LAFF 2016 Interview: Kim Coates on the Extreme Mayhem of OFFICER DOWNE

Celebrating its world premiere this weekend at the 2016 Los Angeles Film Festival is the graphic novel adaptation Officer Downe, which was written by Joe Casey (who also wrote the source material) and directed by M. Shawn Crahan, (also known to fans worldwide as “Clown” from Slipknot). The film stars Kim Coates as the titular character: a badass cop unable to die and Los Angeles’ last form of protection from a corrupt future world.

Produced by Mark Neveldine and Skip Williamson, two of the maniacs behind the Crank series, Officer Downe looks to be a balls-to-the-wall actioner that takes no prisoners (pun absolutely intended).

Daily Dead caught up with Coates prior to the film’s premiere to hear more about his experiences taking on the lead role for Officer Downe, collaborating with Crahan on the film, why the world needs more badass movies, and the virtues of playing an immortal character.

Great to speak with you today, Kim. I’m a huge fan of movies that embrace this kind of super violence, so I’m really looking forward to seeing Officer Downe. That being said, it also seems to have this great story grounding it as well. What did you see in this project initially?

Kim Coates: I'm not really from this genre. I barely watched my own show Sons of Anarchy because of lack of time, and I'm just all over the map in a really good way. When this was offered to me, fifteen, sixteen months ago, my people said, "Oh my god, you need to read this right now and they want you to play the title character. Would you read it?" And I did.

Halfway through this thing, I stopped. I put it down. I said, "This is based on something, right?" They said, "Yeah, a comic book." I said, "I'm going to go out and get it." I went out to this beautiful little comic book shop in Pasadena and picked up this hard copy of Officer Downe, which was created by Joe Casey and Chris Burnham.

I turned this book over, and the first scene is so graphic and sexual and funny, that I just went, "Oh my god, they're writing it just like the comic book." As I went through the comic book, it was so violent and so in your face. The thing that I really needed to talk to Joe Casey about was whether or not this cop is a good cop. And he is; he's a good cop through and through. It's in the future. It's in LA. I've died in real life and they put him on ice hoping in the future they can come up with some sort of technology that would bring this cop back. Well, they did, and so he's been brought back. I die four or five times in this film. It's so freaking R-rated. It's just off the hook, and I'm so proud of this.

Does playing a character who is basically immortal, versus something where you know that mortality is looming over them all the time, come with a certain freedom?

Kim Coates: Oh my god, yeah baby. That's a great question, because when I sat down with Clown, Shawn Crahan from Slipknot, who directed this as his first feature, and Joe Casey and I got into the script, they changed a lot of things from my notes, everything became really crystal clear to me. In the comic book, the guy looks like he's six-four, two hundred eighty pounds, and all muscle. I'm not going to be able to be six-four and all muscle, but I'll be in great shape and they went, "No, that's all we want. Thank you."

So I kept my mustache exactly, my hair exactly, and I loved how this guy is the only superhero left who can defend the city. Whenever I got into the fight scenes—I did all my stunts pretty much myself and they let me, which was kind of crazy—I wanted to snarl. I wanted to smile. I wanted to do the things that Downe did in the comic book, so I really tried to duplicate that. Then when I wasn't fighting, I was just back to this role, which was part Frankenstein, part Robocop, and I got to discover what makes him tick. Does he have a twitch? How does he emote? Does he emote? Does he cry? To go through that over a six-week shoot, and every day bring in something different, I guess I did all right, because everybody said it's pretty great.

Sometimes when actors work with first-time directors, they can get a little nervous because you don't quite know how things are going to go with somebody who hasn't been at the helm before. Could you talk about working with Shawn on this? I had the pleasure of meeting him on The Devil's Carnival years ago when he was acting. When I saw that he was directing this, I was like, "Wow, that's a great leap for him."

Kim Coates: If they would have told me that he wants to direct me in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, because I've done a lot of Shakespeare, I'm not sure I would have said “yes.” But when they said he was directing Officer Downe, and they gave me the offer, I was intrigued. I knew Slipknot, obviously, but I didn't really know Shawn other than he was #6.

So I had to get into his background and the masks and the craziness of his incredible rock star life, and then to meet him for the first time, it was on, man. It was on. His energy and his artistic vision were phenomenal. This world that we created in this movie, there could have been no better director for this than Shawn. He was always ready to learn—from me, from everyone. He had so many visual concepts and thematic concepts, but how it all worked on a big motion picture was a bit new to him. But he was all arms, all-welcoming, and all-teaching. That's all you want in a first-time director. I could not have been happier with him doing it. We made a great team.

It seems like studio action films have felt a bit safe over the last few years. Was that an interesting aspect to you coming into Officer Downe, because this deals with an unhinged world and in-your-face style more so than a lot of movies we're seeing these days?

Kim Coates: Thank you for bringing that up, because this is truly what's going on. I'm not a hypocrite, because I've been in big movies. I've been in cartoon movies. I've been in comic book-type movies before. I will again. But as a fan, I can't keep up anymore. You know what I mean? I can't. I don't know where Marvel and DC and these characters and everyone's coming and crisscrossing. Heather, I don't know what's happening anymore. I can't keep it together. If the kids can, and they're big hits, God bless them. Seriously.

But what this is, is so fucking out there; it’s different, restricted, based on a comic book—all those things. We're not afraid. It's not PG-13. In fact, it's a hard R. How about that? Deadpool to me, which I loved so much, was a great moment for us. Our picture was done before their picture was done, but I'm so glad it did so well. This movie isn't Deadpool, but it's in the same family, meaning how about we do something different? How about we do something like Joe Casey has always preached, "I want to see a movie that's actually like the violence and the craziness and the humor and the sex of dark comic books, the way they're supposed to be."

Well, guess what? If you don't want to see Officer Downe, you don't have to, but if you do, and if you like it, you're going to see it four or five times because get ready for what you're about to see. It is on. Oh my god, the action scenes, the fight scenes are out of this world.

Being a movie or a story that takes place in Los Angeles, how much does it mean to you guys to bring this movie for the first time to the LA Film Festival this weekend?

Kim Coates: Joe Casey, when he wrote the comic book years ago and then it eventually evolved into a film project, said, "We have to shoot this in LA, or we're not doing the movie." I'm so glad we shot it in LA. As luck would have it, a year later, the LA Film Festival got wind and once they saw it, they went crazy and asked us to be a part of it. Skip and his team and Mark Neveldine, they all said, "Yeah, let's do it."

I am just tickled to be in town for the premiere. I wouldn't miss it for the world. Tonight, it's already sold out. Tuesday night's already sold out. They may have another screening. We're not sure. But as this trickles out, Heather, into the comic book world and the film world, it just had to open in LA, and I think that's going to be really good luck for us.