Actors Ross Jirgl and Jilon VanOver chatted about their new movie “Butch Cassidy and the Wild Bunch,” which premieres on March 16 on Tubi.
‘Butch Cassidy and the Wild Bunch’
This western was directed by Anthony C. Ferrante. The synopsis is: When the infamous Butch Cassidy (played by Ross Jirgl) and his deadly band of outlaws pull off a high-dollar train robbery, the legendary Pinkertons raise a deadly posse to hunt them down.
We are fired up, we are stoked,” Jirgl said about this new movie.
“We saw a screening of it in December and it looks good,” Jilon VanOver said, who plays the Sundance Kid. “This is one of the most challenging films to get across the finish line. The director, Anthony C. Ferrante, was able to pull a rabbit out of a hat in a lot of ways, and it looks good. It was a fun movie that allowed me to immerse myself in that role.”
VanOver continued, “We came out to New Mexico for a month, and we had a really good time. Ross, Nikki Leigh, and I were involved in the love triangle in the story. I was part of such a cool lore of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. It was fun to embellish that and wrap our minds around it, and we had doing so.”
Favorite part of filming this western
On his favorite part of the filming experience, Jirgl said, “For me, it was getting to live in a different world. I got to throw on clothes from the time period of the 1890’s. It was a group of outlaws that existed in the late 1800’s. There is a lot of vague knowledge about these real-life people, so you don’t really know exactly how they operated. It’s all from word of mouth from these tales from 130 years ago.”
Jirgl continued, “I wore a gun holster and I was riding a horse out in some ranch in New Mexico with a big sky and it pulls you in. Just living in that world for the month and beyond that we shot it on was cool. It allowed me to live in that world for a little bit and I think that’s why every actor gets into this.”
“I got to work with a cool cast with guys like Jilon VanOver,” Jirgl added.
Jirgl noted that Anthony and the writer [Geoff Meed] ran with the idea of what would happen if both of those characters did all those things (that were told about them as passed down through the oral tradition), and they did their own retelling, and created their own story.
“After the first movie existed, the second movie takes over where the first one leaves off,” Jirgl said. “The first movie sets up the world that we are living in, and the second movie really plays on everything that has been set up. The ball gets rolling and it’s a lot faster,” Jirgl foreshadowed.
“We were shooting both ‘Butch Cassidy’ movies at the same time,” VanOver revealed. “The blocking was there so we made good use of it.”
Tubi family
On being a part of the Tubi family, VanOver said, “It feels good. I am happy to say that this is a production that is co-produced by Tubi, they are making a name for themselves. Hopefully, if both movies do well, Anthony might have a few more of these films up his sleeve.”
“I would like in the boots of Butch Cassidy again,” Jirgl said with a sweet laugh.
“Filming during COVID, we had a lot of obstacles to tackle,” VanOVer acknowledged. “At the end of the day, we were able to focus on the scenes between the characters. Also, we were able to spend a lot of time on the scenes and we really got them done well.”
“Normally, when you do pickups or reshoots, you must compress. This was the first experience that I’ve had where they beefed up the script in some ways because they saw how the meat of what we did came together,” VanOver said.
Working with the cast
“Working with Bruce Dern as Mike was a ton of fun, and Dee Wallace plays Alice,” VanOver said. “The big baddie of them all is Jeffrey Combs, who plays Detective Siringo and he just crushes it.
For western fans, Jirgl hopes that they enjoy this movie. “Enjoy it for what it is, it is a western with a lot of good characters in it, and enjoyable dialogue and action. It’s fun,” he said.
“I hope they enjoy the film and I hope it inspires them to want them to watch the second movie. The characters are great, and they really pull you in. The cinematography is gorgeous, and we were really loving it,” VanOver concluded.
For more information on “Butch Cassidy and the Wild Bunch,” check out the official Tubi website.
To learn more about Ross Jirgl, follow him on Instagram.
For more information on Jilon VanOver, follow him on Instagram.
