Write On: 'The Bikeriders' Writer & Director Jeff Nichols

“You’re reading these interviews [in the book The Bikeriders by
Danny Lyon] and they’re all interesting, but Kathy’s are just
fascinating. You could just tell she was a character, meaning she
was just this interesting, dynamic person, a person that was
trying to figure out how she found herself in this world because
she really talks about walking into this bar and meeting this
charismatic young bike rider. And so, it was a really beneficial
crutch for me to kind of get into this world. And then before you
know it, by the middle of the script, I’m writing words for Kathy
that never existed. It didn’t hurt that, in my research, I
reached out to Danny and he turned over hours and hours of
recordings. I would drive around town just listening to Kathy
talk. I mean, I had this woman in my head and I felt pretty
confident midway through the script that I could write in her
voice. It just gave this perspective to a very masculine,
aggressive subculture. It gave this feminine point of view, but
to me it was just a really interesting point of view,” says
writer/director Jeff Nichols about writing the character Kathy,
played by Jodie Comer, in his film The Bikeriders. 


In this episode of the podcast, we speak to Jeff Nichols about
his departure from Southern Gothic storytelling and going deep
into the world of a 1960s motorcycle club for The Bikeriders,
starring Austin Butler and Tom Hardy. We also discuss some of his
other films like Loving, Take Shelter and Mud, starring Matthew
McConaughey – a film Nichols thought would never get
released. 


“I thought Mud was a failure. We had taken Mud to the Cannes Film
Festival, and although we had a really nice reception there, you
know, standing ovations and whatnot – no one bought the film. And
we went an entire year with no one buying that film. In fact, no
one ever did buy that film. The financier put up half the money
to market and distribute that film and luckily, Roadside
Attractions came in and put up the other half and then it became
the film that everybody knows,” says Nichols. 


To hear more about Nichols’s writing process, and his advice for
building stories around “emotional impact,” listen to the
podcast.