WILMINGTON — The lead actor of a new action-packed film is sharing his preparation journey for his role as a war veteran while working alongside his cinematic heroes on a post-World War II story.
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Local actor and producer Jacob Keohane (“Condor’s Nest,” “Halloween Kills”) is starring in the neo-western crime/thriller that plays with themes of religion, masculinity, and justice during the Cold War-era in middle-of-nowhere Nevada. “Laws of Man” will hit theaters and be available to stream on all major video-on-demand platforms, including Apple TV and Prime Video, Jan. 10.
Set in 1963 Gilead, Nevada, the movie takes place at a time when the threat of the Soviet Reds looms on the horizon. U.S. marshals Frank Fenton (Keohane) and his partner Tommy (Jackson Rathbone, “Twilight”) are tasked to track down wanted murderer Benjamin Bonney (Dermot Mulroney, “My Best Friend’s Wedding”).
Writer, director and producer Phil Blattenberger approached Keohane during the first draft of the script and asked him to play Fenton and be a producer on the movie. Keohane said he always accepts an opportunity to work with Blattenberger: “I usually say ‘yes’ before I read the script.”
Blattenberger is known for “Condor’s Nest” and “Point Man” and worked with Keohane on both productions. Keohane starred as the anti-hero lead, war veteran Will Spalding in “Condor’s Nest” and played the military antagonist Silas Meeks in Blattenberger’s debut film “Point Man.” Keohane produced the film as well.
In “Laws of Man,” Keohane’s character is a serious, cool WWII veteran trying to right the wrongs from his past mistakes in the war by doing everything by the book. Tommy, on the other hand, copes with his WWII memories through unpredictable action and ruthlessness.
“The guy’s a gunslinger and he’s a war veteran and a law man, but it was different than other characters I tend to play in films,” Keohane said during a phone interview with Port City Daily. “He was a very composed, put together, kind of a man from a bygone era, and so I was immediately super excited to get to jump into that mindset.”
Keohane first came to Wilmington in 2010 as a student at University of North Carolina Wilmington and graduated in 2014. During that time, he was a prominent face on the school and local stages, acting in plays such as Browncoat Pub and Theatre’s production “Gallery” in 2015, Thalian Association’s “Of Mice and Men” in 2014, and UNCW’s “Arcadia” in 2011.
While he grew up “mostly” in North Carolina and has acted in plays across the state, Keohane still calls Wilmington home.
He hoped to have a career in theater after finding a love for Shakespeare. However, Keohane said he soon learned there was “not a lot of money” in theater, so he started branching out into film and getting auditions for “guys who carry guns.”
“I thought I’d do classic theater and maybe play a librarian in an indie movie here and there,” he said. “For some reason, I play cons, Marines, and alcoholics now.”
“Laws of Man” has a star-studded cast — Richard Brake (“Game of Thrones”), Harvey Keitel (“Pulp Fiction”), Keith Carradine (“Nashville”), Graham Greene (“Dances with Wolves”), Forrie J. Smith (“Yellowstone”), and Kelly Lynn Reiter (“Deadlock”). While some of the cast Keohane had worked with before, others he said he had idolized since childhood. Carradine, Keitel, and Mulroney he specifically pointed out as “the old school pros” he long admired.
“They say: Never meet you heroes, but these folks that we cast, it’s the polar opposite of that,” Keohane said.
While working with the cast was “intense,” “nerve wracking,” and “amazing,” Keohane recalled being eager to observe and learn from the “masters of their craft” and said their acting experience made his job easier.
“I’ve noticed every great actor I’ve worked with, they not only hit their moves, their notes, perfectly, but they facilitate you being able to elevate yourself in the scene,” he said.
Keohane prepared for his role as Fenton through script-studying, old-fashioned book learning, and research. The key, he said, is getting to know real-life veterans to “find the truth” in an experience he can’t relate to.
“Surprisingly enough, in real life, I’ve been in zero gun fights, not even once,” Keohane quipped.
Keohane befriended and interviewed several military and law enforcement veterans to hear their experiences in action. While getting to know them as people, he listened to their active combat memories and observed their reactions to the recollections.
“It’s not so much about getting the facts right as to working up an understanding and relationship with the person who has been there, and kind of seeing what happens behind their eyes,” he said.
The goal, Keohane added, is to have such a strong understanding of the character that acting on set becomes fluid. Rather than having a rigid, preplanned outline, he rehearses through every possibility, incorporating the human element of his interviewees with his lines and directions from the director. The result is a fully developed, natural character.
“When the camera is rolling, you can do whatever you want to do,” he said. “You do it loosely and creatively and proactively. That’s where you want to be.”
The neo-western crime/thriller kicks off with a shoot-out scene. Fenton and Tommy swiftly complete their first task: locate rural gang leader Crash Mooncalf (Richard Brake, “Game of Thrones”) to bring him in alive — but it doesn’t go over as planned. What happens after throws Fenton and Tommy deep into a deadly conspiracy.
They meet other Gilead locals along the way that threaten their cool exteriors with unfamiliar vulnerability, forcing them to question the greater meaning of life and wrestle with ghosts from the past.
Having a background in script analysis, set-building and design, Keohane said his time spent in theater equipped him with valuable producing skills. In “Laws of Man,” he was able to help with “a little bit of everything” — from props and design to script rewrites.
One part of the script he enjoyed helping flesh out more was Keitel’s character, Reverend Cassidy. Blattenberger came up with the fictional character after wanting to draw on themes that existed during 1960s America, like fading religion and spirituality.
“He really wanted to play with putting in some ethereal, esoteric themes, where the audience can decide whether or not this is real, or truly connected,” Keohane said.
In 1960s America, Keohane said the concept of a God wasn’t a question, but it wasn’t necessarily open discussion either. With religion being an aftertaste in American culture, the Fenton character would have respected the reverend enough to listen to what he says.
“It was the olden days. So if you see a reverend, you respect the reverend,” Keohane said.
The characters, however, are also living in a time when LSD was being spread rampantly around the nation with the growing hippie movement. Keohane and Blattenberg tied the trend of LSD-loving hippies of the time together with the culture of religion to create Reverend Cassidy.
“Keitel is supposed to be this channel, not in a religious sense, but he’s kind of bringing the spirituality and deeper meaning into the life of a guy who went against the grain and disobeyed orders and, as a result, killed innocent people,” Keohand said of creating the relationship between his character and Cassidy. “So I was just playing around with themes of religion, masculinity, and justice.”
Keohane said his favorite scene was an interaction between his character, Fenton, and Keitel’s character, Reverend Cassidy — a hippy preacher who lives out of his Bible verse-graffitied trailer.
“There’s a scene where Harvey Keitel and I become very confrontational and physical with each other, and that was almost an out-of-body experience,” he recalled.
Keohane recalled it being extremely surreal for a regular day at work to turn into wrestling on-screen with a long-time film hero.
“I still have trouble believing that happened — and I’ve seen the movie,” he said.
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