Exclusive Interview: Pop Culturalist Chats with Tuscaloosa’s Philip Harder

Director-writer Philip Harder makes his full-length feature film debut with the must-see drama Tuscaloosa. Based on the novel by Glasgow Phillips, who also serves as an executive producer and cowriter, Tuscaloosa tells the story of a recent college graduate, Billy Mitchell (Devon Bostick, The 100), who spends his summer working on the grounds of a mental institution run by his psychiatrist father (Tate Donovan, Argo). There he begins to fall in love with Virginia (Natalia Dyer, Stranger Things), a patient who may be mentally ill or may, in fact, be the only sane person Billy knows. As racial tensions and Vietnam War protests begin to rise, Billy’s best friend Nigel (Marchánt Davis) becomes involved with a radical civil rights activist to take a stand against Tuscaloosa’s white power elite, which includes Billy’s father. Pop Culturalist caught up with Philip to chat about the experience of writing and directing his first feature and collaborating with this talented ensemble.

PC: You’ve directed tons of music videos, commercials, and shorts. What has the transition been like going into film?
Philip: It’s been eye-opening. It’s one thing to make a thirty-second iPod spot where people are dancing in a silhouette or a three- or four-minute music video, but this is the long haul. This is pacing. This is the dialogue, the characters, and all these things.

When I went into this movie, I had this script that people on our team were really into. We got some great actors like Natalia Dyer from Stranger Things, Devon Bostick from The 100, and I thought, “Everything’s tight. We’re good to go.” When we started shooting, we realized, “We should change this. There’s a hole here. Maybe we need a little backstory here.” We were adjusting and adjusting. Then the third rewrite and edit comes. We started doing screenings with test audiences, and we were like, “Maybe we should drop this scene.” [laughs] It was an eye-opening experience.

But one thing that I’m so happy that I was able to do was work with these incredible actors: Natalia Dyer, Devon Bostick, and Marchánt Davis. They have so much experience in front of the camera. They made my job so easy. At the end of our first rehearsal, I was like, “Oh my god! These people are at a level way beyond anything that I’ve worked on before. Now I can work on the nuances of the story and they can adjust to that.” That was very eye-opening in a positive way. I was so happy to get to work with these talented actors.

PC: You’ve been wanting to make this film for a long time. Tell us about the story and your early connection with it.
Philip: I read the novel in the early 2000s. I met the author, Glasgow Phillips, around the same time. We hung out and talked about everything but the novel. [laughs] It was just the two of us hanging out at Venice Beach. The next day, he was like, “Yeah, I think I’d like you to make it.” Naïvely, I was like, “Okay. Everyone give me the money to fund this project.” That didn’t happen. [laughs] It was a wake-up call. I thought I’d walk in with this amazing script and would get an unlimited amount of money. But that’s not reality. I realized that I had to champion this movie. Then it fell into this political situation, especially after the 2016 election, where I got some people motivated because they were wondering what to do with what was happening in our world politically. It gained so much new momentum as a story that needed to be told. Quite frankly, we didn’t change anything in the script. We kept it the same. It just fell into these political times. We worked on it for quite some time. We weren’t constrained to time like a film that has a major release date. Luckily, it’s coming out right now in the 2020 election, when I think these issues are in the eye of so many people right now.

PC: Glasgow is also an executive producer and cowriter on the film. What was the collaboration like working with him?
Philip: Glasgow is actually pretty hands off. Over the years, I would ask him about certain phrases and what certain abstracts meant. But I think what he did as a writer is say, “I wrote the novel. I want the reader to interpret it the way that they see it.” He was guiding me in that way. I learned early on that there were certain questions that he wouldn’t give me an answer to. That taught me a lot. I had to interpret it the way that I saw it, which is how he wants the reader to interpret it when they read his novel. I’m hoping the viewer who sees the movie can do the same. There are a lot of complicated issues in the story. I would like the viewer to put their own experiences into the story that we’re trying to tell.

PC: That’s so insightful! What are some of the major challenges you face as you adapted the novel for the silver screen?
Philip: Well, this particular novel, which is the first that I’ve adapted, probably needed a mega budget the way that it was written. It has this huge backstory that went through many years of Billy [Devon Bostick] and Nigel’s [Marchánt Davis] childhood and how they grew throughout the years. I kept flashing back to that. Quite frankly, it was too much story for us to tell. When we dropped that backstory, the story really took off. Instead, I tried to leak it into the dialogue between these two young adults talking to each other in 1972. Not only was that practical, it put the focus on what was happening for these young people who were coming of age in this tumultuous time. That really allowed us to get to the heart of the story and hone our ideas better.

PC: Is the weight of the project different when you’re tackling issues that we’re facing in today’s political climate?
Philip: That became really prevalent when we were shooting. I can point to one incident when the Me Too movement was exploding while we were shooting this movie. There’s a scene, which I have to admit I was wrongheaded about. Natalia was more or less a prop in a scene. We were rehearsing it and we instantly realized there was a problem. These young actors are so aware of things. They know what’s happening, and they want to get it right. Devon Bostick was like, “Why don’t I give her some of my lines? She can’t just stand here.” She was like, “I’d love to do that.” I was so glad they brought that up. It would have been tone deaf if I missed that.

Marchánt Davis put a lot of his thoughts as a young black man into this movie. And especially YG—he’s a rapper from Compton who came into this project really late. He was originally supposed to play this side character named Antoine, but I was so fascinated by his acting ability, backstory, and what he’s been through that we wrote scenes for him while we were filming. On our off day, we wrote an entire scene for him. We quickly researched these recordings of Vietnam soldiers from 1971 while they were in Vietnam. I jotted down everything they were saying. I was like, “YG, this is what I researched last night. I want you to put these into your own words.” We created the scene around the campfire, and I realized I now had this whole backstory about a guy who had returned from Vietnam thrown into the world of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, in 1972. I was so glad that I was able to adapt to that and write those stories as we went. We learned along the way. It’s that process of writing a film three times: in script, during shoot, and during edit.

PC: This is the first feature film you’ve written and directed. What’s been the biggest takeaway?
Philip: Actors! I knew it was going to be so much work to get this film budgeted and green-lighted. If we’re going to do all this work, let’s make sure we get actors who can pave the way for distribution and help us find an audience. Tate Donovan from Manchester by the Sea was the first person we cast. The next day we got Devon Bostick. Then we got Natalia Dyer. Not only that, I learned that not only are these actors known, they have tons of on-screen experience—much more than I have. They were able to bring so much talent to my directing process. I thank them so much. Some of these actors grew up in front of the camera. At the first rehearsal, I was like, “Oh my god. These actors are so good.” With music videos, I’m working visually with nuances. But now I’m working nuances with talented actors. That is the thing I learned most. It’s what I recommend to anyone trying to make a movie: cast, cast, cast!

To keep up with Philip, follow him on Instagram. Catch Tuscaloosa on VOD and digital today.