VENICE, Italy — VENICE, Italy (AP) — Andrew Garfield I would like everyone to know about his gestures. Not in his performance as a Yale philosophy professor accused of sexual misconduct in “After the hunt.” but when discussing an actor's responsibility to comment on the work he puts out into the world.
It's blue skies outside the luxurious Cipriani Hotel as Garfield sits next to his co-stars Julia Roberts and Available Ayo discussing a film that, for better or worse, has become the topic of lively debate. Just a few days earlier in Venice Film Festival– Roberts and journalists asked at a press conference directed by Luca Guadagnino if the film undermines the feminist movement.
“I don't think an actor is obligated to express anything in public at all. Ever,” Garfield said, using his hands for added emphasis. “Please tell them about gesturing.”
Roberts chimed in: “Hair too.” (It jumped up and down).
With “After the Hunt” in theaters Friday, Guadagnino and his actors knew they were doing something challenging, something complex about dirty, flawed people whose lives and lies are turned upside down by an accusation. They were ready to make the decision to use the opening credits font made famous by Woody Allen. But they didn't anticipate the anti-feminist question, which may have been less a question than an accusation.
“This question was so tone-deaf to the film itself,” Guadagnino said. – Like, you confused the subject with the object.
The film is an ensemble piece about several characters in and around Yale whose heady, philosophical conversations about free will and power become less theoretical in light of vibrant real-life dramas. Roberts plays Alma, a respected professor vying for a position alongside her colleague and flirtatious drinking buddy Hank (Garfield). Edebiri is a student named Maggie, the daughter of billionaires, who everyone calls brilliant and a bit obsessed with Alma.
After Alma's drunken party, Maggie is the first to come to Alma to tell her that Hank has crossed the line. Hank denies anything happened and claims Maggie is retaliating because he accused her of plagiarizing her thesis. Nobody knows who to believe. Alma also keeps her secrets. And everything in their world unfolds in a stunningly melodramatic manner.
The script was written by Nora Garrett, who worked as a data analyst at Meta before her script quickly caught the attention of Guadagnino and Roberts.
“The story really started with the Alma character,” Garrett said. “I was really interested in the idea of a woman who deep down had a lie or something that she was deeply ashamed of.”
But Alma's controlled separation of her past begins to unravel after Maggie's accusations. The role allows Roberts to deliver some of her best work in years.
“I'm saying something that may seem obvious, but she is one of the greatest stars and one of the greatest actresses,” Guadagnino said. “The symbol, the beauty of the symbol and at the same time the truth of the execution. It is so three-dimensional.”
Roberts was especially fascinated by Alma's relationship with her husband Frederick, a psychiatrist played by Guadagnino regular Michael Stuhlbarg, whose unexpected choice left her in awe.
“I found myself watching him a couple of times instead of being on stage and I thought, 'Wow, this is so (expletive) good,'” Roberts said. “And then I think, 'Oh, I have a line.'
She added: “The great thing about getting older is having more life experience and intellectual resources to draw on for something like this.”
Guadagnino likes to shoot quickly, which can be a bit destabilizing for new players. Garfield, with whom Guadagnino has been trying to work for almost 20 years, had to play one of the most emotional scenes on his first day. He came straight from a completely different movie, where he played the “very stupid dad”, and was in a panic.
“I had a really hard time transitioning,” Garfield said. “I wanted to make sure I came in as full and as hot as possible. Before we shot the takes, I was just walking around, just staying in (character). And then Luca comes up to me and I think he's going to give me a little nugget, and he's like, 'Are you always going to be like this?'
Garfield quickly realized that the combination of speed and ease was part of Guadagnino's magic with actors.
“He wants urgency, he wants you to be on your feet a little bit,” Garfield said. “So when it comes time to shoot, it's like the train has left the station and you just hang on for dear life, or you get caught up in it in some way. It's really exciting.”
Roberts didn't even remember the steamy scene where she grabs Maggie's face until she saw the film in Venice.
“I was so stunned,” Roberts said. “I didn't expect this to happen.”
From Woody Allen's font to the campy college setting and intelligent conversations, the film is in many ways a throwback to classic films – not just Allen's films, but also Mike Nichols and Joseph L. Mankiewicz's All About Eve.
“I thought a lot about films that were able to withstand the pressures of time and become insightful classics,” Guadagnino said.
Perhaps the most mysterious of all is Maggie. Even Edebiri said she had difficulty understanding her motives and actions.
“She’s a crafty girl,” Edebiri said. “The word that Luca kept using in conversations was displacement. Maggie is a psychologically displaced person, but also as a transracial adoptee, and occupying this space full of speaking professors.”
But for everyone, it's the questions, not the answers, that matter, and After the Hunt isn't a film that wraps anything in a clear moral. These conversations are for viewers.
“There are very few filmmakers out there who prioritize radical, vulnerable, raw expression and exploration and curiosity over something didactic,” Garfield said. “I think the conversation is something we can ever dream of, that people will face their own reactions. I hope the film becomes a mirror for every person watching, and then they can compare their reflections with each other.”
