James Badge Dale

0:05Eight men rode into Canyon. I dug seven graves. Horse says you are a spirit walker. The man who has been to the other side and returned. A man who cannot be killed in battle. Something very wrong with that horse. So it's the summer of badge? It seems. This is what everyone keeps telling me. It feels like a normal summer to me, other than the fact that I got a lot of people coming up to me. Wait, aren't you in that film? So I heard you came right off flight, and you had lost a lot of weight for flight. I did. Which is an amazing scene, by the way. I did, thank you. So what was it like going from that to cowboy boot camp almost immediately? Well, the great thing about I could start eating burgers.

0:52I could, it was about building the weight back up. And then get on a horse and start to ride the horse. You know, it's funny when the Wrangler's told me, like, you know, the horse can tell what you've been eating. They can smell it on you. So if you eat a burger and then go ride a horse, that horse is going to react differently to you. And I don't know if it's a good thing. It's like healthy food. Well, is the horse going to respect you if you're a vegan? I don't know. I don't know if the horse is going to be scared of me and like, respect me more if I eat a bacon cheeseburger before I ride him. Is that why Duke ran away? I heard your horse ran away at one point. Duke ran away. Duke was scared of gunfire. OK. That's my one problem with Duke. And the Wranglers were so great. All these stunt guys are like, they're like, look, we know you really like Duke. Because Duke and I, Duke was like an old Cadillac, man.

1:38I mean, when he galloped, it was just a smooth ride, man. But he was scared of gunfire. And they were a little leery about this. I was like, no, no, no, I got it, man. I'll take care of it. I'll take care of it. And sure enough, one day he just hears the gunfire and he's gone. He just took off. And they finally catch me. And the Wrangler comes up to me and goes, I'm proud of you. Duke hadn't run that fast in 10 years. Yeah, yeah, yeah. OK, I gave Duke a good run. And then we had to switch him out for another horse that day. Duke had to take a rest after that. Little brother. Hereby, I deputize you, Texas Ranger. It's dance. What did you enjoy about this cowboy boot camp? You know what's difficult about it?

2:24It was actually a really positive time. And it's a good time to have like, as a rehearsal process. You know, because you are hanging out with the other actors and you aren't trying to get into this world and letting your mustache grow. You know? It's a long-to-do-thing take. Other way. Two months? That was a good. The other way? Yeah. Yeah, that was a good two-month mustache, man. It's hard those first few weeks. A little more? Yeah. It's just so dirty. No, it's just dirty. And the first time it starts to hang over your lip. Oh, I've never gotten to that point. The first time you're getting blue caught and you're eating your own mustache. But it must help with just the character development, too, when you have something like that, right, to work with. Because it makes you feel like a different person almost. It does. Because it's so specific. And it also does change the way you speak. So we were just talking off camera here about you trying to talk like this, with your mouth closed for this role? There was a...

3:10When I was working in Australia and they got a really bad fly problem, there's flies everywhere, man. And a lot of the Australians, you know, keep their mouth shut when they're talking. I'm like, why are you doing? You know, I want to fly to fly in my mouth. And so I kind of wanted to take that idea to Dan Reed. You know, that he's outside all the time. He's out in the elements all the time. And that mustache is kind of like a fly filter. Everything, just keeping everything out of your mouth. Did you go to any other Westerns for the character? Like, where did you draw inspiration from for Dan? I wanted to make him original. I'm a fan of... I am a fan of Westerns, you know? So you have these iconic characters that, you know, Val Kilmer and Tombstone. Everything Clint Eastwood has ever done. You know, everything John Wayne has ever done. There's these iconic Western characters that kind of seep into the back of your brain.

3:57And part of them are there, but you really want to... don't want to go specifically into them. How do you make it your own? How do you make this guy your own guy? And, you know, the trick is for me, I think Dan Reed had to be the opposite of John Reed, Army Hammer, in the beginning. So I'd watch Army, and I'd just try to play against him, counteract him. And then the beautiful thing is you watch John Reed become the man. You know, everyone's talking about how Dan Reed's the great warrior wall. And now it's the younger brother. The younger brother becomes the man. Law and order has come to the west. It's a nice hat, by the way. They didn't have a bigger one.

4:44You have an interesting relationship with them because you are brothers. And you want to kind of craft that experience of being brothers together, offset maybe a little bit to get the hang of each other. But you kind of also have this, like, clashing brother relationship. So how does one create that with another actor? You know, the great thing about guys is, you know, my best friends, I clash with them all the time. I mean, we're just, we're quick with each other. We're always cutting each other down. I grew up playing hockey. And it was almost his culture of, you know, you know, you get off the ice and you maybe have a black eye who gave you a black eye. It was my best friend over here. It's okay. It doesn't matter. We're always laughing. We're always having fun. And Army is a real, he's a playful guy. And he's right there with you. And he's just, he's a lovely actor. And he's very committed. And he's got a wide range, man. I'm gonna let you go, because of you know what you go. But you just mentioned hockey.

5:31It's the middle of the Stanley Cup finals prediction. Bruins, Hawks, who is it? I just want a Game 7. I'm a Rangers fan. So I'm, you know, I love hockey. I want as much hockey as I can get, especially after the lockout. Come on, man, give us a Game 7. I don't care. Another triple overtime game. I was up late last night watching overtime. So just keep it going, boys.