Interview: Director-Writer-Producer-Actor Jake Allyn on His Directorial Debut "Ride"
"It is definitely a movie about the rural community, that was made by the rural community."
I get a lot of press releases about films and generally, as you’ve probably guessed from the themes of this newsletter, I mostly focus on films that are directed by women. But occasionally a new independent film will cross my path that piques another of my interests: films about rural America, especially when they are centered on the American West. Enter Jake Allyn’s film Ride, a western-tinged melodrama about a family hit by cancer struggling against the financial pitfalls of the American medical system and three generations of Texas bull riders trying to make sense of where they fit in the world today. I was originally just going to review the film (look for that on RogerEbert.com tomorrow), but when the credits rolled, as a country girl at heart, I knew I just had to talk to Allyn about the visceral world he had created. The blood and the dust and the rodeo of it all.
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_474,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F47c6f2cb-12ee-4a6b-91ef-50712f680143_453x604.jpeg)
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_474,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa762a8fc-840a-48a3-93b9-b3eb3e2d2810_453x604.jpeg)
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_474,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F575ff413-e854-4909-9620-06849b445553_887x1024.jpeg)
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_474,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fdc6e70cb-2d42-4661-be17-bd4f887086f0_496x591.jpeg)
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_474,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F5d81b3b5-9636-484f-a755-322a4211426c_453x604.jpeg)
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_474,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fc15ba956-b314-4039-9f20-728737ec8507_604x453.jpeg)
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_474,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ffb88f819-cfec-4e40-bd9c-62a723a7fe36_960x960.jpeg)
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_474,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fd92c09fe-2f9b-4bf2-a0a0-437fbfa4d3e1_3024x4032.jpeg)
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_474,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F73750c9d-28d6-413e-8bb8-5109969f1b44_3024x4032.jpeg)
Before we get to the interview, I want to share a little bit about my country ass. Behold a montage of me in my hometown, whose motto is “Where The West Still Lives,” over the years. My parents were from the Los Angeles area, but they raised my brother and me in the literal middle of nowhere in Northern California. It’s 100 miles from everywhere. It has no streetlights; just a flashing yellow yield sign at the junction of two dusty highways. It’s hospital was so bad when I was a kid that they had to drive 100 miles into Oregon so I could be born via C-section. We get our pet food from a feed store. There’s lots of cows. I never did FFA (Future Farmers of America), but I did live down the street from the Junior Show Grounds where I watched young people rope cows and ride horses and auction pigs that they raised. I lived five minutes from the Auction Yard and heard (and smelled) the cows the night before an auction, mooing in what often seemed like one last plea for mercy. I was friends with cowboys who starting riding when they were children and by high school already chewed tobacco and drank whiskey throughout the day. When I first got an allowance for doing chores I gave the money right back to my parents so they would get my a subscription to Country Weekly. CMT (back when it showed music videos) was my favorite channel. I had a lot of cassette tapes of 90s country albums. If you look very close in the photo on the bottom left, you can see that I was Little Miss Fandango for the town’s 4th of July celebration known as Fandango Days. The county fair was a great time to visit piggies and goats and get scared by horses (they do not like me at all). We also had an annual rodeo called the Super Bull. Yes. You read the correctly. Growing up I was often miserable, being a strange little arty kid amongst all this cowboy culture, but as I’ve gotten older I’ve found myself having reverential feelings for it all. Like they say, you can take the girl out of the country, but you can’t take the country out of the girl.
Ten minutes was not really enough time to get into everything I appreciated about the world-building of this film, but I did enjoy speaking with co-writer-director-producer-star Jake Allyn about how this film came to be, collaborating with Forrie J. Smith and C. Thomas Howell on their experiences as bull riders, filming at live rodeos, and the way the film’s sound design really brings the whole world into focus. Read our conversation below.
Where are you recording from?
I’m in Chicago, but I’m from the middle of nowhere in Northern California. Very rural. Actually, the town’s motto is “Where The West Still Lives.” So when you have the character driving into Stephenville and there was that sign that said “The Cowboy Capital of Texas,” it really reminded me of home.
This was based on the town that I knew growing up. It’s so cool that it spoke to someone so purely who wasn't from Texas. It shows that these towns might be called something different. But you know, they're the same.
I think it's very rare for a film to portray rodeo culture well and with respect. That's part of why I really wanted to watch this film when I first heard of it, and I feel like you pulled it off.
Thank you.
I read in the press notes that C. Thomas Howell, Forrie J. Smith, and you all talked to each other about your own experiences in rodeo coming from three different generations. I'd love to hear what you pulled from that, and how that helped bring this story together.
They just brought so much raw authenticity and honesty to the movie. I think I brought them a good script, and then they returned to me an honest, great story. I hope. You know, the truth is always more interesting than fiction. What I love about what they brought, and were willing to bring, was not trying to just glorify the cowboy. It could have easily gone in that direction, which I think some of those movies that you're talking about, can go. Where it's just “Rah, rah, rodeo!” It's not real. They were willing to look at the ugly side of it all, too. Which I so appreciate. It makes for a much I think meatier movie.
The example I've been using is in the locker room scene, after my character is hurt, and you're not sure if he's gonna be able to ride in that final ride. In the script I had his grandfather, Al (Forrie J. Smith), who is the only character who will always look after Peter no matter what, I had him, say, “Hey, I'm gonna pull you. You're done. You should be proud. It's okay.” And then my character, heroically, decides to finish the ride on his own. When we were filming, Forrie said “This isn't right.” and I asked what he meant. He said, “Even though his ribs are messed up, why am I trying to pull him? Why wouldn't I tell him to cowboy up?” I responded, saying, “Well, Peter is on the brink. You don’t know this, but he’s relapsing. He’s putting himself under immense pressure. He’s willing to kill himself to win this rodeo. So your character is trying to love him and give him an out.” Forrie goes, “Jake, I’ve ridden with a broken pelvis.” He says, “That’s what my daddy would tell me in the back of the rodeo. So I think I would pat him on the back and say “You're a bull rider. Bull riders do not walk away.” I’m, like “Okay. Let’s do that.” [laughs].
I think it makes for a better scene, and in a way more heroic. Because, yes, that's a beautiful thing for a grandfather to try and say you got this, but it's also kind of messed up. It’s dark and gnarly that he does that. So, hopefully in that moment, the audience can understand why Peter has put so much pressure on himself. Because when you're riding, with this shadow over you from your grandfather, you're gonna make that last ride, you’re gonna be a bull rider the way he told you.
The photos that are up on the wall of his dad riding were from a real arena. It's called the Cowtown Coliseum in Fort Worth, Texas. It’s got all the greats hung up on the wall. I remember just thinking, man if you're a bull rider right now and you just see these holy ghosts up on the wall, I mean, the pressure, the honor, but also the pressure, that would bring is serious stuff.
I also like that, and I don't know if this was in the original script, but the way it plays in the film that rodeo itself is a form of addiction. You get the high from it in multiple ways, from the adrenaline of riding to the buzz of the crowd. You see how it affected all three of these guys, this addiction and even breaking the addiction. There's that great scene with John (C. Thomas Howell) where he talks about what he gave up to be a family man, but you can still feel that he's always jonesing for the rodeo.
These guys, whether they're addicts or not, all the bull riders that I talked to, they always say it's like riding lightning bolts and you just can't help but want to try it again and again and again. And of course, as a screenwriter, I'm like, that sounds like what a drug addict would say. You're gonna get hurt, even though you know, you're gonna break your hip, you can't help it. When you have to get on that bull, you wake up thinking about it and you go to sleep thinking about it. I've been in a lot of AA rooms where people are saying the same thing about drugs or alcohol. I did want to play with that metaphor.
I felt that was really effective and really authentic to the cowboys that I grew up with who started riding horses and bulls and all of that at like age six. How do you give that up, if that's all you know?
Exactly.
I definitely felt like I was back home watching this movie. I also loved the way you incorporated the hospital and hospital bills and the mounting pressure of all of that. I think that storyline can hit everywhere. It hits the cities, it hits the rural country. Medical care is just so insane today. I also once had to go get surgery, and they were like you, you have to pay $1,000 up front. And I'm like, I have insurance. And they're like, it’s still $1,000 up front. It was so messed up. How did you come to develop that aspect of the film?
That was something that was always in the movie. There was always that element of this kind of cancer, if you will, that obviously has infected this child, but also affected the entire family. Again, it goes back to addiction, because addiction takes us all. And I felt it was the same with cancer. Obviously affecting this little girl more than anybody, but the whole family is being affected by it. So, it was something that was there on a very basic level in the first scripts.
But as the movie evolved COVID hit. I didn't work for a year as an actor. And to your point, not to be harsh, I’m a SAG actor, but SAG took away my insurance after a year. And I was like, “What?” It’s like, “Well, you haven't worked and you have to make a certain amount of money, etc.” And I was like, “There's no movies! It’s COVID! It’s not like I've stopped trying.” Again, to the cowboy of it all, I always like to work hard. I always paid my SAG dues. I thought, “I don't deserve this.” But it’s just like, “Sorry, not sorry, that's the line.”
And you can't necessarily fault them for that. It's just the world that we live in. It was just something that happened to me and started to affect me, and that’s when I realized, it can happen to anybody. So I decided I was going to tell it through the cowboy lens. That family in the hospital could be anybody. Whether you wear cowboy hats or not, your insurance system doesn't care if you can ride a bull, they just care if you can pay.
Before our time is up, I wanted to ask you about the sound design. I think part of what was so evocative about the film for me was the clanging of the metal and the humming of the crowds. I know you filmed during live rodeos, but I’d love to know how you then brought in that sound to really bring the world together?
That's so cool that you brought up sound design specifically even more than the music. We have amazing music and musicians that were on the movie super early and definitely added something to it. I had gotten advice from other directors about working in these live environments, because I really wanted to make sure we were making the audience feel like they were inside the rodeo world, not that they were at the glass looking in.
If you go to a rodeo and you're sitting in the front row, you might get sprayed with dust. You might get dirt kicked in your face. And that clanging, you know, as a bull rider, there's nothing gnarlier than that smack of metal. I really wanted those sounds to pop and also feel differently. I hope every ride has a whole different vibe. It tells a whole different story, so I really wanted those three rides to be different. Movies need everything, you need it all, but at the end of the day the sound is just so important to drop the audience inside of the story’s world like that.
It was really effective and I truly felt like the dust was in my nose. It brought me back to my teenage days.
That's awesome.
Thank you for this conversation. I feel like rural America is not really thought of by anybody, except for those who live there. And I feel like this film really shines a truthful light on it.
It is definitely a movie about the rural community, that was made by the rural community. A lot of my pride as a filmmaker is the fact that the Lone Star Rodeo, this rodeo company, let us shoot there live at the rodeo. They're in the film. The montage at the end of the credits, it's just their live rodeos and different people from their world. When we did the opening scene at the feed store, when they're opening up the store, even before the sun's risen, we just let people come in and get feed from C. Thomas Howell. We really just tried to make it a real world environment, to make you feel like you're inside this town as opposed to like, looking at it from a hundred feet away.
Ride opens in select theaters and on VOD this Friday. Check for tickets and showtimes here.
Until then, here is a great live video of Garth Brooks performing one of his signature songs, “Rodeo,” which I immediately played as soon as I’d finished watching this film.