Director Daniel Minahan reveals the attraction of Muriel and Julius to each other on swift horses [TIFF]

From director Daniel Minahan, on swift horse It premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on Saturday, September 7. It is based on Shannon Pufahl's 2019 novel of the same name and takes place in 1950s America. The story follows newlyweds, Muriel and Lee, who move to San Diego to start a new life. Meanwhile, Lee's brother, Julius, returns from the Korean War and finds himself doing grave surveillance at a casino in Las Vegas. Through a surprising series of events, Muriel and Julius end up on similar, but dangerous, journeys that bring them together in a way they don't expect.

on swift horse has an all-star ensemble, with Daisy Edgar-JonesJacob Elordi, Will Poulter, Diego Calva, and Sasha Kale make up the main cast. Minhan, who also serves as the film's producer, says he was drawn to Pufhl's original story because it doesn't have a traditional antagonist. The director believes that the real obstacle is the struggles of Muriel and Julius to be their true selves, despite what it means to those around them. Minahan embraced the challenges that came along with adapting the book and says he's proud of the final product.

Screen Rant Interviewed Minhan during the Toronto International Film Festival about Muriel and Julius' dynamic in on swift horseThe significance of the nuclear bomb scene, and bring life to 1950s America.

Minahan believes that Muriel and Julius' love for each other is unique

"I think they really complement each other, and it's the kind of attraction and affection that I haven't seen dramatized before."

Screen Rant: Can you talk a little about Muriel and Julius' attraction to each other and how they serve as foils as they search for their own version of the American Dream?

Daniel Minahan: I mean, first of all, this is a movie about lust, and these two characters, Muriel and Julius, meet each other, and they're drawn to each other right away. We do not know whether it is love, sexual attraction, affection. And as the film goes on, I think we start to realize that they really recognize each other. They recognize something in each other. They are both outsiders, they are both watchers, and as we begin to get to know them better, we realize that they are both trying to find their true selves and explore the strange underworld of Vegas and San Diego.

And I think that this is one of the great connections between the two of them, is that they both see each other and they enter each other's lives. They have the love, and they change the direction of each other's life. I think Muriel is in love with the idea of ​​Julius' freedom. And I think Julius is in love with the idea of ​​belonging somewhere, which is what Muriel has. So I think they really complement each other, and it's the kind of attraction and affection that I haven't seen dramatized before. That really drew me to the novel and to adapting the novel.

We have to talk about the nuclear bomb scene. What does this mean symbolically for the story and for the characters?

Daniel Minahan: I think the scene where Henry takes Julius to the desert for a party to watch the government detonate a nuclear bomb is one of the most romantic dates I could ever imagine. It also puts us firmly in the time when Nevada, apart from the enduring beginning of Vegas, is also the sort of fringe of America where they test nuclear bombs. So it operates on a lot of levels, and it's also incredibly romantic and a great metaphor for the people blowing their lives to be together.

on swift horse is your first major motion picture, but you've directed brilliant episodes of television. I'm curious what the transition was from the frugal process of shooting TV to an epic romance like this.

Daniel Minahan: I've done some films, not so well known. I wrote a film called I Shot Andy Warhol, which became a feature, this was many years ago, and then a film called Series 7. Series 7 was a film about—imagine a television series where you followed People when they kill each other and fight for their own survival. Then that kind of brought me into the world of HBO, where Six Feet Under was kind of a cult film in the writers' room. That got me to HBO, and I got to work with a lot of really great writers, and I stayed there.

I came from a documentary background, and I'd been a journalist before, so it was a really great learning experience for me, working in series. And when you work in a series, sometimes you come in, you make an episode and you leave, and there is another person who is really responsible for the full arc of the season, and they have already made a look. In the last 10 years, I have been working as a producer and really set series. I produced series and directed, but I had the opportunity, for example with Halston, I directed the whole thing, and I think it's a six-hour film.

It's a very different experience. It's like the difference between writing a novel and a short story. Series are more novelistic in that they go and go and go, and they're episodic, and you can go into more detail about things. In a feature, you have to be very concise and very specific about the story you want to tell and really tie it all together like you would a short story. So I enjoyed it very much. It was a very positive experience for me, and I am so proud of what I was able to do with my colleagues in this.

Finding locations was a major challenge when filming on Swift Horse

"You really have to be inventive. You really have to find great locations that are going to serve a lot of different things."

What was the most challenging part about bringing 1950s America to life?

Daniel Minahan: I'd say the whole thing was a challenge. It was very ambitious. We explored, we set stories in world building in about five different worlds: Kansas, San Diego, Las Vegas and Tijuana. You really have to be inventive. You really have to find great locations that are going to serve a lot of different things, and I rely on my great art department and my cinematographer to really put it across. I would say that was one of the biggest challenges. And the other thing, which was a big challenge, but it was one of the things that drew me to the story is, Swift Horses doesn't have a traditional antagonist.

I think in other 1950s stories about someone coming of age or a clear coming-out story, there would be this very clear antagonist, which would be the husband, his disapproval and his abuse. However, we had a great character who was very gentle and very kind and just wanted to create a family with the two people he loved very much, and unfortunately he was in the way. I think the antagonist in this piece really became the struggle that Muriel and Julius had to be their true selves and knew that they would hurt people other than Muriel's husband along the way.

Muriel and Julius almost switch places halfway through the movie. Muriel gets risky while Julius wants to play it safe with Henry. Do you think these are their innate desires, or is it that they are looking for others within themselves?

Daniel Minnahan: I think that Julius has been living on the fringe for a long time and living a dangerously unguarded life, and here was the opportunity for him to go make a home with his brother and Muriel. He knew in his heart, because of who he was, that he couldn't do that. And so I think he found Henry and thought that would be the person he could make a home with and find a place to belong. And Muriel learns the price of freedom. I think that Muriel connects the idea that if she collects all the money, she wins on the track, she becomes this autonomous person, that she will be happy.

And what she learns is that she's hurt a lot of people along the way, but I feel like she ends up in a really good place. She goes back home. Throughout the film she said, "I like the country." She says to Sandra: "So you live here alone?" She meets this woman, who lives without a husband, and then she says to Sandra: "You're not afraid of being alone, are you?" I think Muriel gets to that place of self-realization, but through a lot of experimentation. Will she end up with Sandra later? I like to think that they make amends and they get together. I think they have such great chemistry.

About Daniel Minahan's on Swift Horses

"A story about risking everything for love, only to gain self-knowledge along the way."

It's the 1950s. Newlyweds Muriel (Daisy Edgar-Jones) and Lee (Will Poulter) leave their Kansas home for a new life in San Diego, with steady jobs and a house where they can start a family. Lee's brother Julius (Jacob Elordi, also at the festival in OH, Canada), meanwhile, returns from the Korean War without any long-term plans.

A fictitious hand at poker, he winds up in Las Vegas, where he does pit surveillance at a casino and befriends Henry (Diego Calva, TIFF '15's Te prometo anarquía), a handsome Chicano who, like Julius, loves a good gamble. All the while, Muriel and Julius correspond, although not realizing how much they have in common. Bored with waiting tables, Muriel begins to secretly play the horses - and win. What's more, Muriel and Julius find themselves on parallel journeys with secret transgressions that could put them in greater danger than either of them.

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on swift horse Premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 7.