By Robert Goldrich

HOLLYWOOD, Calif. --

For Caitriona Balfe, being afforded the opportunity to join the cast of Belfast was “a gift from the post-lockdown gods.” She described director Kenneth Branagh’s script, based on his childhood, as a beautiful story which gave her the good fortune to act opposite the likes of Jamie Dornan, Kieran Hinds and Judi Dench–as well as youngster Jude Hill who gives a remarkable performance as Buddy. Through that lad’s eyes we see his family and everyday life as unrest unfolds in Northern Ireland in 1969. 

Balfe, who portrays Buddy’s mom, said that everyone involved had a determined sense of purpose, coming together to bring the film to fruition as one of the first productions straight out of COVID lockdown. She recalled for example the ingenuity needed to make a U.K. boarding school serve as varied locations over a four-week-or-so stretch. Having to be nimble during a pandemic helped to unify the cast and crew whom, she said, “felt like a family instantly.”

Balfe’s remarks came during an “Indie Contenders” panel discussion this past weekend (11/13) at AFI Fest in Hollywood. The virtual, Zoom-facilitated session, moderated by The Hollywood Reporter columnist and blogger Scott Feinberg, featured Balfe along with other actors who like her are in the current awards season conversation–Nicolas Cage for Pig, Colman Domingo for Zola, Ann Dowd for Mass, Dakota Johnson for The Lost Daughter and Simon Rex for Red Rocket.

Rex shared that writer-director Sean Baker called him out of the blue about Red Rocket. At the time Rex said his Hollywood career was at a low ebb, describing himself as “halfway out the door in this business.” Instead Baker helped him to knock that proverbial door wide open, casting him as Mikey Saber, a washed-up porn star who keeps on hustling–albeit at times charmingly–when he returns to his small Texas hometown.

Rex recalled auditioning over the phone, getting the gig and then having to drive three days to reach the shoot location–while memorizing dialogue along the way. Explaining that he couldn’t fly to the filming destination because that would have required his being quarantined upon arrival, Rex embarked on the film based on complete trust in Baker, whom he had never met. 

Johnson too felt blessed to take on an indie film–particularly one as ambitious as The Lost Daughter, which marks the directorial debut of Maggie Gyllenhaal. Johnson said that as an actor it was a privilege to express “complicated feelings about motherhood and womanhood” that aren’t often depicted or much less addressed in other films or for that matter society at large. Johnson portrays a young mother, Nina, grappling with those emotions, akin to what had been–and continues to be–experienced by a vacationing professor played by Olivia Colman. Johnson described Nina as being “trapped in this life,” not being seen by her husband and others as a human with a life and a heart. Based on the 2008 novel by Elena Ferrante, The Lost Daughter delves into truths about being a woman that aren’t said out loud. Gyllenhaal, said Johnson, bravely gives voice to those feelings.

Domingo also benefited from collaborating with a woman director, Janicza Bravo, while portraying a pimp in Zola. Domingo tackled the predatory role in “a different, nuanced way,” taking into account the character’s psychology, his being an immigrant from Nigeria who felt that this was the way to get ahead in America. Domingo said he strives to find something human in even the most vicious character–in this case that was all the more daunting for the actor in that he is a self-described “staunch feminist” but had to find some empathy for someone who exploits women. Thankfully, Domingo continued, two women in particular–Bravo and editor Joi McMillon–infused Zola with a distinctly “female gaze,” doing justice to a film about women.

Directorial debuts
Johnson wasn’t the only AFI Fest session panelist to recently work with an actor making an auspicious feature directorial debut. Dowd starred in Mass, written and directed by veteran actor Fran Kranz. Mass introduces us to two sets of parents who come together to talk six years after a school shooting inexorably and painfully linked their families forever. Gail (played by Martha Plimpton) and Jay (Jason Isaacs) had their son killed in an attack by the son of Richard (Reed Birney) and Linda (Dowd). The four parents meet to talk, their emotional wounds still raw. The entire film centers on their dialogue marked by grief, regret, guilt and perhaps some sense of catharsis.

Dowd said that Mass entailed 12 days of shooting and commended Kranz for sticking to his vision of everything happening in one room. She observed that because he is an actor, Kranz realized that the story could be compelling and fully realized in one setting, trusting the words and his cast.

Also making his feature-length directorial debut was Michael Sarnoski with Pig, which stars Cage as Robin “Rob” Feld, a former chef who’s become a reclusive truffle forager in the Oregon forests, paired with his truffle-sniffing pig. Feld is assaulted, his beloved pig is stolen and the quest begins to find the culprits and the porker. Cage has been universally praised for his performance. 

Cage said his filmography reflects career “hopscotching” between indie films and major studio features. He sees the value in mass entertainment studio pictures as well as in quieter indie fare. The latter generally gives an actor more latitude to get to the truth of a character. By contrast on a major studio film, there are more people telling you what to do. “You get more opinions,” making it harder for an actor to stay “neutral” while exploring the depths of a role and the character.

Sadly, he observed, the continuum with the big studio picture on one end and smaller indie features on the other hasn’t left much room for the middle ground. Cage assessed that “the mid-range budget movie is gone” and high quality TV scripts may be filling the gap that has been lost in cinema.

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