DAVID AYER RELIVES HIS OWN HARSH TIMES

Training Day scribe David Ayer writes and makes his directing debut with the gritty drama Harsh Times starring Christian Bale and Freddy Rodriguez both stuck in their own ways to the gang mentality in South Central, Los Angeles. David is no stranger to the streets and admits that much of the story is based on his own personal experiences dealing with his own harsh times.

Ayer wrote the screenplay in his twenties as a direct reflection of his own anger after he was honorably discharged from the United States Navy.

“Christian Bales’ character is sort of a rough version of my dark side at high volume, high intensity. I’m a military veteran from South Central L.A.. I know the streets. I have done a lot of the things that the character does in the movie except for like running around whacking people, I never did any of that but hanging out in the streets, chasing girls, getting shwacked, all that good stuff. If I’m gonna be dead honest yeah I associated with a lot of gang members but if you live in that neighborhood it comes with the territory. It’s automatic. I wasn’t going to lock myself in my house all day.”

In the film Christian Bale is back from his tour of duty in Iraq and slowly loses his mind remembering all the senseless killings he committed. David was also affected by his neighbors whose fathers went off to fight in Vietnam and came back shell shocked.

“I was lost. I was in the cold war with the evil commies and did the duck and cover drills in school. I was kind of indoctrinated in that way and then the wall falls and then all of a sudden its like, ‘OK guys go home.’ You have a mentality like you’re gonna die in combat and then when it doesn’t happen its like, ‘gee now I have to live the rest of my life what am I gonna do now?’ So you can get really lost. And so I went back to the streets. A lot of the guys did.”

Next David will direct Mafia Cop based on New York’s finest Lou Eppolito and Stephen Caracoppa who were accused of being associated with the mob. Harsh Times opens Friday in theaters.

“It leaves a stamp on you, same with Vietnam guys, World War II guys. Everyone talks about how well they adjusted, no that’s not true. They just hid it better and no one talked about it. All the guys I grew up with in my neighborhood, their dads were in Vietnam so they had to deal with that, ‘oh dude dad’s drunk again, crawling around the bushes screaming about Charlie.’ That was par for the course in my neighborhood. Now all the guys I grew up with are going to war and coming back in the next generation.”