The truth will always find its way to the light, even if through shady methods, as is the case in Confession. The thriller centers on an ambitious district attorney who delves into a case of a woman accusing multiple men of sexual assault, only to fall down a rabbit hole of previous victims and murders.
Clark Backo leads the cast of Confession alongside Sarah Hay, Nolan Gerard Funk, Sterling Beaumon, Michael Ironside, and Rob Giumarra. The film deftly balances a harrowing thriller with a timely exploration of sexual assault and law enforcement's response, or lack thereof.
Ahead of the film's release, Screen Rant spoke exclusively with star Michael Ironside to discuss Confession, the weight of the subject matter, and why the movie is an important one in his filmography.
Michael Ironside on Confession
Screen Rant: Confession was an interesting thriller. I didn't know what to expect going in, and I really dug the story and the characters. What about the film really sparked your interest?
Michael Ironside: I get a lot of projects sent to me over the years, I'm at that stage in my career where I've got more time behind me than I do in front of me, and I'm trying to be very careful about what I choose to do. There's no way to delicately tell this, when I was in my mid 40s, our youngest was about 14 at the time, our daughter Finley, and I thought I should have a conversation with her about dating and stuff like that. She very politely waited with me and and halfway through the conversation, she said, "Dad, what kind of sex education did you get when you're in high school?" I said, "Well, health class, where they talk about it," and she says, "What'd they tell you?"
I said, "Well, how to be protective in pregnancy, and wear contraceptives and stuff." She goes, "Exactly, do you know what we're taught?" Meaning women, and I said, "I suppose the same," she says, "No, we're taught not how not to get raped," and I went, What?" She says, "We're taught how when we're in public at night to wear a ponytail, not let our hair down, because he would grab you by the hair, stay away from dark alleys and parking lots, stay in well-lit areas, if you're out for a formal occasion, and you're by yourself at night, make sure you're going to carry a pair of flat shoes on the way home because you can't run in heels and things like this."
It was like a real gut punch for me, because I thought I was fairly well-heeled and knew a lot of stuff, I was coming from a point of so-called educational privilege, and I realized I know absolutely nothing of what the other 50 percent of the universe has to go through on a daily basis. That's a point of reference for women constantly when they're out, they have to look for, and are aware of, when they're by themselves, of the predatorial nature of men and stuff. We're in a society where men and women are supposed to be created equal, men are more equal, and in some societies, men are a lot more equal than women.
And in some cases, not just men, it's women treat other women, like, I have a friend who was sexually assaulted when she went to the emergency ward to get treated and stuff, the police took her, the female doctor said, "Where were you drinking, and What the hell were you wearing?" And I went, "Wow." So the subject matter, when it was sent to me, I thought is a story that has to be told. Now, it's not a docudrama, where we're certainly pounding the pulpit of the sins of Calvinistic sexuality. It's entertaining, there's a murder mystery involved, but at the same time underneath, it carries that message that we have to educate a lot of people.
The character I play is this recalcitrant, very stiff-in-his-way, near-retirement detective, who is being asked to open up a case from four years ago by a very young, who I think is politically motivated, Assistant DA played by Miss Backo, and she does a really good job. I go from being this inflexible, "Why are we doing this, it was done three years ago, it was put to bed, why?" and I don't trust her, by the end of the story, I'm a champion for the cause. Hopefully, the arc my character takes is an arc that we want some of the audience to take, people that aren't as versed in this subject matter as much as we want them to be. Sexual assault, rape, date rape, all that stuff is almost like a taboo, we don't look at it.
I've played characters that slaughter and kill people and stuff like that, and when it comes to the subject matter of rape or sexual assault, it's — for example, this film has had a bit of difficulty getting on the air, even though it was shot pre-COVID stuff, it's still like, "How do we mount this? How do we tell it?" Dana Hanson, our director, who [did an] amazing job, she allowed us to come to this project, most of us were not there for the money, we're there because the subject matter spoke to us. The characters and the actors that came brought, not a comment on the subject matter, they gave themselves over to the characters they were playing.
The character of Randall is a vilified kind of character, who's born with a whole bloody silver spoon and knife and fork in his mouth. Played by Sterling Beaumon, he does a wonderful job playing that look-down-your-nose-at-women [character], the idea that "I want to marry a virgin, but she's a slut" sort of attitude. It's a subject matter that needs to be addressed, and it's done, I think, in a very entertaining way.
I couldn't agree more. It's a subject matter that definitely needs to be explored through the lens of film and TV, and I think this does it in a pretty sensitive way, which I was happy to see considering this could easily have been an exploitative film.
Michael Ironside: Sarah Hay, who plays the victim, she's one of our female leads, I think does a fabulous turn of sitting on this turmoil and this fear and this anxiety, at the same time, retribution and innocence. She plays a whole spectrum of emotions, does a fabulous job of playing the character Alicia. I'll tell you what, on top of all that, there was some wonderful things that happened, the actors that came to this, and the people that Dana Hanson hired, they were actors I didn't know, I had not worked with before — I've worked with Matthew Tompkins before, he came up to give us half a day, playing a very stiff and inflexible detective in my office, and did a wonderful job for that one day.
He's a lead actor, he's done a lot of films, he came up and did that one bit because he liked the material. Jon Keeyes, one of the producers, asked him if he would do it, he said, "Absolutely." The wonderful Rob Giumarra, who plays my partner, didn't want to didn't make his character big, he didn't make it about him, he basically delivered a performance within the realms of what he was given and he made it very real. I'm quite proud of this movie, because I think it's socially informative, and at the same time entertaining, and that's not always an easy line to walk.
I'm not patting myself on the back or something, I don't do a lot of press on films. I hate getting involved in the commercial sale of things, there's a lot of money to be made in the movie industry and stuff, and I'm not always on board with the PR things and stuff, whether it's humongous films that I've been in and stuff like that. So, I basically always try and stay away from that, unless I'm pressured or contractually have to do it. If I come out and support it, it's because I believe in it, and I believe in this film.
Well, I'm glad that you believe in this film as much as you do. I did love the dynamic between you and Clark's character throughout this film as it grows. What was it like developing that rapport and relationship with her off-camera as well as on?
Michael Ironside: Well, Clark's an incredibly attractive young lady, and I'm well in to my latter years, I just turned 73. I pretty well come to work as the character, and then I try and throw a raincoat over me in between shots, a binky, sort of like a soother, because nobody wants to deal with that character all day long, especially some of the films I've played. But it's the only way I've known to not exhaust the people around me when I'm playing a character, and Clark was wonderful. She kind of played the devil's advocate with me, she was kind of poking the bear all the time, and she'd say clever little things like, "So how's his growl today?" and stuff like that.
There's a scene I thought — I told her what I wanted to do with the project, where I saw the arc taking the character, and there's that bar scene, the shot from behind us, where his back's turned and, kind of metaphorically, he opens up to the camera, opens up there, and that's when that first sort of like, "Wait a second," where that scale drops from his eyes, the little first scales dropped from his eyes, and the armor sort of gets a chink in it. That scene, I talked to Dana our director, I saw that as a scene where it starts unfolding, where I'm not just putting up with her and I see her as not as a politically motivated animal, but as somebody who's not just got an axe to grind.
There is an injustice here, and me a culpa, I may have overlooked this, I had seen it from a very narrow window, and I think is really interesting seeing, it's a very simple scene, and that's the way Dana directed, there's nuances in this film. They're very subtle. If we're a TV movie — in a lot of ways, you know, it is a TV movie — it has a very, very gentle touch around a very, very, very volatile subject matter. It's got mystery, and it's got violence, and it's got sex, and it's got beautiful women and it's got me sitting there. [Laughs]
About Confession
Confession follows an ambitious, up-and-coming district attorney who takes on the recently dismissed small-town case of a young woman who has accused three men of sexual assault. As she puts her career on the line to uncover the truth, little does she know the web she is untangling leads to a sobering tale of murder, lies and deceit that may change the city’s history forever.
Confession is now available on digital platforms and VOD.