I’m sitting across the table from veteran actor Tobin Bell, whose gaze I try to hold. Between us lies a hefty metal briefcase containing nine composition books. One for each “Saw” film he’s appeared in. Two decades of rigorous preparation to play a horror mastermind.
The first page of handwritten notes for 2004’s “Saw” includes a drawn spiral interrogating the likes, dislikes and motivations of John “Jigsaw” Kramer, the methodical, hyper-intelligent, deadly-contraption designer who some call a righteous vigilante and others a ruthless killer.
“Each film is a different story and John’s in a different place,” Bell tells me, wearing a dark red-carpet-ready suit. “Same guy but different circumstances.” When speaking about his morally questionable character’s philosophy, Bell occasionally quotes Kramer’s phrases verbatim, with the same muted ferocity and growly voice as I’ve heard him do on screen.
“Live or die, make your choice,” he adds, sending chills down my spine on what would otherwise be an unremarkable sunny afternoon at the Lionsgate offices in Santa Monica.
Bell and Shawnee Smith in 2006’s “Saw III.”
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(Lionsgate)
As part of this year’s Beyond Fest, Bell will attend a 20th anniversary screening of the first “Saw” in its unrated version on Friday at the Egyptian Theatre. (Later in the month, the chapter that kicked off the gruesome franchise will return to theaters for a limited time.)
Bell, 82, an acting savant who broke into cinema’s foreground in his sixties, explains that the pages are occupied by a series of questions about the character. They start with the most basic details — “Where am I?” for example — and evolve into increasingly specific queries until they form an inverse triangle brimming with insight he’s deciphered on his own.
He learned this method from Oscar-winning actor Ellen Burstyn at the Actors Studio in New York City back in the ’70s and has applied it to every role he’s landed since.
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“By the time I get to actually rolling the camera I’m up to 128 answers,” Bell says. “You never know everything, but hopefully I know enough so I don’t go mad trying to play someone I don’t f— know at all.”
“I wanted to just follow my instinct rather than some kind of idea of a career.” Bell says of his early days that led him to acting.
(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
He has always pursued the kind of lived-in performances of actors such as Montgomery Cliff, Gary Cooper or Spencer Tracy, whose movies Bell says he watched in the theater as a child in his hometown of Weymouth, Mass. every Saturday. “They became their characters,” he says of those screen legends. “You didn’t feel like they were indicating.”
Before stepping into the still-expanding “Saw” saga, Bell had been a working actor for almost three decades, amassing a varied collection of screen credits. Among them were memorable supporting parts in the racially charged crime thriller “Mississippi Burning” and Sydney Pollack’s “The Firm” (two of the four times he’s acted opposite Gene Hackman).
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He watched Sidney Lumet direct Paul Newman in “The Verdict” while sitting in the courtroom next to Bruce Willis, another unknown at the time. And he’d experienced the heartbreak of being left on the cutting room floor after working with Martin Scorsese for “Goodfellas.”
“I had a scene with [Robert] De Niro that got cut,” he says. “You’ve got to be prepared for that s— too. I’m now in it only for a handshake and I say, ‘Come into my office.’ ”
Although Bell worked in summer-stock theater as a young man, he attended Boston University to study journalism, with specific aims to work in broadcast television. (In an alternate universe, Jigsaw would have become Walter Cronkite.) It was there that the 1963 assassination of John F. Kennedy would reset the course of his future.
Soon after the tragedy, Bell snuck into a drama-department-only session to hear Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy speak about acting as an honorable profession. That day, he concluded the world didn’t need one more talking head and decided to become an artist.
“Kennedy says in a speech to the poet Robert Frost that the artist is the last great defense of freedom, and that the artist has a love-hate relationship with society and keeps us on our toes,” Bell recalls. “I felt I no longer had any responsibility to anything. I wanted to just follow my instinct rather than some kind of idea of a career.”
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“I always thought I was going to be a romantic leading man,” Bell says. “But an agent also once told me, ‘If you want to work, Tobin, they’ve got to see you as something.’ ”
(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
With a mattress tied to the top of his car, a resolute Bell moved to New York City in 1964 after being accepted at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre. Little did he know that in order to chase his acting goals, he would be laying on his back painting the underside of stairwells in a 17-story apartment building to make a living.
“I worked at 53 part-time jobs to keep myself going for more than 20 years in New York,” he says. “I loaded trucks, parked cars at the Hilton garage, bussed tables, waited tables, tended bar. I worked as background and a stand-in in 35 films before I ever spoke.”
His entry into an artistic life was far from linear, however. At one point during his time in New York, Bell married and had a child. In need of steady income, he took a master’s degree in environmental science and for the next six years created educational experiences for school children on the Hudson River, catching, observing and releasing fish.
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Throughout it all, Bell held onto a strong conviction. “As much stage work and television as I did in New York, I believed I would become a film actor,” he says. Being part of the Actor Studio, a membership-only organization for professionals, help him keep that dream alive.
“I had a place to belong,” Bell says. “If they took you into the Actors Studio, it made one say to oneself, ‘Maybe I have something. Maybe I’m good enough.’ ”
But the years piled on and one day, a scene moderator at the famed acting workshop suggested that in order to advance his career, Bell should go to Hollywood and play “bad guys.”
“I always thought I was going to be a romantic leading man,” Bell says, remembering the frustration. “But an agent also once told me, ‘If you want to work, Tobin, they’ve got to see you as something.’ ”
Bell in 2023’s “Saw X,” which earned some of the franchise’s best reviews. “It’s all in the writing,” Bell says.
(Lionsgate)
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Then came Alan Parker’s 1988 “Mississippi Burning,” in which Bell played an FBI agent. Bell remembers the late British director asking him, “You know why I had you come in, Tobin?” Parker then pointed at the headshot that Bell was using and said, “Because there’s power in that headshot.” A year later, on the recommendation of his “Mississippi Burning” co-star Kevin Dunn, Bell moved to Los Angeles.
He wasn’t here two weeks before he was cast as a criminal in the pilot episode of the 1990 television series “Broken Badges” that would shoot in Vancouver, Canada. From there, one job after another followed and for the first time he was able to make a living solely working as an actor. The quality of the projects ranged from compelling to forgettable. You may have seen him in one episode of “The Sopranos” as the head of a military academy, or on “Seinfeld” as a no-nonsense record store owner.
“I’ve learned more doing crap than I’ve learned doing good stuff,” he says. “Because you have to try to make it better, more interesting.”
“Saw” would eventually come his way in a fortuitous manner, like most breaks. He’d played Patrick Dempsey’s father on the TV show “Once and Again,” and while his character was a shadowy figure, Bell’s potent, piercing voice cut through. That series and “Saw” shared the same casting director, Amy Lippens, so when the debuting Australian director James Wan needed a voice for Jigsaw’s tapes in “Saw,” she suggested Bell.
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It wasn’t until the first sequel, “Saw II” that Bell felt more substantial ownership of the character of John Kramer, whom he describes as a “King Lear-size guy,” making suggestions for the screenplay, including dialogue, which he has continued to do for each new film. And though Bell doesn’t condone Kramer’s actions, he understands his disdain for those he traps.
“John feels that the world has been taken over by mediocre people,” Bell says. “He believes we all have to deal with the consequences of what we create. And that these people are not appreciative of what they have.”
“When I was a kid I didn’t like going to horror films,” Bell says. “As soon as the scary part of a film would come up, I’d be down behind the seat.”
(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
Admittedly, Bell has never been a fan of horror (though he was impressed by the Australian slasher “Wolf Creek”). He prefers historical films and period dramas. But through conventions and casual meetings with horror fans, he’s gained an appreciation for their devotion to the genre and the thoughtfulness of their questions about Kramer’s worldview. He also has his own theory about why people like being scared.
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“It’s a visceral experience that you can’t control,” Bell says. “You’re not just sitting, passively watching. All of a sudden you [jumps up from his chair, startled]. Some people like that. Not my cup of tea, necessarily. When I was a kid I didn’t like going to horror films. As soon as the scary part of a film would come up, I’d be down behind the seat.”
When I ask if he’s ever felt pigeonholed in the billion-dollar-grossing phenomenon of “Saw,” Bell suggests that every actor gets pigeonholed, whether as “an ingenue, the girl next door,” or in his case, a “bad guy.”
“If within being pigeonholed I can create a rich acting experience — which is why I became an actor — pigeonhole me, go ahead,” Bell says. “It’s every artist’s responsibility to create within whatever is given to him and it’s my job to change your perception of me. If you want to perceive me in a certain way, maybe you’ll see me differently when you see the next film.”
About the upcoming “Saw XI” slated for release during the fall of 2025, Bell confirmed he’s a main part of it. The hope, he says, after the reinvigorated critical and audience reception to last year’s Mexico-set “Saw X,” is to continue elevating the quality of the series.
“It’s all in the writing,” he adds. Bell believes horror films can be as layered as those of any other genre. “It’s not all one guy outside the screen door with sidelight on him.” And the fans, he says, always want to talk to him about the big moral questions of “Saw,” not the gory particulars.
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“I’m really excited about continuing to develop him,” he says. “John Kramer is not done. There’s more to learn.”
Even after 50 years devoted to acting, there’s just as much left to be seen from Bell, who is also writing a memoir and his own screenplays — he’s putting on one of the pieces he’s penned at the Actors Studio soon. As he starts a new composition book for another Jigsaw tale, his own storied life keeps adding pages.
“Trying to find your niche as a movie star isn’t easy,” said Frank Scheck in The Hollywood Reporter. Take Glen Powell. A year ago, the Twisters and Anyone but You star was being talked about as possibly the next Tom Cruise. But he “stumbled badly” when he tried to play a macho action hero in November’s remake of The Running Man, and he’s now turned in a second straight box office flop. He took a risk with How to Make a Killing, playing a guy cheated by fate who we’re supposed to root for as he begins murdering off the seven rich relatives standing between him and an enormous inheritance. But c’mon. “Powell is charming, but he’s not that charming.”
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The movie “needed to pick a side,” said Jacob Oller in AV Club. It could have been “a clownish class comedy” or “bitter sociopathic satire,” but it winds up being neither, and “at the center of it all is Powell, making the same face for an hour and 45 minutes, too unflappable to root for, too smug to magnetize as an inhuman American Psycho.” I’m not ready to give up on him, said Nick Schager in the Daily Beast. To me, he and co-star Margaret Qualley, who plays the femme fatale who eggs on the killing spree, come across as “such alluringly nasty delights” that this reworking of the 1949 black comedy Kind Hearts and Coronets “ survives its potentially lethal missteps and works on its own limited terms.” Though its teeth aren’t as sharp as they should be, “it’s smart and spiky enough to leave a pleasurably painful mark.”
‘Pillion’
Directed by Harry Lighton (Not rated)
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★★★★
While this gay BDSM rom-com from a rookie director “might sound niche,” said Amy Nicholson in the Los Angeles Times, “free yourself to see it and you’ll discover it’s a universal romance.” Former Harry Potter side figure Harry Melling stars as a shy singleton who’s figuring out what he wants in a relationship when he happens into a submissive-dominant entanglement with a tall, handsome biker played by Alexander Skarsgard. Soon, Melling’s Colin is obeying his lover’s every order, including by shaving himself bald and sleeping like a dog on the floor. But the “kinky-funny” screenplay, which won a prize at Cannes, makes sure we see that Colin is not stuck but growing.
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While the movie’s sex scenes are “refreshingly graphic,” they’re “never used or shock value,” said Odie Henderson in The Boston Globe. “The real shock comes from how emotionally involved the characters become within the construct of their kink.” And when Colin brings his new lover home to meet the parents, Skarsgard and Lesley Sharp, as Colin’s suburban London mom, do memorable work because “neither of them approaches the scene in a way you’d expect.” Until the ending, which “feels a little neat,” said Zachary Barnes in The Wall Street Journal, the movie “proceeds with an assurance of tone that’s especially impressive for a first-time filmmaker handling material like this.” Harry Lighton’s debut “could have been simply shocking, revving its engine in sexed-up style. Instead, Pillion purrs.”
‘Midwinter Break’
Directed by Polly Findlay (PG-13)
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★★
Lesley Manville and Ciarán Hinds “would be appealing to watch just fumbling for their reading glasses,” said Natalia Winkelman in The New York Times. Unfortunately, this “staid” drama about an aging Irish couple puts that claim to the test. A “slow-moving film with a sappy score and mellow mood,” Midwinter Break opens with Manville’s Stella surprising Hinds’ Gerry by arranging a spur-of-the-moment trip to Amsterdam. Alas, “precious little conflict occurs until long afterward.”
But while Polly Findlay’s adaptation of a Bernard MacLaverty novel is a “delicate” film, said Lindsey Bahr in the Associated Press, its impact can be profound “if you can get on its level.” Stella, a devout Catholic, has an ulterior motive for dragging Gerry abroad, and when she nervously proposes how she’d like to live more purposefully in retirement, “it feels earth-shattering.” This is a couple accustomed to leaving much unsaid, including how the violence of the Troubles led them to flee Belfast years earlier for Scotland. Manville and Hinds give the movie everything they’ve got, said Caryn James in The Hollywood Reporter. In a scene in which Stella pours out her heart to a stranger, “Manville delivers one of her most magnificent performances, which is saying a lot.” Alas, the script lets them down, “not because it needs more action but because this ordinary couple’s problems seem so unsurprising, their inner lives so veiled.”
This story contains spoilers for the pilot of “Marshals.”
When the curtain came down on “Yellowstone” last year, Kayce Dutton had finally found his happily-ever-after.
The youngest son of wealthy rancher John Dutton (Kevin Costner) had secured a modest cabin in a mountainous region where he could reside in secluded peace with his beloved wife, Monica (Kelsey Asbille), and son, Tate (Brecken Merrill), far from the turbulent dysfunction of his family.
“Kayce found his little peace of heaven, getting everything he ever wanted and fought for,” said Luke Grimes, who plays the soft-spoken Dutton in “Yellowstone.”
Grimes reprises the role in CBS’ “Marshals,” which premiered Sunday. But in the new series, Kayce’s serenity has been brutally shattered, forcing him to find a new path forward after an unimaginable tragedy.
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The drama is the first of several planned spinoffs of “Yellowstone,” which became TV’s hottest scripted series during its five-season run. And while some familiar faces return and events unfold against the magnificent backdrop of towering mountains and lush greenery, “Marshals” is definitely not “Yellowstone” 2.0.
Luke Grimes as Kayce Dutton in “Marshals,” which combines the gritty Western flavor of “Yellowstone” with the procedural genre.
(Sonja Flemming / CBS )
In “Marshals,” Kayce joins an elite squad of U.S. Marshals headed by his Navy SEAL teammate Pete Calvin (Logan Marshall-Green). The drama combines two distinct brands — the gritty Western flavor of “Yellowstone” with the procedural genre, a flagship of CBS’ prime-time slate.
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During an interview at an exclusive club in downtown Los Angeles, Grimes expressed excitement about dusting off his cowboy hat and boots, though he admitted to having initial concerns about whether the project was a fit.
“I had never watched a procedural before, so I had to do some homework on what that was,” Grimes said hours before the gala premiere of “Marshals” at the Autry Museum of the American West in Griffith Park. “And I just couldn’t wrap my head around it at first. In the finale, Kayce had ridden off into the sunset. So I thought, ‘Let him be, let him go.’ ”
Those doubts eventually ebbed away.
“To be honest, there was a part of me that didn’t want to let Kayce go just yet,” Grimes said. “Saying goodbye to him was really hard, so the opportunity to keep this going was something I couldn’t pass up. We get to show his backstory and also this other side of him that we didn’t see in ‘Yellowstone.’ ”
But this Kayce is a man in crisis. “Yellowstone” devotees will likely be shocked by the “elephant in the room” — the revelation in the pilot episode that Monica has died of cancer. The couple’s sexy and loving chemistry was a key element in the series while also establishing Grimes as a heartthrob.
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“I think fans will be upset — and they should be,” Grimes said as he looked downward. “Kayce is very upset. It’s the worst thing that could have happened to him. But as much as I’m really upset not to work with Kelsey, it’s a good idea for the show.”
He added, “His dream life is no longer available to him. Now the only thing he has is his son, who is not so sure he wants the same life as Kayce. A big part of the season is Kayce learning how to manage all these new things — new job, being a single father.”
“His dream life is no longer available to him. Now the only thing he has is his son, who is not so sure he wants the same life as Kayce,” said Luke Grimes about his character Kayce.
(Jay L. Clendenin / For The Times)
Executive producer and showrunner Spencer Hudnut (CBS’ “SEAL Team”) acknowledged in a separate interview that viewers may be stunned by the tragedy. “Real life intervenes for Kayce. Unfortunately it happens to so many of us.”
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But he stressed that although Monica is physically gone, her presence will be heavily felt this season.
“She is guiding Kayce, and their relationship is moving forward,” Hudnut said. “His dealing with his inability to confront his grief is a big part of the season. It became clear that something horrible had to happen to put Kayce on a different path.”
As the development evolved, Grimes embraced the procedural concept: “This is a very different show and structure. This is an action show, very fast paced. I meet a lot of fans who say they really want to see Kayce go full Navy SEAL.”
Alumni from “Yellowstone” returning in “Marshals” include Gil Birmingham as tribal Chairman Thomas Rainwater and Mo Brings Plenty as his confidante Mo.
“Yellowstone” co-creator Taylor Sheridan, who had already spearheaded the prequels “1883” and “1923,” will further expand the “Yellowstone” universe later this month with “The Madison,” starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Kurt Russell, about a New York City family living in Montana’s Madison River territory. Later this year, Kelly Reilly and Cole Hauser will star in “Dutton Ranch,” reprising their respective “Yellowstone” roles as John Dutton’s volcanic daughter Beth Dutton and her husband, boss ranch hand Rip Wheeler.
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Hudnut said fans of “Yellowstone” will recognize themes that were central to that series: “The cost and consequences of violence, man versus nature, man versus man.”
“We’re trying to tap into what people loved about ‘Yellowstone’ but to tell the story in a different framework,” he said. “The procedural brand is obviously very successful for CBS. And nothing has been bigger than ‘Yellowstone.’ So the challenge is, how do you marry those things?”
Taking on the lead role prompted Grimes to reflect on how “Yellowstone” transformed his life after co-starring roles in films like “American Sniper” and “Fifty Shades of Grey” and playing a vampire in the TV series “True Blood.”
“‘Yellowstone’ changed my life in many, many ways,” he said. “The biggest change is that I now live where we shot the show in Montana. The first time I went there, I would have never thought I would ever live there.
“I would come back to the city after shooting. But a little bit more each year, I felt more out of place here, and more peace and at home there. I’m a big nature person — I never was a big city person, but I had to be here to do what I wanted. But after the third season, my wife and I decided to move there. We wanted to start a family.”
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The topic of a Kayce spinoff kept coming up during the filming of the finale, but “meanwhile we were having a baby, so that was the biggest thing on my plate.”
“‘Yellowstone’ changed my life in many, many ways,” said Luke Grimes.
(Jay L. Clendenin/For The Times)
Grimes was also dealing with the off-screen drama that impacted production due to logistical and creative differences between Costner and Sheridan. Costner, who was the show’s biggest attraction, exited after filming the first part of the final season. His character was killed off.
Asked about the backstage tension, Grimes said, “I just tried to do my job to the best of my ability, and not get caught up in all that. It was sort of frustrating, but I felt lucky to have a job.”
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He recalled getting a call from Sheridan about the plans for a spinoff: “He said, ‘I think you should talk to the guy who is going to be the showrunner. I’m not telling you to do it, and I’m not telling you not to do it. But Spencer is great and he has some good ideas.’ ”
Hudnut said Kayce “was always my favorite character. Also, Luke is not Kayce. Kayce is an amazing character, but Luke is really thoughtful and smart. He is a true artist and has an artist’s soul, while Kayce is kicking down doors and terrorizing people. And Luke has such a great presence. He can do so much with just a look to the camera. He is a true leading man.”
In addition to starring in “Marshals,” Grimes is also an executive producer. He pitched the opening sequence — a flashback showing Kayce in the battlefield. He also performs the song that plays over the final scene, in which he visits his wife’s grave. The ballad is from Grimes’ self-titled country album which was released last year.
“Luke’s creative fingerprints are all over the pilot,” Hudnut said.
Grimes said he does not feel pressure about being the first follow-up from “Yellowstone” to premiere.
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“We’re not trying to make the same show, so no matter what happens, its a win-win,” he said. “I had a blast doing it.”
I am a sucker for all those straight-to-video slasher movies from the 90’s; there was just a certain point where you knew the acting was terrible, however, it made you fall in love. I can definitely remember scanning the video store sections for all the different horror movies I could. All those movies had laughable names and boom mics accidentally getting in the frame. Truckerseems like a child of all those old dreams, because it is.
Let’s get into the review.
Synopsis
When a group of reckless teens cause an accident swroe to never speak of it. The father is reescued by a strange man. from the wreckage and nursed back to health by a mysterious old man. When the group agrees to visit the accident scene, they meet their match from a strange masked trucker and all his toys with revenge on his mind.
Roll on 18 Wheleer
Trucker is what you would imagine: a movie about a psychotic trucker chasing you. We have seen it many, many times. What makes the film so different is its homage to bad movies but good ideas. I don’t mean in a negative way. When you think of a slasher movie, it’s not very complicated; as a matter of fact, it takes five minutes to piece the film together. This is so simple and childlike, and I absolutely love it. Trucker gave us something a little different, not too gory, bad CGI fire, I mean, this is all we old schlock horror fans want. Trucker is the type of film that you expect from a Tubi Original, on speed. However, I would take this over any Tubi Original.
I found some parts that were definitely a shout-out to the slasher humor from all those movies. Another good point that made the film shine was the sets. I guess what I can say is the film is everything Joy Ride should have been. While most modern slashers are trying to recreate the 1980s, the film stands out with its love for those unloved 1990’s horror films. While most see Joyride, you are extremely mistaken, my friend; you will enjoy this film much more.
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In The End
In the end, I enjoyed the entire film. At first, I saw it listed as an action thriller; I was pleasantly surprised, and Trucker pulled at my heart strings, enveloping me in its comfort from a long-forgotten time in horror. It’s a nostalgic blast for me, thinking back to that time, my friends, my youth, and finding my new home. Horror fans are split down the middle: from serial-killer clowns (my side) to elevated horror, where an artist paints a forty-thousand-year-old demon that chases them around an upper-class studio apartment. I say that a lot, but it’s the best way to describe some things.
The entire movie had me cheering while all the people I hated suffered dire consequences for their actions. It’s the same old story done in a way that we rabid fans could drool over, and it worked. In all the bad in the world today, and my only hope for the future is the soon-to-end Terrifier franchise. However, the direction was a recipe to succeed with 40+ year old horror fans like me. I see the film as a hope for tomorrow, leading us into a new era.
