The action genre and Kellan Lutz go hand-in-hand at this point.
Whilst the actor started out his career across a variety of comedy features (Stick It), horror efforts (the remake of A Nightmare on Elm Street) and teen-aimed television (90210), and he may best be known as Emmett Cullen from the Twilight film series, it’s his action work that he’s most comfortable in and eager to continue exploring.
His latest genre piece is Desert Dawn, a gritty crime telling of a newly appointed small-town sheriff (Lutz) and his reluctant deputy (Cam Gigandet), who find themselves in a web of lies and corruption when the murder of a mysterious woman leads them to a dangerous conspiracy involving shady businessmen and the cartel.
As the film arrives in select US theatres and across Digital platforms this week, Peter Gray spoke with Lutz about his action career aspirations, reuniting with his Twilight co-star Gigandet, and how practical, on-set locations help infuse his performances.
There’s a whole undercurrent of “Who can you really trust?” running through the film. I wanted to know, as an actor, do you like knowing the truth ahead of time? Or do you prefer to discover the story as your character would?
What a great question, Peter. That’s a really great question. For me and my approach to things, especially independent movies and something like Desert Dawn, from the get-go, working with Al Bravo (producer) and the guys, (and) because I just previously worked with them on Due Justice, I know we have a very collaborative work relationship. They’re great guys. And they care about the story. It allowed me to help them take the first draft of Desert Dawn and layer it a lot more. I was really active in the process of making Desert Dawn from the beginning. So story beats that needed to be flushed out, more holes that needed to be filled, and knowing the ending and what it revealed…you know, Chad Law wrote the original script, and he’s a fantastic writer. But, for me, I am a problem solver, and I like knowing. I don’t need the mystery, because I want to do the best that I can. That’s why it’s called acting, right?
You can still act surprised, even though you know who the bad guy is. And if you can’t do that, then you probably shouldn’t read the script. You probably should be on a reality show. But even that’s scripted. I like that question. I find if you can’t be surprised or have that knowledge already, and you shoot a movie and you take six takes for a scene that is a big reveal, the first take is always going to get a really authentic expression and reaction. Take five and six? You’re gonna phone it in, or be too big, because you didn’t take the time prior to feel the memory and what you want to do in that situation, right?
It’s a little bit of both, but it’s more I like knowing everything about every character. Even Cam (Gigandet) on this one, and he’s a fantastic actor. It’s really great to work on the same team as him, because in Twilight we were enemies, right? He was the “bad vampire” and I was the “good vampire.” Or, you know, I’m sure the bad guy thinks he’s the good guy, but we didn’t have any scenes together, really. Besides the face off and the fight where we kill him. So working on this and seeing his approach to the character, and being able to say, “Hey man, this is how I’m changing my character, and I’d like to know, and you can tell me as much as you want or not, but because we’re on the same side, how do you see this situation?”
So what I think happened within that process, and there’s some projects that the actors don’t even talk to each other. It’s just you show up, be a professional, do what you’re supposed to do, and you get these reactions, and there’s a lot of gold that comes out of that. But being able to get to the end of the movie where, not to spoil anything, but I give him the badge, it’s really a great, full circle moment. (Our characters) knew each other growing up. He is the better sheriff. Maybe he’s not the better sheriff, but he is this town’s sheriff. He’s paid his due. I didn’t. And being able to have that brother-to-brother moment, like, “Take care of the goldfish, too.” (Laughs). It’s these little things that Cam and I got to add to the onion that is our characters and their relationship. It was really great working with him again.
Working on a film like this, it has this moody energy. It’s more of a remote environment. Does that bring anything to your performance as well? Compared to some of these blockbuster films where it’s all green screen and not organic sets? Does having something physical on set bring more to your character?
1,000,000%! It’s practical versus VFX, right? So, even with this being an action movie, your question of having the moodiness of the sets and shooting nights and being in different locations, versus being in green screen, where you really have to use your imagination, and that’s a lot of fun, but it’s usually bright in there. Doing Desert Dawn and having the grittiness that Marty Murray, our director, created, it just adds to the different layers of the feel and the type of movie. For any action movie, there’s a difference between having recoil in a gun that is a practice gun. You’re shooting blanks but you’re shooting at something that has dust flying off, versus rubber guns, where I’m saying “Bang, bang, bang”, because I need some sort of incorporation that is firing. Having guns to play with, and we had an extremely safe set, but it’s having the mood and characters that are menacing, it all plays to how you dive into a role and how you act.
And going off that, obviously the set and that environment changes the way that you act. When you take a project like this that stretches you, do you seek out roles that are going to be discomforting for you? Or do you wait for them to find you?
Yeah, this was more of an easier film for me, because I’ve done these action hero movies (before). I like them. I like playing the hero. Would I love to do them on the level of Jason Statham or Liam Neeson? I pray one day, you know. I got to get to where I’m leading a $10, $20, $30 million dollar movie, like The Beekeeper or Taken. It’s something that I enjoy. Life’s too short to not enjoy what you do. There’s been productions that I probably would never work with them again, because of how it was run, or corner were cut, or the toxicity of the shoot itself, or just the lack of…people don’t care. (Desert Dawn) was different. Working with these producers again, because I worked with them on Due Justice, I love their family mentality.
They have a really great time, and that’s mainly Al Bravo, and Saban (Films) is awesome. Al’s team, I still call all the time. We’re friends. And if he had another movie, I’d be like, “Let’s work on it together.” He has great ideas, and he really turned to me on this. It was a collaborative experience. Al produced like 10 movies a year, and I always said that if he ever had one he thought was right for me, that I would love to work with him again. He told me about Desert Dawn, and we went from there.
Working on these roles, and knowing the kind of people that you do and don’t want to work with, obviously that’s a strength of yours. Has your definition of strength changed from the way you defined 10 years ago as the actor you were back then?
1,000,000% again. There’s a lot of rules. A movie I did, What Remains, that really challenged me. (The Osiris Child) challenged my faith aspect of playing a character that’s hopeless. I really do love playing the ones that stretch me as an actor, and to step outside of my comfort zone. As far as the confidence and the maturity of 10 years ago Kellan, I’ve learned so much.
I mean, who were we all in our 20s, right? And then you take your 30s to really learn. I got married when I was 30. And when you get married you can’t be as selfish. I wouldn’t consider myself selfish, but anyone who’s single, you have your whole life that you’ve been selfish and doing stuff your own way, and you think you have all the right answers. Thank God I have a great team of managers and agents who have really walked alongside me. That we learn together and gather wisdom from other people and try to do the best that you can. But I’ve learned so much, and it’s eye opening. I really wish there was a book on it, like going back to the beginning of my career. I wish I knew that you were supposed to memorize your lines when you have an audition. I didn’t learn that for a good couple years, and now I’m smacking myself across the face thinking I would have booked a lot more when I was “green” if someone was like, “Hey, here’s a workbook.”
Do the same thing with athletes too. If someone gave them a workbook and told them to not spend all their money, and that they’re only going to have five years in the NFL. It’s really important to surround yourself with people who have been there. Just gain wisdom, biblically speaking, you know? Just surround yourself with people you admire and look up to and are in that, or above, season of life. And I’ve always taken that with me. When I got married I surrounded myself with people who are married and have great marriages. When I had children, I didn’t know what I was doing! I knew what I didn’t want to do, and naturally you leave some of your single friends and you gain these married couples that have children. And it’s the same with my career. Who do I want to be? Do I want to be the Jason Statham or Liam Neeson? Okay, well let’s get on that same page with the tram and find some of those actors.
I remember I was at a tennis match with Jon Hamm, and I was able to sit down with Mr. Hamm, right? Ask him questions. I really did appreciate how cool people are and how grateful they are. There’s a spectrum, right? There’s people who are super insecure and dicks, right? And they just act like they’re (confident), but they’re really scared inside. Or there’s people who just think that their job is something they love, and they want this life.
As you’re talking about Taken and The Beekeeper, and those sorts of movies, and we’ve seen you in comedies and horrors, is there a role or a genre that scares you in any way, but you secretly want to actually tackle?
No, it doesn’t scare me. I love comedy. I love doing comedy. I just heard that The Comeback is coming back. I think it’s called Please Come Back, with Lisa Kudrow, and I would love to do another guest (spot) on that. I started my career doing comedy. I grew up with a lot of brothers, so that’s why I naturally went into action, and I love action movies. Working on Expendables 3 was just a dream job. But nothing really scares me. I view my industry as such fun. I get to deep dive, and I’m very professional with it all. But there’s ones that I just have no place being in, like horror, slasher, murderous, exorcism, demonic sort of stuff. That just doesn’t interest me. That’s just my line in the sand, right? I just saw Mickey 17 with Rob (Pattinson), where he got to play twins, like, I would love to do that. Rob did such a great job on that. I know Tom Hardy’s done that a few times. That would be fun. That’s an exciting challenge.
Desert Dawn is screening in select theatres and available on Digital and On Demand in the United States from May 16th, 2025.
