How to stage a rodeo (without getting stomped)
From broken necks to broken hearts, acclaimed drama BULL uses bucking beasts to tell an emotional story
SET IN SUBURBAN Houston, Annie Silverstein’s gentle drama Bull focuses on a paternal relationship between 14-year-old Kris (a brilliant Amber Havard, making her debut) and troubled rodeo rider Abe (a just-as-brilliant Rob Morgan). Having won acclaim for her 2014 short Skunk, Silverstein initially set out to expand it — but was drawn to the world of Black rodeos. Here she tells Empire how she brought a unique world to the screen.
FIND THE STORY
“I had met a man while location-scouting for Skunk who came from a well-known Black rodeo family. I didn’t realise there was this culture of Africanamerican cowboys that dates back to slavery. They were doing the ranch work. When slavery was over, they weren’t allowed to participate in white rodeos, so they started holding their own. Meeting this man inspired the character of Abe.”
DO THE RESEARCH
“My husband Johnny Mcallister co-wrote this with me, and we wanted to really start researching it to make sure that we were reflecting the community accurately. We went to a travelling Black rodeo and met a bullfighter [the North American style which involves distracting the bull, rather than violence] named JW Rogers, who invited us to basically follow him around for several years, and became Rob’s stunt double. Rob spent a lot of time with JW, learning how to hold his body, so that the body language would match.”
BEFRIEND THE BULLS
“Bulls are incredibly powerful. But these bulls are really trained — they know their job is to go out and buck when the gate opens. A couple of guys said we should get on a bull, just to see what it feels like. It was a huge bull, but they assured us it would be very calm in the chute — it wouldn’t start bucking unless they opened the gate. To assure us, they put an eight-year-old boy on first. This tiny child. So then we had to get on. And then got off, quickly. But I actually felt quite peaceful being on top of the bull. For that brief period, I had some small taste of the the connection a lot of riders feel.”
EMBRACE THE DANGER
“During our research, one of the bullfighters who we’d become friends with broke his neck while bullfighting. But as soon as he was out of the hospital, he started wearing a brace and went bullfighting again. These insane injuries are part of the culture. A lot of the moments that look hairy in the film were hairy. We captured live rodeo rides. JW, as Rob’s stunt double, was fighting just like he would normally fight.”
BULL IS ON DIGITAL FROM 3 AUGUST