Admin note: After watching the director’s cut of this last night, I am convinced that Lars von Trier has read our homepage and is simpatico. Ok, may not, but it certainly could be the case. Watch the movie and decide for yourself.
Matt Dillon opens up about playing a serial killer in Lars von Trier’s gruesome new film, and grapples with the controversy it caused.
[Editor’s note: This article contains some spoilers for “The House That Jack Built.”]
Before Matt Dillon agreed to play the title role in “The House That Jack Built” — a disturbing and inflammatory epic about a frustrated serial killer who preys on a wide variety of women across the long span of his adult life — he asked writer-director Lars von Trier why he wanted to make such a film. According to Dillon, who spoke to IndieWire over the phone, von Trier replied that he was interested in painting a kind of self-portrait: “‘Most of the male characters in my films have been fucking idiots, but this guy is like me. [Of all the characters I’ve ever written], Jack is the one closest to myself. Except I don’t kill people.’”