'Day of the Fight' director Jack Huston 'completely honored' by showbiz family

LOS ANGELES, Dec. 5 (UPI) -- Actor Jack Huston's directorial debut, the boxing drama Day of the Fight, will be in theaters Friday. The great-grandson of actor Walter Huston and grandson of director-actor John Huston said he did not shy away from his family's legacy.

"I feel completely honored to be able to say, 'My God, that was my grandfather, that was my great grandfather, that was my aunt, that was my uncle, that was my father,'" Huston, 41, told UPI in a recent Zoom interview. "Thank God that I had some great footsteps to follow."

Huston cast his Boardwalk Empire co-star, Michael C. Pitt, as Mike Flanagan, an ex-con preparing for his first bout since release. Mike spends the day trying to reconnect with his ex-wife (Nicolette Robinson) and father (Joe Pesci) before entering the ring.

The actors remained friends even after Pitt's character was killed off the HBO series.

"Jack was still shooting Boardwalk Empire," Pitt said. "He used to come visit me because I lived in the neighborhood."

Pitt said he remembers Huston being introduced as "acting royalty" and found it refreshing that he did not try to downplay his connection to the Huston family. Huston said his uncle, actor Danny Huston, encouraged him to embrace the lineage.

"My uncle Danny said very early on, 'Don't be the [expletive] who denies your family,'" Huston said. "My family's never felt like a shadow. They've always felt like the light."

Huston cast his son, Cypress, as young Mike in the film.

"He's actually the fifth generation of my family on screen and I think there's something incredibly beautiful about that," Huston said. "It brought me to tears watching him on set so I'm very proud."

Huston did not have the Hollywood resources that had been available to his grandfather when he produced Day of the Fight. To make the most of his brief shooting schedule, he filmed Pitt with multiple cameras simultaneously during the fight scenes.

"I don't know when the camera was rolling and when it wasn't rolling," Pitt said, adding that Huston didn't call "action" or "cut," but rather just kept filming.

Pitt also suggested that instead of simulating the boxing match, he and his opponent could actually punch each other. With his co-star's permission, Pitt and Cameron Williamson landed blows to ensure the fight scene was completed in a day and one-half.

"We didn't have a lot of time," Pitt said. "It felt like a kind of risk that we could take as a smaller production that could make us competitive with bigger films."

Huston said Pitt's trust in allowing punches to land gave him the confidence to film the fight in that unorthodox way. The director said he saved hours by not having to coordinate angles to make it appear as if fake punches were hitting.

"Michael and Cameron felt each other out and I was like, 'Take it to that corner, take it to that corner,'" Huston said. "The big punches we took a lot of care with."

Huston took a similar approach to Pitt's training scenes. The film begins with Mike working out the morning of the fight.

"I was just like, 'Train, train, train, just go,'" Huston said. "I was moving the camera, getting pieces. Everything was done on the fly."

Huston said he knew his friend had boxing experience because he watched him work out between takes on Boardwalk. Pitt has boxed since he was 25.

"I love the discipline of it, also the music of a gym, just the stories," Pitt said. "You can literally lose every round up until the last moment, and you can win everything. I think that's why it's so exciting."

Music plays a major role in Day of the Fight, as well.. Ben MacDiarmid wrote the score, and the film features an original song performed by Robinson and Pesci and catalog songs by Rodriguez and more.

Huston called music "another character in the movie" and said he wrote to specific pieces of music, whether score or songs with lyrics. The director said he felt a sense of harmony when the film was working.

"Film is very musical," Huston said. "When you're watching a beautiful piece of opera, which is a wonderful scene between two wonderful actors or three wonderful actors, and it does feel like that."