SDCC 2024 Interview: “The Tower”

The Tower is an upcoming independent film telling the story of a mermaid stuck in a water tower in a small town.

At this year’s San Diego Comic-Con, writer/director Adam Sigal and stars Bella Thorne, Jack Kilmer, and Cam Gigandet presented a first look at their upcoming new indie film The Tower. The movie stars Thorne as a mermaid trapped inside a water tower for several years until she is discovered. The Geekiary sat down with Sigal, Kilmer, and Gigandet in a series of roundtable interviews to learn more about the film and filmmaking process.

First up was Kilmer, who plays a character named Billy. When asked to describe the film, he said, “It’s kind of an Americana-type indie film, but it has this fantasy element. Enter Bella as a mermaid. It’s about a young man who’s kind of a goth, like a misfit, and falls in love with this mermaid.” Kilmer later expanded on the film’s themes. “It’s definitely a love story. There’s a theme of escaping, my character is kind of an outcast. He’s the hero, but he’s an unsuspecting hero. He’s the type of guy to get picked on in school. And there’s definitely some horror elements, I don’t know if we’ve seen a mermaid that’s this creepy before. It’s definitely not The Little Mermaid.”

He also provided details about his on-set experience, “We shot the movie in northwest Arkansas, this town called Bentonville, which is actually a great town, a lot of spirit there. I’m sure a lot of movies are going to shoot there because the crew is excellent. We shot on location a lot, a lot of old school Americana diners and highway stops and stuff like that. And then we actually built and constructed a water tower in the middle of Arkansas. We filled it full of water and we shot inside a water tower. It was quite a production on that, that was the second half of the shoot.”

When asked to expand upon the experience of filming inside the water tank, Kilmer elaborated, “The tank looked like a giant UFO with scaffolding surrounding a water tower built inside a stage. It was lit up from all sides and everyone was walking down with wetsuits and floaties for 15-18 hours a day. The water had to be circulated like a swimming pool, it had to be coordinated. The balance of all those things was logistically very interesting, and very expensive. I spent hours, an hour or two a day in the tank.”

Next up was writer and director Sigal, who explained his inspiration for the story. “It was always just a natural curiosity about water towers. They’re just these big crazy looking things and I never fully understood what they did or why. How the water came out of them, what was inside of them. I’d drive by them all the time growing up in smaller towns, and I always wanted to tell a story about a small town in the US, more of a drama… That was what I wanted, and it sort of melded with a mermaid in the water tower story. That’s what it became.”

Sigal expanded on the themes of the film, “It’s about a feeling of being trapped. That’s who Billy is, Billy’s trapped. He remains trapped until he discovers someone who is even more trapped than him, literally. That provides him with enough of an inspiration to get out. That’s what kind of compels him to make something of himself.”

He then provided insight about the most rewarding aspect of the filmmaking process, “The most rewarding part honestly was seeing the water tank and seeing a mermaid inside of it. It was in my head for so long, and we did it all-practical. It was fascinating how that whole process came about. Seeing Bella be lowered into the tank for the first time in her tail, I was like, ‘Holy shit. It’s happening. Here we go, we’ve got a mermaid.’ That was the most rewarding part.

When asked about balancing the fantastical elements of the mermaid story with the film’s small-town setting, Sigal said, “Even the fantastical elements feel kind of grounded, and I wanted that to be the approach. I wanted it to feel like a grounded, matter-of-fact film. That’s what it is. All of the dialogue reflects that, and even the parts that explore the mermaid mythology are still handled in a very sort of direct, matter-of-fact way.”

In the final interview, Gigandet described his villainous character, “His motivations are dark. He has a weird fetish with having control and power over people and he uses that to satiate some need in him. He hasn’t quite dealt with some of his personal issues and personal things that he probably needs therapy for, so instead he takes it out on a little innocent man.”

Gigandet spoke about his biggest challenges during filming, “There was one. I had to be in my underwear, get out of a shower, and then run down the street in my underwear. That was challenging slash not fun. As far as the acting stuff, it was all challenging because this movie was a very different character for me. The whole thing was a challenge, but Adam made it seem more like, I had as much freedom and we could play and explore as much as we want. It’s kind of what you want out of a director on a movie set.”

When asked about the more enjoyable aspects of filming, he said, “Probably the chemistry, the connection I had with Jack, and even Adam. It was important that Jack and I’s relationship was believable that they would have a bond, and it was such an easy thing because the kid’s very hard not to love, very endearing. It was fun to kind of explore the relationship, because this is right when the strike happened. We got pushed for a week, so we got to spend some time outside of the movie set. It was a silver lining situation that we capitalized on.”

He then elaborated on his working dynamic with Sigal, “I mean, he’s the one who gave me the opportunity. I was fascinated to know how he came up with this story, the idea. What his vision for it was, and how he saw me fit into that. When you hear him talk about business, about movies, about storytelling, you just know that you are in good hands. Some directors can be a little wishy-washy, so you can get some self-doubt. But he always made you feel like you were exactly where you needed to be, and he was right there with you and felt like you were in good hands. That’s a dream come true on any movie set.”

When asked what he wanted fans to know, Gigandet concluded, “They should get excited about a fantasy movie that could possibly actually be real. And now, whenever you guys drive by a water tower, you will think, ‘Is there a mermaid in there? Maybe I should go check.’”

Author: Jessica Wolff

Jessica Wolff is a graduate of Drexel University with a BS in Film/Video. She has a passion for entertainment and representation in entertainment. She currently resides outside of Washington, DC.

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