This is later with Lee Matthews the Lee Matthews Podcast more what you hear weekday
Afternoons on the Drive. You know Kim Coats from his work and Sons of
Anarchy Lily Simmons as well from PowerBook four Force. They are now co stars
of a new film, Double Down South, which is in theaters this week,
and it is about the underground or seeney girld of world of high stakes
Keino gambling. Kim coachs, let's start with you. What is Keino pool
gambling? Oh my gosh, I have no no, I'm kidding, key
Keino. I think we all know Keino in today's world from you know,
Vegas, from the Bingo game, that kind of stuff. Keino was a
massive pools billiards gambling game played on a pool table from the late sixties to
the early seventies. It started in Chicago, they moved down south to Nashville,
the Atlanta region all all down South. It was a super big high
stakes gambling game. And Tom Shulman, our writer director and I'm sure really
looking curR, He's had this story that he's wanted to write about for some
fifty years and he finally did it. Over the COVID break and Lily and
I were fortunate enough to be cast in this incredible little film that we're very
proud of, Academy Award winning Tom Chulman. I might add that the movie
is doubled down South and Lily, did, do you concur? I didn't
mean to interrupt you there, Oh, I absolutely concur. I feel so
lucky to have worked with Kim, Tom whole pass. We're such a family
now. I think it's a really special little movie we got and it is
available now in theaters, which is out now. Kim, did you have
to brush up on your pool skills to get into this role? Absolutely not.
I've been a professional pool player of my whole life. But I have
to I have to say this right off the bat lead that Lily's work in
this movie is not only like phenomenal, She's brilliant, but for her to
get serious about playing pool, and to get serious about how good she became
to do this movie, we really don't have a movie without Lily's professional pool
style and the way she held the queue and the way she chocked it.
And I know she'll know she should talk about it, actually, but yeah,
no, I was I've been playing Pool my whole life, but to
see Lily train and train and train to become like probably the best Pool player.
When we were filming this movie was literally something to watch. Yeah,
thanks Matt Craven, friends of Kim's and Tom's. We spent I want to
say, like eight hours a day before we had it off. Yeah,
you did all yeah, before we end off to Georgia because I had no
idea what I was doing. I mean, I don't even know how to
do a proper bridge. And everyone's patience, Tim Coates and Lily Simmons.
The name of the movie is Double Down South. It's out now. It
takes place in the Deep South. It's about high stakes keino gambling. And
as we get deeper into this, into this role, Kim, your character
finds her basically in one of these CD houses and decides, hey, this
girl's got something. Not really basically, it's almost likely this this, this
movie is the and you mentioned Tom Shulman, the Oscar winner from Dead Poets
Society. Tommy knows how to write, and Tommy knows how to tell his
story. And this story is so it's so deep, and it's so filled
with so many things about the South in the early nineties that when Tom he
sent me the script, I said yes right away. After we changed a
few things in the actual story. But it's an incredible drama and it's almost
like a play. There's eight characters really in this film. There's hundreds of
extras, but there's really eight characters. And the house itself is a mansion.
I've torn down to crepit mansion that it's almost a character in the movie
itself. So to film it during COVID eight people staying safe being tested every
day, it's a testament to actually all of us, I think, and
to be able to rehearse it for one week so to get all the questions
out of the way. Lily and I had so many questions that we just
got out of the way with Tom and Rick Wallace the producer, And it's
just been an Alan Cadillo the DP right, DP, Lily how cut great?
Was Alan right? And it's just that we're just so proud of this
little movie, and it's so it's so dramatic. The ending's going to blow
you away. That's all I have to say. Kim Coates and Lily Simmons
of Double Down South and Lily, did you have to immerse yourself in anything
else other than learning how to play pool? I would say we'd all immersed
ourselves in some sort of Southern accent. That's what I was getting at.
Yeah, I mean I was lucky, My character was lucky enough. Kim,
I don't remember if you had a specific accent, but Tom told me
straight up, you know, Diana has lived a transient life. Accent is
a little bit of a mix of everything. And yeah, I mean we
all had to start doing our accents between takes because you know, you just
got to keep it up. You don't want to lose it. And it
was I felt like I stayed in Diana most of the time. And Kim's
right, I mean filming it was such a joy and it really felt like
summer camp, and we all worked our butts off. Yeah. Yeah,
And none of this brought phones to set or anything. I mean, there
was no cell phones in the early nineties that we just didn't bring our phonks
to set. We didn't have big trailers to stay company, and we stayed
in that house. We had rooms that we shared in that house. That
is basically you know, three quarters of the story. So in a way.
Not only was it a smart movie. I know I'm biased because I'm
starting in it with Lily, but I got to tell you, Tom knew
exactly how to write a movie, to get shot and filmed during COVID,
to keep everyone safe, and to come out at the end with this movie
that we just keep winning all these awards at these beautiful little film festivals,
and how to open it on the nineteenth of January for Lily and me and
the rest of the castes. It's just a really special pot for pre independent
movies like this. Coats Lily Simmons, you mentioned the tests for COVID all
the time. This was back when they really had to dig around in your
nose at the end of the at the end of the shoot. Were you
tired of having something up your nose? My nose, My nose is never
tired of having anything up my I You know, that's a very complicated question
there, Lee, But no, we were all we were all tired of
it. But it didn't it didn't matter. We were doing. We were
supposed to do what science was telling us to do, and and we were
all proud to stay negative. Everyone was right, all negative the whole time.
The whole time, Darling, the whole time. Being negative is positive
in that case, and I bet you won't even be able to tell it
a shot during the pandemic. Kim Coates, Lily Simmons and the name of
the movie is Double Down South. That is out now everywhere you get your
movies. Thank you for joining us today, Thank you very much. Thanks
for listening to Later with Lee Matthews, the Lee Matthews Podcast, and remember
to listen to The Drive Live weekday afternoons from five to seven and iHeartMedia Presentation