‘Old Henry’s Tim Blake Nelson On The Elevated Western Reflecting The Current World And “That Desire To Keep Others Away”
In Old Henry, Tim Blake Nelson is the titular frontiersman, living a hermetic life, with only his son for company. His most central role since the Coen brothers’ The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, Blake portrays a man deeply bound by repression—that is, until a chance run-in with an injured stranger forces the emergence of Henry’s true self. Old Henry is part of the increasingly popular “elevated Western” genre, but Nelson actually coined the term “micro Western” to explain the film’s subtlety and its zooming in on personality and relationship dynamics. He describes his heartfelt decision to immerse himself in writer-director Potsy Ponciroli’s vision, and in Henry himself.