I caught up with Jack Reynor and Gerard Barrett to chat about their new movie Glassland which opens in cinemas Friday 24th.
Set in Dublin, the story centres around Jack's charactor, John, and his relationship with his mother who has an addiction problem. It stars Toni Collette (The Sixth Sense, Little Miss Sunshine) as John's mother and Will Poulter (We're The Millers, The Maze Runner) as his best friend. John struggles to support his mum while helping her overcome her addiction.
The movie is quite dark in places and very emotional. Jack explains below how important it is to highlight the issue of addition in our society and reflect on similar issues that are happening everyday. He says it gives people an insight into how younger generations cope with these situations and how it can indirectly affect the other people.
Toni Collette, who's from Australia and Will Poulter, who's from England, are absolutely brilliant. I asked director Gerard why he didn't choose Irish actors for the roles. He explained that he felt Toni and Will were the right people for the roles and so it didn't matter where they came from.
The film has already won over the critics, seeing Jack winning a special Jury Prize at the closing ceremony for the 2015 Sundance Film Festival in America.
While the lads were there to talk about Glassland I couldn't resist asking Jack about the upcoming Jungle Book movie he's involved in. He didn't seem to grasp how big a deal it will be, but it was one of my favourite cartoons growing up so naturally I'm excited. It's directed by Andy Serkis, who has famously played CGI-driven characters such as Gollum from The Lord of the Rings and Caesar from Planet of the Apes.
Jack stepped out of his comfort role and explained that he had a camera mounted in front of his face while he was acting on all fours to play 'Brother Wolf' in The Jungle Book: Origins. It's all motion capture and he says it's a lot darker than the traditional Disney story and is a million miles away from the cartoon.
Meanwhile, Gerard is set to direct a movie with Charlize Theron and Dakota Fanning which he said he's honoured and exited to be a part of that project.
Hear the interview in full below.
