Shane Black‘s name is synonymous with some of the most macho movies ever made, including “Lethal Weapon,” “Predator” and “The Last Boy Scout.” His newest film, “Play Dirty,” now streaming on Amazon Prime Video, is no exception. A contemporary interpretation of Donald E. Westlake’s classic “Parker” novels about a high-stakes robber, the film stars Mark Wahlberg and LaKeith Stanfield as thieves aiming to pull the biggest international heist of their lives. Yet a globetrotting action movie starring two alpha dogs was well-trodden territory for Black, who has spent his life working with larger-than-life A-listers like Robert Downey Jr., Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis and Russell Crowe. Needless to say, he’s figured out the method to maintain control on set when he’s in the director’s chair.
“I’ve been absolutely blessed to work with some of the ‘magic people,’” Black says. “‘Magic people,’ to me, are those that you hire and say, ‘There’s that actor that does that thing. There he is, doing that thing that we paid him for.’ But the more interesting thing has always been when you hire them, knowing you don’t quite know what you’re going to get — you just know it’s going to be great. I’ve worked with a number of those, chief among them Robert Downey Jr., who was just lightning in a bottle. You’re not quite sure what you’re going to get. And I’m happy to take credit for it when suddenly it’s on the screen.”
Wahlberg showed his magic in a unique way, coming in with a preparedness that reflects his notorious work ethic.
“Mark showed up having memorized the script,” Black says. “He knew every nuance of it. He didn’t sit before, mumbling — he knew all the lines, so then you could vary from that. If someone wants to improv, and there were some people on the set who were particularly prone to that, Mark keeps up. Mark just jumps at it. He sees a chance to fire back. That sort of being in the moment is what I like about Mark in particular, because as much preparation as he does, when he steps onto set, he lets go and is in the now. I think that’s an actor’s greatest asset: to let the previous work inform the performance, but not be thinking about it when you’re in the moment.”
Many of Black’s scripts are defined by a bickering buddy dynamic, and “Play Dirty,” which he wrote with Charles Mondry and Anthony Bagarozzi, is no different. Wahlberg’s foil is played by Stanfield, and Black, an actor himself, says the “Atlanta” alum approaches the craft in a completely different way.
“I was talking to LaKeith about acting and I said, ‘I was always a little bit nervous. I felt like I couldn’t quite get there.’” Black says. “And he said, ‘I don’t understand that, because to me you have all these choices. You just pick one. You’re at the hub of a wheel, and all these spokes are going out to the edge, to the behavior of the character. You go, “Which one do I want to take?”‘ It’s like that frustrating musician: when you can’t write music and you say, ‘How do you do it?’ He goes, ‘Oh my God, there are melodies in the air. You just pluck one.’ It’s like, dude, it’s not that easy, you know? But to him it is, because he’s just an inquisitive soul.”
Mark Wahlberg and LaKeith Stanfield in “Play Dirty.”
©MGM/Courtesy Everett Collection
While he’s quick to cite the talents of his cast and crew, Black’s reputation in Hollywood as a nice guy who gets results precedes him. Jules Daly, who produced “Play Dirty” as well as big action features like “The Tomorrow War” and “Ghosted,” says that the chance to work with Black was what first drew her to the project.
“There’s talk about Shane Black being a bit reserved, being shy, being insular, being brilliant but being those things — and we had the greatest time,” Daly says. “Working with anyone who’s a writer and director for a producer is just such a pleasure because you can be on the go, you can be sitting at video village and make a change. We also had [co-writers] Anthony and Chuck with us. So it wasn’t like we were sending pages overnight back to the U.S. and waking up to them and they weren’t good enough the next day. But sitting with the three of them and making the movie was just an absolute pleasure and a laugh.”
Daly also says that Black’s previous hits made one specific part of her job easier.
“More so than any director I’ve worked with, all cast wants to work with Shane Black,” she says. “There was nobody that we couldn’t get on the phone, no one that didn’t want to be in the movie. It was all just about scheduling. That was more remarkable than almost any director I’ve worked with. It was just such an easy movie to cast and the cast is delicious.”
Despite the success of his previous work, Black says it’s critical for him to remain focused by toning down the outside noise.
“Shutting off the hype is necessary in the same way that you can’t think about the money,” he says. “When you’re hired to write a script, you can’t think, ‘Oh my God, this page was this much money, it better be good.’ Once you take on the job, the job becomes it. That’s all there is, the focus on and attention to bringing whatever instinct you have to it.”
And sometimes that comes with having to trust your gut and not get too meta. For example, many of Black’s most famous movies are set during Christmas, from “Lethal Weapon” to “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang” to “Iron Man 3.” But even though Black knew a yuletide feel in “Play Dirty” would get a nod of recognition from fans, at first he didn’t want to lean into it.
“People often talk about the Christmas motif that I sometimes have in movies,” Black says. “Once people notice that, that jig is up. I would do it, but at the same time, I was thinking, ‘Now that it’s sort of a one-trick pony that people are actually noticing, it’s actually part of what you called “the hype,” then it’s kind of lost its luster.’ Now, in this movie, I wanted to do winter in New York City, and I thought, ‘Oh my God, here we go again.’ We could set it in February on Presidents’ Day, but you know, why? We’re in New York, it’s winter, might as well be Christmas.”
That sense of adventure is what Black says keeps him making movies.
“I tend to look for things that, especially as I get older, are arguments to myself to still believe in a sense of wonder, to still believe in writing the next chapter,” he says. “Themes that are important seem to be people who get knocked down and find a reason — despite themselves — to get up and continue.”
Watch the “Play Dirty” trailer below.
