Dead Man’s Wire, which opened in theaters nationwide over the weekend, tells the true story of Tony Kiritsis (Bill Skarsgård), who in 1977 walked into the office of the president of the Meridan Mortgage Company and kidnapped Richard ‘Dick’ Hall (Dacre Montgomery) with a sawed-off shotgun, with a dead man’s wire attached to the trigger and his own neck. The spectacle of the standoff quickly became a media frenzy.

Recently, Cary Elwes, who plays the role of Michael Grable in the film, spoke with SciFi Vision about wanting to work with director Gus Van Sant, using research to create Grable, costumes, and more.

Dead Man’s Wire is now in theaters nationwide.

Watch the interview and read the transcript below.



SCIFI VISION:   To start, what was it that made you want to be a part of it?

CARY ELWES:   Oh, Gus Van Sant. I mean, you know, every actor worth their salt wants to work with Gus. He's one of the great actor directors and auteur filmmakers out there. And yeah, I couldn't wait. I'm a huge fan. Even bigger now.

SCIFI VISION:   What was kind of the experience like though? How did you get the part, I guess?

CARY ELWES:   What led up to that exact moment? Basically, my brother produced the film, and he offered me a cameo, and I said, “No, I don't want to do a cameo.” I said, “I want to work with Gus.”

He's like, “No, it's not going to happen. I'm not going to force you on him. I have too much respect for him to do that, and he casts his own movies, so forget it.” And I said, “Come on, just call him. If he says no, I get it. I'll just have to deal with it.” And he said, “Okay, fine.” He called Gus, and he said, “You know, my brother…if you want to have him in the movie. I offered him a day playing role,” and Gus is like, “Oh no, I love your brother. Do you think he'd be in my movie?” And Cass is like, “I think I can get him.”

And he called me back, my brother, and he said, “Here's Gus's number. He wants to talk to you.”

So, I was overwhelmed. I was so thrilled. Turns out he knew my work, and he asked me what role I wanted to do. And I said, “I'd like to play, you know, the blue-collar detective.” You know, I don't often get offered those roles. I usually get the strait-laced FBI agent in a suit and tie, clean cut. I said, “I want to play the working-class guy. No one ever offers me those.” And he said, “Okay.” And then we began the work to create Mike Grable.

SCIFI VISION:   Did you approach him differently because it was based on a real person than you do for other characters?

CARY ELWES:   Yeah, so if I'm lucky, which I was in this one, I try to contact the family and see if they're amenable to opening up their archives. And in this case, they were. I met with Mike's two surviving sons, Mike Jr. and Jason Grable, in Indianapolis when I went down there for research. And they couldn't have been more supportive. They opened up all their archives. They gave me video footage of him. They gave me audio files of him. They gave me photograph albums. They gave me diaries. They gave me letters. They just gave me everything. They're like, “Cary, take it. We trust you. Just bring it back when you're done.”

So, I arrived in Louisville with all of this material and his behavior, and I got them to fill out a form for me about his nuances, his tics and his behavior and how he responds to things. And I presented the character to Gus, and he basically fine-tuned it. He kind of said, “Well, let's use that catchphrase” and “I like that behavior of his and the way he responds to that.” And so, basically, like a conductor, he kind of fine-tuned it for me.

SCIFI VISION:   So, you already had a lot. But when you already have all that, does the costume make, you know, like affect you still?

CARY ELWES:   Oh, yeah. Peggy Schnitzer is fabulous. You know, I mean, she knew right away. If you look at the picture, I mean, it looks like the thing was shot in 1977. There's not a single character who shows up in just a regular jeans and a T-shirt. Everybody has a specific look, which they did in the 70s. I'm old enough to remember that. And she did a magnificent job. Yeah, it's like a 70s movie. I mean, Gus said, “I want to pay homage to my favorite filmmakers of that period. I want to give a shout-out to Sidney Lumet, you know, Dog Day. I want to give a shout-out to The French Connection, to Billy Friedkin. I want to give a shout-out to Mean Streets, Marty Scorses.”

So, the film has that vibe to it. It feels like an authentic 70s movie, which is an incredible thing, really. We haven't seen that since the 70s.

SCIFI VISION:   Yeah, if I didn't know it was from now, I would have thought so too.

CARY ELWES:   Right? It's incredible. It's an incredible film, which really, I think, you need to see it in the cinema. It's not a movie - I mean, you can watch it at home if you really, really want to, but it's really a film that needs to be seen on the big screen to really enjoy it with the audience.

There's a lot of laughing. There's a lot of dark humor in the movie.

SCIFI VISION:   Yeah, I didn't expect it to be funny.

CARY ELWES:   So, when we screened it, people were just cheering and laughing out loud. So, it's fun to do it with a group of people, you know?