Award-winning actor, writer, and director Danny Huston (“Yellowstone”) chatted about his new film “We Are Gathered Here Today.”
Starring and produced by Danny Huston, “We Are Gathered Here Today” features an ensemble cast such as Lin Shaye, Phoebe Tonkin, Parker McKenna Posey, Luna Blaise, Nicole Ari Parker, Peter Jason, Jenny O’Hara, Bill Smitrovich, Rae Dawn Chong, and Javicia Leslie. It is available digitally via Cinedigm. “It was great working with them,” he said. “It is difficult to say goodbye and to have to do it electronically. The same challenge was working with the actors. We never got to meet each other but we are looking forward to the day. In the process of making this film, we never got to see each other physically.”
Written and Directed by Paul Boyd, “We Are Gathered Here Today” fixes on a family that comes together over video conference during the COVID-19 pandemic. Eric Barrett produced alongside Huston for Mirror Films.
This film explores the emotions over one million U.S. families have gone through since this deadly pandemic started. “It really was an extraordinary experience,” he admitted. “Putting together the cast and rehearsing so that we can become a family in a true sense and a family of actors to gather on a screen helped define us as characters but also representing different stratospheres in regard to this particular moment in time.”
“We Are Gathered Here Today” is a film about a multi-generational mixed-race family coming together to say their last goodbye to the patriarch of the family, while at the same time dealing with other underlying issues that family gatherings can bring. All of these take place over Google Meet video conferencing.
The trailer for “We Are Gathered Here Today” may be seen below.
“This film is about a family with dysfunctions and issues, and it’s about bringing a family together during this moment where we can’t touch and say ‘goodbye’ or hug. It’s tragic but it’s also about love and bringing people together,” he said.
Huston is known for his versatility and dramatic screen presence. Most recognized for his roles in films like Martin Scorsese’s “The Aviator,” Alfonso Cuaron’s “Children of Men” and Alejandro Inarritu’s “21 Grams,” Huston has worked with some of the finest film directors of his generation.
He got his start directing Mr. North with Robert Mitchum, Anthony Edwards, and his sister Anjelica Huston. He went on to give his breakthrough acting performance in the independent film Ivansxtc for which he was nominated for “Best Male Performance” at the 2003 Independent Spirit Awards.
Since then his film acting work has included: “X-Men Origins: Wolverine,” Ridley Scott’s “Robin Hood,” “Hitchcock” with Anthony Hopkins, “Wrath of the Titans” with Liam Neeson, “The Constant Gardener” with Rachel Weisz and Ralph Fiennes, Sofia Coppola’s “Marie Antoinette,” “Birth” opposite Nicole Kidman, “30 Days of Night with Josh Hartnett,” and Peter Berg’s “The Kingdom,” among others.
In 2013, his critically acclaimed role of Ben the butcher in “Magic City,” earned him a Golden Globe nomination for “Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television.”
His other television acting work includes the hit television series “Masters Of Sex” (Showtime), a recurring role in the hugely popular “American Horror Story” (FX), and performances in “You Don’t Know Jack” (HBO) with Al Pacino and “John Adams” (HBO).
Additional credits include “Paranoid” for Netflix and ITV Studios, Marc Forster’s “All I See Is You,” “Frankenstein” directed by Bernard Rose, “Pressure,” directed by Ron Scalpello, and Tim Burton’s “Big Eyes.”
Huston also directed himself in “The Last Photograph” which screened at The Edinburgh Film Festival and the Mill Valley Film Festival.
In 2017, Huston portrayed Robert Evans in the stage adaptation of “The Kid Stays in the Picture” directed by Simon McBurney, for The Royal Court Theatre in London. Huston also recently appeared in the global box office hit “Wonder Woman,” directed by Patty Jenkins.
He could recently be seen in the Netflix feature “IO” opposite Anthony Mackie, as well as the feature “Stan and Ollie,” which was directed by Jon Baird for BBC films.
Huston continues to star as “Dan Jenkins” on the Taylor Sheridan and Paramount TV series “Yellowstone,” which is now airing its second season. It was the No. 1 Summer series of 2019. Huston can be seen in a season long-arc on the HBO critically acclaimed series “Succession.”
On being an actor in the digital age, Huston said, “It’s exciting. I’ve played with this technology for quite some time now. Technology allowed us to work during COVID, and it creates other innovative ways to deal with the medium in the storytelling world.”
For young and aspiring actors, Huston encouraged them to “tell stories.” “Find a good story, and tell a story that means something to you, and find whatever medium you can to tell it,” he said.
Huston would like to go into a time warp and work with such actors as Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. “I would love to have this time capsule and go back in time and work with the actors that have inspired me and the films that I make in the present,” he said.
“My eureka moment was when I was on my father, John Huston’s film set in Morocco. That’s when I knew that this was what I wanted to do for a living,” he acknowledged.
Huston praised his experience in “Yellowstone.” “I love it,” he exclaimed. “Taylor Sheridan is a great storyteller of America today and its history and what got us here. Working with Taylor and Kevin Costner was incredible, Kevin is one of the coolest dudes on screen. Also, Kevin’s music is excellent.”
He opened up about “The Constant Gardener,” which happens to be one of this journalist’s all-time favorite movies. “It was a great experience making it. One of the luxuries of filmmaking is that you get to explore different parts of the world such as Kenya. Traveling there was such a luxury,” he said. “My character was very compromised.”
If he were to write, produce and direct his own short film, he responded, “It would be on social consciousness and meaning within the context of the world that we are inhabiting now. It would be relevant, and poignant and it would mean something to me and others. Most of my work strives for that.”
On the title of the current chapter of his life, Huston responded, “Open spaces and new frontiers, and a willingness to explore more.”
If he were to have any superpower, it would be to “travel back and forth in time.” “I would love to have the opportunity to meet some people that I love such as my father. I would have loved to have met him as a young man. That would have been great,” he said.
Regarding his definition of the word success, Huston said, “Finding peace and happiness within.” “Also, being content with what you have,” he said.
To learn more about Danny Huston, follow him on Instagram.
