Since the Lone Star State has some of the nation’s most restrictive abortion laws, the West Texas town of Alpine made a compelling setting for the drama Due West.
In the film, actor and San Antonio native Henry Thomas (E.T.: The Extraterrestrial) plays Father Mike, a small-town Texas pastor whose deeply held beliefs are challenged when a woman he knows must confront a pregnancy crisis. Father Mike is forced to make a difficult decision when questions of faith and compassion collide.
“I was so excited to cast Henry,” Austin-based actress and producer Adrianne Palicki (Friday Night Lights), 43, told the Current during a recent interview. “There are so many nuances to Pastor Mike, and Henry is such a nuanced actor. I knew he was going to bring something to the role that was going to be different — and he did.”
During the Current’s recent interview with Thomas, 54, we discussed Due West’s moral complexity, the power of art to spark difficult conversations and why returning to Texas always feels like coming home. The filmis now available on digital and VOD platforms.
When you read the script, did you see this as a political film or more of a personal story that inevitably became political because it’s set in Texas?
I read everything within the context of the script. For me, the interesting thing is the ambiguity and the moral conundrum, especially for Pastor Mike. He feels a certain way about something because it’s objective, but it suddenly becomes personal. Then, he’s faced with something that he never really had to think about deeply. To me, that was the lure. I thought it would be a powerful story.
Do you think films on specific social issues like abortion can reach people in ways that headlines and debates can’t?
I think that’s the purpose of art and media — to not really frame anything from a moral perspective. It’s to show a different side of something [and] to open a conversation or to make people think [and] maybe even to make people mad — to make people feel things that they normally wouldn’t experience because they don’t like to feel certain uncomfortable things. I think art sometimes makes you uncomfortable. There’s a reason and a purpose for that. Life is an amazing journey. We should think about [this film] because it’s a human story at its heart. These issues divide people, [but] art is a way to bring people together.
Some viewers will see this film as taking a clear stance on the abortion issue. Were you ever concerned about how audiences in Texas might respond to it?
The idea is to make people think about things. The best art makes you feel something. Those are the best films. You walk away, [and] you think about them. Even if it’s just a thought, that’s a win for a film or a work of art.
Due West brings you back to your roots. What is it about shooting in Texas that actors understand immediately once they get here?
Especially where we shot this film in West Texas, it’s a place all its own. All of Texas is like that. There are so many great, unique places to shoot there. People are attached to that landscape in many ways. So, I think when you get there, you immediately feel that. I grew up there, so it has a very visceral impression on me. I roll across the Texas border, and I’m home. That’s the way I’ve always felt. But I think other people get that too. Texans are very interesting.
You left San Antonio at an early age when most actors are just starting to discover themselves. Looking back now, is there something about growing up here that you didn’t realize was influencing your work until much later in life?
I think I always realized it. I stayed in Texas until I was about 26, but I always liked going back to Texas after I filmed something. I always felt connected to it. It was never like I left. I never thought, “Yay, I got out of Texas and made it to Hollywood!” That never really happened.
I have to ask, I’m sure you’ve seen Steven Spielberg’s new film Disclosure Day already, right?
I haven’t seen it! I was a bad boy. I didn’t go.
Oh, no! Well, I won’t spoil it too much, but there is an alien in it. I’m being facetious, but I was a bit disappointed it wasn’t E.T. as an adult.
I would have expected it would be closer to Close Encounters of the Third Kind aliens, right?
It’s comparable, yes.
Right. I don’t think [Steven] is going to touch E.T. He’s going to leave it alone.
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