Flesh and Blood: Director Nick Rowland and Actor/Producer Taron Egerton Talk ‘She Rides Shotgun’
Images courtesy of Lionsgate.
by CHAD KENNERK
Following his dynamic debut, Calm with Horses, director Nick Rowland’s sophomore feature begins when Nate (Taron Egerton) suddenly re-enters his daughter Polly’s (Ana Sophia Heger) life. Forced on the run, father and daughter embark on a journey to confront their past and face future consequences. Based on the novel of the same name by Jordan Harper, She Rides Shotgun is a gripping crime thriller set against the rugged beauty of the New Mexico landscape. The filmmakers navigated a series of unpredictable challenges to bring their vision to life. Originally set to film in Los Angeles — where the novel takes place — the project quickly pivoted when the L.A. tax rebate fell through. What seemed like a setback ultimately became an opportunity, with the natural frontier of Albuquerque, New Mexico lending a richer, modern Western tone to the father-daughter odyssey.
Rowland’s approach was grounded in creating a balance between quiet, intimate moments and high-stakes action. He encouraged a sense of freedom for his actors, particularly in the improvisational moments between Taron Egerton and Ana Sophia Heger, the outstanding young phenomenon whose performance was vital to the story. Heger’s portrayal of a lonely, awkward young girl serves as the emotional core of the tender and tragic father-daughter dynamic, making the layered chemistry between Egerton and Heger all the more essential. Despite fast-paced action and extensive stunts, Rowland says there was a conscious effort to keep the atmosphere light, especially given that the lead was also the youngest cast member. Rowland, Egerton and the entire crew shared a deep commitment to Heger’s well-being, ensuring a safe and supportive environment amid intense sequences.
Rowland and Egerton — who also served as a producer — illuminate a gentleness and vulnerability among the narrative’s true grit, infusing the film with a winning fusion of heart and heroism. As She Rides Shotgun arrives in theatres on the first of August from Lionsgate, director Nick Rowland and actor/producer Taron Egerton join Film Review to discuss the power of play and the lasting bond of kinship.
In conversation with Director Nick Rowland and Actor/Producer Taron Egerton.
Film Review (FR): Being halted during the strikes gave you an unexpected gift. What did that additional time to discuss and bond bring to the project?
Taron Egerton (TE): Well, it gave me plenty of time to gain a bunch of weight that I needed to lose frantically in eight weeks before the shoot [laughs.] That's a really interesting question. It definitely gave us time to get to know each other a bit, I think.
Nick Rowland (NR): We fell in love.
(TE): We fell in love. I've never stepped onto a set before with someone that I haven't worked with or felt like I'd really struck up a great rapport with. Obviously I've had a couple of instances where someone's asked me to do a film or a show with them again, but Nick and I had spent a bit of time together and talked about what we wanted from it and developed a shared passion. So that was a really nice plus side.
(NR): When the green light came and we headed off to Albuquerque to make the film, there was not a lot of leeway. There was a very short amount of prep time. We had 25 days to shoot it. We couldn't really do full days of shooting because of Ana's age, so we had to hit the ground running and commit to what we thought was the best way of telling the story. [It was helpful] going into that feeling on the same page as each other and having trust and friendship. Because it was difficult. It wasn't an easy film to make. It was such a privilege, and we had such a great time, but there just wasn't the time to think. Once it got moving, we just had to be doing. So just having that time to really talk about what we wanted to say with the film [was so beneficial].
(FR): Nate and Polly find and recognise a piece of each other and of themselves on this journey. Once you were in production and on that limited time frame, how did each of you approach cultivating their intimacy and providing the space for that relationship to foster?
(TE): I think I just tried to get to know Ana, really, and get to know her mother, Emily, who was with us at that time. I wanted them, and continue to want them, to have a great experience. The movie is a hard movie in some ways; it's a tough story. I wanted them to have a great time and a great experience. I just tried to bond, really, and Ana was really receptive to that. We struck up a really lovely friendship quite quickly. The thing about me and Ana as well, I think, [is that] we have a shared work ethic and a shared desire to do it. It was pretty straightforward. That aspect of it came together really quite easily, I would say.
(NR): When you have such a short amount of time, I think it's really important, as much as possible, that the cast and the actors never feel that time pressure. That there's still a sense of play with Ana, but [also] with anyone on the film. I didn't want there to be a right and a wrong way of doing something. I didn't want there to be any stakes for making mistakes.
(TE): That’s good. You should keep that as a catchphrase. I’m going to get that on a t-shirt for him.
(NR): I always like there to be a sense of play and a sense of confident curiosity. That we're exploring and trying things out. Let's do the scene the wrong way. Let's try and mess the scene up and see what happens. I know, with myself, even doing these interviews. I'm like, ‘How am I coming across? What's the right thing to say?’ And actually, it's just to be yourself and enjoy yourself and be truthful. It's the same with the film. Some of my most favourite moments in the film are these little gems that we discovered, rather than necessarily the things that we went into the scene expecting to do.
(FR): Taron, in taking over the application of Nate’s ink, the safety pin by his eye stands out in the way he protects Polly. He sees her. He is her safety pin. What story do the tattoos tell for you?
(TE): They all have different stories. They all have different meanings. Some are specific things from New Mexico, and some are very deliberately supposed to be symbols of a juvenile attitude to this gang culture that he's from, along with his brother. He has a money bag on a set of scales that’s counterbalanced with a knife. It doesn't even totally make sense, but it's supposed to be what a 17-year-old might draw to pay homage to the gang he's in.
He has chiles behind his ear, which is a very New Mexico thing. It's on the license plates. The date [under his eye] is when his brother died. There are a bunch of different meanings, but the point with them was that they would at first make him look quite formidable, but on closer inspection, they're all pretty innocuous. The gang that he was reluctantly affiliated with within prison has kind of white supremacist connections, but that's not who he is, and that's not what his ink is about. But if you put them in a lineup, you might not see that immediately. That was the idea with Nate, that he's somebody that on first glance you feel one way about, but spending a bit of time with him, you realise that he's not quite the villain you think he is.
(FR): Nick, as a former racer, how did you approach the car chase scene?
Not just the car sequences, but with all of the stunts in the movie, we wanted them to feel grounded. We wanted them to feel, as much as possible, locked into their point of view and perspective. To have them subjective and claustrophobic. There's always a danger when you get to action sequences that you forget what [the intention is]; especially when you're filming, it can become all about doing the cool stunts.
Actually, Rob Alonzo, our stunt coordinator and second unit director, was so great in collaborating to make sure that tonally, they felt consistent and messy. Nate, as a character, doesn't have time to think. Everything's sort of happening, and [he’s] reacting, rather than being too slick. We're really proud of the car sequence in the movie. It's really exciting. That's like the dream. I was making short films back home in the UK dreaming of one day being in America, having cop cars ramming into other cars, bits smashing everywhere, and cars spinning around. That's kind of the dream, really. We had a lot of fun making it, but again, we only had two evenings to do that, so it was very stressful.
She Rides Shotgun debuts in cinemas from Lionsgate on 1 August (US).
Watch She Rides Shotgun:
NICK ROWLAND premiered his debut feature film Calm with Horses, starring Cosmo Jarvis and Barry Keoghan, at TIFF in 2019 to rave reviews. The film received four Bafta nominations, including Outstanding British Film of the Year, Best Supporting Actress (Niamh Algar), Best Supporting Actor (Keoghan), and Best Casting (Shaheen Baig). Even before graduating from the UK’s National Film and Television School, Rowland’s work as a director had already earned him a Royal Television Society Award for his 2012 short film Dancing in the Ashes. His short Slap was nominated for a BAFTA in 2014. His next short, Out of Sight, premiered at Sundance in 2015 and was followed by the short Group B, which stars Richard Madden and draws on Rowland’s early years as a competitive rally racecar driver. Rowland’s film Floodlights was financed and released in 2022 by the BBC, where he also has directing credits on the series Ripper Street and the miniseries Hard Sun and Cuffs.
TARON EGERTON is an award-winning actor whose versatile and charismatic performances continuously capture audiences around the world. Egerton garnered numerous accolades for his portrayal as the iconic singer Sir Elton John in Dexter Fletcher’s Rocketman for Paramount Pictures. The film premiered at the 2019 Cannes International Film Festival to a standing ovation and rave reviews. He went on to win the Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture — Musical or Comedy, and received nominations from both Bafta and SAG-AFTRA as well as Best Actor honours from several critics’ organisations. He was honoured with the Actor of the Year Award at the Hollywood Film Awards and took home the Virtuoso Award at the Santa Barbara Film Festival for his performance. He recorded the original song “I’m Gonna Love Me Again” with Sir Elton John for the film, which went on to win Best Original Song at the Academy Awards, Golden Globes, and Critics Choice Awards.
In 2022, Egerton starred in and first-time produced for Black Bird, an American true crime limited series for Apple TV+ and was nominated again at the Golden Globes and SAG Awards. Egerton received his first Emmy nomination for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie that same year. In addition to Netflix’s 2024 holiday thriller Carry-On, he recently wrapped production on the crime series Firebug for Apple TV+, inspired by events surrounding notorious California arsonist John Leonard Orr, working with the same team behind Black Bird. It has also been announced Egerton will star alongside Charlize Theron in Baltasar Kormákur’s survival thriller Apex for Netflix.
Raised in Wales, Egerton graduated from the renowned Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in 2012. He went on to make his acting debut in two episodes of ITV’s Inspector Lewis before being cast in the TV mini-series The Smoke. Shortly after, Egerton was cast in his breakout role as Eggsy in The Kingsman: The Secret Service, a role he reprised in Kingsman: The Golden Circle. He also voiced Johnny in the animated comedies Sing and Sing 2. Other credits include Tetris, Robin Hood, Testament of Youth, Legend, Eddie the Eagle, and the prequel series The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance.
