PARADISE HIGHWAY: An Interview With Writer/Director Anna Gutto

Cinema Scholars interviews Anna Gutto, writer/director of the new crime thriller Paradise Highway. The film stars Juliette Binoche, Morgan Freeman, and Hala Finley. Lionsgate will release Paradise Highway in select theaters and On Demand and Digital on July 29, 2022.

Introduction

It goes without saying that any film depicting the crime world is going to delve into some dark territory. It’s impossible to tell a story about society’s sinister underbelly without facing some incredibly uncomfortable truths about the unseen nefarious dealings that go down every day. At the darkest end of that spectrum, stories about human trafficking are perhaps some of the most sensitive of all. To pull off such dark subject matter, a compelling core narrative is a key to humanizing what is often treated as some existential nightmare instead of the immediate issue it truly is. 

Synopsis

In Anna Gutto’s new thriller Paradise Highway, the writer/director uses the context of the female long-haul trucker community to carefully frame a powerful tale about human trafficking. Sally (Juliette Binoche) is a veteran truck driver who is days away from her beloved brother Dennis’ (Frank Grillo) release from prison.

To help him survive behind bars, Sally makes special deliveries on the side on behalf of her brother and his continued dealings from the inside. When Dennis’ “final deal” before his release turns out to be the transport of a young girl, Sally must decide where her loyalties lie. 

While Sally’s drama unfolds, a parallel narrative reveals the law enforcement who are hot on the trail of the trucker and her new charge. A typical odd-couple pairing of a new Ivy League recruit and a surly veteran detective makes for an entertaining procedural. It also doesn’t hurt that the old-school investigator is played with unending vigor by the incomparable Morgan Freeman. As the detectives close in on their target, they both learn lessons about when and when not to go off script to get the best outcome.

Analysis

The combination of the heavy subject matter and procedure in the context of the female trucker world creates a compelling cautionary tale about right vs wrong in Paradise Highway. Gutto’s eye for sweeping landscapes along with not one, but two unlikely partnerships in the film provide the heartbeat buried under the bleak layers. A glimmer of hope that makes the bitter pill a bit easier to swallow. As a result, the overall vibe of the film reads much more uplifting than one would expect from such a grim beginning.

Cinema Scholars’ Rebecca Elliott recently chatted with writer/director Anna Gutto about her new film. From coordinating a fleet of big rigs and going on the road with lady truck drivers to working with a child actor plus a cinematic legend, Gutto opens up about her experience making Paradise Highway.

Interview

Rebecca Elliott:
Thank you so much for joining me today. Great to see you.

Anna Gutto:
Great to see you too.

Elliott:
Paradise Highway is your first feature to direct, and you also wrote this story. It obviously deals with some pretty deep, dark subject matter with human trafficking. How did this story come about, and how did the deep dive into this terrible underworld affect you?

Gutto:
Well, I mean, let me start with how I first was inspired. I think with a film like this, obviously, there are many elements, so there are many sources of inspiration. But there was definitely a first seed when I was a teenager, it turned out that there had been a brothel in my friend’s building. And this was not a bad side of town, this was like your neighborhood or my neighborhood. It just really kind of shook me that this has happened just right under my nose, and that realization.

Then later on I was in Indiana as a foreign exchange student at one point. I lived in New York for many, many years, and just started realizing how prominent trafficking is. And it’s not gotten any better, and it’s not just foreign girls or boys. It’s a lot of domestic trafficking. Also realizing how we, as a society…I mean, we know it’s going on and it is under our nose. So it would be possible to stop it if we really decided that that was our priority. But as of now, as of yet, we have not.

Elliott:
So true.

Gutto:
I came from the theater. Then I went into film, and it’s because I believe in storytelling as a part of how we try to fight for humanity. And I felt like it was important for me to make it into an entertaining film. I didn’t want to make a usual issue film, because I wanted the film to reach people. Also, I wanted it to be a film that I wanted to see, or that I would’ve wanted to see. So there was that.

And then, while I was in school at Columbia, I had Paul Schrader, who wrote Taxi Driver, etc., as a professor one semester. While I was developing this story, he said to me, he was like, “Anna, there is this story. There is this video on YouTube of this female truck driver. You should take a look at it.” I started looking at it, and then I started sort of involving myself in the female trucking community. I got to know all of these female truckers. And they invited me into these conference calls that they used to have. Especially this one woman, Desiree Wood, who invited me in. She runs this community of female truckers.

So I would sit in my little apartment in New York City, and they would be all over the country in their little tin cans, driving. I felt that I was on the road with them. In the movie, a lot of the dialogue between the women is an almost direct transcript of these conversations. So that was a big factor. And also the respect that I gained for them because these women are incredible. They are women who are making a living inside this extremely male-dominated industry, and they’re all survivors in one sort or another. Hearing their stories, hearing them share about their lives, and also what being on the road gave them.

And I remember, in particular, this older woman who had been a truck driver for 30 years. She said this thing, she was like, “I have had a lot of traumas in my life, but when I’m on the road, I am responsible for this 30-ton missile. I get blinders on, and all I think about is the road.” So it becomes her Zen.

Elliott:
Yeah, her meditation.

Gutto:
And it’s incredible to talk with people like that, people who share themselves and who help each other as much as they do. Yeah, so I gained incredible respect for them. So all of these elements come together to ultimately form the story that it became.

Elliott:
I love the originality of it. Like, yes, you have this dark thriller, but then the female trucker aspect is so cool. And I also love the genuineness of the character Sally that you’ve created, and of course, she’s conflicted. And you have Juliette Binoche who plays this incredible character. Can you talk about working with her, how she approached this community and did she actually drive the trucks at all? How did that go down?

Gutto:
Yes, she did. She did, quite a lot, actually. Well, I mean, you said it yourself. This incredible actress and that’s it. Juliette is this incredible actress. So when you have this incredible community of female truck drivers, and then this incredible woman, person, actress, Juliette Binoche, and when she then engaged with this, she is going to soak up everything.

She came over to the US almost a year and a half before we started filming and met up with me. And she started learning how to drive a truck. Then she met Desiree, the female trucker who runs this organization, Real Women in Trucking. So she learned how to drive a truck, backing it up, the whole thing. And then she went on a ride along with Desiree for, I think, five or six days. She was on the road during the day, slept in the bunk at night, and was around the truck stops and the whole thing. So she really immersed herself.

Then she came back again when we were prepping for filming. And she wanted to come three months before we started filming. She would’ve stayed the whole year if she could. Then she started training again. Of course, we had a stunt coordinator on set with us- someone who was very, very good with trucks in particular. Once he had driven around with her, he came to me and the producers, and he said, “You guys can let Juliette drive anywhere because she knows exactly what she’s doing.” So a lot of the driving is her.

Elliott:
Wow. What a badass.

Gutto:
And as you see, I mean, in some of the shots in the movie, it’s obvious because the camera comes up along the side of the truck and it’s her driving. Then there are some things where, for different reasons, we had to have someone else drive. Desiree is driving it sometimes when it’s the truck driving other places. And also this other female trucker, Diane, who also came on board once we were in Mississippi. They’re also in the movie.

Elliott:
I was wondering about that!

Gutto:
Desiree is Patty, one of the truckers, and the other one, Diane, is Dolly. She’s the one with the bigger hair.

Elliott:
I love that. What a great experience to feature some of the women who inspired you in the first place. In addition to that story, you also have the police procedural part of the film too. And you have a legendary actor, Morgan Freeman, in your corner. Which, in a lot of these types of thrillers, there’s a veteran actor, but they’re only in a couple of scenes and only in a single location. But oh no. He is in this thing. And he is in it from beginning to end, as an integral part of the story. Can you talk about working with Freeman and what he brought to the project?

Gutto:
Yeah. He is incredible. An incredible professional, and just an incredible and generous human being with whom I would love to work with any time. And exactly what you said, he was in my corner and that was wonderful. I mean, he was 84 years old when we were filming, so I also… Obviously, I was sensitive to his needs. But he stepped up in every way.

Elliott:
Wow.

Gutto:
And if I can be like that when I’m 84, I’ll be very, very happy.

Elliott:
Yeah, I’ll have what he’s having, for sure.

Gutto:
Oh my goodness. He and Cameron [Monaghan] worked so well together. And you’re right, I mean, he was there a lot, and he is in a lot of different locations. We did shoot in Mississippi because of him because he lives there.

Elliott:
I see.

Gutto:
That’s his home. And part of that was really also because this is a demanding role, and it felt good, then, to be where he could live at home most of the time. For some parts, he had to be at a hotel, but for most of it, he could live in his own house, and to sort of make it so. And I’m so glad that we did it in Mississippi because it gave the story so much personality.

Elliott:
It really did. One of the things I was surprised to learn is that you’re originally from Norway, and yet this film seems like such a love letter to the American countryside. It’s a universal story, but it also seems so very American. Can you talk about what your unique perspective brings to the story?

Gutto:
Well, first of all, I have lived in the US for 20 years, and I am also a US citizen at this point. I’m a dual citizen.

Elliott:
Nice.

Gutto:
So I am also an American. I’ve lived my entire adult life in the US. But also, the truth is, I realized when I was doing some plays in New York a long time ago that there are actually quite a lot of similarities. Because Norway, even though it is a small country, people live not very close together. So, similar to the US, there’s also this sense of distance, and distance between people, and hidden spots. But really, I love America. I think it’s also my country, and it has so much incredible humanity and power in it, and it’s worth fighting for. And it’s so valuable.

Elliott:
You have these sweeping landscapes that you so carefully capture. I can tell there’s a real love for the backwoods of the country. It’s gorgeous.

Gutto:
I love our country. And yes, I mean, there might be as I’ve known with some other European filmmakers making films in the US, it might be having a bit of a foreign eye that might make you see the beauty even more.

Elliott:
Yeah.

Gutto:
Or might make you see the beauty in other places, not in the things that you would expect to be seen as being beautiful. But I see it as being beautiful. And maybe by my seeing it as being beautiful, maybe you will too.

Elliott:
Absolutely. Bringing it back to the core of your story about the unthinkable and ongoing issue of human trafficking, you have this young actress in the film. And kids are pretty savvy these days, even young ones. But did you have to take any special care in working with her, regarding the heavy-duty subject matter?

Gutto:
Well, Hala Finley is, first of all, just incredibly, incredibly talented, and smart. Now, in terms of what you’re asking, I’ve never seen an imagination like hers. So she is able to imagine circumstances for herself at a level that I’ve never seen before. I’ve worked quite a lot with kids, and I am the type of director…I don’t like manipulating my actors. I mean, in general, I don’t like manipulation. And I don’t like manipulating my actors because I really respect their work. They can do what’s needed as long as I give them the tools and the information. And sometimes it’s about reminding them about something in the backstory of the character, or whatever. But I really don’t believe in manipulation.

Which I know is different from a lot of other directors. Some directors say that when they work with kids, it’s all about manipulation. I don’t believe in that. So with Hala, obviously I had very close communication, both with Hala and with her mother, who is a wonderful human being as well. And we would talk together about how to approach it. But Hala is old enough that she does know about things that are going on.

Elliott:
Yep. 

Gutto:
And then she would find the things that would help her get to the point she needed for the character. One thing that really makes it feel good with Hala is that she really loves her work. So when she can find the things she needs to get to an emotional place for a character, it is satisfying for her, even if it’s devastating for the character. She will get exhausted, of course, in some of the scenes. You can imagine it’s exhausting for her, but it doesn’t damage her. And that, I think, is… It’s such an important balance to have when you work, especially with children.

Elliott:
Absolutely. And it’s important to have that character represented in this kind of story. She did such a great job.

Gutto:
Yeah, she’s incredible.

Elliott:
Well, thank you so much for your time and for chatting with me about Paradise Highway. Good luck with the rest of your interviews today. Have a great day.

Gutto:
Thank you so much, Rebecca.

Lionsgate will release Paradise Highway in select theaters and On Demand and Digital on July 29, 2022.

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