One Day as a Lion, out now in select theaters and on digital VOD, is the fourth movie to team director John Swab with star Frank Grillo. The Captain America: Civil War and The Purge: Election Year star seems to really gel with the filmmaker’s way of doing things, leading to collaborations in Body Brokers, IdaRed, and Little Dixie before this movie went into production. Ahead of the release of One Day As a Lion, which also stars Virginia Madsen, J.K. Simmons, and Scott Caan, Swab joined ComicBook.com to talk about the relationship he has with Grillo, and why the two work so well together.
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Grillo, who has said in the past that he would love to return to the Marvel Universe, gets to play a superhero in his own right in many of his indie films, which are structured around him as often as not. But Swab says part of what makes their relationship work is the flexibility and collaboration he can offer Grillo.
“Frank is a great actor, like a really really great actor, and he’ll tell you straight up, I’ve taken some jobs for the money and they weren’t great jobs but I made good money,” Swab told ComicBook.com’s Chris Killian. “So I feel like Frank gets to do more than he’s given the opportunity in other films with us. The material is rich in my opinion, but also I’m a pretty collaborative guy so I like having lots of discussions with Frank about how to do things, and given the opportunity to run with a character, Frank’s as good as anybody. Another thing that I love about him is that he’s prepared. He’s always prepped and I don’t take that for granted because when you’re on an indie budget, you don’t have a lot of time. I think we just like the way each other works, and when something works, why deny it?”
In One Day as a Lion, Jackie Powers (Scott Caan) is a nice guy but a lousy hit man, and when he’s sent to take out a crafty debtor (J.K. Simmons), Jackie only pisses him off. Fleeing the scene, Jackie takes bored waitress Lola as a hostage. When Jackie reveals he needs money to get his son out of jail, Lola cooks up a scheme for them to get cash from her dying mother (Virginia Madsen). Meanwhile, a thug sent to kill him is sleeping with Jackie’s ex. Also starring Frank Grillo, this crime-comedy is a witty homage to Tarantino and the Coen brothers.
You can get the film on digital video on demand services today.
