Nitram tells the backstory of Australia’s deadliest mass shooting incident in 1996. The individual who committed this heinous crime is never directly named. The film takes great care not to glamorize or give any credence to his horrendous crimes. The same respect for the victims was taken during my interview with director Justin Kurzel, known primarily for Assassin’s Creed, and the phenomenal lead actor, Caleb Landry Jones. He delivers a devastating portrayal of a disturbed man.
During my research on the film, I was fascinated by its reception last year from Australian audiences and critics. Caleb Landry Jones received wide acclaim for his performance. But many thought the film should never have been made. The scope of the killings left a significant scar more than twenty-five years later. The question of why make this film was a pertinent first question.
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Why Nitram Came To Be
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Justin Kurzel: “Shaun Grant, who wrote it, had been living in Los Angeles. He’s Australian. He’d been close to a couple of shootings that really changed him. In a fever, he decided to write an anti-gun film. The way he wanted to write it was to look back on one of the most tragic events in Australia, the Port Arthur shootings. He wanted to take audiences in the footsteps of an isolated and troubled individual, when they were at their most dangerous. They walked into a gun store and bought semi-automatic weapons like golf clubs. This became the beginnings of the film. As we started filming, we started to question more about family, parenting, and mental illness. Outliers…how we treat people in communities that become more isolated. It definitely evolved, but primarily came from Sean’s experiences.”
Both Justin and Caleb were keenly aware of the Australian criticism. They understood why some believe the killer’s story should never be told. But reply there needs to be an effort to understand the root causes of such violent behavior.
Justine Kurzel: “I think it’s a point of view. I don’t think you come out of the film with the character being glamorized. We need to be able to look into dark corners as a society. How do we move forward? Sometimes it is about looking and watching dark events. Characters that are monsters. Art should have the ability to look into those corners. We need to understand the why of human behavior at times.”
Caleb Landry Jones: “That question can also go to sensationalistic components like 60 Minutes, or news coverage. This is something else. What we tried to do with this film was the opposite.”
How Caleb Landry Jones Prepared for Nitram
Good Things Productions
Our next topic of conversation was Caleb’s incredible performance. Nitram is a ticking time bomb. He exhibited psychopathic tendencies from a young age. How does an actor get to and inhabit that dark space? What did Kurzel do to prep Caleb for such an intense role? Caleb admits there were some aspects of the character he will never understand. But was able to find a path through basic human emotions.
Caleb Landry Jones: “You just have to do it. Justin put it in my head early on, this was a journey, we’re going to follow this character to the end. He wanted me to take it on. We were searching for what the end was. Even when we got there, we had a hard time with it. On primal levels, we need to understand human beings. There are aspects to the character that I know nothing about. I can never pretend to understand. But there are really simple things, like loneliness and pain, rejection, alienation, feeling dumb. Feeling that you can’t get anywhere, no matter how hard you try. There’s no place for you. We all know, to some degree, insecurities about ourselves. The way we see ourselves as opposed to others. How much awareness we actually have about what we’re doing. It was about figuring out what that was for this character. Justin surrounded me with the greatest people. We got to live together. He gave me so much material to soak up. He gave me the room to find it for myself. I have a very different take on my participation. I’m playing a character that everyone else can hate. It’s perspective and ways of thinking. No ideology necessarily, I would talk to Justin and he would curate. Then I would have a space before filming to figure out what that is for myself. Justin would then let me know what was right or wrong. He knows exactly what he’s doing. I trusted him. We found a way of communicating without over talking.”
Justin Kurzel: “He [Caleb] had this great sophistication about the script. I knew that he was hungry. I could tell he was hungry to go quite deep with it. That is actually quite rare. George MacKay was the same in the True History of the Kelly Gang. You work with actors that just know. They are there because they love acting. They do the best job possible and put their all into it. It’s a joy to be around as a director.”
The Filming Process
Nitram has zero moments of levity. The themes explored are bleak and intense. I was curious how, if at all, they were able to relax while filming. Both men were completely dedicated to realism. But found moments of needed decompression by living with the cast and crew.
Justin Kurzel: “I made another film about dark subject matters. I find that when you’re on set with those films, you have to find a way to break from the intensity. You find moments to relax and enjoy each other’s company. The toughest films usually have an intimate and caring environment.”
Caleb Landry Jones: “I don’t know if it’s a survival mechanism. There’s a need for the opposite, for release. We all stayed together. At night, we could enjoy each other. For me that was drinking gin (laughs). There was a big yin-yang kind of thing. It’s hard to explain, so I just won’t (laughs). I’ll just say there was a need for the opposite. Everybody, the crew, usually we were so tired, but we had moments of decompression.”
Gun violence is a plague that continues to devastate. Easy access to lethal weaponry, especially by the mentally ill, cannot be rationally allowed. Justin Kurzel respects different interpretations of Nitram. But wanted to be clear this is an anti-gun film.
Justin Kurzel: “I think everyone will get something different from it. In Australia, there were those didn’t think the film should have been made. Others weren’t even born yet, but at least were curious about why this happened. It is an anti-gun film. It takes you into the absurdity of that state of mind, being able to get that amount of weaponry. That is at the forefront. That’s why we made it.”
Nitram is produced by Good Things Productions, Wild Bunch International, and Stan. Nitram will have a theatrical, digital, and AMC+ release in the US on March 30th.
