Director Keith Boynton Interview

We have a brand new interview with director Keith Boynton who talks about his new film The Scottish Play, which will be available on digital platforms on December 6. Make sure to give it a read below while checking out the film when it drops.

Was part of the motivation behind the film to showcase a world you knew so much about?

Well, I don’t fancy myself an expert on theater or Shakespeare – but I have spent a lot of time in that world, so it felt like something very natural and pleasurable for me to write about. I actually ended up writing a first draft that was much, much too long because I was enjoying the world and the characters so much – and that’s a problem I basically never have.

Tell us about your career. When and where did it all begin?

Theater-wise, it started when I played Peter Pan on the lawn outside the Scoville Memorial Library in Salisbury, Connecticut. I was probably ten. From there, it proceeded to community theater, then high school theater – and I started writing my own plays in high school, too. In the meantime, I had also started to fall in love with the movies, and that dream had begun to germinate…

And was the goal always to direct films, ultimately?

Since I was probably about seventeen, yeah. Before that I thought I would maybe be a movie critic – but I quickly realized that criticism wasn’t going to cut it for me. I wanted to be in the sandbox, playing with the toys.

Any hiccups along the way, on the way to making that happen?

Many, many hiccups! My first movie, Miles, which I shot during my college years, was an absolute disaster; I literally almost died. But in some ways, it’s the setbacks that keep you coming back for more. You think, “I can do this better next time.” And once you start thinking that way, you’re hooked for life.

Any forks in the road as you tried to get The Scottish Play going?

Casting was a process. It took quite a while to assemble the perfect cast for this one, and we had to bump our production schedule from summer to fall while we tried to get all the pieces into alignment. It was a stressful time! But in the end, I couldn’t be happier with the cast I got.

What do you hope audiences get out of it?

Primarily, just a good time at the movies. Beyond that – maybe a feeling that life, and art, are full of romance and possibility. That as heartbreaking as the world can be, it’s also beautiful. And that Shakespeare belongs to everyone.