Will Poulter: Detroit‘s Maniac Cop

By Travis Johnson

First appearing on screen in Garth Jenkins’ charming 2007  Son of Rambow at the age of 14, British actor Will Poulter has since appeared in the likes of YA SF The Maze Runner, fantasy epic The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader, raunchy comedy We’re the Millers, and more. In his latest film, Kathryn Bigelow’s Detroit,  he plays police officer Philip Krauss, a composite character based on a number of men who, on July 25, 1967, participated in the murder of three African American men during a race riot.

How did you come on board the project? It’s an odd role to chase – do they come to you and go “We want you to be the racist, villainous cop”, or do you go to them and go, “I want to be the racist, villainous cop”?

[laughs] Truthfully it’s somewhere in between. So this film came into the world under the title of “The Untitled Kathryn Bigelow Project”. That naturally created a feeding frenzy and, of course, many, many people wanted to be involved. Look, I wasn’t itching to play a racist cop but I think retrospectively I feel very fortunate to have had the opportunity to play that character, because it exposes and simultaneously makes an example of what we can’t really allow for in society. The racially-motivated police officer needs to be made extinct. And I think if in 1967 a – albeit an amalgam – character can be so recognisable in the time the film’s released, that’s a very scary thing.

Look, my experience of police is founded in the experience of being a white, straight male, but I am of the opinion that there are lots of hardworking, honest and good police officers out there. But it’s undeniable that there is a minority group who continue to make the world a less safe place. I think I saw my greater responsibility, besides serving just this individual’s story, as being to draw attention to that issue, point the finger at that bunch, and hopefully Detroit makes people realise that this is not a problem that has gone away and there is still work to be done.

That’s your character as a symbol and a thematic element of the film, but as an actor I assume you have to approach him as an individual, as someone you have to get inside, and as someone who doesn’t view himself as a villain, because he wouldn’t. So how did you approach it?

What was the scariest thing about the character for me – and about anyone who is publicly racist – is that they genuinely believe that they’re right, and that people of colour or anyone they have a prejudice against is wrong. He’s so self-righteously ignorant. It’s frightening and it does make it hard to inhabit a psychology full of so many mistruths and lies. I think you’re often taught as actors not to judge your character, and I think that was the only way I could convincingly play him. I didn’t judge him, I sort of had to believe in this idea that he was right, he was doing the right thing at all times, even though I knew innately that that way of thinking is wrong and  misguided.

He’s also based on a number of real guys. How does knowing that inform your performance? How do you even approach that?

Yeah, it’s interesting. He’s actually a composite of three of the police officers who were present in that scene, but one of the individuals who forms that composite is still alive. And look, these three police officers committed atrocities for which they were never really held accountable, and they should all be in jail. And I know for a fact that one of the individuals should be serving life in prison. And there were no charges. And, by the way, that sounds like a crazy thing to say, and a really difficult fact to confront, but the same thing has happened only recently where police officers have committed murder and have not been charged as murderers.

It’s a common occurrence, isn’t it?

It’s a common occurrence, and it’s 50 years on, so that certainly adds a sense of responsibility and added fuel to the fire that was this production. We felt that we needed to get this story out there ASAP and do it in a way that was very respectful of the facts. A lot of what was in this movie is being revealed for the first time, because it has been swept under the rug and the truth has been tampered with.

How did you find Kathryn Bigelow as a director? What’s she like on set? What kind of guidance did she give you as an actor?

She’s amazing. She gives you an immense amount of freedom. She doesn’t limit you at all in terms of how you want to express yourself. Of course, you know she has a duty to rein you in here or there if you’re off track, but for the most part she’s just incredibly trusting. She imbues you with a lot of confidence and a sense of ownership about your character.

And then from a technical perspective, in the way that she works with Barry Ackroyd, our DOP, and his crew is nothing short of genius. They manage to somehow create this voyeuristic experience for the audience while kind of removing camera consciousness for the actor. There are cameras embedded in the walls on a Kathryn Bigelow and a Barry Ackroyd set, and it just makes a very, very immersive and real experience for us as actors, which hopefully makes the experience very similar for what it was.

Obviously the centerpiece of the film is the raid, the interrogation, the torture and the murders, which takes up  a huge amount of time in the film. How long did you spend on that? What was it like, just creating that scene?

Yeah, well you’re right, it’s just over 40 minutes and it’s an intense watch, and it was similarly intense for the shoot, which took place over about three and a half, four weeks. It was like working in a pressure cooker. You just wanted out every day. And you know, I think we all feel like we barely got through it. Particularly, I imagine, for the individuals playing the victims, the recipients of that abuse.  It’s important to remember whatever we experienced as actors was minuscule compared to what the real victims went through. It’s a tough watch, but we had to scale things back so that it would even get exhibited. If we showed the real deal I don’t imagine there’d be a Detroit movie at all. It just wouldn’t be suitable for public eyes.

And yet audiences tend to believe that violence like this is heightened and exaggerated for cinematic effect. Why do people shy away from this subject matter, which is on the record; a matter of historical incident?

That’s a really, really interesting question, and I think that’s at the core of the issue that affects not only what films are being made, but just how realistic making social equality and civil rights a reality for everyone is. People don’t want to confront the truth because it serves them better to live outside of it.

Now, if every straight white man came to terms with the fact that they’re privileged and that if you do not fit that profile you experience prejudice, already we’d have a more equal world. The problem is, people refuse to acknowledge privilege and they continue to uphold their supremacy over other people, and I think people often shy away from the topic of racism because they have to confront their own part in that history and they have to come to terms with the fact that they are implicated in racial history just by being a white person, you know? If anyone thinks that this is an exaggeration – you wouldn’t necessarily be wrong to think that, you may well honestly think that it’s an exaggeration  – but it’s actually the complete opposite. If anything, we’ve dialed it down.

What was the dynamic between you and the African American actors on set, particularly during that four week part of the shoot?

I’ve made what I hope will be lifelong friends from this experience. Jacob Latimore [who plays victim Fred Temple] was already a friend of mine – which made this pretty tough, actually. We had a conversation before going into this experience with one another, and that conversation roughly went as follows: we all have to work together to get this story told. We all should be respectful of each other on the way and don’t have to be anything less towards each other in order to get it made. Let’s walk away from this experience being proud of what we have done and hopefully having formed some really genuine bonds out of it.

And also, let’s be trusting of one another. Let’s be respectful of wherever we have to go. I think no one was truly being judgmental of each other throughout this experience. We never actually brought our real personalities into question.We just totally removed the real human beings behind the characters from the equation and played the facts. That required a certain degree of maturity and compassion from the cast.

Could you point to any single act or line or scene that you would say was the most difficult? That was really hard to just do as a person?

I think the murder of Fred Temple, played by Jacob Latimore, and the reason that was so difficult is I think because of the strength of Jacob’s performance. I’ve never, ever had an actor do anything to me that has rocked me in that way. It was just amazing. His fear and the degree to which he showed his emotions in such a natural way completely rocked me.

What have people said to you after seeing the film? What’s the tone of the room?

Well, it’s interesting. The tone of the room initially is drop dead silence. I mean, normally it’s a pin-drop reaction, and hopefully what happens is, after a certain amount of time, the floodgates open for conversation. I think people sit with the film, digest it, consider it in the context of their own experience and their own lives, and then they want to know what other people think. It’s sort of like watching an explosion. It shocks you. You sit with it for awhile and then you kind of want to turn to the person next to you and actually go, “Did you fuckin’ see that too? Did you see that explosion? Where did that come from? Why did that happen? Who is responsible?” It gives birth to a lot of questions, and that’s been the most common reaction to Detroit.

Detroit is in Australian cinemas from November 9, 2017