John Sayles talks about his ‘Lone Star’ state of mind
Ahead of a new Criterion Collection restoration, the writer-director revisits his 1996 masterpiece that resonates deeply today
John Sayles’s 1996 masterpiece, “Lone Star,” a film about race, class, dark secrets, and how legends are made, is receiving a new restoration courtesy of the Criterion Collection. An early film for Chris Cooper and Matthew McConaughey, it’s an epic, sprawling story set in a Texas border town. Cooper plays Sam, a sheriff seeking the truth about his late father while rekindling a romance with Pilar, a schoolteacher played by Elizabeth Peña.
In anticipation of the Jan. 16 release, the Globe spoke with the writerdirector about casting, writing minorities, and his time living in Boston. The Schenectady, N.Y., native got his start writing for Roger Corman (1978’s ”Piranha”) before directing films like “Eight Men Out” (1988) and “City of Hope” (1991).
Q. “Lone Star” has an impressive cast. You’ve got Matthew McConaughey and Chandra Wilson in early roles. There’s Frances McDormand, Kris Kristofferson, Ron Canada, and folks from your acting troupe like Joe Morton. How do you go about casting?
A. I try not to think of the actors while I’m writing. Chris was in [my 1987 film] “Matewan.” I thought he’d be a great sheriff. He’s got that iconic Gary Cooper, American quality to him. Elizabeth Peña had been in a TV series I wrote called “Shannon’s Deal.” She always had a very sensual quality in the movies, and that’s got to be part of her. But you also have to accept her as a mother and a high school teacher.
One thing that has changed for the worse is you rarely get to sit in a room and cast people nowadays. They either send their reel or you do it on Zoom. And it’s just not the same thing as being there with a person.
Q. You made “Lone Star” and 2002’s “Sunshine State,” both deep, complex and issue-driven films about the culture of their locations. Considering what’s going on right now in Texas and Florida, and how timely these films still feel, I have to ask: Are you psychic?
A. It’s a little disappointing to know that you made something 25 to 30 years ago, and things have not gotten better. They’ve gotten worse. But culture has always been a battlefield, and how we define ourselves. History is a part of culture. At the time we made “Lone Star,” there was a very conservative Texas couple who debated the way history was taught. Since Texas was such a big market, it affected how history was taught in high schools all over the country. So, there’s always kind of an economic angle to it as well.
Q. I’m glad you brought up the school conflict, because that scene in “Lone Star” where the Mexican American teacher, Pilar, argues with the white parents in the classroom about how she wants to teach the Alamo played like you made this movie yesterday.
A. That scene is certainly happening all over the country.
I grew up in Italian neighborhoods, where people’s parents or grandparents had just immigrated here. Public school used to be where people learned to be Americans. So that story that they were told about what happened in the past, it was a very important one to me — not just what are the facts, but what are the values that are being passed on?
I wanted that for the story of “Lone Star.” There’s a family version of [those facts and values] and a societal version.
And you can have both in the same story.
Q. Both versions exist for Sam (Cooper) as he learns about his father, Buddy (McConaughey). I thought about the line “when the legend becomes fact, print the legend” from “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.”
A.[“Valance”] is certainly a movie that I was aware of, but I said, well, let’s go one step further. Maybe for a while that legend is useful, but at a certain point, it may become destructive. So what do you do with a legend that is destructive?
The first thing you have to do to clear that up, if you can, is to be honest about it. Buddy’s story takes place in 1957. Most of the people involved are still alive. So Chris Cooper’s character might be able to get to the bottom of it.
His father was in the mix of this conflict down on the border, which had a lot of racial and class overtones and undertones. Society has changed some, but that doesn’t mean that some of those unspoken rules don’t still apply.
Q. When Jesse Borrego’s activist tells Sam he wants to get to the bottom of the Buddy story, Sam says, “That makes two of us.” That was a great line, in terms of wanting to find out the truth about one’s parents. Often, the truth is something you probably shouldn’t know. Do you think Sam was in a better place by the end of the film?
A. I was very conscious of the Oedipus story of “be careful what you’re looking for, because you may not be able to deal with it.” Sam thinks it through and says, “I’m glad I know. Because I thought my father was a lot worse of a human being.” Buddy was a complex guy.
Q. I always feel I’m in good hands when I watch minority characters in your films. It’s effortless and never feels false or forced. Are there any lessons you’ve learned as a writer that you can impart? A. If you’ve been lucky enough to live and go to school in a place that is diverse, these people aren’t exotic to you. The basic thing is, you’re writing about human beings, so you start with that. For my 2013 movie, “Go For Sisters,” I wanted to write something about female friendship. And I have a character who’s a parole officer. I started thinking about African American actors I’d love to work with. And then I asked myself, what’s different about the character now? Did their parents come from the West Indies? Did they come from the South?
One thing that we often do is we show the script to people who live in the place that we’re shooting, and we ask if there’s anything that doesn’t make sense.
Liz Peña is Cuban. Miriam Colon [who plays Pilar’s mother] is Puerto Rican. On “Lone Star,” I had them listen to the townspeople to get their [accent] when they speak Spanish. I think the actors did a pretty good job. Some Mexicans might not say so.
Q. You lived in Boston for a time, didn’t you?
A. I lived in East Boston for several years, I was working in a sausage factory in East Cambridge. So I was a Blue Line guy. I still have friends there and go back quite a bit. But when I lived there, it was during busing, and it was one of the most racially segregated cities I’d ever been in. A lot of that has changed. It’s not all gone, but somebody’s been doing something right there. It’s a rich cultural city. There’s a lot going on, and the sports teams are interesting.
‘If you’ve been lucky enough to live and go to school in a place that is diverse, these people aren’t exotic to you. The basic thing is, you’re writing about human beings, so you start with that.’
JOHN SAYLES, filmmaker