For Jodie Comer and Austin Butler, stars of the motorcycle drama The CyclistsDelving into their 1960s characters meant they faced completely different challenges.
While Butler’s quiet character Benny had fewer lines (and no distinctive accent a la the actor’s performance in Elvis), it was Comer – an English actress from Liverpool – who embraced the Midwestern, “devouring” ties of the period to capture her portrayal of her character Kathy.
“I had a great dialect coach called Victoria, who I work a lot and spend a lot of time with, and I was lucky enough to have 30 minutes of audio of Kathy actually being interviewed by [photojournalist] Danny [Lyon] in the 1960s,” Comer said.
Directed by Jeff Nichols, The Cyclists is based on Lyon’s 1968 photo book of the same name. Butler stars as the newest member of the Midwestern motorcycle club The Vandals, while Comer plays the woman who falls for him.
Told largely from Kathy’s perspective, with a strong Midwestern accent, the film follows a rowdy group of bikers led by tough fighter Johnny (Tom Hardy), including Michael Shannon as the grumpy Zipco, Boyd Holbrook as the easy-going Cal and Norman Reedus as Funny Sonny from California. Playing the role of Lyon is Mike Faist, who captures Kathy’s chatty musings on his recorder as he takes photos of the boys on the road.
“It was really just about spending time with that audio and breaking it all down and questioning everything she said and finding the truth, maybe in what was underlying it and what she actually said.”
While Comer focused on perfecting the way she delivered her lines, Butler had the opposite challenge: saying a lot without much dialogue.
Butler told Yahoo Entertainment that looking beneath the surface was the key to understanding his character, who has few lines but a strong presence in the film.
“If you play someone who doesn’t say much, it’s not because he or she isn’t thinking. It’s not because he doesn’t have an opinion,” Butler said. “It’s just figuring out what that all is.”
“There are fewer clues through the dialogue about what this person is thinking,” he added, “so it fills in all of that.”
The love story between Comer and Butler’s characters is also central to the film’s plot. Comer said she felt lucky that she was able to connect with her co-star in a short period of time.
“The interesting thing about our job is that sometimes you don’t get the time to build a relationship or build a bond,” Comer told Yahoo Entertainment. “So I feel like we were very lucky in the sense that I think we went out to dinner [director] Jeff [Nichols] before we started shooting.
“I think Austin and I are quite similar in the way we work and what it means to both of us to be on set and do the work,” she continued. “We work in a similar way and are present for each other, have fun and are open. We met at that point, so we were able to kind of jump in and just find the characters.
Creating those characters through dialect, vernacular and costume design was key for Nichols, who was meticulous about getting the look and feel of the era just right.
“When you put it all together, it felt like you were walking around in the 1960s,” he said. “It was some kind of magic trick.”
He added that Comer, who embodied the character, went far beyond simply adopting the Midwestern accent.
“Everyone talks about accent, but accent is only half the story,” he told Yahoo Entertainment. “It’s also the vernacular, you know, this 1960s verbiage that comes out of their mouths.
“It says a lot about their socio-economic level, the way their brains work, their humor,” he added. “And Kathy was undeniable when you listened to these tapes, and Jodie just devoured them.”
Comer said honing the accent and Kathy’s delivery took time, but was ultimately worth it when it came time to start filming.
“It was just great to have that extra tool,” she said.
The Cyclists is in cinemas from June 21.
