‘You steal from whoever you can’

SEVEN psychopaths, one Hollywood actor, one Anglo-Irish writer-director.

Strange company to find yourself in, but the second feature film from award-winning writer-director Martin McDonagh is no ordinary movie.

Seven Psychopaths is – to quote the publicity – “a star-studded, blood-drenched black comedy” about a struggling writer desperately trying to finish his latest screenplay, but hampered by dognappers, gangsters and the Hollywod system.

Martin McDonagh is the writer-director. His first foray into film won him a best live action short film Oscar. His feature film debut, In Bruges, won him a Bafta and an Oscar nomination (for original screenplay) to add to the many awards his plays – The Lieutenant Of Inishmore, The Beauty Queen Of Leenane and The Pillowman among them – have received in Europe and the US.

His most recent play, 2010’s A Behanding in Spokane, was his first set in America and teamed two of his Seven Psychopaths co-stars Sam Rockwell and Christopher Walken. Rockwell, one of Hollywood’s busiest actors with more than 70 film and TV series to his credit – from Confessions Of A Dangerous Mind and Cowboys And Aliens to Charlie’s Angels and The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy – and a fair few awards too.

Perhaps that plethora of prizes accounts for McDonagh’s laidback attitude about Seven Psychopaths, which opens in the UK this week.

“Strangely, I don’t think about opening weekends, or box office and that stuff. So it feels weird,” he says. “In Bruges wasn’t a big hit when it came out initially and developed its own cool, cultish momentum and I think that’s good anyway.

So if that happened this time round, it would be fantastic too.”

Similarly, he didn’t feel more pressure because of people’s expectations after In Bruges.

“It was four years in between the two films and I was happy with how that turned out,” he says.

“Luckily I’ve gone through all that with the plays, one was successful and then I had a whole bunch after that. I feel as though I’ve done the whole second album thing. This feels like my tenth album.

Seven Psychopaths was written seven years ago right after In Bruges, but McDonagh wasn’t sure about tackling such a multi-layered piece for his feature debut.

He changed the writer in Seven Psychopaths from American to Irish because he wanted to work with In Bruges star Colin Farrell again.

In the interim, he worked with Rockwell and Christopher Walken, on a Broadway play he wrote, two or three years ago. “We had a great time on that so it was a no-brainer to ask them to do these two characters, but it wasn’t written specifically for them,” he says.

The story of a struggling writer was inspired by his own experiences “to a tiny degree”, he says. “At the start Colin’s character has got the title and one psychopath, and he wants it to be about peace and love. That’s kind of the place that I was in.

“But the whole Hollywood side of things, of being out there and struggling to get something made with the studios isn’t really something I care about too much.”

HE has mixed feelings about Hollywood. “I like some aspects of it. I love great films – and lots of them are, or have in the past, been made in America, if not Hollywood – filmmakers like Billy Wilder and obviously Citizen Kane and all the greats up to Peckinpah.

“But a lot of my favourites are people on the outside of Hollywood and I guess this is a film that’s almost trying to be that. I’m just going to write my own scripts and hopefully get them made, but entering into that process of writing for other people would kill, I think. So I don’t hate it because I’ve never had to be part of it.

I’ve only had nice holidays there.”

Rockwell, who plays out-of-work actor and part-time dog thief Billy, was keen to work with McDonagh again in one of those dark offbeat roles in which he appears to specialise. His canon of psychos has only just begun, he jokes.

“Martin saw me in a film that not a lot of people saw called Jerry and Tom and maybe saw aspects of Bill in that character, and the same with a movie I did called Boxing Moonlight. A lot of great actors will revisit Hamlet, Richard III or whatever it is. It’s like I didn’t get it right, I want to get it right this time,” he explains.

“I did Streetcar recently and I’d like to do that again. I’m not sure if I’m done with that role.

This was an opportunity to play this archetype, but in a more sophisticated arena. Billy was a mixture of all these different types of roles I’ve played before. It was like a great meal. The perfect storm for a part.”

Rockwell is flattered to have inherited the title of the “go-to guy for weird” from Walken.

“To be in a sentence with Chris Walken is flattering.

He’s a hero of mine and a friend now. I’ve definitely stolen from a lot of great actors, him being one of them. You try to steal as much as you can.

“Hopefully, other actors don’t catch you stealing.

I mean, I stole from Colin, when watching In Bruges, to prepare for this film. You steal from whoever you can.”

Everyone seems to have had a good time making the movie. “We did get close. We still keep in touch,” says Rockwell. “Colin and I really hit it off in a big way. I think we were mutual fans from the beginning. Chemistry is a very peculiar thing. You can’t explain it, you either get along or you don’t. We had a really good chemistry.”

There weren’t many boys’ nights out, says Mc- Donagh. “These guys are in nearly every scene.

I don’t know how anyone goes out when they’re making a film. It was fun on set. That comes across in the scenes, even the darker ones. At the end of each day, it was fun and happy and we had a good time.”

Then there was the dog, the shih tzu that plays a key role in the story. The canine star, Bonny, was a dream, says Rockwell. It hit its mark well, adds McDonagh. “The dog always knew where the camera was. We’d film this way, then switch around and without instruction the dog would turn around to the camera.”

• Seven Psychopaths (15) is now in cinemas