Writer/Director Stuart Gatt & Actress Erin Moriarty talk to The Inside Reel about challenges, environment and connection in regards to their new thriller from Vertical Entertainment: "Catching Dust".
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Short filmTranscript
00:00I told you something was wrong.
00:13You mother...
00:14This has gone too far.
00:18Say something!
00:21You don't need to do this.
00:22It's a different world, because the one where you were talking, the one movie that came
00:39to my mind, and I'm not sure if you've seen it, Stuart, or you have, Aaron, is a movie
00:42called The Hotspot, with Don Johnson, Dennis Hopper, Hopper directed it, but it uses a
00:48very small area, an environment, that basically you feel the heat, you can feel the fear,
00:55you can feel the passion, the desire, you can feel all that in a small space, and you
01:01talk about...
01:02Intimacy.
01:03Yes, and intimacy, almost a brutality, even inside that trailer.
01:06They feel like plays to me, almost.
01:11I think it was, you know, part of the challenge with this is when you're four people in effectively
01:15one location, is how do you keep it constantly interesting?
01:18And I think you are leaning into those, you're trying to capture those moments of the environment,
01:24capture the quiet moments with the characters, to try and layer the storytelling, because
01:28it's...
01:29You know, when you're cut into a different location, it's easy, the audience is refreshed,
01:32they kind of have a moment to take a breath, and they start absorbing everything, but when
01:35you're looking at the same thing very regularly, it's easy to switch off.
01:38So we had to find those moments where it's a macro of Aaron's eye, it's her paint drops
01:44dropping into the water, it's those moments that help layer the story and can create...
01:48As you were talking about with the other film, it's like trying to create that kind of...
01:54That pressure chamber that's closing in and closing in and closing in.
01:57You're trying to use every tool to do that, it's not easy, but again, with what these
02:01guys were able to bring to the table, it made it a lot easier.
02:04When I was 12 and a half years old, my mama put $10 in my hand and told me to look after
02:18myself.
02:19I did as I was told, I looked after myself, the only way I knew how.
02:26And she's an artist, that expressionism, it becomes almost an abstract, you know, because
02:31as an actor, you can prep, but then you have to let yourself go.
02:34Aaron, can you talk about finding sort of that spontaneity within that?
02:39Because the thing is, with actors like, especially like I've talked to Jade so many times, there's
02:46a spontaneous and you know this, you can't do it as much probably on The Boys because
02:51of the effects, but can you talk about finding spontaneity in the moment?
02:55I always try and find it, I always try and find it and I try and do things differently
02:59to evoke it from someone else that I'm in a scene with, even if it's their coverage,
03:04because nothing mimics it, right?
03:06Even if it's the way you change, the way you deliver a line, it's just gonna, to me, a
03:11lot of my job is like, we're going to do many takes.
03:15And so therefore I need to find that every take, I'm not even reinventing it, I'm just
03:20remaining present with it, right?
03:22But the spontaneity in this, and it leading back to her artistry in this, I could totally
03:28relate to because it's intuition, right?
03:30It's abstract, but it's abstract because it's so intuitive.
03:34And that's what she's encouraged to follow.
03:36And it's the first time she's been enabled to follow that.
03:39And so there's something, again, with so much more meaning to that than anyone could realize
03:45except for her, which is like, this is something that means something to her, but it also implies
03:50trust your intuition and just go with, which has been a fear of hers because she's been
03:54conditioned to not trust her intuition.
03:57So I think the cool thing about acting is like, when I think about some of the moments
04:02where I felt most connected in the moment with the other actor, it's almost like I blacked
04:06out, it's like I wasn't present because it felt like, and yet I was.
04:16What business you got here?
04:18We wanted to get out of the city for a while.
04:20My gut tells me no good can come from those two.
04:23They about as much of a threat as a toothless dog.
04:26Say no game, Gina, I don't want you messing with them.
04:29But it's it's it's all intuitive.
04:31And it's just this like this dance between you and the other person or you and the, you
04:37know, whatever painting you're trying to create.
04:39But you really that is why the spontaneity for me specifically comes from the prep, because
04:47then I feel like I know who she is and how she would be here in that moment.
04:50And I think it's very, very easy to play characters and play them brilliantly.
04:55But ultimately make decisions that kind of come from ourselves more so than the
04:59characters. So that's why I do the work, the story leading up to the story that we
05:05observe her in so that I feel like I'm looking at things from her perspective.
05:10But it's all intuition and it's cool.
05:12There's a huge parallel and it's cathartic as well.
05:15It's very cathartic.
05:17And, you know, it's also heartbreaking because like I'm someone I grew up in New York
05:23City. Right. So I did this film.
05:25And the ironic thing was we had these two people playing New Yorkers and I'm such a
05:30New Yorker. So I love that I got to play a Texan and someone so different from that.
05:35But I grew up, you know, with an artist dad and a mom who, too, has very artistic
05:41tendencies. And I was I mean, in New York City, when you're growing up there, you're
05:47weird if you're not in therapy.
05:48Right. So to play someone suppressed who finds her her her soul just like spit out
05:57onto this painting and then have it be encouraged is like the first time someone does
06:03that for her. So no wonder she makes the wrong choice.
06:07But I think that's what it's all about.
06:09What's wrong, what's right when you're in these situations.
06:13My mama was right.
06:15Always stretching for things I can't reach.
06:19I was alone. I was really scared.
06:25If you hurt somebody and you don't stop him, then that's on you forever.
06:31All we got to do is play cool.
06:37You think I'm blind, don't you?