James Badge Dale Is An Actor with Something To Say

Even if you don’t know the name James Badge Dale, you’ve loved him in something. He’s one of those actors who can disappear into a role — and yet somehow always make it unforgettable. Whether it’s a haunted soldier in The Pacific, a dirty cop who kills Leonardo DiCaprio in The Departed or a supervillain with literal firepower in Iron Man 3, he has a way of injecting raw humanity into even the darkest corners of cinema. As the villainous Sid Frost in John-Michael Powell’s revenge thriller Violent Ends may be his bloodiest yet, but as Dale tells it, the film is also a tribute to the kind of pure, gutsy storytelling that made him fall in love with acting in the first place.

“The script was really strong and Sid just kind of came alive to me as I was reading it,” Dale says. “I remember just being in the living room and reading this thing at night. It was late at night, my first child, he was barely sleeping. And I’m reading this [script], and I was like, ‘I wanna do it. I wanna do it. There’s fun to bad guys,” Dale says. Set in the rugged Ozark Mountains, Violent Ends follows Lucas Frost (Billy Magnussen, Lilo & Stitch), a good man raised in a family steeped in crime and bloodshed. Lucas’ hopes for a peaceful new life with his fiancee, Emma (Alexandra Shipp, Tick, Tick… Boom!) are destroyed by a savage act that drags him back into his family’s violent world, and propels him on a quest for retribution. “I’m proud of the whole film,” Dale says. “This is the best possible version of the movie that we wanted to make.  I’m blown away by Billy and Alexandra their performances and the chemistry that they had to bring … It’s easier to be a bad guy. I think it’s harder work to actually love someone on screen and make that believable,  to have that spark of life where, as an audience, you go, ‘Oh, that’s real. I want that. I want that in my life’ … I don’t do many romantic comedies or anything, I’m terrible at it. It’s hard.”

Romantic lead or not, the actor’s passion and commitment comes shining through every time, never more so than in  the short but indelible scene he shared with two time Oscar winner Denzel Washington in Flight, directed by Robert Zemeckis. For many viewers, Dale’s appearance — as a terminal cancer patient who crosses paths with Washington’s self-destructive pilot — was brief but magnetic. “That was a very personal experience for me to go through,” Dale says. “My mother died of cancer … I read that script and I had something to say.” Initially dismissed as too young for the role, Dale insisted on auditioning for it. “I wouldn’t take no for an answer.” Dale says. Finally, Zemeckis relented. “That was an hour before the audition,” Dale recalls. “I sat down with those pages for one hour. I went in and I just improv’d the whole fucking thing, because I got something to say. And Bob [Zemeckis] called me and he was like, ‘Hey, man, we want you to come do this role in this movie.’”

It wasn’t just a career turning point — it was a lesson in conviction. “Denzel works at the highest level,” Dale says. “The level of preparation — it’s talent meeting preparation, but also hard work and diligence. It’s intense, it’s a laser focus … and he just turns to me, cause I’m just like spitting it. And he looked at me and he just goes, ‘Man, scene stealer!’ He goes, ‘Why can’t I get material like this? Look at this!’” That kind of intensity followed Dale through collaborations with some of Hollywood’s legends — including Kiefer Sutherland, Martin Scorsese, Robert Downey Jr., and the late great Robert Redford, with whom Dale worked with on The Conspirator in 2010.

“And you’re being directed by one of your favorite actors, you know, and there’s this other thing that comes up. And not only are you trying to tell this story, but there’s this part of you that really wants him, Redford, the actor, to be like, ‘You’re good kid, you’re good’ — and I couldn’t get him to say that! And finally I just walked up to Bob, man, and I was like, ‘Hey, man, do me a favor. Just pat me on my back.’ And he goes, ‘Sure.’ Turns around. Pop. Pop. And I was like, ‘Thank you, man. Thank you. I got it!’” The memory brings a mix of laughter and misty eyes. “I loved him,” Dale says simply. “He was so kind and generous and he would be generous with his time.” 

Prior to making The Conspirator, Dale had auditioned for Redford for the 2007 Iraq war drama Lions For Lambs, and the Hollywood icon had stopped and taken the time to personally walk Dale to his car and chat. “We sat in the parking lot and talked for 10 minutes, about New York and just being a young actor in New York,” Dale says. He told me some stories and I told him some stories. And we shook hands, and that was it. That moment meant a lot to me — that moment I will carry. And he gave something to me, you know. I think as actors, there’s a history of giving to other actors, you know, so I wanna keep that thing alive.”

That spirit of exchange — of giving and taking, of passing the torch — defines how Dale talks about his recent collaboration with Jessica Chastain on the highly anticipated Apple TV series The Savant, which follows a woman who infiltrates online hate groups in an attempt to stop terrorist attacks before they occur. The series was pulled from its original November 7 release date with no new release date or explanation just two weeks after the Charlie Kirk assassination at Utah Valley University, and it remains in limbo. The decision sparked criticism from Chastain and journalists who deemed it to be important viewing. 

“I still haven’t seen it,” Dale says. “I can’t wait to see it. I can’t wait till the audience gets to see it. I think people are gonna be very surprised by our story. I see. The story’s a very human story and a very relevant story and a very important story. I’m a huge fan of Jessica Chastain … You’re talking like, an Olympic athlete of acting. There’s the intensity, there’s the preparation, there’s the talent. I mean, she can throw down and you better be ready to keep up, because this thing is gonna change every take and it’s gonna get better and morph. And she’s looking for angles, and it’s like, high-level fighting and sparring. I loved working with her. She’s the real deal times a thousand. I can’t wait ‘til people get to see the show.”

Whether it’s a Redford pat on the back, a Denzel nod across a hospital bed, or a sparring session with Chastain, James Badge Dale’s career has been built on moments of total immersion — the kind you can’t fake. As Violent Ends hits theaters, he sounds like a man still chasing that same high: the work, the craft, the connection. On screen and off, James Badge Dale still has plenty to say.

Read more film interviews conducted by Patrick Gibbs:
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