Summary

• Dermot Mulroney stars as an action hero in the thriller Ruthless, taking on a character-driven storyline and performing his own stunts.
• The film is an all-out brawl thriller in the same vein as Taken, sure to please action genre fans.
• Mulroney's character is a high school wrestling coach who takes it upon himself to save his student from a human trafficking ring, unleashing his built-up rage in the process.

Dermot Mulroney becomes an action hero in Ruthless. The thriller centers around Harry, a high school wrestling coach still grappling with the death of his daughter at the hands of an abusive boyfriend. When he learns of one of his students' family issues and her disappearance being tied to a human trafficking ring, Harry takes it upon himself to save her and let loose some of the rage that's been building.

Alongside Mulroney, the Ruthless cast includes Alita: Battle Angel's Jeff Fahey, Melissa Diaz, Mauricio Mendoza, Tonantzin Esparza, and Niko Foster. Co-written and directed by stunt veteran Art Camacho, the movie is an all-out brawl thriller in the same vein as Taken that's sure to please action genre fans.

In honor of the movie's release, Screen Rant interviewed Dermot Mulroney to discuss Ruthless, his excitement of becoming an action star, the physical challenges of performing his own stunts, and, incidentally, letting fake Scream 6 spoilers slip ahead of the movie's release.

Dermot Mulroney Talks Ruthless

Screen Rant: It's great to see you again, Dermot. Ruthless is a lot of fun, man, I had such a blast with it, and it feels so different for you to be this action hero in comparison to some of your more everyman roles. What about the project initially sparked your interest?

Dermot Mulroney: Well, very much that, and then the moment I talked to Art Camacho, I was in. And you're right, it is unusual, no one's ever cast me as a lead in an action movie. This is a really strong, character-driven storyline, but it's definitely the most manhandling that I've been asked to do. And I was incredibly in lucky condition to be working with Art, who's been a grinder for decades, and a masterful fight coordinator/choreographer. So, that's the combo here that makes Ruthless really a strong contender in that genre. It's not about the big guy who takes on the little guys, it's really about the medium-size guy who takes on the big guys. [Laughs]

They underestimate you!

Dermot Mulroney: That's part of the story, so it plays really well. The action is organic, it's not imposed on somebody's existing persona. It's character driven.

No, I love it. I'm actually curious to hear about the physicality that you had to prepare for it. Because, it feels like so much of this is done practically with you versus a bunch of stunt doubles. Can you talk me through some of that process?

Dermot Mulroney: Yeah, it was phenomenal. Of course, it was a movie made on a lower budget. We had very little time, no advanced training, really — I won't say none, but every time you're on the set with Art Camacho, you're really at school, and that's how I took it on and let him direct me, choreograph me, down to the smallest motion, the most meticulous changes, real quick. This is the first film where I've had multiple — probably eight or 10 — massive fight sequences.

It's a brawler's movie in that long, beloved genre, if it's Walking Tall, or if it's Taken, right? But, I guess the thing that I would pitch is that I've been in these fights at least once in every movie I've been in, a whole bunch of them flashed past me as we spoke, but this time, it's just part of the story. And it's the duration of the film, he's got to get through each of these guys to get to his student, who he's trying to pull out of this human trafficking situation.

I do find the dynamic between you and Melissa to be a fascinating one in that you both want to depend on each other emotionally, but you both have traumas that you're trying to process. What was it like developing that with her, given it was such a fast shoot?

Dermot Mulroney: Well, it came to us naturally, for sure. We both knew our tasks, and became friends. Melissa Diaz Rey plays this student, and in the storyline, it's what we're talking about, it's framed so well so that I'm a father without a child, which the story reveals when you see the movie, and she's a child without a father, so it's a good match. And then, when she is taken into the same trouble as my daughter had been, then it's all-out war, so the guy goes to get her.

Well, it plays out really well. I love the way you two play off each other throughout the movie.

Dermot Mulroney: It was wonderful casting. We were lucky to have her, and it makes the movie work.

One thing I love about your character is that he walks this fine line between darkly humorous but also just this stoic bravado. What was that like for you, from the performance side?

Dermot Mulroney: Well, of course, Art and I were trying to touch into — part of this genre is that hard guy comment right at the end of the thing, or the tag to the scene, with "I'll be back" or whatever. It's built into these movies, guilty as charged, they're trying to make some quip or some side humor out of a real situation. So, I think the humor plays really nicely in here, in particular, a couple of the scenes when he gets down and dirty, and it's all about business. We encountered Jeff Fahey's character with a really incredible fight, working with him.

Some of the other guys I worked with are real fighters, like the coach in the ring, and some of them were new at it, like the kid that I encountered — maybe that's in the opening of the film. I mean, the actor's not a kid, but it was meant that way, he was pretty new to the business. So, Art waltzed me through all these different combinations, literally and figuratively. And then, like any good action, tough guy thriller worth its salt, it all comes to a climactic finish with really, really amazing scenes and some bones breaking.

Did you have a favorite action scene out of all of them? Or is it too hard to choose, given how much of the movie is action?

Dermot Mulroney: That's the thing that's so interesting, it happened so fast. In other words, of course, we spent most of the afternoon shooting this one sequence, but when I'm watching it, it's really some really fast moves in there, so, I don't know, would I slow it down a little bit next time, so you really get to enjoy it? [Laughs] But, yeah, the final fight, I think, in the garage, the stairwell was amazing. That's the only place I was doubled, I'll admit, all the rest of the fighting was me.

So, I'm really proud of this movie, especially working with the cast we mentioned, and with Art Camacho to make a real convincing, get to the end of it, high-stakes thriller. This movie is gonna have its audience from the minute they turn on the switch tomorrow, and will hold it forever. Everyone's dad's gonna like it. It's definitely one of those movies that'll last a while, even if it doesn't break the bank or something, it's a really great movie, Ruthless. So I'm thrilled to bring it out, and it was an amazing experience to work on.

Last we spoke for Gone in the Night, you undersold your role in Scream VI pretty well, and the twist blew me away.

Dermot Mulroney: I love it. You interviewed me after I shot Scream and before Scream came out, so I knew what happened. I played it off in the interview?

You did!

Dermot Mulroney: That's amazing, because I had slipped earlier on, so I guess I really was toeing the line by then. It was during those series of interviews for Gone in the Night that I let out what, of course, turns out to be a false lead by mentioning a family relationship that hadn't been released yet, and Paramount came down on me hard about that. [Laughs]

I believe that was me, actually!

Dermot Mulroney: Well, that was a moment. Can I just take another moment to tell you that what I mean when Paramount comes down hard is that I got an immediate email on a chain with about 10 CCs on it with a bold print in the subject line, basically saying, "Shut up!" [Chuckles] But now, we know that even that leak [chuckles evilly] was a red herring. So, if you know the movie well enough, you know what I said on your show wasn't true.

It was a good twist, you twisted me twice with that one!

Dermot Mulroney: No, Scream VI did, those writers and filmmakers really just — the way they turn that story around, people love it, can't get enough of it. That's me, too, now. I'm on the Scream train, for sure.

Well, I actually had a question that kind of ties both Scream and Ruthless together in that one of the things that sold your Scream VI twist so well for me was the moment your character walks out of what appears to be his daughter's murder scene. That performance just felt so authentic that I thought she was genuinely dead, and you're genuinely heartbroken. In the opening of this movie, when you learn your daughter's fate, what is it like putting yourself in those shoes?

Dermot Mulroney: Well, that's a great question, and I do just barely. I don't go so deep that I cause myself the pain or anxiety about what ifs. Both of these storylines are driven — even revenge fueled, is the term they use — by fatherhood. In the case of Scream, let's just posit that perhaps he's a little overprotective and really damaged, so you can't judge how people grieve, but maybe concocting a diabolical murder spree scheme isn't the best way to grieve as a family. But, in the case that you mentioned with Ruthless, those shots play out almost nonverbally, where you see the grief. Honestly, some of that footage Art shot, he caught it without me knowing.

I know there's a piece in there that I wasn't aware that they were filming, maybe I was just in between. So, gosh, it's amazing how real that moment looks, and maybe really was, and captured me and my humanity, and how many stacks of bull---t there was in the Scream grieving father. [Chuckles] So, that movie feeds back on itself, so that I have to, as an actor, figure out a way to make my eyes tear, and be crying, right when I walk out of that door, if you can picture it, and then come toward the street. So, of course, what some actors do in situations like that, maybe use the menthol or some sort of a [trick], right? So, okay, guilty here, guilty as charged. [Laughs]

I was doing so so that I could be believably grieving without having to worry as an actor about how to make tears. But then it occurred to me, "Well, wouldn't Bailey be doing that, too? Wouldn't he have put the Tiger Balm on the cuff of his sleeve, and made himself fake cry?" [Laughs] So, it's fake on top of fake, and then I find out that I'm really doing the fake thing from the movie. So, when you watch that scene out on the street, catch it next time.

I thought of it while I'm in the vestibule, about to leave there, putting Tiger Balm on my eye so that I would cry. I thought, "Well, wouldn't Bailey do that?" So that whole scene where he's faking his daughter's death — spoiler — you watch me, it's on the cuff of his sleeve in that scene. I wipe my eye like that. [Wipes sleeve cuff against eye] So, that explains why he's crying. When you look back on it, that's an insight of an insight.

About Ruthless

Harry (Dermot Mulroney) is a high school wrestling coach recovering from the loss of his daughter who was murdered in a brutal attack. When one of his students disappears under conditions eerily similar to his daughter’s, Harry takes matters into his own hands to hunt down the men responsible for her kidnapping and will stop at nothing to rescue her from their human trafficking operation.

Ruthless is now in select theaters and on VOD.

Source: Screen Rant Plus