Exclusive Interview: Writer-Director Jesse V. Johnson and Star Thomas Jane Talk One Ranger

Writer-director Jesse V. Johnson and star Thomas Jane are teaming up for their must-see action-thriller, One Ranger.

A gunslinging Texas ranger (Thomas Jane) tracks a bank robber (Dean Jagger) across the desert — only to discover he’s an international terrorist set on detonating a bomb in the heart of London. When the lawman’s partner is killed, he is drawn into partnership with a British intelligence agent (Dominique Tipper) and her boss (John Malkovich) to bring the outlaw to justice — dead or alive.

Pop Culturalist was lucky enough to chat with Jesse and Thomas about One Ranger, their collaboration, honoring these real-life heroes, and more.

PC: Jesse, you wrote and directed One Ranger, and the film feels like a nod to the early days of your career. What was the inspiration behind this story?
Jesse: I used to work in Dallas on a show called Walker, Texas Ranger. In Love Field, there’s a statue of a very famous Texas Ranger named Jay Banks that said, “One riot, one ranger.” If you do your historical research on that, this huge fight took place during the turn of the century. A train pulls up and one ranger steps off. The town is like, “Where are the rest of you?” He says, “One riot, one ranger.” These Rangers haven’t changed that much. They’re more technologically advanced. They’re a resource for other law enforcement agencies to go to nowadays. There’s state-of-the-art gear and state-of-the-art training, yet they still wear this wonderful outfit with regulation Western-style shirts, jeans, belts, and boots.

There was something really enticing, dramatic, and wonderful about that. As you do a bit more research, you find that there are a lot of great Texas Rangers in movie history. We have Jeff Bridges in Hell or High Water, Nick Nolte in Extreme Prejudice, and Tommy Lee Jones. We didn’t want to copy any of them. Thomas and I did copious research. These are real-life superheroes.

PC: Thomas, you’ve done it all in your career. What was it about this particular character and script that resonated with you?
Thomas: I loved the idea of playing a role that’s inspired by real men who do this for a living and the anachronism of modern society and the sensibilities that we live with today. Society is always swinging the pendulum in one direction. Then it gets too much for everybody and it swings the other way. I liked that this story and character help slow down the pendulum and start swinging it the other way. I loved the world that these people live in. These people are walking around out there today. They have very high standards, and we need more of that.

PC: Jesse, you’re known for your meticulous attention to detail and for bringing authenticity to the screen. What was the research process like for this film and instilling that Ranger mentality into this character?
Jesse: It was a case of not wanting to create a cliché. We didn’t want to create anything based on anyone else’s artwork. We really dig into the actual factual evidence of who these guys are and anecdotes that were told by actual Texas Rangers. I actually talked to Arizona Rangers as well because I knew a few of them. You really get the idea of some of the context of who they are and how they deal with problems. I went to the Autry Museum and visited their section on Texas Rangers there. I visited the Texas Ranger Museum here in Dallas. We tried to base it on as many facts as possible.

My favorite filmmakers are ones from another era where you had writers and directors who lived these incredible lives and have been in World Wars and had all these adventures. They base their movies on real-life characters as opposed to mash-ups of their favorite films. Not that I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with that whatsoever, but there’s something more interesting and lived-in about that particular era of filmmakers.

So what I wanted to do is base our film on actual lives and characters as opposed to other movies. Thomas was really game for that and allowed me to put him in quite a few moments of jeopardy, being thrown around with these guys. It was great to go out there and approach this film in a very visceral way.

Thomas: I liked that we approached the fights in a realistic way where my character Tyree is not a superhero. He gets exhausted by fighting people. It’s really hard. It hurts afterwards. But you’ve got to carry that around and wake up the next day.

Jesse: I’ve been around a lot of fights. I fought a bit in the UK. I had three terrible losses and that was my entire career. But I’ve never seen a fight like the ones that are in Hollywood movies now. I wanted to put a little bit of realism in there. It’s messy. Most of the really tough guys that I know don’t look like bodybuilders. They’re usually shorter.

Thomas: Scrappy.

Jesse: These are the tough guys. I wanted to put an element of that in the movie and what I’ve sniffed and tasted in real life. I don’t partake in that lifestyle anymore, but I’ve certainly seen it enough to know when I’m seeing something that’s fictional. That’s what I see in most films. They’re still well-made, beautifully shot movies, but I felt like if we’re going to compete with that on a much lower budget, let’s go with something more realistic. Let’s go with that. How does a gun shoot most of the time? It misses. When you do hit someone, they rarely go straight down. Thankfully, Thomas brought that to the table and was a fantastic collaborator. We all got quite bruised, battered, and covered in blood. Hopefully, when people go see it in the theater, they notice that.

PC: Thomas, this is such a transformative performance, and there’s a certain demeanor and essence that you have to have when embodying this type of character. What was your preparation like? Is there a different pressure when you’re playing a real-life hero?
Thomas: There’s totally a different responsibility when you’re playing a real-life hero, even though Alex Tyree is a fictional character, but the role that he embodies is very real. You have to be meticulous in the research. If a Texas Ranger watches this movie, you want him to feel satisfied by it and not go, “What a piece of garbage. What a joke!” That’s my greatest fear. That kept me going. We wanted to honor the people who really do this for a living. It’s a wonderful subject for a film. Like Jesse said, these are the guys that you call in when regular law enforcement can’t get the job done or they’re overwhelmed. These are the guys that step up. When the sh*t gets real, these are the guys you call. They’ve got their own code of ethics. They’ve got their own uniform—the boots and the jeans. Everything is very specific. They can’t be dusty. They have to be clean. Your belt buckle better be sparkling. They hold everything to a high standard, but it’s their own standard. That’s what makes it unique. It’s something that they’ve developed over time and that they hold onto in order to honor those who came before them.

PC: Thomas, this project also finds you reuniting with Dominique [Tipper] who you’ve worked with in the past. How helpful was it having that prior relationship with her as you explored the dynamic between Agent Smith and Tyree? Because they don’t get off on the best foot.
Thomas: For sure. I needed someone that I knew who could get the job done. I worked with Dominique for five years on The Expanse. She has a great attitude, and she’s a really strong actor. She’s very instinctive. But mostly, it was our off-screen relationship that told me that she’d be great for the part because we get along well.

When these characters don’t get along, that was fun to create with Dom. But you need to have the undercurrent of a connection between the two of them. They couldn’t be entirely antagonistic towards each other. I knew Dom could get the job done. We had a great time. It was tougher for her, but at least she got to go home at night. We shot in England in her hometown.

Jesse: She was brilliant. She’s very good at improvising and going with the flow. There were times when we’d get to set and it’d start raining and we had to rework the scene. She was very good at adapting as we went along, which was great.

I noticed a shot that I hadn’t seen before on her Instagram. She had been hit across the hand by something and it made 15 little cuts on her hand, which is one of the most terribly painful things to have happened.

Thomas: That happened on our movie?

Jesse: Yeah. I never heard about it, which is a testament to Dominique. She rolled up her sleeves and got it done.

PC: This film is nonstop action from start to finish, and you all filmed with such a tight timeline and grueling conditions. How were you able to accomplish that? Is there a particular scene that you’re excited for audiences to see?
Jesse: It’s a lot of planning. I was a stuntman in the past, so you plan as much as you possibly can. On this one, I had to release the reins. I had to let my English stunt guys take over, and they did great. Even though there wasn’t money for them to rehearse, Thomas and the stunt guys still rehearsed. They worked very, very hard to make it as original and organic as possible. I think they did that really, really well. Safety is always paramount. But as a director, my prerogative is to push to the very, very edge of what is safe. Obviously, I’ve done this all before, so if I see things that I don’t think are safe, I will pull the plug. But we pushed it right to the very limit. Everyone pulled it off beautifully, especially Thomas, doing all the fights himself. He got beat up.

I would come and visit the second unit because the fight unit was managing that aspect. I could see sweat coming through his clothing and on the side of his head. I was like, “Are you sure you don’t want a stunt double?” It was incredible to see what he pulled off.

Thomas: It was fun. We wanted the fights to feel real. When you get into a fight, it hurts. It hurts for days after. This poor son of a b*tch keeps fighting the same guy throughout the movie. It gets exhausting. I thought that was really fun to play with. I wanted it to feel real. These tough sons of b*tches don’t necessarily have to have the biggest guns, chests, and trapezoids. That’s not a tough guy. It’s the regular guy who gets up, goes to work, and gets the sh*t beat out of him, but gets up anyway. He still comes after you and won’t stop. That’s a tough guy. I got a chance to do that and create that on this project. The more the fights hurt, the better.

Jesse: It was a nightmare for continuity because I had to keep up with the cuts and the bruises that were building up and up throughout the movie. [laughs]

Make sure to follow Jesse (Instagram) and Thomas (Twitter/Instagram). One Ranger is out in select theaters and wherever you stream movies.

Photo Credit: Robert Polgar (Jesse) // Lionsgate (Thomas)