Director Christian Sparkes & Actors Clayne Crawford and Alix West Lefler talk to Fest Track about the primal, environment, context and approach in regards to their film: "The King Tide" playing the Platform section at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival in Toronto, Ontario [Canada].
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Short filmTranscript
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00:03 Well, the first question-- I'll put this to you, Christian,
00:28 before I go to Alex and Clayton--
00:30 is the aspect of the thematics behind this versus survival
00:36 obviously plays very big into this, both of Alex
00:42 as the character Isla, but just overall.
00:44 Could you talk about that?
00:45 Then I'll get into sort of the psychological impressions
00:48 of that.
00:48 Or was that one of the themes that were--
00:54 He's going to blow it right on the first question.
00:57 I guess I haven't really thought about it that way.
01:00 How did you think about it?
01:02 I mean, there's lots of different themes that resonate
01:07 with me in the film.
01:10 One of the ones I was most turned on by, I would say,
01:12 is the paradise lost aspect of the story.
01:17 I love stories where human beings are
01:20 given something beautiful, and they invariably
01:24 kind of pervert and destroy it.
01:27 And there's nothing more satisfying than seeing those
01:29 same people get their comeuppance.
01:32 So for me, that was something kind of rich and fertile
01:34 that I could build upon.
01:36 That was a great bedrock for the story.
01:38 And to be able to take that idea and then shoot it
01:41 in Newfoundland, a unique culture and people
01:44 that I know very well, was just a really--
01:47 was a great opportunity for me.
01:49 [MUSIC PLAYING]
02:17 Clayton, could you talk about the--
02:19 looking at Bobby, both the peacefulness of that,
02:22 using that sort of location, but also the isolation?
02:26 Because that has to imbue the character,
02:28 even though he's surrounded by people and protecting somebody.
02:32 Could you talk about that a little?
02:34 Yeah, I guess-- look, first of all,
02:36 just shooting in Newfoundland was--
02:39 it informed our performances at all time.
02:43 We were never at a lack of inspiration.
02:47 As Christian had said before, you
02:51 can hear the ocean smashing against the rocks
02:53 and to feel the wind in your face.
02:55 And then to just be so humbled by this--
03:00 the architecture and these beautiful little homes
03:03 and just the landscape.
03:05 As it relates to Bobby's struggles,
03:08 I had not thought about it being--
03:11 him being isolated from everyone because
03:14 of his love for his child and this desire
03:16 to kind of protect her.
03:18 But I see that.
03:20 And I think sometimes parenting can be quite isolating, right?
03:24 Because everyone has their own ideas of how
03:27 you should parent a child.
03:28 But as you kind of learn, once you start having more than one,
03:32 especially, you realize, oh my gosh,
03:33 they're all so quite different, regardless
03:35 of the structure you try to provide or how you try to raise
03:39 that child and the ideology you try to instill
03:42 or what it may be.
03:44 So I think for me, I just wanted love
03:49 to be the through line from beginning to end
03:53 and that unconditional love.
03:54 And as opposed to kind of thinking about her gifts
04:00 as it relates to what she provides for the community,
04:03 just more of what a gift it is that she's given me
04:05 as being a father and how never wanting
04:08 to kind of jeopardize that or not protect it in some way.
04:15 Yeah, yeah.
04:16 I remember early on, it's easy in film
04:18 when directors and actors get together
04:21 to overthink it and over talk it, what it's all about.
04:23 What's it really about?
04:25 And I remember early on, Clayne just said to me,
04:27 I'm just going to play it as a father who loves his daughter
04:30 and would do anything for his daughter.
04:32 And sometimes you just need to remind yourself
04:34 of those simple kind of bedrock ideas
04:35 and it doesn't need to be much more complicated than that.
04:38 Agreed.
04:39 Well, the scenes themselves can kind of--
04:41 they're going to kind of set the tone as the tug
04:44 of war between his responsibilities
04:46 to the community and being mayor and his mother-in-law
04:49 and his wife and all that.
04:50 Those are already embedded in the story, right?
04:53 We're going to act each one of those moments.
04:55 So for me, it was again, as Christian's kind of said,
04:57 what's the simple thing that I can hang my hat
04:59 on each and every day?
05:00 And that was love, right?
05:03 [MUSIC PLAYING]
05:30 And for you, Alex, I mean, she has gifts
05:33 and yet she's stuck between these two worlds.
05:37 How did you have to look at her in order
05:39 to play her because she must be aware but also
05:42 unaware in certain ways?
05:43 Yeah, I looked at her in a warm, caring, but also powerful kind
05:54 of aspect and way.
05:56 I looked at her as a strong little girl,
06:01 a powerful human being.
06:06 Did you have to have an understanding beyond that
06:08 of-- as we were talking about with Christian and Clayne,
06:11 those simple elements.
06:12 Was there a simple truth that you had to realize about her
06:16 or is it just sort of going on instinct in that moment?
06:21 I think there was definitely some things
06:23 that I had to look into, but we also talked a ton.
06:29 Like we said, we also talked a ton before and after scenes
06:36 and what we were doing and everything.
06:39 I think an interesting thing, I can speak for Alex,
06:42 I can only speak of my perception of it.
06:45 The great thing about a lot of child actors is--
06:47 and I think Alex is no different from my point of view--
06:50 they often don't over intellectualize the text.
06:54 They just innately have a skill of being kind of present
06:58 and revealing the truth in a scene
07:00 and what the truth of the scene is.
07:02 I know that's-- I felt that very quickly when I met Alex
07:06 and that's why I cast her.
07:09 Clayne, on the other hand, was very, very difficult.
07:12 A challenge.
07:13 Just a challenge.
07:14 Just keep spoon feeding it to him over and over again.
07:16 Wouldn't get it.
07:18 At some point, he just put an earpiece in.
07:20 That way he could just have monitor constantly.
07:22 Just driving home.
07:24 This is who you are.
07:25 This is what you want.
07:26 This is what you need.
07:27 And then I finally just started getting
07:30 trigger words that would kind of bring me back in.
07:32 But it was a process.
07:33 Yes, we got you.
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