There are a lot of ways one can look at Apple TV+’s upcoming Matt Damon and Casey Affleck two-hander “The Instigators.” From one angle, it’s a heist film, another, a buddy comedy. As it picks up, it becomes both an ensemble crime piece and a political satire before ultimately descending into an action caper replete with car chases, shootouts, and multiple buildings being blown up. There’s even a touch of human tragedy as Damon and Affleck’s characters Rory and Cobby carry with them ineptitude, but also a desperate desire to move forward. For many directors, this would seem like a lot to take on, but for Doug Liman, it was just another day at the office.
“I know people watch ‘Instigators’ and it looks like we’re having a lot of fun making the movie, but the reality is, it’s a lot of work,” Liman told IndieWire during a recent interview. “Getting up so early. We were in the dead of winter. Very complicated sequences, especially action sequences are very hard to pull off, and we’re trying to do a big action comedy. You gotta have everything, the comedy and the action, but I couldn’t have had better people around me.”
In addition to the support he received on set, Liman credits a lot of his confidence to his humble beginnings in independent cinema. Having put together films like “Swingers” and “Go” on shoestring budgets, Liman knows how to “shoot fast” and balance “the practical realities of making a film” without sacrificing story. The lessons he learned back then, he still carries to this day — and they were needed during a production that only had 36 days to film scenes large and small across the city of Boston.
“When Matt and I made ‘Bourne Identity,’ I was a different filmmaker than I was today,” Liman said, reflecting on his past collaboration with Damon. “I’ve learned more and I know how to marshal resources better today than I did back then and I tried to bring that to bear on ‘Instigators.’”
In putting together the ensemble cast for the film, which features Hong Chau, Michael Stuhlbarg, Alfred Molina, Jack Harlow, Ving Rhames, Ron Perlman — [large breath] — Paul Walter Hauser, and Toby Jones, Liman was reminded of his cult classic “Go,” which celebrated its 25th anniversary this year.
“Not since ‘Go’ have I had a script that had so many great parts in it,” Liman said. “If you just think about the typical movie you see, there’s obviously a few good parts, but then it falls off dramatically. And here, no matter how small the part is, they’re all fantastic. Everybody makes an impression on you.”
Though his part is rather small — some might say not befitting of his stature and abilities — Liman says he was most surprised by the energy Alfred Molina brought to the film and that it taught him a lot about acting. During his conversation with IndieWire, he broke down one scene in particular that sees Damon, Affleck, Harlow, Stuhlbarg, and Molina planning the heist that sets the plot in motion. Prior to shooting, Liman realized Molina, who he’d wanted to work with for decades, only had two lines of dialogue in a seven-page scene.
While Liman felt it was ridiculous to not have Molina contributing more, the beloved character actor surprised him by asking if he could have both of his lines cut, instead replaced by just one word, “doughnuts,” an item he supplies for this criminal get-together. In Liman’s experience, this was just not something other actors have done.
“When I made ‘Swingers,’ I was an unemployed director surrounded by unemployed actors in L.A. and when someone would finally book a job, the question was always, well how many lines of dialogue is it,” he said. “Literally, people would count how many lines of dialogue they had and two lines of dialogue isn’t as good as if you booked a part that has five lines of dialogue. And here’s Alfred Molina going, ‘Take my two lines of dialogue and reduce it to one word.’ Turns out, it’s not about how many words you say. That has nothing to do with what kind of an impact you can have as an actor.”
Perhaps the real impact of “The Instigators,” however, was on the city of Boston. Not only did certain action sequences require production to tear through the tight streets with tanks and firetrucks, but with hometown heroes Damon and Affleck involved, Liman got a chance to stage the film’s frenzied finale at Boston’s actual city hall.
“It was a change of the script to move the finale into city hall,” Liman said. “And that was sort of a reminder that if you’re shooting in Boston with Matt Damon and Casey Affleck and Ben Affleck’s producing, you can walk into the mayor’s office — the mayor of Boston — and go, ‘Can we shoot in here? And by the way, it’s an action sequence and by the time we’re done, we’re gonna have shot up all the windows and walls.’”
Apparently, with Liman and Boston’s own at the helm, the answer will always be yes.
“The Instigators” is in theaters on August 2 and streams on Apple TV+ August 9.
