Heather Graham talks sharpshooting in Place of Bones and wanting more female-driven westerns.
Boogie Nights star Heather Graham trades her roller skates for a pistol in her new gritty genre-bending western premiering Friday, August 23. Pulling together elements of horror and suspense on a remote California ranch in 1876, Place of Bones is a bloody fight for survival where ferocious outlaws and fierce protectors clamor to be the last man — or woman — standing.
Heather Graham as Pandora in the horror/thriller, “Place of Bones,” a The Avenue release.
The wild West thriller introduces the widow and mother Pandora (Heather Graham) and her daughter Hester (Brielle Robillard) whiling away their time on their secluded desert home. Trouble comes to town in the form of Calhoun (Corin Nemec), an injured outlaw who stumbles into Pandora’s home with a fatal gunshot wound. As the two women tend to the outlaw, they discover he is carrying a large pile of cash — a pile too large to come by honestly. After Calhoun reveals that he double-crossed a band of fellow outlaws to lay claim to the money, and that they are tracking him, Pandora prepares to defend her daughter and home with nothing but a pistol and her wits. The film crescendos into a classic showdown with a gruesome twist.
Place of Bones marks director Audrey Cummings’ first venture into the western genre. Known primarily for her work in the thriller genre, her previous credits include films like Tormented (2014), Darken (2017), and She Never Died (2019). Cummings takes her knack for horror to the Old West, trading haunted corridors for desolate hills crawling with colorful characters. Heather Graham, whose resume includes westerns and western-adjacent films like The Ballad of Little Jo (1993), Desert Winds (1995), and The Last Son (2021), stands off against a band of outlaws played by Tom Hopper (The Umbrella Academy), David Lipper (The Curse of Wolf Mountain), and former professional boxer Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone.
(Left to right) Zachary Keller as Little Pete, Tom Hopper as Bear John, and Cowboy Cerrone as Minor Wilson in “Place of Bones.”
Coming off her second self-written-and-directed film, Chosen Family, Graham was eager to work with a female director on this female-led western. She told C&I, “The female director really relates to that female perspective, and I think we both related to the character so much. I just loved that it was a female-driven western. I feel like I can’t even remember any movie that I’ve ever seen that’s been a female-driven western. I just loved that the character was so interesting and fierce and intelligent.”
Graham has been a longtime advocate for gender equality in film, writing and directing her first film, Half Magic (2018), in response to the lack of complex female roles in Hollywood. “Just being in the business and feeling that most stories were being told from a male perspective with a male star and a male protagonist,” she said of her motivation to write and direct her own project. “I just wanted to see more stories told by women. As an audience member, I thought it would be fun to tell a story that meant something to me. And it’s so fun to get behind the camera and be a part of the storytelling process in a different way.”
The film’s protagonist has no shortage of complexities. Pandora is a fiercely protective widow and mother with a strained relationship with her teenage daughter. Graham navigates each twist and turn that the script throws her way with strength, wit, and intelligence. “I loved that there were so many juicy details in the script, which was actually written by a man, so I’m grateful to him for writing such good characters for us,” she told C&I. “Pandora has a lot of issues and a lot of fear, and she doesn’t want her daughter to have the horrible things happen to her that she has had happen. I think her whole motivation is just helping her daughter have a better life than she did.”
Heather Graham and Brielle Robillard play a mother and daughter in “Place of Bones.”
The film culminates in a riveting shootout that requires quite a bit of sharpshooting on Graham’s part. Graham is more than accustomed to picking up new skills for roles, taking on swing dancing for Swingers (1996) and roller skating for Boogie Nights (1997) to name a few. “Luckily, we had great stunt guys that helped me. It was fun running with a gun and shooting and falling over. I did a bunch of my own stunts,” she told C&I. “I feel really lucky as an actor to get to learn all these things. It’s a great education. You get to live all these different lives. That’s one of the fun things about being an actor.”
How does the iconic actress tackle her nerves when taking on a new role?
“Every job I do, I get nervous. The thing that makes me feel better is when I read about people like Steven Spielberg or Meryl Streep talking about being nervous starting their job on the first day. I’m just like, “Okay, well, maybe everybody feels that way.”
It’s clear Graham has caught the western bug. In early 2025, she is set to appear alongside Nicolas Cage in The Gunslingers, a western written and directed by Brian Skiba (Dead Man’s Hand). Graham teased the upcoming film, saying, “It was so cool to be in a movie with Nicolas Cage. [The Gunslingers] is more of a traditional western, but it’s a cool, fun, action-y story.”
Graham is also jumping behind the camera for another project — this time a TV series — which is currently in the early stages of development. “Right now, I’m working on making a TV show with my friend that is not exactly a western. It’s from a book by Liane Moriarty, who’s an awesome writer.” She did reassure C&I that a Heather Graham-written western is not out of the question. “You’re making me more excited about doing another western.”
Heather Graham graced the C&I Studio to talk about Place of Bones and tease more of her upcoming projects.
Watch C&I’s full interview with Heather Graham below.
PHOTOGRAPHY: Courtesy of The Avenue
