Night Always Comes Director Talks Crown Reunion With Vanessa Kirby

In 2018, The Crown star Vanessa Kirby submitted the Benjamin Caron-directed episode, “Beryl,” en route to an Emmy nomination. The now Oscar-nominated actor and Emmy-winning EP-director worked together a handful of times on Peter Morgan’s Emmy-winning series about the reign of Queen Elizabeth II, so they decided to keep a good thing going once they made their respective exits from the Buckingham Palace set.

In 2020, the pandemic threw one potential film project of theirs into disarray, but they eventually bounced back in 2024 when Kirby’s Aluna Entertainment and Caron’s Square Eyed Pictures set up an adaptation of Willy Vlautin’s novel The Night Always Comes at Netflix. With the help of their producing partners Jodie Caron (Square Eyed) and Lauren Dark (Aluna), Caron and Kirby have now brought the book about gentrification in Portland to the screen, as Kirby’s poly-employed Lynette has one night to stave off the impending foreclosure of her childhood home by any means necessary.

To get the cast and crew in the proper headspace for filming the crime thriller, Caron hosted a Portland-area screening of John Cassavetes’ Gloria (1980). Kirby’s character was modeled after Gena Rowlands’ Gloria Swenson, given that they’re both forces of nature who are determined to protect innocents from various threats. Granted, Cassavetes and Rowlands were married throughout the course of their ten-film collaboration together, but Caron still hopes to form a similarly lasting creative partnership with Kirby.

“I’d love to think that this might be the first of many more projects together, but it’s up to the studios,” Caron tells The Hollywood Reporter. “When we talk, we’re always like, ‘Wouldn’t it be great to make this kind of film?’’ So hopefully that continues.”

Night Always Comes’ spotlight of Portland’s economic inequality paints quite the contrast to Caron and Kirby’s previous examination of the British Royal Family on The Crown. But the crises that Lynette is facing as a member of the “working poor” go well beyond the United States. 

“The idea that you can work two or three jobs and still not be able to afford your home is a universal modern tragedy,” Caron says. “Lynette represents millions of people who are one paycheck away or one rent hike away from collapse, and that’s not something that is just exclusive to America. That’s very much a story that is also happening in the U.K. and across the world.”

Below, during a recent conversation with THR, Caron also discusses how Kirby’s The Fantastic Four: First Steps influenced Night Always Comes’ release date, as well as his regrets regarding Andor season two.

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We last spoke for Sharper, and that movie involves con artists trying to steal a billionaire’s fortune. In Night Always Comes, you have a desperate working-class woman who’s trying to steal a down payment to avoid homelessness. 

(Laughs.) I know where you’re going with this.

Did you intend to make a companion piece on the other end of the economic spectrum? 

Well, the brilliant answer to that would be, “Yes, I absolutely intended to show the difference between the upper echelons of the wealthy to the less wealthy,” but no, that would be absolutely rubbish. I wish I had any choice in the films that I get to make. I have a number of films that I would love to make, but the final decision is always made by the studio. They go, “This is the film that we would like you to make,” and Night Always Comes was one of them. 

I actually hadn’t thought about the connection to Sharper until you started mentioning people stealing money, and I was like, “Oh no!” So there’s a theme going on here about people robbing money. In my heart, maybe I’m just a bank robber who likes to make films.

A team of British filmmakers producing a movie about economic inequality in America may not seem like an obvious fit on paper, but did you, Vanessa Kirby and the rest of your collaborators find Lynette’s circumstances to be universal? 

The idea that you can work two or three jobs and still not be able to afford your home is a universal modern tragedy. Lynette represents millions of people who are one paycheck away or one rent hike away from collapse, and that’s not something that is just exclusive to America. That’s very much a story that is also happening in the U.K. and across the world. 

In this case, America’s working class — whether that’s nurses, single moms, factory workers — are being priced out of the very cities they keep running, and this is a really timely, urgent issue that everyone is very aware of. So that’s something that we recognized, and I hope that the audience recognizes that that struggle for security and self-worth is universal. 

When your team told the Oregon film office that you wanted to spotlight gentrification and displacement in their own city of Portland, how did that conversation go?

Well, I never had that conversation myself, but someone must have. Bear in mind, Night Always Comes is based on [Willy Vlautin’s] book, so the issues in the story are very evident. You can’t hide that it’s happening currently, and it’s not just in Portland. It’s happening all over, whether that’s San Francisco or Los Angeles. People are not falling into homelessness; they’re being pushed into it. It’s a disaster that’s unfolding in real time and in plain sight. As these urban cities gentrify, what happens to the people who have been pushed out and evicted?

So in terms of the Oregon Film Office, I know that they were genuinely really supportive of us making a film in Portland. You’ve also got to bear in mind that when we came to Portland, it was just after a year of strikes devastated the industry. So cities across America were desperate for the filming community to make films again, and it just so happened that our film was set in Portland and about Portland. But it’s a story that’s happening across all cities in America.

You and Vanessa had another film that was upended by the pandemic. Prior to that, you met each other on The Crown, and you directed the episode, “Beryl,” which she submitted en route to an Emmy nomination. Thus, do you think you’ll always gauge each other’s interest in various scripts?

I’d love to think that this is the beginning of a great relationship and partnership in terms of filmmaking. I know that we’ve been trying for a number of years to make a film together, and there were a couple of moments where it nearly happened. 

What was really lovely about this project was that we both took it on from the ground up — book to script and selling to actually making. Vanessa is in every frame of the entire movie, but it was brilliant to also work with her as a creative producer. Our relationship on The Crown was actor-director, but now it was producer-actor and producer-director, so that was a really lovely first for both of us. 

I’d love to think that this might be the first of many more projects together, but again, it’s up to the studios. Maybe if I had a big bank account, then I could basically go and make the movies that I really want to make. But when we talk, we’re always like, “Wouldn’t it be great to make this kind of film?” So, yes, hopefully that continues. Watch this space.

Night Always Comes releases within a few weeks of Vanessa’s Marvel movie, The Fantastic Four: First Steps. Was this by design?

Well, yes and no. Amazingly, Vanessa left the set of Night Always Comes and flew directly to London to make Fantastic Four. So, what blows my mind is that they somehow managed to film Fantastic Four, edit it, post-produce it, market it and get it out before this film came out, which is very gutting in a way. So I bow to Matt Shakman and the extraordinary job they have done. 

We knew we’d finish our film around Easter, and we were looking ahead at when would be a good time to bring the film out. Yes, we also knew that Vanessa was going to be doing a lot of publicity for Fantastic Four and that it would be a great idea to make the most of that by shining a light on a film that needs all the help it can get. Night Always Comes is not a big Marvel movie, and so why not use some of the publicity that came with Marvel to help this movie at the same time.

What film references were you and your team exchanging in the lead-up to filming? 

I actually screened an old print of John Cassavetes’ Gloria at the Hollywood Theatre in Portland. I love Gena Rowland’s performance, and in a way, it inspired the soul of Night Always Comes. Lynette is not a victim; she’s a catalyst. And like Rowlands’ Gloria, she’s volatile, emotionally raw and morally complex. She’s more an agent of chaos than a target of it. So that film was a big influence. 

Weirdly, [Joel Schumacher’s] Falling Down was another one. It’s about how everyday frustrations can stack up on you before there’s a breaking point. Uncut Gems was another. 

Good Time must be one, as well. 

Yeah, both of those Safdie brothers films were. I remember watching Uncut Gems, and while everyone says this, I held my breath for the entire film. That relentless chaos and that claustrophobic stress that pulses through it where you are never allowed to breathe, I thought that that’s how Lynette experiences her life.

Taxi Driver, to an extent, is another one because of how the city seeps into every frame. I wanted Portland to be like Scorsese’s New York and to feel electric and ominous. [Michael Mann’s] Collateral was one because you follow that car through Los Angeles. 

Scorsese’s After Hours also had a little bit of an influence. There was one moment where we were going to film the whole movie in rain, and then I realized that it was going to be way too complicated and difficult. But I love how After Hours captured that spinning, out-of-control nature. [Writer’s Note: Two of the most memorable shots in Night Always Comes involve puddle reflections, post-rainfall.]

And then there’s [Ridley Scott’s] Thelma & Louise. It was a landmark film. It allowed women to have chaos, rage, joy and freedom. So those films were “homework” for the cast and crew to watch.

Vanessa’s character’s devotion to her developmentally disabled brother reminded me of Good Time, and I was happy to see Zack Gottsagen in another notable role after he broke out in The Peanut Butter Falcon. I’ll never forget a story involving him during the making of that movie. Apparently, Zack was the first person to confront Shia LaBoeuf about his arrest during filming, and he told him he was ruining his one chance at an acting career. “You’re already famous. This is my chance. And you’re ruining it.” Does that story track with the Zack you worked with here?

He’s the truthsayer. I didn’t know that story, but I know from my own experience that Zack is the truthsayer. He is the most honest actor you could possibly ever cast. It’s all full authenticity. He’s loving, he’s grounded, he’s so emotionally intelligent. He’s this stabilizing force for Lynette, and I cast him because he offered this moral compass. 

When I saw Peanut Butter Falcon, I was blown away with his performance, and normally, in any other Hollywood film that’s successful like that, you would see that career continue in some way. So it was surprising that it hadn’t continued [for Zack]. 

In the book, the character of Kenny is actually quite mute in a way. The character has the mental age of a three-year-old, which wasn’t going to work in the translation of this film. So I immediately thought of Zack’s amazing performance in Peanut Butter Falcon and how much he would bring in terms of vulnerability and strength into this film. 

So it just made sense, and on set, Zack is the best cheerleader you can have. Most days, he would be the one to grab the bullhorn and motivate the crew at 3:00 AM when everyone was a little bit tired and wanted to go home. He’s the best, and he’s so brilliant alongside Vanessa in this film.

Andor producer Sanne Wohlenberg has been your cheerleader for years now, and you thanked her in the credits of Night Always Comes. I presume she gave notes. Does this credit imply that you’ve also had time to watch the final season of Andor? 

That’s a very good spot. [The Crown creator] Peter Morgan and [Emmy-winning writer] Abi Morgan were in there as well. But, yes, Sanne very kindly came along to an early screening, and she gave one really good note, which I listened to in a way and did some work on. 

I’ve worked with Sanne since she hired me on Wallander with Sir Ken Branagh, so we have a relationship that goes back ten years. Once you have collaborators that you love working with and you trust, then you always want to get their early opinions on your work. And Sanne is someone that I trust implicitly. But I have not seen the second season of Andor. I’m so sorry. 

Tony Gilroy is going to be very upset about this.

(Laughs.) He’s never going to forgive me. He still hasn’t forgiven me for not coming back and working on the second season.

He actually told me he was disappointed you couldn’t come back. 

Yeah, at the time, I was going to be making a movie, and I explained that to him. Making a movie is like catching a unicorn, and he understood that. Then the strikes happened. So part of me is still kicking myself; I should have done Andor season two. But that’s what happens. Revolving doors and all that.

The Night Always Comes book chronicles two days and two nights, but it’s clear you wanted to up the ante even more by giving Lynette one night to solve her financial problem.

There’s a heightened sense of immediacy and propulsion to cinema, and I wanted the adaptation to be more of a thriller with Lynette at the center of every frame. 

What other major changes did you make from the book?

There’s a big section of the book that has flashbacks, and they go back to seeing Lynette with a man that she’s fallen in love with. We did film some of that story, but it didn’t actually make it into the cut. It’s after the [period of time during her youth with Michael Kelly’s character], and she’s gone back home to live with her mother, [Jennifer Jason Leigh’s] Doreen. 

She then meets this man and moves in with him. It absolutely should have been the most perfect person for her, but because she doesn’t love herself and doesn’t know how to receive love, she ends up sabotaging that relationship. But you actually saw Lynette happy for a moment, and you really believed that she was going to have happiness. 

So we shot little snippets that we tried to weave into the film, but no matter how hard we tried in early test screenings, it just bumped people out. They didn’t really understand it, and it took away from that single arrow [of the narrative], so we sacrificed it, sadly. We ended up replacing it in some way or form with the sequence you see at the beginning of the film. It’s Lynette as a young girl with her father, and you see another moment in time where there’s happiness and wonder before he leaves their home. Amazingly, that footage is actually real footage of Vanessa as a child.

I wondered if that was the case!

Yeah, that’s real VHS footage of Vanessa with her family, and we CGI’d the background to make it look like the house in the movie. But that really is Vanessa at the beginning, and it’s extraordinary. 

We also changed the last act. In the book, she goes to see a repo man called Rodney. He has a big lot full of repossessed cars. But I felt that it wasn’t really representing all of the different society structures of Portland. So I wanted to find a character that represented the slightly wealthy in Portland, and so we changed that whole act to include Eli Roth’s Blake. 

But I’d say everything else is pretty much faithful. Lynette is a little different than she was in the book. She’s probably a little bit more on the front foot than she is in the book. She’s probably a bit more wild, and she has a bit more of an unpredictable energy to her. In the book, Lynette was sometimes a little bit more of a victim, and in talking to Vanessa, we just wanted her to be a bit more volatile and dangerous. There are too many presentations of women as victims, and so it didn’t make sense to do that again.

Can you say what else is on the horizon for you?

I’m actually going to go back to television. I’m going to work on a couple of episodes of a TV show that’s happening over here [in the U.K.]. I’ve also got two feature films that are both out to market at the moment, and I would be delighted to make either one. So I’m doing a bit of TV for the next six months, and then hopefully making another feature film.

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Night Always Comes is now streaming on Netflix.