Attending the Berlin Film Festival for new movie Rosebush Pruning, actor Callum Turner was asked by a journalist at the film’s press conference about online speculation linking him to the James Bond role.
Turner declined to comment, and was helped out by co-star Tracy Letts who interjected jokingly: “I’m playing James Bond.”
In a more serious moment, actor and Pulitzer-winning playwright Letts was asked by a journalist how the political “situation” in the U.S. affects working as an actor, noting that multiple actors and jury members had declined to engage with questions of a political nature at the festival.
Letts said it was “awkward” to discuss the “situation” in the U.S. and avoided addressing it directly but did say that the film highlights how “extreme disparity in wealth breeds bad behavior, and in fact, probably creates fascism”.
“This movie speaks for itself,” Letts commented. “This movie has its own beautiful statement to make, courtesy of a beautiful screenplay and beautiful ensemble cast and beautiful director. I can’t speak for other artists, I don’t necessarily feel comfortable taking away from the work that they’ve done. Obviously, it’s an awkward thing to discuss because of our political situation, but one of the things that this movie gets at, I think again, on the face of it, is that this extreme disparity in wealth breeds bad behavior, and in fact, probably creates fascism, and so that is one of the things that this film gets at. I don’t think there’s any way around it in terms of working as an artist. We’re all artists coming together to work on a thing together, and the politics, taking place in one’s country don’t necessarily impact each of us as we gather together to tell a story.”
Pamela Anderson at one stage was asked what advice she would give young women: “Just be yourself and follow your dreams, and to it’s never too late. I think that this has been a really fun experience for me to have this chapter. Life is chapters. And, you know, hard work is what makes good luck. The question of me giving advice to other people always makes me laugh, because I don’t think I’m the best at that, but we all have our own way.”
Karim Aïnouz’s starry drama Rosebush Pruning world premieres in Competition at the Berlinale.
Set in an opulent villa underneath the Catalonian sun, in the movie Jamie Bell, Calum Turner, Riley Keough and Lukas Gage play American siblings Jack, Ed, Anna and Robert. Together, they wallow in isolation and their inherited fortune, eschewing the demands of their blind father (Tracy Letts), and seeking love and validation through each other and their latest designer clothes.
When Jack (Bell), the eldest brother and family lynchpin, announces he is moving in with his girlfriend, played by Elle Fanning, blood ties are severed and Ed starts to uncover the truth surrounding their mother’s death. Generational lies begin to unravel, and the fabric of this family slowly begins to disintegrate. Elena Anaya and Pamela Anderson also feature in the cast.
The film is a joint production between Mubi, The Match Factory, Kavac Film, Fremantle’s The Apartment, Sur Film, Crybaby and Gold Rush Pictures.
Firebrand director Aïnouz is directing from a script written by long-time Yorgos Lanthimos collaborator Efthimis Filippou (The Lobster), which is inspired by Marco Bellocchio’s 1965 drama Fists in the Pocket.
