Andrew Garfield, Ayo Edebiri talk about the ‘delicate’ subject matter of ‘After the Hunt’
Actors Andrew Garfield and Ayo Edebiri say the “delicate” subject matter of their new movie “After the Hunt” initially made them approach it with caution.
Directed by Italy’s Luca Guadagnino, the film stars Julia Roberts as Alma Imhoff, a Yale philosophy professor whose life is upended when her long-time friend and colleague (Garfield) is accused by one of her favourite students (Edebiri) of sexual assault.
The drama probes how supposedly liberal academics wrestle with questions of loyalty, power and identity when confronted with a sexual assault allegation and generational fault lines.
“Are we safe? Is this safe? Is this okay? Is this responsible? What is our responsibility as filmmakers with this story? This is really delicate material. And I don’t want to be a part of anything that could set anything back. I think those were my questions,” said Garfield of his reaction to reading the script, written by Nora Garrett.
“The Bear” star Edebiri said she was reassured by Guadagnino’s intentions and “the most human” conversations the film team had prior to commencing the project.
“If it was just provocation, then I don’t think any of us would be here,” she said, adding that the film was “just trying to connect and search for the answers for the root of these things, for the humanity in it”.
“Call Me By Your Name” and “Queer” director Guadagnino said he set out to make a movie that would go past the present day and that the film, which sees Roberts’ conflicted and compromised character seeking career advancement within the politically fraught atmosphere of Yale, depicts common human behaviour.
“I wanted to make sure that we could make a movie in which you could see characters behaving in a way that was somehow contradicting the way they were presenting themselves to the public sphere, which is everything we do all the time,” he said.
Edebiri and Garfield said they hoped the film would create dialogue and stir up feelings.
“If we continue to… not look at each other and really dig in, then the hurt just keeps going and it disguises itself in new ways,” said Edebiri. “We need to acknowledge the things that are going on, if we want to try to find actual solutions,” she said.
The film also features actors Michael Stuhlbarg, who plays Imhoff’s husband Frederik and Chloe Sevigny who portrays her colleague, Dr. Kim Sayers.
“After the Hunt” gets a wide theatrical release on Friday (October 17).
