How ‘The Bad News Bears’ And Carpentry Influenced ‘The Instigators’

“I’m an amateur carpenter. I have a million hobbies, but one of them is carpentry and the adage is to measure twice and cut once because once you’ve cut a piece of wood, you can’t uncut it. I wanted to apply that thinking to Matt Damon’s character in The Instigators,” director Doug Liman enthuses as we discuss his latest movie. “I barely create a shot list when I’m making a movie but if you saw me in my woodshop, I’ve got my pencil out and I’m writing everything down. I wanted to bring that quality to Matt’s character.”

The Instigators stars Damon as desperate father Rory opposite Casey Affleck’s ex-con Cobby who find themselves reluctant partners trying to rob a corrupt politician, played by Ron Perlman. However, things don’t go to plan and the pair find themselves on the run from the cops, bureaucrats and angry crime bosses. Not only that but Rory’s therapist, played by Hong Chau, gets swept up in proceedings and ends up tagging along as things spiral out of control. The Instigators is in a handful of theaters and is now streaming on Apple TV+.

“The Instigators is a heist film at its core, but my inspiration was The Bad News Bears,” Liman explains. “I haven’t seen it since I was a kid, but I’ve always had fond feelings for that film and its underdog nature with this inept Little League team. The Instigators is the anti-Ocean’s Eleven. First of all, it’s more of a straight comedy. Matt and Casey are the most unlikely thieves and have almost no chance of success.”

“Casey’s character is such a screw-up, and Matt and I created a character for him that is something you just never seen in a heist film. He’s someone who has spent his whole life following the rules. He sands floors for a living and works an honest job for an honest dollar, but it just hasn’t worked out for him, and that’s how he finds himself suddenly involved in this caper. The thing I love about what Matt and I created together is that his character is still a rule follower throughout the movie, and you’ve never seen that kind of character in a heist film.”

The Instigators sees Liman, also known for directing Swingers, Go, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Edge of Tomorrow, and the recent Roadhouse remake, reunite with Damon for the first time since 2002’s The Bourne Identity. A lot of water has gone under the bridge for the pair since the first installment in the franchise that has grossed $1.64 billion.

“Some parts of working with Matt Damon on The Instigators reminded me how much has changed since we made The Bourne Identity, and others reminded me how little has changed,” Liman muses. “In terms of how much has changed, you’re looking back on The Bourne Identity with rose-colored glasses that hindsight gives you because the reality is that when we were making The Bourne Identity, Matt Damon was not a proven movie star by any means. In fact, he was coming off of a couple of films that had failed at the box office. Matt had said to me at one point during The Bourne Identity,’ ‘If this doesn’t work, my career’s over.’ In hindsight, you’re like, ‘Oh, you both had promising careers,’ but that was not how it felt to us or the industry while we were making The Bourne Identity.”

“We were challenging the system when we made The Bourne Identity, and to make an omelet, you’ve got to break some eggs. During the making of The Bourne Identity, there was a lot of friction with the studio because they didn’t always understand what Matt and I were trying to do, and when they did, they didn’t necessarily think it was a good idea. We certainly didn’t have a track record that we could rely on to say it was a good idea, but we stuck to our guns. The flip side is that we now have a track record that we did not have when making The Bourne Identity. Matt’s a massive international movie star, and I have a successful track record, so I would say the system and the ‘The Man’ is more trusting of us.”

What also helped The Instigators was that Artists Equity, the production company founded by Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, was making the film. “So there was no system that we were rebelling against because suddenly we were the system,” the director adds.

Despite the duo’s involvement in the movie, their starring opposite each other in the lead roles was never on the cards.

“Casey wrote it for himself, so it was always going to be him,” Liman explains. “Casey is an excellent writer; for me, he’s the giant discovery of The Instigators. Obviously, Casey’s an Academy Award winner, but there was so much more of him to discover when I made this. He has the potential to be bigger than Matt or Ben and The Instigators shows what a multifaceted talent he is. If it’s not already obvious, I love Casey to death.”

“I loved editing what I shot because he gave me so much to work with. Some actors do the same thing, take after take, which doesn’t really help you in the editing room. Some actors, like Casey, say, ‘Okay, I already gave you that version. I’ll give you something totally new,’ and then you go again, and they give you something new. At that point, you’re like, ‘I want to keep rolling because every time I do, Casey gives me something else great,’ but we also had to be aware of how much time we would spend shooting.”

Along with Damon and Affleck, The Instigators boasts an incredible ensemble cast that includes Michael Stuhlbarg, Paul Walter Hauser, Alfred Molina Toby Jones, and Jack Harlow, to name a few. Pretty much everyone Liman and his leads went to said yes and brought something fresh and unique to the table.

“I don’t really believe in acting because somehow there is something false about that,” he explains. “I try to find actors who can believably be the characters. There’s a difference between acting the part. If you watch an SNL sketch, they’re acting the part, and they’re obviously not those things when you watch a sketch. When you watch a great movie, you believe the character is real even though you know a movie star is playing it. It feels honest. I’m always looking for that honesty. It’s not like I have a wish list of actors I want to work with, and I’ll just put them into anything.”

“These parts in The Instigators were so specific and fresh that I had to scour the town and ask, ‘Who would be perfect for that role?’ especially when you think about the role of the psychiatrist going on the run with them. When you find the right person, as we did with Hong Chau, they inhabit the character in a way you can’t imagine anyone else ever playing it.”

Something else Liman was able to tap into by filming The Instigators in Boston was the legacy of the Afflecks and Damon in the city. Without that, the film’s action sequences and epic car chase would not have been possible.

“It’s because of that we were able to shoot the car chase for real,” Liman enthuses. “Other filmmakers would not get that opportunity. We had the governor and the mayor, who welcomed us and said, ‘How can we help you do this? What do you need to pull off The Instigators?’ To do what we did, and to do it safely, wouldn’t have been an option without that love for them.”

“We had a huge number of cars involved because they were being chased by not just the Massachusetts and Boston police but also Rhode Island and Vermont, and all the neighboring states were coming after them. To do it for real here in Boston was a real luxury.”