Director Jane Campion, actor Kirsten Dunst, producer Tanya Seghatchian, and cinematographer Ari Wegner on making The Power of the Dog.
Jane Campion’s highly acclaimed drama, The Power of the Dog, offers a richly nuanced examination of masculinity on the American frontier. Adapted from Thomas Savage’s 1967 novel, the film sees Benedict Cumberbatch deliver a career-best performance as tyrannical rancher Phil Burbank. Phil routinely taunts his sensitive younger brother George (Jesse Plemons) for any display of consideration or compassion — men, he thinks, should never exhibit such traits. When George brings home a new bride and her teenage son, the cruel yet charismatic cowboy feels his dominance in the household is threatened, and he begins to wage a full-scale war of harassment and intimidation.
For Campion, who has always centered women in all of the film and television projects she’s crafted throughout her singular career, The Power of the Dog represents something of a creative departure. But true to form, she relied on a number of gifted women to bring her vision to life. In the critical supporting role of Rose — the widowed single mother who becomes the target of so much of Phil’s hatred and vitriol and turns to alcohol to cope — Campion cast Kirsten Dunst. Behind the camera, the writer-director partnered with producer Tanya Seghatchian, with whom she’d become friendly during the making of the 2009 film Bright Star. She also recruited cinematographer Ari Wegner, inviting her to shoot the 1920s-set tale after having worked together on a commercial for the financial services company ANZ.
While attending the New York Film Festival, the women of The Power of the Dog gathered to discuss their artistic collaboration in a roundtable conversation moderated by Tamara Jenkins, the acclaimed writer-director known for such films as Slums of Beverly Hills, The Savages, and Private Life.
Peter Gordon (Kodi Smit-McPhee)
Tamara Jenkins: Something about this felt like a Tennessee Williams play hidden inside of a Western. Finding this material, what was the thing that sucked you in?
Jane Campion, director: The thing that sucks you in, it’s a mystery. It’s like falling in love. It’s just a beautiful thing when something gets a grip on you, and you find yourself thinking about the book spontaneously after you’ve read it. What I loved was that the themes would keep coming back to me. I felt like, Oh, this is a strong piece. The way that the story works — we used to talk about that quite a lot. At the end, it has this propulsion that is really genuine. It’s a real work of the psyche. I was finishing the television series Top of the Lake, and everybody else was talking about what they were doing next. I didn’t have anything. I found myself asking, I wonder who has the rights? That was perhaps four weeks after reading it. The reason I read it was because of Judith Campion, who is my dad’s second wife, she’s a great reader. A lot of New Zealanders really love books, and we share that in common. She sent me the novel like, I read this. I think you’ll like it. And I did love it.
Tanya Seghatchian, producer: Jane gave me two novels at the same time, both of which I admired, but one of which I fell head over heels in love with. And that was this one. Immediately, it seemed to me that it was a beautifully written piece of literature. You couldn’t believe that Savage wasn’t better known. With this one, I saw a movie. When Jane rang up and said, “This is the one we’re going to do,” it was terribly exciting because it was such a good story.
Rose (Kirsten Dunst) and George Burbank (Jesse Plemons)
It’s like someone wrote all the backstory for the actors.
Kirsten Dunst, actor: Actually, Jane made Rose more well-rounded. Savage talks about her delicate hands and how her son loved her hands. It was more about the essence of the character.
Campion: She was a bit underwritten. I think she was looked at from the outside, not felt from the inside. Rose does bring the kindness, or the will to kindness, to the story. I think Savage kept wanting to bring the idea of kindness into the novel, but it didn’t really sit there very well.
Seghatchian: I definitely thought that in the first draft Jane gave her a prominence that Savage didn’t give her. You knew her, you understood her plight, you understood that she was central to the story. In a way, Jane did the same with George.
What’s so exciting about the movie is the way it jumps from the expansive to the human. The interior of the house feels so oppressive.
Seghatchian: We built that ranch from scratch. There was nothing there.
Campion: I remember going onto the site. It was snowing in September, which is like spring in New Zealand, where shooting took place. We had this mock up of where the ranch was going to be in the summer. We were trying to get an idea of the size of the thing and where the barn was going to be. I was talking to some of the builders asking, Do you think this is going to get done? We were trying to build a massive three-story house in three months.
Dunst: It was one of the most impressive sets I’ve ever seen in my life. When I first drove up to that, I was like, They can’t take this down.
Campion: We had an enormous bank of references that we employed. Then, we actually went to Montana to Thomas Savage’s family ranch. We met his nephew, who told stories about him.
Phil Burbank (Benedict Cumberbatch)
It’s interesting that so many of the department heads on this film were women, when the Western is generally perceived as a male domain.
Seghatchian: When we were thinking about how we were going to put the film together, Jane and I knew we wanted to make sure that we had enough female voices in this masculine world. It was one of the reasons we were so excited to work with Ari. We both loved the work we’d seen that she’d done, and Jane and Ari had been lucky enough to work with one another briefly on a commercial. It was just that sense that she was going to bring something different to the makeup of our team.
Campion: Ari’s got an amazing eye. I’d seen some shorts that she’d done, and the shorts were so beautiful. And she’s a woman. What I loved about Ari is that she, like me, is a workhorse, really. We love to do as much as we can to try to get some control, or enough control, to lose control at the right moments. To try to tell a story in its own unique way is what gets us excited.
Ari Wegner, cinematographer: It’s my worst nightmare to do something not as well as it could have been done.
Campion: To be honest, the preparation is really hard. You’re always dreaming into this vacuum that dazes you in a way. We would do the honest work of figuring out the options. It’s great to have a companion to do it with — I’ve often just done it alone. I really loved it. I remember saying to Ari, “I don’t want to do this alone. I want to be helped.” Women are good with sharing power, and that’s the environment they like to create.
Wegner: Also, what was really unique — I don’t know if it’s a gender thing or just Jane — is that sense of fun and playfulness she encourages is not just something that will hopefully happen, but it’s actually essential to the process. The playfulness, the curiosity, and even that childlike spirit is actually key to the whole thing.
Campion: If things get too serious, I get a bit depressed. I shut down a little bit and start worrying. I feel like I’m a real fake.
Rose (Kirsten Dunst)