Caleb Landry Jones and Peter Brunner: This force of energy

Fresh-faced 28-year-old Caleb Landry Jones is a lanky, upbeat native of Garland, Texas, who seemingly shares little with the obsessive artist and addict he plays in KVIFF Official Selection entry To the Night, directed by Peter Brunner. The role builds on an impressive body of work with directors including David Lynch, the Coen brothers, Martin McDonagh and Sean Baker.

He’s screening the film, written and directed by Austrian Peter Brunner, who won the special jury prize at KVIFF for his 2015 film Those Who Fall Have Wings. In his latest role Landry plays an obsessive artist trapped by the trauma he suffered as a child in a fire that killed his family.

So Caleb, what drew you to the role of such a merciful, yet complicated, self-destructive character?

Caleb Landry Jones: The script that Peter wrote and then I met Peter – a week after reading it he flew to Los Angeles. And then realizing he wanted me to play Norman. I didn’t think at all I’d get to play Norman. I couldn’t believe it.

Peter Brunner: But it was really beautiful for us because we were for the first time in LA and were waiting for him in front of the restaurant and we saw Caleb on the other side of the street with a longboard. There was a homeless person and Caleb was very embracing to him, not at all looking down on him. It was great to just meet this force of energy.

Peter, what was it in Caleb that you felt made him right for this part? Did you write it with him in mind?

Peter: Four years before we actually met I saw a film he played a part in with Mark Wahlberg, Contraband, and I looked at other films and because I was so attracted to the way he performs I called the baby in the script, the baby of Penelope and Norman, Caleb.

Were the real parents of the baby in the film OK with all the intense scenes and fights between the couple in which the infant is the central conflict?

Caleb: They were there all the time, the mother and her husband and the grandfather. They would take turns depending on who had to work but they were there – right there next to everything.

Did you ever find yourself struggling to maintain your own emotional equilibrium after portraying these intense breakdowns? Was it sometimes hard not to lose it?

Caleb: I don’t know about losing it but there were times I was glad we didn’t do another take afterward. I was exhausted, I was tired most of the time. But then this was good.

Read more on the exceptionally intense shooting and how the cast and crew prepared for it in Will Tizard’s interview on the cover of Friday’s Festival Daily.