It was very difficult to play a villain with no humanity in The Thicket

American actress Juliette Lewis has spoken about the difficulty of playing a character who has “lost his humanity”, following her starring role in the western thriller The Thicket opposite Peter Dinklage.

The Oscar-nominated star plays Cut Throat Bill, a ruthless killer who is tracked down by bounty hunter Reginald Jones (Dinklage) and his band of unlikely heroes in a quest that leads them to the deadly “no man’s land” known as The Thicket.

Cut Throat Bill was originally written as a man in the book by author Joe R. Lansdale. However, when British director Elliott Lester read the script in 2020, he made the villain a woman.

“It was really amazing because they gave her such a deep history to draw from,” Lewis told the PA news agency at the red carpet premiere in Los Angeles.

“She had a very troubled past and you could see her going so dark. It was hard to play someone who had lost their humanity.

“And there’s a little bit of that you see at the end in that last scene, that really broke my heart when I played it, it was very difficult.”

Lewis was nominated for an Oscar in 1992 for her role as Danielle Bowden in Martin Scorsese’s psychological thriller Cape Fear.

Filmmaker Lester said the actress embodied the role of Cut Throat Bill “from the moment she showed up on the set to the DVD cover.”

“You’re talking about one of the best actresses out there. She’s an icon. She’s got an incredible amount of experience. You just let her go,” he told PA.

“You want to create a safe space for the actors to do their work and give them a little bit of guidance. If you have the right cast, they will do the work for you.”

American star Dinklage not only stars in the film’s cast, but is also a producer.

Lester said the Game Of Thrones star was an “incredibly supportive” producer, who felt his passion and love for the project during the 22-day shoot in Canada in the winter – which he described as “not easy”.

“We had nothing but challenges,” Lester said.

“We were filming in a city and I got a phone call saying, ‘Sorry Elliott, half the city burned down. You’re going to have to figure it out yourself.’

“The weather was just shockingly bad. You have to be a mountain goat to be able to shoot there in the winter, but everything that goes wrong goes wrong and then goes right again.

“I didn’t really suffer from PTSD.”

In the film, Metallica frontman James Hetfield plays the role of sheriff Simon Deasy.

Lester said: “I had a dream and I woke up the next morning and I thought, James Hetfield has to be in this movie, he has to be in it.

“I called Peter and he said, ‘You’re absolutely right, we need James Hetfield.’

“…We tracked him down, he got the script, five days later he said, ‘I’m in.’ We set up a Zoom call and he showed up on set.

“He’s a great person to work with and he stepped out of his comfort zone.”

Among those in attendance at the Los Angeles premiere was former Victoria’s Secret Angel Adriana Lima, who serves as executive producer on the film along with her boyfriend and producer Andre Lemmers.