When Justin Kurzel set out to direct The Order— he couldn’t have known how its real-life history of white supremacy and anti-government would continue to evolve and become yet more significant.
The film, written by Zach Baylin and based on the book The Silent Brotherhood by Kevin Flynn and Gary Gerhardt, follows the 1980s story of real-life white supremacist group The Order led by Bob Matthews (Nicholas Hoult) and the FBI agent determined to stop him, played by Jude Law, who also served as producer on the project.
In his doctrine, Matthews had heavily referenced William Luther Pierce’s 1978 novel, The Turner Diaries, which depicts a right-wing assault on the Capitol. And Kurzel recalls how as the events of January 6 unfolded, a chilling present-day parallel emerged.
“I just remember watching that event,” Kurzel says, “and then also seeing some of the photographs and imagery that were coming in from the day. And I saw these rope props, these nooses, that were being used as props and thought, it couldn’t be. And it was. There were these kind of expressions of one of the chapters in the book, Day of the Rope. Then there were reports of the copies of The Turner Diaries being around at that event as well. So, I was pretty amazed by the reach of that book and the fact that it had been stealth-like sitting in the shadows for some time.”
He continues, “Since we’ve shot it and edited it, and now it’s been released, the temperature around it and the compass of it has moved and shifted constantly. And obviously, now after the election, there’s another conversation about the film and what it’s speaking to… How divided are we, or how close are we? And I was really intrigued by this, are people following Bob Matthews, because that’s what they believe, they believe in the ideology, they believe in this sort of hate speech, they believe in this sort of violence? Or are they following him because he’s the only one that’s listening to them?”
Jude Law in ‘The Order’
Michelle Faye
Now, on the eve of the film’s theatrical release, Kurzel sees how it “keeps on speaking in different ways since we made it, but I’ve always been sort of fascinated by why. Why are people drawn to figures like Matthews? And I think if we can see and understand that more, then I think it’ll be a key as to how perhaps people choose different paths than the ones that some of the characters chose in The Order.”
For Law, who came to the project ahead of Kurzel, his role as FBI Agent Terry Husk would be a vital moral compass within the story. He began by deeply researching the background. “When I came on board as a producer,” he says, “I wanted to better understand the whole story, so obviously I read the book that was used as our inspiration, The Silent Brotherhood, and The Turner Diaries, and there’s a lot of material online about these movements and the early formation of these groups that was helpful to understand.”
Husk is based on a real-life agent and Law dug into what drove his character’s deep sense of right and wrong leading to his dogged pursuit of Matthews. “Special Agent Manus, who was at the front of this case and had an extraordinary career, wrote a very interesting book and I lent very heavily on that. It spoke to the area that I found most distant, I suppose, from me, this sense of motivation these guys had to join the Bureau. There’s a great line in it in our film: “You would understand this agent being in a cult, the FBI.” And it’s interesting because indeed those agents are obsessive. They believed utterly in the Bureau.”
Law also reached out to agents who were in service back in the ’80s. “They wanted to serve their country, or they really believed in the Bureau and the process of the Bureau, or they just wanted, and this is verbatim, they would say, ‘I just wanted to catch bad guys. I became a cop, or I joined the army and then that led me to the Bureau, and I just wanted to catch the top of the pyramid.’ And that kind of devotion really intrigued me, that kind of all-in attitude.”
Kurzel wrote specific character manifestos to help set up his cast of Law and Hoult, Tye Sheridan as Jamie Bowen, the local police officer partnered with Husk, and Jurnee Smollett as FBI Agent Joanne Carney. Says Law, “Justin’s process was just delightful for me as an actor because sometimes directors just want you to go and do your work and turn up, and he was very much holding your hand and making suggestions, and the manifestos were just ideas or thoughts that he would put in your head, whether it was as simple as having breakfast as your character: what does he have for breakfast? How does he cook it? What does he want? How does he wash and what does he wear?”
As Kurzel studied Matthews and how to support Hoult in the character, he suggested Hoult follow some specific details. “I was fascinated by the fact that [Matthews] didn’t smoke and he didn’t drink, that he led a very kind of clean life in terms of health. He was extremely active and strong. And I talked to Nick about, ‘Well, physically you should come [to set] like that.’ And he was very disciplined, in that he stopped drinking and he was trying to live as clean as possible, just eating red meat and green vegetables, and his skin changed, and there was a sort of clarity in his eyes, and there was a heightened sense of purpose. And I always find that really interesting with actors. I do these little manifestos before I start with actors, and a lot of it is about doing. A lot of it is about trying to get an actor out of their head in a way, and just start to physically do things that can help you own something and feel as though they’ve invested and connected to something. I think when you’ve got an actor that decides to go on a particular diet or there are little things like, if you wake up as Bob Matthews, what do you do? How do you wake up? How do you get out of bed? Do you go to the toilet first? Do you drink a glass of water first?”
‘The Order’, L to R: Tye Sheridan, Zach Baylin, Justin Kurzel, Jurnee Smollett, Jude Law and Nicholas Hoult at the Venice International Film Festival
Getty
Law notes that these manifestos and the level of detail helped to feed into the tone of deep obsession between their characters of Husk and Matthews. “Once we created a character, it then honed in more on this sense of obsessing and writing up dossiers about Bob Matthews or indeed about Nick Hoult, and just getting a sense of what it is to be devoted to a subject.”
Another way Kurzel created the cat-and-mouse tension between Matthews and Husk was to have Law actually tail Hoult in his daily life. “I said to Jude, ‘Follow Nick for the day.’ I think Nick went to the gym and had some coffee and stuff. It wasn’t that eventful, but there’s something about the discipline and the patience and the secrecy that I wanted those boys just to experience in a very, very small way that just allowed them to start to question and start to be curious about certain things that might unlock something.”
Law and Hoult also kept their distance before and during shooting to add to that sense of tension. “I’d done all this work and obsessing over Nick and the character that by the time I actually got to see him and when our paths did cross, that energy was palpable and easy to play.” However, his connection to co-stars Sheridan and Smollett required an entirely different approach. “Under Justin’s advice, he really wanted me to embrace and work as a team with Tye and Jurnee, and so Jurnee and I swapped conversations, emails, Zooms for weeks and weeks before where we were sharing books, stories, YouTube, short films about the Bureau of the period and about cases similar to this. And with Tye, it was a very easy friendship to forge. He’s a sweet man, and I immediately felt anyway, not to be patronizing, but a sense of paternal warmth towards him, and he’s very open to that anyway because he’s this sort of bright-eyed, positive young guy. And so we just became a team, and that helped us, I suppose, play out the relationships.”
The film also stars Marc Maron as Denver radio DJ Alan Berg, who was assassinated by The Order in 1984 as part of their plan to target prominent Jewish people. Of Maron’s casting, Law says, “He obviously knew of Alan Berg and he was inspired [by him]. I’m kind of quoting Marc here, but he talked about how would he be doing what he does had it not been for Berg? Berg was a real trailblazer in the opportunity he saw through open mic and conversation on the radio, and [Maron] apparently, when he was approached, he was like, ‘Of course it’s me.’”
For Kurzel, there’s a vital lesson explored in this story in understanding why people were—and still are—drawn to people like Matthews and their messages of hate and division. First that he targeted isolated, disaffected people in need of community, and then that he made those people feel seen and heard in some way. “I do think there is enormous empowerment in listening,” Kurzel says. “And I think that a real key to finding common ground is through listening and not judging and really trying to understand people’s points of view who are struggling and who are angry and who are fearful, to really get to the heart of it. Unfortunately, with a character like Bob Matthews, he just takes all that and then manipulates it and uses it to create a stronger sense of fear, and then proposes answers that are horrific.”
Adding to that, Law muses on how Hoult’s role as Matthews was especially effective casting: “Why was [Matthews] such a lure to all these outcasts? To have had a sort of shaven-headed, mustache-twirling villain would’ve missed an opportunity.”
Law, Kurzel and writer Zach Baylin have already reunited on limited series Black Rabbit, which is set for next year. Kurzel directed two episodes and all three serve as EPs on the show starring Law alongside Jason Bateman and Abby Lee.
Law describes his Black Rabbit character as “a guy who’s operating on borrowed time. He’s trying to modernize, he’s a modern man. He’s a guy who’s trying to change with the times and leave a slightly murky past behind, and his weaknesses are exposed by the arrival of a wayward brother, played by Jason Bateman, who comes back and unpacks his successes.”
“Justin came in and directed the last two episodes of a series of eight, which Zach wrote with his partner, Kate Susman,” Law says. “Quite honestly, when you encounter this kind of relationship and this kind of dynamic, and it really works, it feels like an alignment. It feels like something you can’t let go of, and I felt and feel very bold and comfortable in his hands and confident. And so, it was another very happy experience. He brought his dynamism and insight again and really elevated the piece, and it was a very strong way to finish up. And he’s also great company. He’s great fun, but as I said, when you find a relationship like that, it’s good to hold onto it. You feel like you’re onto something good.”
The Order is in theaters December 6th.
