The Big Picture

Jeff Nichols’ latest film, The Bikeriders, starring Austin Butler and Jodie Comer, brings to life the social unrest of the 1960s America.
The film captures the evolution of a motorcycle club through the ’60s and ’70s, exploring themes of nostalgia, transformation, and external influences.
Butler and Comer discuss their characters and experiences filming dangerous vintage bike scenes, showcasing authenticity and dedication to their roles.

Oscar-nominee Austin Butler (Dune: Part Two) and Emmy-winner Jodie Comer (Killing Eve) are killing it in Hollywood, and neither seems able to ease off the throttle. Together, they lead writer-director Jeff Nichols’ latest period piece, The Bikeriders, alongside Tom Hardy (Venom), in a gritty look back at the turmoil of 1960s America. The trio is joined by The Walking Dead’s Norman Reedus, Boyd Holbrook (Justified: City Primeval), Mike Faist (Challengers), and, of course, Michael Shannon (Take Shelter).

Inspired by the photography of Danny Lyon, The Bikeriders depicts a time when “there was a lot of unease in the world,” Comer tells Collider’s Steve Weintraub. The ’60s were rife with social unrest, and Nichols navigates that through a particular subculture with Johnny’s (Hardy) motorcycle club, the Chicago Vandals, where he recruits a devout and “beautiful” Benny (Butler). At the heart of the film is Benny’s warring relationship with the Vandals and Kathy (Comer), whose memories during an interview narrate the club’s journey from a family of outsiders to a ruthless gang.

In this interview, Butler and Comer discuss the “sense of nostalgia” Nichols approaches this time “since passed” with, and why Butler finds common ground with his character, Benny. He talks about crafting this “enigma” of a man with Nichols — blushing in the process — and Comer shares her not-so-method tactics for nailing that Chicago accent. For more on the dangers of vintage bikes and behind-the-scenes, check out the full interview in the video above or the transcript below.

The Bikeriders Follows the rise of a midwestern motorcycle club as it evolves over the course of a decade – from a gathering place for local outsiders into a more sinister gang, threatening the original group’s way of life.Release Date June 21, 2024 Director Jeff Nichols Runtime 116 Minutes

‘The Bikeriders’ Captures the Tumultuous ’60s in America

COLLIDER: One of the things I think Jeff Nichols, the writer-director, does so well is he captures these times and places that are gone. This movie, especially the first few years of the story, deals with a time and a place that’s gone, and the way motorcycle culture started versus what it morphed into. Can you both touch on that?

JODIE COMER: The motorcycle group goes through such a transformation. I think each character does as a result of the group and what they experience and go through. We start in the early ‘60s and then finish in the early ‘70s. Jeff speaks so beautifully about this sense of nostalgia and longing for a time that has since passed. Something I drew from and admired was that you can really see the authenticity of these people in this moment, what they believed in, and how they presented themselves. It’s so beautifully celebrated and explored within this film.

AUSTIN BUTLER: That idea of nostalgia, Jeff mentioned that yesterday, and I don’t wanna spoil anything from the movie, but it brought up a lot. It brought up a lot in my own life, of certain periods of time when I was surrounded by certain people or I was in a particular environment. You kind of have that as an actor all the time because you’re creating these families with each set, and then you go on, and you might not see people for years, or you may never see certain people again. Then you look back on a time period, and that’s that feeling of nostalgia for something that doesn’t exist anymore.

COMER: I think, as well, it’s just the exploration of how external forces can influence you. This time in America was the Vietnam War, there was a huge epidemic of the heroin crisis and that kind of violence. It felt like there was a lot of unease in the world. How that kind of infiltrated its way into these people’s lives naturally, as it does with any given moment in time, that’s something that’s definitely explored within the Vandals.

Austin Butler Created an Entirely New Character for ‘The Bikeriders’
“He was an enigma.”

So, Benny is the super attractive one of the group that stops your character, Kathy, in her tracks when they first meet. What is it like for you to get a script from Jeff that says, “I want you to play the super attractive one that can stop her in her tracks?” And when did you realize you might be more attractive than other men?

COMER: Oh my god!

BUTLER: Geez. [Laughs]

COMER: I’ll help you with that for one second. I don’t think Benny was ever described as that. The interesting thing about Benny was that Austin never had an image of him. None of us did. None of us ever had an image of Benny, so that element of mystery, he was an enigma. Not only is he a beautiful man, but it was those qualities about him that drew her and everybody else towards him. It was this sense of freedom and not belonging and not needing anything else.

Sure. I just think the way that Jeff photographs it and the way that you’re at the pool table…

COMER: Oh, incredible.

Image via Focus Features

At least, that’s the way I read the scene. She doesn’t know him yet.

BUTLER: You’re making me blush, though. [Laughs] That was something that Jeff and I talked about, was the enigma quality — how you see the side of his face, you see the back of his body first, and you don’t fully see him full-on, so there’s that mystery around him. Then we had those amazing images to go off of.

COMER: Because you ended up getting an image of him, right?

BUTLER: Yeah.

COMER: Was that afterward or during?

BULTER: That was during filming. Suddenly, I saw a picture of the front of Benny’s face, which even Jeff said, “That’s not Benny.”

COMER: Right! It feels different.

BUTLER: We’ve created this image of who he is in our mind.

I know how movies are made, and there are shots of all the actors on vintage bikes actually riding without helmets. That’s a straight-up stunt. I spoke to Jeff about how the insurance company needed to know. What is it like filming those kinds of scenes where you’re riding around without helmets?

BUTLER: It’s a miracle we got this film insured. I remember when we were first having the conversations about how to do it, and somebody pitched the idea of these helmets with hair on the outside.

COMER: [Laughs] Oh my god, the hair on the top!

BUTLER: I saw a picture, and it’s the most ridiculous thing you’ve ever seen because it makes your head look like it’s this big, and there’s hair on the outside. I mean, there’s no way that’s possible.

COMER: I wish that just for one day everyone had to do that.

BUTLER: So instead, I just said, “If we just train really hard to the point where it’s second nature, then hopefully we can get through it in one piece.” I only crashed once, so we’re okay.

The thing people don’t realize is vintage bikes are not like modern bikes. I spoke to Norman about how the way that you break, there are no disc brakes, you roll to a stop. It’s completely different.

BUTLER: The brakes squeak the whole time, and it sounds like you’re trying to stop a train.

That’s why I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. You know what it’s like when you see two people, watching a movie, and you know they’re on some sort of machine.

BUTLER: That they’re on a rig the whole time.

That’s one of the reasons why I respected this so much because you could see that everyone’s really doing that.

BUTLER: I can’t believe we got the movie made. I’m so grateful for that. Movies like Easy Rider were hugely impactful on me, so to get to make a film in that way where you’re actually practically doing it is an incredible gift.

Why Jodie Comer Will Never Go Method

I have to compliment you on your accent and your vocal delivery in this movie because it’s phenomenal. Do you go method a little bit where you’re talking that way throughout the day, or do you turn it on and off?

COMER: I turn it on and off purely because I just couldn’t take myself seriously if I was asking Austin how his weekend was in my Kathy accent. I wouldn’t be able to focus, I don’t think. It was just spending a lot of time with the dialogue and the audio and really getting to grips with specific vowel sounds because a lot of Kathy’s dialect was a huge contradiction. It wasn’t a general Chicago, so it was making the decision not to do that and really focus in and try and emulate her as truthfully as possible. It’s just a lot of repetition and going over it to a point, like Austin says with the bikes, of doing something so much that when you actually get there on the day, it’s hopefully second nature and it’s not something that you’re aware of so that you’re able to just kind of play the truth of a scene and be in the moment.

The Bikeriders hits theaters in the US on June 21. Check the link below for showtimes.

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