Credit: Focus Features
It was a beautiful fall morning when we sat down to talk with Joel Edgerton about his new film Boy Erased, which screened at the Middleburg Film Festival this past weekend, but the filmmaker couldn’t hide his excitement about getting a chance to enjoy the weather and take in the disc golf course set up at the Salamander Resort & Spa. “I’ve never played before and I have this feeling that it’s the sport that I should have always played.”
But before any of that could happen, Edgerton gladly shared with us some details about his latest work, which he wrote, directed and acted in from the memoir of the same name by Garrard Conley about his experience being sent to gay conversion therapy.
How do you balance the triple act of writing, directing and acting?
Why I love writing the movie is because I feel like if I write it then I have no reason to complain about it, about what the script is. It almost becomes necessary research and a foundation for which I can then feel safe making the movie.
The directing is an exciting thing. It’s very much a cerebral exercise compared to acting, which I feel is more of a gut exercise. The tricky thing about doing both is trying to spend a large part of your day in your head and then at some point just switch that off and get in tune with your instinct. But, again, being a director means you have to do so much pre-production and background work that it becomes such a great acting research as well, ultimately.
Did you approach the material different since there was such a strong social message?
I felt like the importance of the subject matter did effect one thing, which is I was always mindful that I wanted as many people as possible to see it. So that effected casting, wanting as much of a chance to get it into the cinemas as possible—the cast really helped that.
And also, not being too mindful of preaching to the converted. Just treat everybody with the level of honesty that Garrard has rendered them within the book so that it was more of an objective point of view.
Impressions of Middleburg and the film festival?
I just think the area is so interesting. It’s got such an interesting and complicated history. It’s a beautiful place, to see all the architecture in town. I love little towns like this.
I think festivals should all be—I like the ones that are in small towns. It’s just so interesting to be in a small town because it becomes just about the movie and the city is not in the way of getting to see the movie.
Boy Erased will be released Nov. 2 and stars Lucas Hedges, Nicole Kidman, Russell Crowe and Edgerton.
FYI, reports were that Edgerton did eventually make it out to the disc golf course.
