‘around the industry’?

BACKUS:  I was born in Long Beach, and spent my early years there.  But it seemed like a far-off 

planet – the differences between Orange County and Hollywood are pretty significant.  And ultimately I spent most of my youth in Kansas.  My father passed away, and we moved to the Midwest.  So then I was thousands of alien light-years away from Hollywood, living in Kansas. 

HENRY:  Was it pretty rural?

CHRISTOPHER:  No, I was in Overland Park, right on the border with Kansas and Missouri, south of the downtown area, where jazz was popular.  I remember being young and going and listening to jazz, and thinking that was the coolest thing that I had ever done.  I remember right before we moved to Kansas I had this image of moving into farmland.  And I had told my mom that if we moved to Kansas, my one deal was I got to build a FIELD OF DREAMS baseball field in our back yard.  But our backyard was not farmland.  So one day I plan to build a baseball field in my back yard, on my property.

HENRY: Your first credit on IMDB is a guest shot on WILL AND GRACE in 2004.  Was that really your first?

CHRISTOPHER:  It was; that was my first job, and it was a good first job to get.  At that time WILL AND GRACE was one of the most popular shows on television, and to work to with Eric McCormack and Debra Messing and Sean Hayes – it was just one of those experiences that you’ll never forget.  It’s your first gig, and you’re intimidated, and I never thought I was particularly funny.  So during the table read you kind of goose everything up.  And Eric McCormack came up to me after and said, “Kid, you’re really funny when you’re not doing it.  Relax and you’ll be fine.”  And he kind of put me at ease.   I’ll never forget, that changed my perception of what a table-read was.  That was a great introduction to the business, WILL AND GRACE. 

HENRY: What’s been your favorite role so far?

CHRISTOPHER:  Honestly, it’s the one I’m talking to you about right now, it’s Jasper Gatlin.  It’s one of those roles that you just cross your fingers and hope it comes across your desk.  I enjoyed playing Jasper so much; hopefully I’ll get to continue to play it.  

Christopher Backus in YELLOW ROCK

HENRY: Very few actors of your age have been in a Western, but you’ve been in two: YELLOW ROCK and now DELIVERANCE CREEK.  Is it just chance, or is there something special about the genre for you?

CHRISTOPHER:  There’s definitely something special about the genre.  They both came up by chance, but you know, I’ve always liked Westerns.  I grew up watching John Wayne with my father, and the great Sergio Leone spaghetti Westerns, and to this day there’s no cooler man on the planet than Clint Eastwood.  So when you’re young and watch those movies, they just stick in your head.  When you decide to be an actor, you think you’d like to be in a western some day.  So you just cross your fingers, and hope that one of those comes across.  And I’ve been fortunate to get two, to rides horses; it’s one of those genres that speaks to you.

HENRY:  Speaking of horses, you certainly look competent on a horse.  Have you ridden much?

CHRISTOPHER:  I had never ridden before YELLOW ROCK.  It’s the old actor trick of, “Have you ever ridden a horse?” and you say, “Sure.”  And then you spend the next four days figuring out who can teach you to ride a horse.  And that worked out.  But with DELIVERANCE CREEK, we did two weeks of ‘cowboy camp’ in between rehearsals when we were in Texas, and those guys really taught me how to ride a horse.  And by the time that I left cowboy camp I walked away feeling like I was a cowboy.  They treated me so well, and quickly, and the horses are so amazing, and I wanted to do them proud, for how much effort they put into breaking me of my bad habits.  Because they sit in the back and watch Westerns, and they go, “Wow, he really doesn’t know how to ride; you can tell that he’s learning.  He’s not comfortable.”  So I really worked hard, and during our downtime on set, instead of going to my trailer, the other actor, Christopher Baker and I would go bother the trainer and say, “Could we borrow some horses and go riding around?”  One of them would saddle up next to us, and the three of us would take off for half an hour, come back, shoot our scene, and then get back on the horses and go back out.    

HENRY:  You mentioned Texas.  Is that where you shot?

CHRISTOPHER:  We did, we shot it in Austin, Texas.  So we lived in Austin and downtown.  All of the locations were like an hour outside in all different directions, trying to find places that had no power lines and cars and had open fields.  And it was pretty amazing how many unique locations were in Texas.  The house where we shot in DELIVERANCE CREEK was actually built in the 1850s.  And the center room was the only thing that actually existed; ten people lived in the house in just one room.  The art department built on in the same style the extra rooms to make it a little more cinematic, so we could space things out.  I’m tall, and so my hat would touch the top of the ceiling, which was sort of great for Jasper.  I know that our fantastic director, John Amiel, loved that when I came in I had to duck through doorways, and tried to capitalize on that element of Jasper being larger than life when he comes back to Deliverance Creek. 

Chris Baker

HENRY:  At Universal Studios, all the Western towns were built to ¾ height so all the cowboys would look bigger.

CHRISTOPHER:  I didn’t know that. 

HENRY:  Is there any western actor of the past you look at and say, ‘I wish I had his roles.’?

CHRISTOPHER:  Going back to the original 3:10 TO YUMA, the Glenn Ford part, you wish you’d get a part like that.  And all of those Clint Eastwood movies, if you could carve out a career like that.  My favorite western is THE LEFT HANDED GUN, with Paul Newman, where he played Billy the Kid.  Paul Newman is my all-time favorite actor, and I thought he was just marvelous in that.   I’ve seen it like fifteen times, and it was just so different from the Paul Newman we all know, just a brilliant acting thing. 

HENRY:  How did you get involved with DELIVERANCE CREEK?

CHRISTOPHER:  Well, I read for it; I went and saw the amazing casting director from Junie Libby.  I actually read for Cyril the first time I went in, who Christopher Baker plays.  I got a call from Melissa (Carter, the screenwriter) and Jon (Amiel, director) – Jon wasn’t in the room when I read.  And he said, “I’d like him to come back in and read for something else.”  So then I read for Duke, and was trying to push my way towards Jasper.  And the month of waiting, as the rest of the cast filled out, gave me time to prepare for Jasper, and it just worked out. 

HENRY: You play Jasper Gatlin, leader of a pack of Bloody Bill Anderson’s guerillas, and the brother of Belle, Lauren Ambrose’s character.  Jasper is charming, confident, and certainly a better man than some of those under him.  But in today’s terms, he’s a terrorist.  How do you try to make him sympathetic?  Or do you care?

CHRISTOPHER:  You do.  I never looked at him as a bad guy or an outlaw.  I felt that the Civil War had torn up the world, and if it wasn’t for the Civil War he might have been a farmer.  But once you get into that battle, you can’t go back and ride horses and work on your property.  That has been awoken inside of you, and he was a terrorist.  Jasper is sort of loosely based on Jesse James.  And history has been sort of rewritten to make him a Robin Hood, but he was a Southern vindicator of the Rebel cause; he was a terrorist to his dying day.  And what I think makes Jasper unique is that in that time period those guys all lived in grey – from one town to the next there was no black and white.  There was no good or bad.  For example, Wyatt Earp would come into these towns and take over saloon as the sheriff.  Couldn’t do that nowadays; a sheriff couldn’t come into a restaurant and say, “This is now my restaurant.”  The first time I read it, I was trying to wrap my mind around Jasper, whether he was good or bad.  And again with Paul Newman, in the movie HUD he says, “I’ve always viewed the law in a lenient manner.  Sometimes I lean to one side, and sometimes I lean to the other.”  And I thought that was what Jasper was.  He leaned on either side of the law for whatever was good for him or the cause.  And Jon and I talked about it.  Not the law, but his moral compass.  Jasper is a good man fighting for what he believes in.  And history makes him wrong, being on the Southern side, but I tried to treat him as if he was justified in his actions and what he believed in.  And hopefully you can see that he has both sides, good and bad.      

HENRY:  Did you do much historical research for your role?

CHRISTOPHER:  I did.  I’m a heavy researcher, especially when it comes to period stuff.  Because the times have changed so much.  And in DELIVERANCE CREEK we deal a lot with race and slavery, and in 2014, none of this makes sense.  But you have to go back in time, you have to figure some sort of historical element to ground you, so you’re not playing the mustache-twirling bad guy in terms of race.  Just because I am personally sympathetic to that cause, I can’t let that cross onto the screen.  So the historical research was a big part of that.  I’ve read THE GREY GHOSTS OF THE CONFEDERACY (by Richard S. Brownlee), INSIDE WAR (by Michael Fellman), which is still sitting on my desk, which is about the guerilla conflict in Missouri.  My big research book was JESSE JAMES, THE LAST REBEL OF THE CIVIL WAR by T.J. Stiles; that was my biggest reference point.  It also gave me a history of Jesse, in context with Bill Quantrill, because Jasper had ridden with Bill Quantrill before breaking off with Bloody Bill.  I try not to watch any (films about Jesse James), because I don’t want to be influenced by anyone.

HENRY:  You don’t want to be Tyrone Power’s version of Jesse.

CHRISTOPHER:  Exactly, so I try not to watch anything.  So to read those books, you can kind of create your own imagination around what these characters were.  And mostly for me it was less about who that character was but more about historically what they did, what their causes were.  And knowing that Melissa had sort of taken Jesse James’ trajectory for where the show would go, Jesse James became my lynchpin. 

HENRY:  I also got the feeling that Belle is based on Belle Starr

CHRISTOPHER:  That is true. 

HENRY: Jon Amiel has had a wide range of successes, from dark musicals, to comedies, to thrillers.  What was he like to work with?

CHRISTOPHER:  He was absolutely delightful –we’re still in constant contact.  He is generous and comforting and collaborative.  He just gives you this feeling that anything is safe and fair game.  That you can say, “Hey Jon, I don’t think Jasper would do this.”  It didn’t happen often, but a couple of times…  That scene with Rose, there was supposed to be some romantic tension, and I said I don’t think Jasper would do that.  I think he’s singularly focused on hitting the Union.  And Jon had my back all the way, and ultimately everyone agreed with that.  I think when you have a director who has your back, you feel like you can stand on the cliff and hang there, and know you’re not going to fall off.  From the very beginning, we did this thing; I hadn’t done it before, I don’t know if this would ever work again.  But Jon would send me and Chris Baker and Riley Smith to cowboy camp, and then we’d meet with him to do these rehearsals.  And we never once opened up the scripts.  But the first time he said, “Alright, Riley and Chris, you’re Jasper and Toby.  You’re twelve years old, and you meet for the first time.”  And we would act out these imaginary circumstances that he gave us.  And every day that we came back for two weeks, we’d be slightly older in the story.  We made up these ridiculous back-story things, to the point that at one of the rehearsals Lauren Ambrose, Riley and I are running across a busy street in Texas, carrying a barrel full of nothing, pretending that Riley had been shot with buckshot, we’re laughing and he’s screaming, and we’re running across the street, and it just bonded us in a way I don’t think we knew was possible. We went into day one of shooting as great, great friends, and I think that comes across on the screen.  Riley and I don’t actually say much to each other, but I think you can tell that there’s a closeness, that we’ve been through stuff together, and Jon just set that all up.  It was surprising, and so much fun despite the fact that we were nervous to do it on day one, that we couldn’t wait and see what Jon had in store for us next.   

HENRY:  A bloody Civil War revenge story is not the usual sort of project territory for Nicholas Sparks.  What was he like to work with? 

CHRISTOPHER:  I met Nick a couple of times while he came to visit on-set.  And he is just a supportive, fantastic man.  Obviously he‘s a genius creatively, and no one does those romance stories like Nick Sparks.  I think what’s great about this is he’s taken what he does really well and put it into a circumstance that no one expects, and said let’s go for this, let’s make it darker and gritty.  I think it’s a smart move by Nicholas to let it fly a little bit, and open up to this world that has outlaws and rebels and guns.  And I think Lifetime is a perfect match, because it’s unexpected, and I think it’s something that can really hit home for their audience, and bring in a large male audience, because it is a story told through a female perspective, but it still has all those male-driven western testosterone moments.  And of course Nicholas Sparks is so talented; I just hope we work together forever.

HENRY: About how long was the shoot?

CHRISTOPHER:  We were in Texas for forty-five days, and I think we had twenty-five shooting days.  We fit a lot in, in a very little amount of time, because when you add children and horses and animals and building towns and battle scenes, it was tight, but we made it. 

HENRY:  What was your biggest challenge in the making of this film?

CHRISTOPHER:  The biggest challenge for me was dealing with Yaani King’s character, who is a runaway slave.  Because it’s just not in my nature to judge anyone by the color of their skin.  And to wrap my mind around it, that it was okay.  She’s just amazingly talented, just this lovely person.  And I told her I’m going to look at you in the show like a piece of furniture, like you don’t even exist.  To wrap my mind around this idea that I was going to treat her like a piece of furniture was one of the most difficult things that I ever had to do.  And I would end scenes and go over and just hug her, just because I felt so bad about it.  That was the most challenging part for me, just mentally getting through that.

HENRY: What are your favorite memories of shooting DELIVERANCE CREEK?

CHRISTOPHER:  There were so many amazing memories, and it really it all had to do with the cast and crew, from executives on Lifetime to Skeet Ulrich, Nicholas Sparks.  We just bonded in a way that I think was really special.  We ate dinner together every night, we hung out together.  We had dinners every night with cameramen and sound-people.  And we’re still good friends.  On the 13^th we’re all going to get together and watch DELIVERANCE CREEK when it premieres.  As far as shooting it, every time I slid on that black hat, and put on the gun belt, and my gun was actually the gun, the dragoon, that Jeff Bridges used in TRUE GRIT.  Every time I put that gun onto my belt, and I was Jasper, and I walked out of my trailer, those were just fantastic days.  The moments of getting to be Jasper were just satisfying personally, career-wise, artistically – there was just something special about playing him. 

HENRY:  If it goes to series, what would you like to see happen with Jasper?

CHRISTOPHER:  (chuckles) Melissa Carter, who is our show-runner, and I have had multiple conversations about story ideas.  I’d like to see him hitting Union banks, seeing it as more of a targeted strike.   I want to see the human side of him as well.  Who does he open up to, who does he actually trust.  I have some specific story ideas, but I think Melissa would kill me if I gave them away. 

Wes Ramsey & Lauren Ambrose

HENRY:  What do you have planned for the future that we should be watching for?

CHRISTOPHER:  I’m in the final season of SONS OF ANARCHY, which premieres September 9^th.   DELIVERANCE CREEK and SONS OF ANARCHY do have these parallels if you just sub bikes for horses.  And I’m in the live-action SPONGE-BOB movie with Antonio Banderas.  I play Antonio Banderas’ father in flashbacks.  I’m a famous Spanish captain that sets Antonio Banderas’ life on this course.  And that was so much fun; to go from a bushwhacker to a pirate was pretty cool.  I didn’t do any work with the sponge.  And I do research, so I read the book, THE BLACK FLAG, an anthology of pirate stories, and then realized when I got there that I was in a SpongeBob movie.

HENRY:  You and your lovely wife Mira Sorvino have four school-aged kids.  Is it hard to juggle your careers and family?

CHRISTOPHER:  It is.  Like any other family when you have two working parents, it’s difficult.  But we’re very supportive of each other, and we’ve been lucky as well that our schedules haven’t overlapped that much.  She was in Vancouver shooting INTRUDERS.  So I would fly to L.A. and do SPONGE-BOB, and on the weekends fly back.  It’s difficult but workable, and we enjoy it.  And every time I find myself complaining about how hard it is, (I remember) we’ve taken our kids to some amazing places because of the jobs we do.  And the life experience that they get from being a part of that is pretty special when you look back on it.  We took them to Egypt literally a month before it collapsed when Mubarak was ousted.  And who knows when you’ll ever get back to Egypt to climb the pyramids.  And they’ve done those things.  In terms of DELIVERANCE CREEK, I have two little boys who ask me every day when we go to Texas and learn to be cowboys.  It’s fun that they relate to that sort of thing.  We love each other and we support each other and make it work.

HENRY: If you weren’t an actor, what would you be?

CHRISTOPHER: Wow – I’m not sure I’m good at anything else!  My wife likes to say that I’m black or white – I’m all in or I’m all out.  So for the last ten years it’s been all in on acting.  I wish I was a musician, but I just play around on it.  But if I could do anything else and be good at it, I’d be a musician. 

MARK OF ZORRO LACMA Sept 9 1pm

On Tuesday, September 9th, at 1 pm, for a paltry four dollars, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art will present Rouben Mamoulian's brilliant film of Johnston MacCulley's delightful novel The Curse of Capistrano, THE MARK OF ZORRO!  It is a feast to watch, starring Tyrone Power, Linda Darnell, and as wonderful a pair of villains as could be desired, Basil Rathbone and Gale Sondegaard.

Basil Rathbone & Gale Sondegaard

THAT'S A WRAP!

Next Sunday, would have been Clayton Moore's 100th birthday, and I plan to feature my interview with his daughter, Dawn Moore!

Happy Trails,

Henry

All Original Contents Copyright September 2014 by Henry C, Parke - All Rights Reserved