One Day as a Lion Director on Scott Caan and J.K. Simmons Black Comedy

John Swab is always looking for opportunities to make the kinds of movies he loved growing up. The director behind Little Dixie (2023) and Ida Red (2021) often finds himself directing, producing, and writing the bulk of his work. There are rare occasions where he does get to collaborate with others creatively, as is the case in the Lionsgate film One Day as a Lion with writer and star Scott Caan, who plays Jackie Powers, a nice guy but a lousy hitman sent to take out a crafty debtor (J.K. Simmons) Jackie only pisses off. Fleeing the scene, Jackie takes bored waitress Lola (Marianne Rendón) as a hostage. Jackie needs money to get his son out of jail. Lola cooks up a scheme for them to get cash from her dying mother (Virginia Madsen). Meanwhile, a thug sent to kill him sleeps with Jackie’s ex. Swab spoke to Bleeding Cool about the homage to Quentin Tarantino and the Coen brothers.

One Day as a Lion: Working with Scott Caan and J.K. Simmons

Bleeding Cool: What intrigued you about ‘One Day as a Lion?’
Swab: It’s a fun script that reminded me of movies that I grew up loving. I got along with Scott and thought, why not give it a go?

What did you like about Scott’s script, and what jumped out at you?
I liked the rich characters and always enjoyed a big ensemble piece. I love stories that are secondary to their characters. This felt like a classic Elmore Leonard novel, and he’s one of my favorites.

Regarding directing, Scott and J.K., can you tell me what presence they bring on set and what’s it like working with them?
Scott is a professional. He grew up on movie sets. He’s easy to have around and easy to work with. J.K. is much the same. He’s a serious guy, which I appreciate. He shows up, prepped, and he’s ready to go. There’s no substitute for working with professionals who have been doing this for a long time. It just makes my life much easier. It was an enjoyable experience on both fronts.

Can you tell me about the rest of the cast? I know you have some favorites in there, like Frank Grillo.
There are quite a few repeat customers in there, between Billy Blair, who plays Kenny Walsh, and Bruce Davis plays the cook, Bob: my producer, Jeremy [M. Rosen] had worked with Marianne Rendón before. Virginia Madsen was the first. George Carroll, I’ve worked with him quite a few times. Dash Melrose is a repeat customer. It’s a blend of a few first-timers and then many people we worked with before. I find with a movie like this makes it more fun for the audience. It feels like it’s a family vibe and like recurring characters and films that the director and the filmmakers have worked with before. It felt right to involve our friends.

Were there any like stand-out sequences for you that maybe might have been harder to film?
There were a lot of external factors in the film that made things more difficult. The weather was 109 degrees throughout part of the shoot. We had a lot of locations that were two and three hours away. Overall, the practicality of setting up a scene was routine. I had fun doing it, but it wasn’t anything that was too hard to figure out.

One Day as a Lion is available in select theaters, on-demand, and digital.