Texas Battle plays a major role in the movie “Wrong Way” in the role of Captain East, a local policeman involved in a violent situation. When security guard Frank (Bruce Willis) accidentally witnesses a violent murder committed by a local criminal, his daughter Chloe, played by Ashley Greene from Twilight, and her friend Tammy unwittingly become involved in Jake’s revenge plot.
In the end, Captain East tries to come to the rescue, but his confrontation with Jake takes a turn for the worse. Massey Furlan, Michael Sirow and Stacey Danger also star in Mike Burns’ The Wrong Way.
Screen Rant met with Battle to discuss The wrong place, including why he enjoyed shooting the movie in Birmingham, Alabama, what made this Captain East character what he really wanted to do, and how he gave his character a sense of humor.
Screen Rant: Your character in this movie is really going through a squeeze. What kind of training or training was involved for this role?
The Texas Battle: Look, man, when we started this thing; when I read the script, I took it. Firstly, because when you have the opportunity to work with G.O.A.T. militants, you have to do it. And secondly, the script itself was something I had never played before. And I’ve never been to Birmingham, Alabama, and when you work with a director like Mike Burns, who gives you the freedom to act – he’s just fun and passionate about his work.
This is one of those situations where you get into the thick of things [and] you don’t know what will come of it. Mike had his own vision, and he said, “Hey, yeah, we have to do this.” He’s talking to the point. — Yeah, how about you do it too? I’m in the mud, you want me to crawl, I’ll be covered in blood. I’m going to be one of those guys who went through everything possible to become a hero. I say, “Dude, I’m all for it.” So for me it was just preparation, because when you do these movies, especially action movies, you never know what you’re really going to get into until you get there. So my mind is open. I was physically ready. And whatever that means, we just went for it.
Your character Captain East is surprisingly funny in a dark movie. Was it your improvisation or was it in the script?
Texas Battle: Hell, no, that wasn’t in the script, man. This is Mike Burns, man. My director said, “Hey, Texas, let’s bring some light to this.” He says: “You know that in action movies sometimes there are characters who are a little funny. You know how the guy in “Off” is, right? Remember, it was a serious movie, but it was funny. You remember him, right?”
We did a lot on the fly. And of course we were shooting serious stuff, but he didn’t want this character to be different. He wanted some light. It’s like he’s a joker, but when it comes down to it, when he’s doing his job now, he gets a little turned on. He’s different. But he also looks up to his idol. Do you know what I mean? Who wouldn’t? I would say that he brings a bit of humor to the story, and to be honest, I hope that everything will turn out well, because I was very worried about it. I didn’t know I could act in comedies. So I just hope it turned out well, man, and not stupid.
When you read the script “Wrong Way”, what prompted you to take on this role?
The Texas Battle: When you first read [the script], you want to make sure that the characters develop correctly, because if a character develops incorrectly, he doesn’t have the legs to get from point A to point Z. And that was important. for me. It was a scenario where he was outdoors. There was a lot of action to be done. I love physical movies. You can really go out there and take a look. When you go on set, you say, “Wow, okay, now we’re in Birmingham, man. We are in the forest.” We had a place where we were filming, it was a beautiful lake, you know. I’m a country boy from Texas. So with all these elements played, it was nice to shoot and just be out in the open, just making a movie. But at the same time, there is no feeling that you are shooting a movie until they say action.
And reading the script, you visualize these things, and I was on board as soon as I realized I was going to live. You get these stereotypes, the man is a black man, he has to leave in the middle of the movie. I was there, made this man. I’ve had my own death scenes, but I like to live. And that was important to me. So it really put me on the path of, “You know what, I want to rock this.” And then talk to Mike [and] see his vision, his direction. And he’s an acting director [with] how free he is when it comes to going about his business.
Some directors are known to stick to the script. But then you take away some natural things or elements that we can do to make the film evolve. So Mike was all for it.
