The most important key to personal transformation is people finding and embracing confidence in themselves to pursue the dreams they longingly desire. That’s certainly the case for actor Arata Iura’s protagonist of brash businessman Hideki in the new drama, ‘Tokyo Cowboy.’

The main character embarks on an unwitting cross-cultural journey of self-discovery in the feature, which marks the feature film directorial debut of documentary, television and short film helmer, Marc Marriott. The director also served as a producer on, and created the story for, ‘Tokyo Cowboy’ with Brigham Taylor.  The movie, which is in English and Japanese with English subtitles, was written by Ayako Fujitani and Dave Boyle.

In addition to Iura, the drama also stars Goya Robles (EPIX’s ‘Get Shorty,’ ‘11:55’), Ayako Fujitani (‘The Last Ship,’ ‘Man From Reno’), Robin Weigert (HBO’s ‘Deadwood,’ ‘Bombshell’) and Jun Kunimura (‘Kill Bill: Vol. 1,’ ‘The Wailing’).

‘Tokyo Cowboy’ had a sneak-preview screening as the opening night movie at the MINT Film Festival in Billings, Montana on Thursday, September 21. The screening came after the drama was shot on location on both a ranch in Montana and in the titular city.

The project then screened virtually that weekend, September 21-24, as part of the Boston Film Festival. During the festival, ‘Tokyo Cowboy’ composter, Chad Cannon, won the Best Music award.

The feature will have its official in-person World Premiere tonight, Saturday, October 7, as the Centerpiece Gala Screening at the Tallgrass Film Festival. The feature will also screen at the Heartland International Film Festival on Monday and Wednesday next week, October 9 and 11, and then have its West Coast Premiere at the Newport Beach Film Festival on Thursday, October 19.

‘Tokyo Cowboy’ follows Hideki, a Japanese businessman, as he goes on a journey of self-discovery when he takes a company trip from the eponymous city to a Montana cattle ranch. When he arrives in Montana, he has convinced his Tokyo bosses that he can turn the company’s profitless U.S. cattle ranch into a premiere-performing asset. Yet when his Hardee’s-burger-loving Japanese Wagyu-beef expert fails him, Hideki is poised to misfire, unless he can garner faith in himself to transform the ranch on his own.

Marriott and Taylor generously took the time the day after ‘Tokyo Cowboy’ screened at the MINT Film Festival and started its run during the Virtual Screening Program at the Boston Film Festival to participate in an exclusive interview over Zoom. The filmmakers discuss their experiences of making the project during the interview, including what inspired them to make the movie; how they approached casting Iura and the feature’s supporting cast; and what it means to them that the drama is playing at the various film festivals.

Film Factual (FF): Together, you created the story for the new drama, ‘Tokyo Cowboy,’ whose script was written by Dave Boyle and Ayako Fujitani. Why did you decide to create, and how did you approach developing, the story together?

Marc Marriott (MM): Well, this film has a long gestation. It actually started in 1992, when I was a film student. I had just done an apprenticeship with Japanese filmmaker Yoji Yamada, a very well-known Japanese master who’s now in his 90s. He just finished his 91st film.

I saw this article about this ranch in Montana that was owned by a Japanese company. They would send workers over to learn ranching and how to become these Japanese cowboys. I was really intrigued by that idea, which sparked the idea for the film’s story.

I have been long-time friends with Brigham. We were talking about different projects we had worked on together; we had collaborated on a few things, but nothing of this nature. This is my first feature film (as a director). Somehow, I was lucky enough to convince Brigham that this would be a good idea. He then came on board, and it has been a joy to work with him, and a joy to work on this project.

Brigham Taylor (BT):As Marc described, we talked about the general idea for this story on and off for years. But he came to me at a certain point with this specific idea about a cross-cultural story that chronicles this character’s story.

I’ve spent the majority of my career in the studio system, where there are different kinds of demands on the stories you develop. They have to be engineered for broader audiences.

But I’m also a product of my younger years at the Sundance Film Festival, which I’ve volunteered at and attended for many years. So I’ve been influenced by independent filmmaking, but never had the ability to work on one.

So not only was I fascinated with the idea that Marc shared with me about this film, but also the broader idea of working on something independently. Creatively, we only really had ourselves to answer to, so we were able to go where the story and characters led us, instead of trying to engineer it for a broader audience, which is a completely different process.

I was really excited about that, as well as hearing Marc talk about a story that was really character-based. So we began working on an outline for what this simple story could be, and follow the reality of where that situation would lead us. That was a great experience.

We then found some really talented writers to execute our ideas. So it was one of the greatest experiences of my developmental career.

MM: It’s awesome to hear that! (Marriott laughs.)

FF: Marc, like you mentioned, you also made your feature film directorial debut on ‘Tokyo Cowboy.’ How did you approach helming the movie?

MM: This was a really wonderful experience. I’m really grateful for the opportunity that I had.

I’ve had a long and wonderful career, but mostly in documentaries, television and corporate industrial work. But I’ve always wanted to get back to what I’ve considered to be my roots in narrative filmmaking. So for a long period of time, I knew that was in my future at some point; I knew that I would want to do that, and take the opportunity to do that.

But it was also kind of scary because after a long period of time telling yourself, this is something that I can do and am good at, you hit the road and have to make it a reality. But it was really wonderful.

We took the time to involve the right people. I was really happy with our casting, which was led by Emily Schweber. We got the right actors, which is a big focus of mine, as I was an actor when I was much younger. So I feel like I understand actors and what they need.

The idea of doing something, like Brigham said, that’s really grounded and authentic appealed to me. The movie’s a comedy, but has real situations; they’re not forced, and we’re not reaching for anything, and everything comes in really naturally.

We had a screening (the night before the interview, at the MINT Film Festival), and we were so gratified. It was a wonderful screening, and people were laughing at all the right moments. So it’s been a wonderful journey.

FF: Brigham, you also served as one of the producers on the drama. How did you approach producing the film?

BT: Like I said, it was great because it wasn’t like anything else I have ever done. But making this film was similar to the other projects I have made in the past because you’re trying to make the best version of the film that you can, including with the script and assembling a team.

In this case, we needed to find a great local crew in Montana. We were very lucky. We had a few friends who we always rely on for references, so we were able to find the right people.

Once we started prep in Montana, it was just us; there wasn’t a bigger safety net around us, in terms of budget and support, including in the legal department, and anything else that I’m accustomed to having; it was just us. So it was pure DIY, and that was scary at times. But it was also really invigorating.

Every day when we arrived on set, we knew that we had to make this happen. So my focus became supporting Marc and his vision, and also making sure that everyone else had what they needed, in the realm of reasonable requests, as we had a very limited budget. So we had to rely on creativity to get ourselves through. So I felt a keener sense of responsibility than I ever had.

While we didn’t have a safety net, we also didn’t have anyone looking over our shoulder. That was a great creative relief in filmmaking.

FF: Marc, you mentioned the casting earlier. ‘Tokyo Cowboy’ stars Arata Iura, Ayako Fujitani, Goya Robles, Robin Weigert and Jun Kunimura. What was the casting process like for the movie?

MM: Yes, we were fortunate to have the help of Emily Schweber. Then for our Japanese actors, we worked with an executive producer, and he was very helpful in getting the Japanese-translated version of the script to the actors in Japan.

We had our first choice for our main character of Hideki, who was Arata Iura. We got the script to him through (the executive producer). He was very enthusiastic about the role and wanted to do it right away. I think that’s very unusual, actually, from what I understand – to approach your first choice, and for them to be really excited about it and want to do it, especially in the independent film world.

So we were very fortunate that he wanted to do it, and he couldn’t have been more perfect. It really mirrors his own experience; he doesn’t speak English very well, and he hasn’t been to America to make a movie – in fact, he hasn’t made a movie outside of Japan up until that point. So we kind of tapped into that experience that he was having.

With the rest of the cast, every one of the actors are amazing. We’ve got Goya Robles; Ayako Fujitani, who’s also our writer; along with Robin Weigert and Jun Kunimura. They’re amazing people.

Casting the right people is a big part of the battle. You then have to trust them and give them the opportunity to let them do what they do best.

FF: Once the actors were cast, how did you approach building the charters’ arcs throughout the production?

MM: Like I said earlier, it was a great collaboration. We had a lot of discussions beforehand about who these characters are. One interesting note about Jun Kunimura is that he’s someone who we’ve seen a lot of tapes for. He’s a well-known actor not only in Japan, but he’s also been in some really great films here (in the U.S.). But he mostly plays these heavy, scary, gangster characters.

But both Brigham and I saw something in him; we felt like there was a different side that audiences don’t get to see, including a warmth and humor. So he was excited to get to play someone he doesn’t normally get to play.

But he showed up on set in Montana and said, “I still don’t know exactly hwo to play this guy.” But Brigham and I both said, “Jun, this is you, and who you are as a person. So just lean into that.”

Those relationships are so important. It’s vital to trust your actors and build those moments.

FF: Like you mentioned earlier, ‘Tokyo Cowboy’ is fueled in part by instances of humor. Why did you feel it was important to include those light-hearted moments?

MM: Those moments go along with a lot of the early conversations that Brigham and I had. We wanted to make a film where the humor comes from these authentic situations. We didn’t want to feel forced, or that we’re reaching for the humor.

(At the MINT Film Festival screening the night before the interview,) when we were watching this movie, there were points in the beginning – the first 15 minutes of the story takes place in Tokyo, and it’s all in Japanese with English subtitles – and our audience was really picking up on the humor. Even though they were reading subtitles, there were still a lot of laughs and warm reactions from the audience. So that was really fun to experience

The humor comes through, but in a very natural way because it’s this fish-out-of-water story. These characters are in these circumstances that are funny.

BT: I agree. I think we had great success with our writers in creating a drama with a grounded, character-driven story. But having the fish-out-of-water element also creates the humorous moments.

Marc asked the cast to play the scenes honestly. No one was asked to pitch a joke, but as a result of playing the scenes truthfully, those humorous moments rose naturally. I think that by playing it straight, that’s where the film becomes funny and real. It was really fun to see that unfold.

All the actors got really deep into the characters. They all have different processes, and Marc did a very good job of handling all of those different methods. As a result, all of those processes became really synthesized on the set into one tonality in the movie, which was great to watch.

FF: The majority of the drama is set on a cattle ranch in Montana. How did you decide which ranch to shoot the film? what was your experience collaborating with the movie’s production designer, Kate Lindsay, to create the look for the project’s locations?

BT: We were very fortunate. We had the script and story in hand when we reached out to some friends. They knew a local locations guy who didn’t tell us at first, but pitched us where he lives. But it also turned out to be perfect. It’s located in Southwestern Montana, on the northern gateway of Yellowstone Park.

So we flew in and he showed us these locations on this ranch, which has belonged to this family for generations. It’s a ranch that’s still very much intact. It has a vintage, timeless feeling to it. Beyond that, we had very welcoming owners.

All of that led us to believe that this was the right place after we stepped foot on the ground there. Everything there provided what we needed. I think we had a few days booked out (to look at the ranch), but I think we knew that it was the perfect location after the first day.

We had handshake agreements in place, which was amazing. That’s rarely the case with a movie like this. It was amazing because it allowed us to start prepping just off of the pictures we took while we were there months earlier. So we were super prepared when we hit the ground to start shooting.

I think the character of the locations is clearly evident when you see the film. Its production value you can never buy. It’s just spectacular.

MM: It ended up saving us a lot of money. We didn’t have to build a lot, as everything we wanted was here in Montana. It was really incredible. Like Brigham said, we came away thinking, we couldn’t have found a better place.

Paradise Valley, which is where we shot, is very unique. The quality of the light and the feeling that you get in the scenery there, combined with the incredible crew that really know what they’re doing and worked like a family, helped us step into a really great situation when we scouted Montana.

BT: Yes, and also shoutout to Kate Lindsay, our production designer. She lives about 20 minutes north of where we shot, so she knows the area very well. She really knew how to augment and dress the set in the way that we needed. She also knew the local environment and the local people, so we weren’t an intrusive production, which is something we’d never want to be. So she was an amazing help to us.

FF: ‘Tokyo Cowboy’ is playing at various film festivals around the world, including being the opening night film at the MINT Film Festival1, and virtually screening during the Boston Film Festival. What does it mean to you that the drama is playing at the festivals?

MM: Yes, we’re just at the beginning of this festival journey. If it all continues like it did (during the MINT Film Festival the night before the interview), I’ll just be overjoyed. It was so wonderful to be (there). We had a large contingent of our crew that came and joined us, so that made it extra special. So it really was a magical night.

I (was) also really excited to be included in the Boston Film Festival’s virtual program. I’m really looking forward to finding our audience and showing this to audiences, and to see how people react to it. I’m also looking forward to meeting people. I’m anticipating a wonderful festival journey.