Callum Turner on Learning and Then Forgetting How to Fish for 'Rose of Nevada' | TIFF 2025 - video Dailymotion

Hollywood Journal

Callum Turner and filmmaker Mark Jenkin sat down at THR's TIFF suite at the 1 Hotel in Toronto to talk about their movie 'Rose of Nevada.' They spoke about they would (or wouldn't) categorize the film. Plus, Turner opened up about working with his co-star George MacKay.

Transcript

00:00I'm just a girl, standing in front of a guy, asking him to love her.

00:06Yeah, back to me.

00:13Did you mean to set out to make, is it three movies in a row that do have fishing as some element?

00:18Did you mean to do that, or is that?

00:20I don't consider any of the films to be really about fishing, yeah.

00:24It's just the setting, it's where I'm from.

00:27I'm from a fishing community, and I grew up around fishing.

00:31So when I'm trying to set a story that I hope is a universal story,

00:36the universal story of accidental time travel, we've all been there.

00:40Everyone knows.

00:41I just need to set it in an authentic setting, and that's my authentic setting.

00:46But that very specific area of Cornwall, which is a very specific part of the UK,

00:51I know that area, and the fishing is kind of, is the bit I know.

00:56So the stories end up being set in those communities.

00:59Calum, what would your authentic, how would you describe your authentic setting?

01:04What's it like if you had the way that Marx is?

01:06Well, if I was to actually make a movie about where I'm from, well, I grew up in central London,

01:10so it would probably be, I mean, there's a whole plethora of stories I could go down.

01:14But, you know, the opposite for me, actually, with the interesting thing about,

01:20one of the interesting things about what I do is that I can go into these different worlds

01:24and dive into these subcultures and then genres of films.

01:27So for George and I, it was really interesting going and exploring what that entailed

01:32and diving into that world and learning how to fish and then obviously immediately forgetting how to do that.

01:38As soon as you get wrapped, that's it. Learning something else.

01:42You couldn't get a fish now?

01:44No. What's a fish?

01:46I feel like that is normal.

01:47Like, people train and learn something really specific for a movie,

01:49and then the second it wraps, like, you lose it.

01:51I forget it, yeah.

01:52Do you have any skills from any of your past projects that you've retained?

01:55None.

01:56None.

01:57No, you know, it's, like, that's really what I love about, like, doing Green Room.

02:03I then dove into the punk scene and learned how to scream down a microphone for two minutes really loudly.

02:11And we performed at the wrap party for Green Room, we performed our four songs that we'd learned.

02:16And it was totally exhilarating and one of the best moments of my life, you know.

02:21Could I do that now? Probably, probably not.

02:24Your shortcut to describing this movie, you're using a time travel movie,

02:27because I feel like it's also sort of like a ghost story in a sense.

02:30But, yeah, without, like, how do you talk about it without kind of, like, spoiling?

02:35Well, up until now I've tried not to categorize it.

02:38Did I?

02:39All these people are asking you questions about it.

02:41Well, the first film I made was a drama.

02:45So when people said, oh, what's your movie? I say, it's a drama.

02:48And they're like, oh, sounds great.

02:50And so I thought the next one I make is going to be a genre film.

02:53So when somebody asks me what I'm doing, I can say I'm making, and it was a horror film.

02:57Or I thought it was a horror film.

02:58But then what actually happened was that it kind of split the audience a little bit,

03:03because a lot of people think they don't like horror films.

03:06Like yourself.

03:07Easy.

03:08But it's such a broad definition.

03:11It's not like I don't like horror movies.

03:13They're scary.

03:14They're just not on my, you know.

03:16But people said to me, you know, I said, oh, I've made a horror film.

03:19And people say, oh, I don't like horror films.

03:20And then you find out their favorite film is The Shining.

03:22You say, well, that's a horror film.

03:24And then a lot of horror fans who went to see the film, because it wasn't overt horror,

03:29were kind of going, well, this isn't a horror film.

03:31So this time I thought, right, I'm not going to categorize it at all.

03:34So it was really interesting for me to hear what people make of it,

03:39and how they categorize it.

03:41So the first thing I had was it was a sci-fi film.

03:44That's what I was told.

03:45And I thought, is it a sci-fi?

03:46I didn't think I was making a sci-fi.

03:49But then if it's time travel, then effectively that is science fiction.

03:53When we were making it, George and I would, you know,

03:56meticulously go through the script.

03:57I think I've worked it out.

03:58I think I know what this movie is.

03:59And we go to Mark and say, hey, I think it's this.

04:02And he'd go, could be.

04:04Gave nothing away, even to us.

04:06So I'm the same as you, you know.

04:08I watched the movie, and I'm like, oh, I think it's that.

04:10And I have my impression of the movie.

04:13And I think that's what's so cool about what Mark's doing.

04:16He's not giving too much away.

04:17So then you can have your own experience with it,

04:20and it's not put into a bracket.

04:24And all movies are ghost movies, I think.

04:26Because that moment's gone.

04:29You know, this is a reanimation of apparitions of people

04:31that you're watching on the screen when you watch Notting Hill, you know.

04:34I mean, I used to think, oh, I can't watch horror movies.

04:36And then, like, I saw weapons, and I was like, I actually really...

04:39Turns out I just wasn't giving myself the credit that I needed.

04:43I did the same last year, I did. I watched Long Legs.

04:46And the same director's next movie, the monkey...

04:49Is it called Monkey? Monkey Man?

04:51That one is, yeah, that's...

04:53I watched those last year.

04:54And just anything, like, supernatural, really, I don't think I'm so into.

04:58Just to clarify.

05:00It's not a horror movie.

05:01Not a horror movie.

05:02But weapons is funny, I've heard.

05:03It is funny, yeah.

05:04It's a homedy.

05:05Yes.

05:06Yes.

05:07What were you looking for that made you pick Callum and George?

05:11Or did you think of them from the get-go and kind of shape it?

05:14I really try not to think of anybody because I don't want to be disappointed.

05:20I don't want to set my heart on Callum and send him the script,

05:24and then get a reply from the agent saying, no.

05:28So, no, I don't imagine anybody.

05:30And I met George first, and I was thinking of George to play the part

05:35that Callum played, because the character George plays in the film

05:38I was imagining was going to be younger.

05:40And I thought George was a little bit older, although he's very young.

05:44I thought he was a bit too old for the part.

05:46But then when I met him, I immediately thought,

05:48well, he could play younger.

05:50And you don't have to specify the age of his character.

05:52He's got a youthful kind of wide-eyed innocence that he can portray.

05:55Then I met Callum and the same thing happened again, really.

05:59I'd seen Callum years ago in a TV series.

06:02You wanted me for Margie.

06:04Yeah, I wanted to play the 65-year-old salty sea dog.

06:09No, I saw Callum in a UK TV series called Glue that I was given.

06:14I didn't see it when it came out, but I was told to watch it,

06:16because I was looking at another actor for a different movie,

06:19who was great.

06:21But I said to Mary, my partner, that guy is an enigma.

06:25And I thought you were a star. That's what I thought when I saw it.

06:29I thought that's a movie star in a TV series.

06:32So then for our paths to kind of cross again.

06:35And we met at the casting director's office.

06:38From my point of view, it was just straight away that's...

06:42We didn't really talk about the movie at all.

06:44I'd gone with all my notes really prepared and talked about football and other movies.

06:49Yeah, other movies.

06:50Because the thing I see is, because I write my scripts as well,

06:53every character in the script is me.

06:54It's just a version of me.

06:55So I try and underwrite the character.

06:58So that when it's cast, I can give that script to an actor,

07:01and they fill in the rest of that character.

07:04And that's really important that I don't feed into that at that moment.

07:08It's like the script, when I read the script.

07:10It's quite sparse, the way it's written, but it's written like a poem.

07:13And there's one-liners, and you can see and feel the boat knocking against the...

07:18with the tide against the wall, and you can feel the feet running along the road.

07:23And that's just like the opening.

07:25And you're able then to put your impression on it, you know.

07:28And you can visualize it in your own way.

07:30And I think we all had totally different movies.

07:33George and I had a different version to Mark and everyone else probably.

07:37It's nice to see it all come together.

07:39When did you meet George for the first time?

07:41Was it doing that?

07:42For the first time I met him at the theater,

07:43we'd both gone to see three sisters at the National Theater

07:46and run into each other and hadn't met and said hello and had a chat.

07:49And then in London, did we meet up or was it down in Cornwall?

07:55I don't know whether you met before...

07:58Did you just meet when you both came down for...

08:00Yeah, it probably was, wasn't it?

08:01Yeah, maybe it was in Cornwall, yeah.

08:02We went down for a week of rehearsal that consisted of going for swims

08:07and looking at the camera and just meeting everyone.

08:10And even though we didn't rehearse anything, it was essential

08:14because we built this relationship with, again, the gang of people

08:18that Mark has pulled together who are a family.

08:21And it was important for us to feel that emotion of the film before we started.

08:27You both knew that you knew who the other one was.

08:29And so, like, what's the etiquette there?

08:31Like, someone approaches and says, like, you're George, right?

08:34You're Cal, like, how does that work?

08:35Depends how you feel.

08:36Sometimes I look down at the floor.

08:40Just hope that no one talks to me.

08:42I've been there one night.

08:43But George and I have really grown up together.

08:48You know, he's got parts, I've got parts,

08:50and then we've seen each other grow.

08:53And I was always a fan.

08:55So, I just, I think I said hello to him first.

08:58He was looking down at the floor.

09:01I was like, George, George.

09:03What's brilliant about you and George, though, is that when I first cast it,

09:10I thought they were perfect because you were so different from each other.

09:14Completely chalk and cheese.

09:16And then, as we worked on the film, I realised that actually, as people,

09:21not as characters, but as people, you and George are very similar.

09:24Mm.

09:25This is George.

09:26And this is you.

09:27You know?

09:28And that's so surfaced.

09:29But underneath, you've got the same sort of soul and spirit,

09:33which really changed the film completely.

09:36Because I realised that your two characters were actually two halves of the same person, in a way.

09:40You.

09:41Oh, yeah.

09:42Oh, yeah.

09:43Ha, ha, ha.

Callum Turner on Learning and Then Forgetting How to Fish for 'Rose of Nevada' | TIFF 2025

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