The cast and director of Netflix‘s The Harder They Fall sat down with Dave Morales to explain how the movie came to life. If you haven’t seen it, The Harder They Fall is an action-packed Western film filled with the most merciless Black gunslingers of the 19th century. While the characters existed in real life, the Jeymes Samuel-directed movie tells a fictional story about the clash of some of the most notorious gangs that ran the Old West.
A young Nat Love (Jonathan Majors) is traumatized after Rufus Buck (Idris Elba) invades his childhood home, murders his parents and carves a cross on his forehead. Once grown, Love hears about Buck’s release from prison and decides to get his old gang back together to seek revenge.
Portraying real-life characters: Jonathan Majors
Although Love’s portrayal is nothing short of tough, his real-life counterpart had a different story. The Western hero started his life as a slave and following emancipation, he became a cowboy, detailing his adventures in his autobiography. In it, he wrote about crossing paths with other notorious characters of the Old West, like Billy the Kid, Bat Masterson and Pat Garrett.
In an interview with Dave Morales, Majors mentioned using Love’s autobiography to portray the character: “I thought of The Harder They Fall as a missing chapter,” said Majors. “The fact that he was so good with his gun … that he had traversed certain areas, ultimately became a porter … from Tennessee, was a slave—all these things about him, we used all of it.”
Majors also talked about how surreal Love’s life and the plot of the film were: “He’s an incredible, incredible character, but he also existed.” said Majors. “So, there’s a world for me where I go: ‘No, the events of The Harder They Fall—they happened.’”
Portraying real-life characters: Zazie Beetz
The movie also tells the story of Stagecoach Mary, played by Zazie Beetz. While in the plot the character runs a series of popular saloons in the Old West, the real-life Mary Fields wasn’t as successful as a businesswoman. Years after emancipation, Fields opened a tavern in Montana, but allowing the poor to eat for free led her to bankruptcy less than a year in the business. She then moved on to become the first African-American woman to work for the U.S. Postal Service. She earned the nickname Stagecoach Mary for reliably delivering mail by stagecoach for eight years.
Like Majors, Beetz sat down with Morales to break down how she portrayed Stagecoach Mary: “I really wanted to make sure that I got her spirit in this film,” said Beetz. “She was really tough. Women specifically in the West had a really hard time. There weren’t a lot of them and you needed to be able to protect yourself. You needed to be able to hold your own and survive. And I think there’s very much [of] a survivor spirit in Mary Fields, and I really wanted my Mary to have that element as well. … Being a businesswoman and being able to provide for herself was something I wanted to come across in this film.”
Another remarkable real-life character featured in the movie was Bass Reaves (Delroy Lindo). The real Reaves broke down the racial barriers of the Old West to become the first Black deputy U.S. marshal west of the Mississippi. In The Harder They Fall, the lawman used his wisdom to act as the voice of reason in Love’s gang.
Director’s vision
Just about all the credit for this masterpiece of a film goes to writer and director Jeymes Samuel. Morales asked Samuel how the movie’s captivating set in Santa Fe, New Mexico came to life: “Everything was on location,” said Samuel. “I had a production designer called Martin Whist, who is a genius. He totally understood every single area I needed to go cinematically, just with the camera. The town was already there. We built the huge Mayor’s mansion on the back. … It was just an awesome thing to have all the actors on location as well when you’re directing and knowing that everywhere we turn is a 360-degree world of the story we’re in.”
The Harder They Fall is streaming now on Netflix.
Rodrigo Barbosa is a Brazilian-born, Houston-based journalist.
