Exclusive Interview: Brian Tyree Henry Talks ‘Causeway’

Releasing in theaters on October twenty eighth earlier than premiering on Apple TV+ on November 4th is the brand new drama ‘Causeway’ from Lila Neugebauer (‘Room 104’).

The movie stars Oscar-winner Jennifer Lawrence (‘Silver Linings Playbook’) as Lynsey, a U.S. soldier who reluctantly returns residence to New Orleans to dwell along with her alcoholic mom (Linda Emond) after she suffers a traumatic mind damage throughout a tour in Afghanistan.

As Lynsey struggles to regulate to civilian life, she meets James Aucoin (Brian Tyree Henry), a automobile accident survivor and amputee that blames himself for a household tragedy. Soon, Lynsey and James change into mates and assist one another address their grief and attempt to transfer on with their lives.

First gaining consideration for his function on the favored sequence ‘Atlanta,’ Brian Tyree Henry has gone onto seem in such profitable movies as ‘If Beal Street Could Talk,’ ‘Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse,’ ‘Joker,’ ‘Godzilla vs. Kong,’ ‘Eternals,’ and ‘Bullet Train.’

Moviefone lately had the pleasure of chatting with Brian Tyree Henry about his work on ‘Causeway,’ his character’s grief, the challenges of taking part in an amputee, James and Lynsey’s friendship, and dealing with Jennifer Lawrence.

You can learn our full interview under or click on on the video participant above to observe our interview with Brian Tyree Henry.

Moviefone: To start with, are you able to discuss your strategy to taking part in James, and embodying the grief and remorse that he feels on a day-to-day foundation?

Brian Tyree Henry: My strategy? Well, I first needed to simply determine a bit bit about who he was, and the place he got here from, and why that grief was part of his life. James, as you recognize, is from New Orleans. He was born and raised there, and suffered an incredible loss, and stayed there. I at all times needed to essentially determine what that was for anyone who suffered a loss that was of their residence, or a spot that they name their residence and why they select to remain there.

Is it as a result of they really feel like they should undergo this, that they should have these reminders, or is it that there was no different manner? I believe that James is a bit little bit of each. I believe that we discover James on this place feeling like he deserves to remain the place he was, particularly with the loss that he suffered of shedding his leg, which made it a bit tougher to run and go away. So, I believe that I actually needed to simply determine that out and get to the guts of what that meant for anyone who endured an incredible loss like that and selected to remain.

MF: As an actor, are you able to speak concerning the challenges of taking part in an amputee?

BTH: Well, most amputees dwell their lives of rehabilitation attempting to stay the identical manner they had been earlier than they had been an amputee. So, I did not need there to be an enormous motion of James at all times being uncomfortable strolling, as a result of that is not how he needed to be handled both.

So, what I actually needed to find was what it was like for him to masks it greater than to showcase it? What does it seem like for somebody to attempt to transfer like that? Because I believe a lot of the occasions after we undergo nice tragedies, we do that enormous factor of attempting to masks it and canopy it. We don’t desire the scars to indicate. I believe that that is the place the reality shines via probably the most, is that you could see via that.

So, for me, I needed to simply guarantee that James felt like he was standing on his personal two toes. That he felt like he was the identical particular person he was earlier than he suffered that tragedy, so I actually leaned into that. Now, when it got here to eradicating the prosthetic and transferring about with that, I did speak to some individuals. I talked to some amputees to guarantee that I knew that I used to be placing the sleeve on the suitable manner and issues like that. But I believe in essence, actually, it was about him transferring in a traditional manner.

MF: Finally, are you able to discuss Lynsey and James’ relationship, why they gravitate in the direction of one another and what it was like working with Jennifer Lawrence?

BTH: Well, there is a factor known as trauma bonding that is been quite common, particularly after every thing we had gone via in 2020. There’s a factor that we began relating to one another in a manner of evaluating traumas. It was this factor of actually linking to anyone, this bizarre codependency that we created in {our relationships} via trauma. You see that in a giant manner on this film between James and Lynsey, however what we additionally needed to indicate is what the opposite facet of that appears like. Because we did not wish to simply present the one facet of those two characters steeped of their trauma, and that is all it’s.

We actually needed there to be a showcase of a connection and hope of what could possibly be on the opposite facet, which is an precise friendship. That was part of a variety of the conversations that Jennifer and I had, as a result of we realized that our connection was rising lots in between takes. We realized that the sinew of what the film was, was primarily based on how we had been connecting with each other, how we known as one another out on our stuff, how we talked about all, it was about us. So, we found that, that’s in essence what we needed to see between James and Lynsey as effectively.