Ewen Bremner Interview: American Sausage Standoff

American Sausage Standoff’s Ewen Bremner talks about the combination of recklessness and courage that turned him into a global movie star.

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American Sausage Standoff follows two characters seeking out The American Dream: Edward (Ewen Bremner) is an immigrant who seeks to celebrate and share his German heritage by opening a sausage restaurant in the middle of a quiet little town, and Mike (Anthony Starr) is a just-released convict who sees Edward’s dream as a chance to redeem himself – and maybe earn a quick buck along the way. While their intentions are (mostly) pure, Edward and Mike soon find themselves targeted by the bigoted bullies who run the small town of Gutterbee and refuse to allow any non-American culture into their community. But Edward isn’t going to give up his dream without a fight.

While promoting the release of American Sausage Standoff, Ewen Bremner spoke to Screen Rant about his work on the film, how he developed his character beyond what was written in the script by writer/director Ulrich Thomsen, and his roles in Trainspotting and Wonder Woman.

Screen Rant: I just watched your movie, American Sausage Standoff, it was delightful. You are such a magnificent presence onscreen. You remind me, in some ways, of my mom, who is also an immigrant, as your character is. She was ready to get her American Dream, and she was ready to throw a punch if someone was going to try and take it from her. Tell me a little bit about the inspiration, aside from the script, of course, for developing this guy.

Ulrich put the script together from all this verbatim stuff. Interviews, documentaries, news reports… And every line in the script that was spoken was a quote from an actual person in real life. How that came together as a screenplay was much more like wrangling a tiger. To try and make all that information into a story with clear, specific characters was a challenge. In a lot of ways, the voices were kind of similar, they were stuff he had been researching. A lot of it is focused on xenophobia and patriotism and people’s feelings about that. The voices were quite similar. To kind of make the characters more specific took a little bit of thought and work. I started to really see Edward as someone who was at the end of their rope. They’re facing either death by suicide, suicide by alcoholism, or actually just something more premeditated. This is a last-ditch attempt. He’s a depressed man making a last-ditch attempt to fulfill a purpose he believes he’s supposed to have, related to his dead parents. So he’s washed up in this town. It’s his last attempt to actually kind of realize himself. It’s only by accident that he meets this released felon who believes in him. I don’t know what he believes in him!

This guy has ulterior motives, as well. He wants to take advantage of the situation. But his good heart kind of wins out. I’m talking about Anthony’s character, Mike, who gets behind this dream. They’re two guys… Mike’s in search of a dream to prove himself in a last-ditch attempt. And Edward has a dream, but it’s just too big for him to realize on his own. He would probably just drink himself to death in that church if Mike hadn’t broken in to steal that television, you know?

That’s how I focused in on who this guy was, and then I kind of built it from there and found ways I could have fun with it. For me, it’s important that my character has a specific mission and a specific soul. I want to find ways I can have fun with that, as well. I maybe teased in some Werner Herzog, some memories from working with him, I enjoyed some of that austere, unbreakable mettle that Edward has. There’s what’s pathetic about him, but there’s also this steely, incredible mettle that he has.

Right. Once he has that purpose, he will stand against anything that tries to knock him down.

Yeah. Yeah! Once he’s got that wind under his sails that Mike gets him, he’s moving forward. He can believe in himself because Mike believes in him. The power of belief is such a potent thing. It drives our society. It also drives the film business. The power of belief. If people don’t believe in a project, then it’s not happening. If a project doesn’t have confidence in it, then it’s not happening. And this project was touch and go before it actually went into production. I only came on board because of the belief that Ulrich had, and the cinematographer, Anthony Dod Mantle, had in it, in this mad project. In the middle of America, we were 50 miles from the nearest gas station, in a tiny village surrounded by ghost towns in the middle of winter. And we tried to make this mad film that, on paper, I couldn’t really make sense of!

But through their belief, I kind of gave myself to it, you know? I know Anthony Dod Mantle really well. And his instinct is impeccable. I worked with him for many years. He’s always gravitating towards the unknown. That takes a lot of courage and belief. That’s what made me bite the bullet and get on board with it. Their passion.

It works. It shows on screen. I didn’t know anything about it. When they offer me interviews and send me the screeners, I don’t look up the trailer or anything. I’m like, “Well, I’m gonna watch it anyway, so why spoil anything?” So I had no idea what I was getting into! I hope a lot of people just take the chance. Take a chance! Watch a movie! It’s got Ewen in it!

I’m delighted that you enjoyed it. It reminds me of, like, Napoleon Dynamite in its unusual, unique… It doesn’t follow the rules of storytelling. It doesn’t follow the rules, but it has a huge heart, and unexpected humor. The humor in this, woah. (Laughs) You know? “Really?”

It’s good! Okay, so you mentioned Anthony. I assume you know him because he’s a Danny Boyle guy, and you’re a Danny Boyle guy.

Yeah, I worked with him and Harmony Korine in, like, 1999 or something. Way back then. We made a movie together, called Julien Donkey-Boy. We worked very closely on that. Yeah, so we’ve been very good friends since then, and we worked together on some other stuff, as well. But especially on T2, the Danny Boyle film. Yeah. So this was… I don’t know which one we did first… No, we did T2 first. Because this film has been… It got arrested because of the pandemic. It had a whole bunch of festivals lined up, and just as the pandemic hit, it just crushed the momentum.

Yeah. I’ve heard a few stories at this point, of movies that were locked and loaded, ready to go, and then they just went into limbo. So I really do hope that I can help get the word out, get some recognition because I think it’s a really special movie.

Awesome. Thank you.

I’d like to go back in time. Let’s go back to Trainspotting. That would be the movie that people said “made you a star,” but you’d been around for a while before that, of course.

I’d been hustling around, yeah. I’d been working as an actor since I was, like, 14 years old. I’d probably been working for ten years in obscurity before Trainspotting. But quite happily in obscurity! And happy to have any kind of job at all.

Well, that’s what I wanted to ask you. During that interim, from when you start working, and you said, “Happily in obscurity,” but was there pressure from yourself or outside people, you know, “Get a real job,” and “Go tend bar,” not that you didn’t do that. But tell me about the self-belief that it takes to hustle in this industry.

I haven’t done any other kind of work. Part of that is, I’m fortunate to have grown up in a time where it was feasible for an actor to get welfare for spells of time, and assistance with your rent to get paid, and that sort of thing. I was able to do a dance, you know, and somehow stay afloat through the rough times.

But yeah, I think it takes two things: recklessness because it takes recklessness to decide that you’re going to make your living doing something that completely depends on somebody wanting you amongst hundreds of thousands of other actors, other candidates, for a very specific job. And it also takes courage, I think. I think I have a balance of this. And I think I’m probably less reckless, now. But I’ve got a reckless streak and some degree of courage that has carried me through.

And there’s been times where I’ve lost faith in my ability to continue as an actor. Over time, I’ve had the odd crisis of, “I can’t do this anymore.” But that courage and recklessness are some kind of combination that allows me to be an actor. And also, in my work, as well. I don’t want to be in a safe place on a job. I want to be taking it to a dangerous place, even on a safe job. I want to be in the danger zone where I can absolutely fail. I don’t want to be in a safe place. There’s nothing I can hold on to, there. I need to have that ledge. (Laughs)

I imagine that you’re over the idea of playing the kind of role that anyone can play.

Yeah, I’d say so. Although, at the same time, I do have faith in the idea that any opportunity to work and to play is something that you can do something with! Even if it’s reading the phone book. I believe I can do something with that that will make it worth doing. I can find purpose in reading the phone book… the directory… I don’t know what you call it here. We don’t even have phone directories anymore! I shouldn’t use that term! It’s a thing, like, you probably didn’t grow up in an age where they had phone directories… This big book of names and numbers that you kind of have to leaf through to find out.

They have a couple at the museum.

Yeah! But it’s that faith, that any opportunity is worth pursuing to make something. I do have that faith. At the same time, I don’t want to do a part that anyone can play, but if that is the case, I want to look at it and say, “Well, what do I want to do with this part? What can I bring to the part? What are the parameters here? How can I find a way to enjoy this?” And if I can’t, then that’s my fault and my problem. It’s not the fault of the writer, the producers, the director, or whatever. That’s with me. That’s how I sort of philosophize my mission, what I’m trying to find.

Do you feel like you get that room to be creative on even big blockbuster movies? I’m thinking, off the top of my head, your Wonder Woman character could have been very “stock.” But instead, he’s secretly a huge, soulful chapter of that movie. Was that something that was already there, or did you get to weave it in?

I think… That’s something that Patty Jenkins really was fishing for, you know? She really was encouraging of [me] and other actors to bring that to the part. She didn’t want them to be stock. She wanted them to really have some kind of integrity. To find that in language, on the page, in the script, is more plain. She really wanted her film to have a heart and soul, not just from Wonder Woman, Gal Gadot, and Chris Pine, but she wanted that heart and soul and integrity to be part of the fabric of that film throughout.

So yeah, that is a good example. In different hands, or if I was feeling, like, “This is just a job,” then I would turn up and say the lines, and I’d be the one who would be letting myself down if I just turned up and did that. I see that as an opportunity to go into the unknown. Any opportunity that I have to do that is a treasure. I’m fortunate to have those opportunities. I don’t want to waste them.

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