Interview: Hot Seat Director James Cullen Bressack

ComingSoon spoke to James Cullen Bressack, the director of Lionsgate’s thriller Hot Seat, which came out on July 1 in select theaters, on digital, and on demand. The film stars Kevin Dillon and Mel Gibson.

RELATED: Hot Seat Interview: Kevin Dillon on Filming Thriller in 1 Week, Working With Mel Gibson

“Oscar-winner Mel Gibson brings this explosive cyber-thriller to life. The action begins as IT expert Friar (Kevin Dillon) finds a hair-trigger bomb strapped to his desk chair,” says the synopsis. “An unseen hacker orders him to steal digital funds online—or have his daughter abducted. As a fearless bomb expert (Gibson) arrives on the scene, the hacker frames Friar as the bomber. The tension mounts as Friar races to clear his name and expose the real terrorist—without getting himself blown to smithereens.”

Tyler Treese: You were born into a family of entertainers, so what led to you wanting to be a director and stay within that realm, but really carve your own path?

James Cullen Bressack: I grew up around movies and my dad was a storyteller, he was a writer. So being around that really made me love storytelling. And I remember when I was little, my dad used to say stuff like, he would ask me like, he’d go to tell me bedtime stories, but like, he’d ask me to say what happens here, and he’d ask me and I’d like, make something up. I’d be like, “It’s about a squirrel,” and he’d go, “What was the squirrel doing?” I’d be like, it’s this, and I’d just come up with stuff and respond to these questions. It kind of gave a freeness to storytelling and an understanding to just not be afraid of facing a blank page and really getting out there and doing stuff. And so for me, that kind of became a thing, but it really got solidified when my dad got sick when I was younger. Before that, he was like my baseball coach and we did a lot of stuff together, but he was bedridden for a couple of years and the one thing we could do was watch movies.

So I’d come home and watch movies with him every day as a kid. He’d pause them and ask me questions about the movies. When he’d ask me the questions, I thought he was just seeing if I was paying attention, but I think he was just really asking me about the camera work and character motivation and really just how to analyze film. I was that kid in high school and middle school that the teacher would give a book report to, or a science project to, and I’d make a short film about why I didn’t feel like doing that. and I turned that in instead. I remember I was flunking out of chemistry in 10th grade and my mom was like freaking out. The principal called us in and I knew it was really serious because it was the first time I saw my parents in the same room together since they got divorced. I was like, “Oh no, and what’s going on?” And like, we’re sitting there and they’re like “You’re going to fail out of chemistry,” and my mom’s like, “Why are you going to fail out of chemistry?” I turned to my mom and I go, “Mom, don’t worry. I’m not going to need chemistry when I’m making movies.” So, I was convinced that at a very, very young age [that] I was going to be making movies. It was kind of that hell or high water, I was going to go out there and get it done.

So much of the film just depends on Kevin Dillon talking to a discombobulated voice. So talk me through his performance because it’s so key that he works or the whole film’s gonna fall apart.

Kevin Dillon is such a talent. I think he’s so great in this movie and he plays this relatable everyman. I think that’s kind of really great because you believe that this could happen to really anyone and I think Kevin really plays this in a very unique and relatable way. I’m very happy with his performance and I think he carries the movie really, really well.

So much of the film is him seated because there’s the bomb strapped to his chair. You’re in the same office for all of his scenes for the most part. So how difficult was it to keep that film just visually engaging?

The one thing that’s really interesting is that’s actually what kind of drew me to liking the script so much, because when I read it, I was like, “How am I going to make this movie interesting?” And so, I started coming up with the idea of the flashbacks and stuff like that, and how he’s like almost having these visions of what’s going on outside of the building, like these glitchy memories, and having different ways to make it feel like we’re not fully stuck in this room when we are, and really keeping it kinetic and frenetic as it’s going. And I think Kevin’s performance definitely carries it as well. The discombobulated voice, I feel is creepy throughout. So I think it kind of helps but there are goals and things going on at all times, which I think drive us forward, and the score from Tim Jones was very, very solid as well. I think that it’s really engaging. So for me, I really think it keeps the tension palpable and, I’m really kind of focused when I was shooting it about having an amount of coverage in different ways and different angles in that place. So either speed it up, or slow it down based on how I wanted to cut each scene.

In the second storyline, we see the bomb squad’s perspective here with Mel Gibson, being the leader of that squad. What was your biggest takeaway from just working with him?

Mel is amazing. He elevates everything that he touches and he’s just such a talented individual. I mean, he’s not only one of the great actors, but he’s also one of the greatest living directors, so he’s such a talent. It was really truly an honor to work with him and collaborate with him. I felt Mel really brought it in this movie and I was really, really happy with his performance. You could tell when Mel’s in a scene, like everybody around him works harder. They want to work [and] do really well with him. I thought he really elevated the project.

There’s some really good humor early on, like the tech call with the old lady having router issues. I liked how the film kind of leans into the absurdity of the situation. How did you go about just balancing that tone?

For me, the movies that I love and grew up with were the movies of the eighties and early nineties, you know what I mean? So all of those had that kind of like, slight dark humor that went on during it, like you look at stuff like, even Speed, Lethal Weapon, Die Hard. All of it has a little bit of humor in there, and that’s kind of like life. Life has a little humor and that’s kind of one of the conversations Mel and I were having about this project and why we brought some more humor to his role is that his character makes jokes, but it’s to diffuse tension for himself. It’s how he deals with his stress. Sometimes, if it’s all tension and no release, it gets exhausting. But if you have these breaths of funny moments, it makes it entertaining throughout.

I thought the reveal of the bomber was really well done. Talk me through the balance of sort of placing hints throughout the film, but not quite giving it away, so it’s still surprising the most people.

Oh, thank you. I mean, I’m hoping that the twist does end up being surprising for a lot of people, and I feel like we have our moment where we reveal it, and it was a fine line. I’ve done a lot of movies with twists and half the time people are like “Ah, I saw it coming,” and half the time they aren’t. So I hope people take the ride and don’t see this one coming,

In one of your previous films, you worked with DMX who sadly passed away. What stood out about working with him?

X was amazing. I really, really loved working with him. Him and I grew very close. I actually produced another movie that he was in after I directed the one that he was in and anytime he was in town, we would hang out. He was just a lot of fun. I remember he liked to have fun on set, and one thing he just loved was the action and cut, like when I would go “Action, cut.” Like he just, for some reason enjoyed that. So I remember on the last take on Beyond the Law, he asked if he could call action and cut for himself, and I was like, yeah. So everybody was set and he looks into the camera and goes, “Action!” and then goes in does the scene, and then at the very end of the scene, he pauses for a second, looks in the camera and goes, “Cut.” I thought that was pretty fun. He was a jokester. He liked to have a lot of fun.

You mentioned producing, you’ve written stuff, you’ve worn a lot of hats during your career. Doing acting, writing, and everything else in film, does that really make you a more well-rounded director? Does that all come into play?

Definitely. I think it helps. Understanding all aspects of film helps. The more you can kind of direct and work with people. I learned something every time I do a movie, but I would like to clarify, I’m not an actor. I just plug myself into every one of my movies with like one line or no lines, just like Tammy in the background, like in Hot Seat, I’m just a guy at a water fountain. So I’m definitely not an actor. I remember actually one of my movies, I actually did have lines and we had to do like, 30 takes because I couldn’t remember my three lines. So, I’m definitely not an actor, but it definitely gives me an appreciation for how hard the job of the actors are.

You’ve definitely been staying busy. Talk to me about your schedule and how you determine how many films you’re going to take on?

I don’t really enjoy having free time, you know? So I like to stay as busy as possible, especially because I just really enjoy what I do. So, burying myself in my work and making movies is just really fun for me. I have the most fun and feel the most in my element when I’m making movies and I’ve been directing [feature films] for 12 years now. For me, it’s kind of probably like the longest thing that I’ve done consistently in my entire life. So for me, it’s where I feel most myself, if that makes sense. So I enjoy it quite a bit. My dad, when I was younger, used to always say, cause I made my first feature film at 18, he said: “Do as many movies as possible, because at some point in your life all the movies you made before you were 30, will be known as your early movies.” So I kind of went into that philosophy when I was making movies. I’m 30 now, but all the movies that I made before I was 30, I’m very blessed that I had all these opportunities and I was able to learn from all the stuff that I’ve made. I’m very blessed to be able to say that I’m a 12-year veteran at the age of 30.

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