Frontier Crucible: Clohessy, Dir on Filming Non-Traditional Western

Posted in: Exclusive, Interview, Movies | Tagged: Frontier Crucible

Frontier Crucible: Clohessy, Dir on Filming Non-Traditional Western

Myles Clohessy (Instict) spoke to us about his Well Go USA Western "Frontier Crucible", ensemble cast, battling the elements and more.

Published Sun, 14 Dec 2025 18:18:03 -0600
by Tom Chang
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Article Summary

• Myles Clohessy stars in Frontier Crucible, a survival Western set entirely in the desert with no towns or saloons
• Director Travis Mills channels classic Westerns, using opening credits and real locations in Monument Valley
• The ensemble cast, including Thomas Jane and William H. Macy, bonded over harsh elements and fireside camaraderie
• Filming faced below-zero temps, an 18-day shoot, and tough hikes, adding realism to the tense narrative

When Myles Clohessy signed on to star in Well Go USA's Frontier Crucible, it wasn't going to be atypical of an experience. First, in a throwback move of traditional Hollywood, the credits were placed at the beginning of the film. Second, there wasn't going to be a physical town featured throughout production, as it's a tale of survival on multiple fronts. Before taking on the starring role of Merrick Beckford in the Travis Mills film based on the Harry Whittington novel Desert Stakeout, Clohessy is a regular on TV and film with roles on CBS's FBI: Most Wanted, Blue Bloods, and Bull. The actor and director Travis Mills spoke to Bleeding Cool about his love for Westerns, the film's ensemble cast, and filming through freezing temperatures.

Frontier Crucible Star Myles Chlohessy on Embracing Whittingham's World, Camaraderie, and More

Myles, what intrigued you about Frontier Crucible?

Clohessy: What intrigued me was that this was based on Harry Whittingham's 1961 novel Desert Stakeout, and there are no big set pieces, no towns, no saloons, which are very typical of Westerns. This is all set out in the desert, in the boulders, and everyone's facing off around a fire. It paced more like a play than a movie, which I thought was super interesting.

I was looking for who got screenwriting credit since Harry got it for the film, but he had long passed. Did Travis Mills find some missing screenplay for his film adaptation?

Clohessy: I think they have a very famous ghostwriter who helped write the script, who I cannot name, who is very famous and pulled from the book heavily. It is like you read the book, watch the movie, and it's nearly identical, which makes for really interesting dialogue. In a lot of Westerns, the dialogue can be very cheesy, especially nowadays, but this stays true to the source, and it makes for an interesting listen. It's almost like you're listening through Audible rather than watching a movie, which is super cool.

What's it like working with Travis as a creative?

Clohessy: Travis is great; he knows what he wants, which I think is important in a director. He was on set with big actors, not me. People like Thomas Jane, who is very experienced. I think from my own experience as a director, if you aren't on top of your shit, if you don't know what you want, especially on a tight schedule like that, you will get walked all over. Travis is so calm, he has such a commanding presence, knows exactly what he wants, and I love that as an actor.

Travis, what was the inspiration behind having the credits at the beginning of the film? That was an old-school feel there.
Mills: That's the first time I've ever done it to put all the credits up front, but we were looking at the work of John Ford, Howard Hawks, and how cool that is. We had this opportunity to film in Monument Valley, and Dallas and I talked about it and said, "How cool would it be that we do this traditional opening like Fort Apache with the cavalry riding through, and we put everyone's name up front from the transportation guy to the prop maker." I think that was awesome. I like opening credits, because it gets you into the mood of the movie, right? You listen to this great song by Sean Rowe, and then you're ready to watch the story after that.

You have such a talented ensemble you work with from Thomas, William, Mary (Stickley), Eli (Brown), and Ryan (Masson). Can you talk about working with them?

Clohessy: What's so special about working with all of them is that we didn't have any trailers or anything like that. We were out in the elements, having campfires every morning and night. There's this equalizing factor where you have these big movie stars in the set, people who have never worked at all, like Mary, and everyone's coming together, making this piece of art. Every morning, sitting around a campfire, talking, and shooting the shit. Every night, sitting around the campfire talking between takes, we bonded, and it was special to be around these big actors in this normal setting, as if we were at camp. It was fun in that regard, and working with actors like Thomas Jane and William H. Macy, who elevated the project. The words that are spoken, and they really elevate them.

Mills: Miles was always our idea for Merrick, and he's just a movie star in the making, right? This is just a guy that the camera loves. He's got the presence to carry a movie, so the idea was to set this up as a project with Myles (starring), and me directing, and then how do we cast these incredible villains from there, right? I've been a Thomas Jane fan for years. Thomas is super passionate about the Western genre, so I loved that, and he understood the complexity of this character. He understood that he was not playing a bad guy. He's just playing a guy who has a different idea of right and wrong than Myles does.

What was the most difficult aspect of production out there? Whether that be a particular scene or dealing with the weather?

Clohessy: The most difficult scene was when we were shooting out in the elements. It got below zero sometimes in the desert out there, and it was freezing cold, and that tested people. The hardest scene was one of those nights where we were sitting around a campfire, and it's this moment in the film where everyone starts to let their guard down and reveal their secrets. It was negative degrees, below zero, and we were all freezing around this campfire. It was a few hours of shooting this scene. It's this moment where Merrick Beckford reveals that he knows more about these villains' backstory than he had let on throughout the whole film. That was hard because he's dealing with a lot of baggage in that scene, and it was freezing cold. It was this duality, but the weather lent a lot of truth to the scene, too, that was probably the most difficult scene to do.

Mills: We got lucky with the weather. I think the biggest struggle was that we had to shoot this film in 18 days, and it was on location. Although we got lucky having a location in Prescott (AZ) that was only 10 minutes away from the cast hotel, we still had to hike all our gear and crew to the spot. There was no way to get a vehicle to where we needed to be, so it was physically challenging, and we were shooting a lot of pages, a lot of setups per day. That crucible at the end, the crucible from the title, was a challenge to pull off. We did it and had an incredible team, from our Oscar-winning makeup artist Jeff Dawn to great DP Maxime Alexandre. It was just an incredible group of people, but a fight every day to get it done.

Were there any Westerns you grew up on? Was there anyone you modeled Merrick after in addition to what was in the script?

Clohessy: Yeah, I grew up on Westerns. Ever since I was a little boy, I grew up watching Clint Eastwood and John Wayne, and I also grew up reading Louis L'Amour novels. I'm starring in a film called Flint that comes out soon too, another Western based on a L'Amour novel, who was famous for writing these dimeback, paperback novels in the fifties, sixties, seventies. I grew up reading and watching Westerns nearly every day as a kid. I fell in love with the genre from a young age, and I always wanted to be a cowboy. The biggest thing that helped me was that I grew up around horses, and I've always ridden them. I have heavy horse-riding scenes in [Frontier Crucible], and that was luckily an easy thing for me to do because I've just always ridden horses.

Frontier Crucible is available in theaters and on digital.

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