INTERVIEW: William Moseley stars in new war movie ‘Murder Company’
Photo: Murder Company stars William Moseley as the character of Southern. Photo courtesy of Maverick Film & Complex Corp. / Provided by KWPR with permission.
Last month, the world honored the 80th anniversary of D-Day, one of the most pivotal moments of World War II. To learn about a lesser-told tale from that day, moviegoers can take in the new film Murder Company, which is now playing in theaters and available digitally. Director Shane Dax Taylor’s feature follows a group of United States soldiers who “are given orders to smuggle a member of the French resistance behind enemy lines to assassinate a high-value Nazi target,” according to press notes.
Murder Company stars William Moseley, perhaps best known for his part in The Chronicles of Narnia films and The Royals TV show. Joining him in the cast are Kelsey Grammer, Pooch Hall, Gilles Marini and Joe Anderson.
“I’m so thrilled with how the film came out, specifically that it’s the 80th anniversary of D-Day,” Moseley said in a recent Zoom interview. “It’s right on time for the audience. … I felt that it was a true story, and that really was one of the most important things to me about the film, the fact that these guys really went through this. There has never been a film about it. It was a real mission.”
Another motivation for Moseley to sign on the dotted line for this cinematic project is the fact that both of his grandfathers served in World War II. He has heard stories about them and their service, including one serving in the Naval Air Force in the Pacific War.
To bring this 80-year-old story to life took a certain type of guerrilla filmmaking that kept the actors and Taylor busy for just under two weeks. “It was very difficult,” Moseley said. “We filmed it in 12 days, so we were really up against it. We had three cameras going at any one time, so you really didn’t know when the camera was on you, when it wasn’t. In fact, Shane, our director, said … ‘Look, you’re not going to know when I shoot your closeup. I kind of like it like that.’ I said, ‘Really?’ Usually directors want to spend time lighting. They want to put the camera in. I remember one day I did my monologue, and the camera seemed way back. I said, ‘Shane, are you going to do a closeup?’ He was like, ‘We already got it.’ I was like, ‘OK.’ So Shane likes that guerrilla style, and I think it worked for the film, specifically the fact that we look tired, which we actually were. We look overwhelmed because we actually were. I’m kind of grateful that we shot it like that, to be honest.”
Moseley’s character is called Southern, and he modeled the arc of the role after Martin Sheen’s performance in Apocalypse Now, which is Moseley’s favorite movie. He remembers that Francis Ford Coppola film opening with Sheen’s character heading to war, clean-shaven and ready to go. Then, his experiences throughout the conflict change him as a person.
“There’s that epic scene at the end where he’s covered in mud, and he comes out of the water,” he said. “And he’s completely transformed as a person. So it was important for me that the character had an arc. I also think it’s important for the audience because with a war film, people are going to die on the way. You don’t know who that’s going to be, so I wanted to give the audience some mystique in that sense.”
To help Moseley prepare for working on an indie film, he relied on his TV work, specifically his time on The Royals. Because of the nature of episodic television, scripts are given to actors only a few days (or even a few hours) before a shoot, and this means any extra time on set is spent memorizing lines.
“I think TV prepared me for working on independent films because you get the script so late,” Moseley said. “I would spend the weekends learning my lines for the week ahead, and I kind of learned that when I did The Royals. This film, I think I got offered it, and then in three days I was on the plane. So I didn’t have time to learn the script. You just have to do blocks and learn it at the weekend for the week ahead, so actually TV prepared me for working very quickly.”
Moseley added: “You shoot these films, and you hope [they are released one day]. People are saying to me, ‘Oh, when is it coming out?’ Which movie theater is it going to be in?’ I don’t know; that’s above my pay grade. I just do my job. I hope it’s going to be a great film. I hope it’s going to be out there, but you never know. Fortunately, this film has had a lot of traction. I think that’s specifically because it’s a true story, and also it is the 80th anniversary of D-Day. This happens during D-Day, so I think there’s something for audiences to learn from as well.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Murder Company, starring William Moseley, is now playing in movie theaters and available digitally. Click here for more information.
