Summary
Erin Moriarty is a woman trapped in a relationship she doesn’t know how to escape inCatching Dust. Having first broken out with her role inJessica Jonesseason 1, Moriarty has been on a steady rise to stardom over the better part of a decade, with other major roles in the acclaimed Viggo Mortensen-led dramedyCaptain Fantastic, the biographical comedic thrillerDrivenand the true story-based sports dramaThe Miracle Season. Arguably her biggest role to date is that ofAnnie January/Starlight in Prime Video’sThe Boys, which is set to conclude with the in-development season 5.
InCatching Dust, Moriarty stars as Geena, a woman living in a deserted commune in the outskirts of West Texas with her husband, Clyde. Disallowed from travelling to town, Geena yearns for a life beyond their home and Clyde’s frequent suppression of her thoughts. When a couple from New York show up with their own trailer in an effort to escape their own past drama, Geena’s yearning grows stronger, and the tension grows greater between her and Clyde.
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Alongside Moriarty, the ensembleCatching Dustcast includesSuicide Squadstar Jai Courtneyas Clyde,Sting’s Ryan Corr andArchive 81alum Dina Shihabi. Hailing from writer/director Stuart Gatt in his feature directorial debut, the movie is a tense and emotional exploration of characters in love who don’t know how best to grapple with their feelings and how external forces can bring about both positive and negative change.
Prior to the movie’s release,Screen Rantinterviewed writer/director/producer Stuart Gatt and star Erin Moriarty to discussCatching Dust, exploring the morally complex characters at the heart of the movie’s story, confronting taboo themes and working with Jai Courtney.
Gatt ApproachedCatching DustFrom A Unique Outsider’s Perspective
Screen Rant: I watchedCatching Dustlast night, and it is such an emotional ride from start to finish. Stuart, I’d like to turn to you first. This is your feature directorial debut, and I’m curious how you came up with the concept and the characters for this, and what about this idea spoke to you to want to make your feature directorial debut with this?
Stuart Gatt: It’s interesting because I’m from London, and have nothing to do with Texas, let alone West Texas. I think I’m one of these people that daydreams a lot, and for some reason, I was getting these images of a desert, and then I started getting these images of a trailer in the middle of the desert, and I started to become curious about who may live there, why they’re there. Just from that initial idea, I built out this story. Maybe there’s some subconscious draw to this world because I grew up loving cinema in the West. It’s so iconic, but it’s difficult, too. I’ve got to be honest. It’s difficult to really articulate why, because it’s so different to what I come from.
Erin Moriarty: That’s probably why.
Stuart Gatt: Yeah, exactly. I definitely am someone who isn’t trying to make stories about what I grew up in, although there are themes for sure, that are personal to me that I play out with Geena and Clyde, but transposed onto this very different world than I know well.
Moriarty Was Drawn To Gatt’s Exploration Of “Messy” Characters
Erin, I will turn to you next. What was it about Stuart’s vision and your character that really sparked your interest in wanting to be a part of the film?
Erin Moriarty: Stuart doesn’t shy away from taboo anything, and I really love that with individual characters and with plots, as a whole. I think that there are subject matters that we go to the cinema, or we go see a film, for reasons that entails escapism a lot of the time. But I think it’s possible to have that coexist with confrontation, and I feel like we less and less have that as this paradoxical, but coexistence, set of traits in a film. I think that Geena, on a micro level, exemplified that. I’ve spoken about this a lot that scripts like Catching Dust and roles that I’ve been so fortunate to play — because I didn’t write them, right?
I’m not the writer behind these characters, I get to bring them to life, and I’m lucky. They’re messy, and I love this concept of this, hopefully, new female character presence in our world that entails mess, that is of equal gravity. That the mess is equivalent to her strength, but it doesn’t negate her strength. Actually, she’s stronger because of that precursor of the mess that she is, and we’re all ultimately a mess, but it always felt black and white to me. It felt like it was Captain Marvel or the love interest. I love those hybrid roles, so, yeah, defying stereotypes and all those things are kind of what drew me to it.
Balancing Empathy With Confrontation InCatching Dust’s Story Was A Challenge For Gatt
Stuart, I did actually want to touch on that, because, like Erin said, we don’t see something like this story told too often, as far as the domestic toxicity that’s in this film. What was it like exploring that from both a compassionate standpoint in which we want to see these characters grow in their relationships, but also a sensitive one, given that many people are in those relationships in real life and may feel certain ways about how these characters act?
Stuart Gatt: Yeah, of course. I think that, as a writer, you’re always challenging yourself to find humanity in every character, right? If a character becomes negative, it becomes reductive, and it doesn’t become real. Everyone is human, no matter how barbaric they can behave. So, I think that it was the challenge to try and develop and explore that within the script, but then work with talent like Erin and Jai, who understood that that was part of their challenge. They brought so much to it, because I think if you just look at it on paper, you can try and understand the humanity, but they’ve got a momentous task to help try and humanize the nuance of this, as you say, quite sensitive topic. And I think that they’ve done it brilliantly, they got the balance of it perfectly.
I think that watching Erin and Jai in this film, and watching it on set, you always have this kind of fear, “Will one character come across as just a straight victim? Will one come across as just a barbarian with no humanity?” They walk that line so perfectly well, I think by the end of the story, we really understand exactly the motivations and how they’ve accepted certain things, and how they’ve got to this place, and the dynamic they created on set was incredible. I think that what they’ve done, performance wise, was just so brilliant. They couldn’t have manifested the nuance around that topic more perfectly.
Erin Moriarty: It was so special. That doesn’t happen that often, but you need to feel comfortable around each other, and we felt so comfortable around each other. By the time we started to film, we were such good friends, and that makes such a difference. But also, it’s interesting, because you said toxicity, and it is toxicity. It’s so present, but it’s so funny how I just feel like we don’t like to associate toxicity with the fact that the magnitude of the toxicity is usually as a result of how strong the love was to begin with, right?
That’s why it’s happening to begin with, because they had this intense love, and there are people who are ill-equipped and don’t know how to handle it, and it’s heartbreaking because of that. But I think that it’s funny, because when we were making it, the emotional component of it, and even watching it, knowing what Clyde was going through, I knew Jai was doing a brilliant job, because my heart was breaking for him, and he was simultaneously my suppressor. That’s exactly what we set out to accomplish, this very complicated dynamic that you can’t put in a box that you desperately want to.
Gatt Saw Clyde In Jai Courtney The Second He Met Him
Stuart, I will turn back to you next, because I did want to ask about casting Jai. He’s been an action hero of sorts for so long, and I think this is one of my favorite performances of his to date. He really does show, like you say, that barbarian side, but also, like Erin said, that really loving and caring side. So what was it like finding Jai to play this role?
Erin Moriarty: Oh, yeah, I’m curious, I don’t know that story. He reminds me of Josh Brolin so much when I watched it.
Stuart Gatt: Yeah, so when the script was going out, the casting director said, “Look, Jai’s agent put him forward, they want to do a meeting.” And I was like, “Wow, this guy’s huge stuff.” I didn’t think I would be able to get someone like Jai, and as soon as I spoke to him, within a few minutes of connecting with him, I could see it. Jai’s such a personable person, such a unique character, and he’s very intelligent. You see him play these sort of big, brutish roles, but Jai is very smart, and the way he spoke about the character, he understood that dichotomy, what it would take to show the nuance of this.
Because Clyde, like all the characters in the story, is dealing with some childhood trauma, and he’s the one who’s really manifesting the worst parts of it. So, within a couple of minutes, I remember — because I’m in London, and we got on a Zoom call — as soon as I saw him, I was like, “Wow, that is Clyde.” Just visually, his energy. So, when he spoke with the nuance he did, I knew it was him, the same with Erin. As soon as I had the meet with Erin, I was like, “This is Geena.” You just get a feeling. It’s so difficult to describe sometimes, and you’ve got to trust your instincts. And, I think, honestly — I’m not just saying it because it’s my film — I really think this is Jai’s best performance, he’s incredible.
Erin Moriarty: He’s amazing, I think he’s amazing. But it’s funny, because when I first met him, I felt the same way. I thought he is exactly what I expected him to be, and yet, so not at the same time. This dichotomy and contradictory human who’s strong, but goofy and has an immense amount of soul, and within three minutes of meeting him, I thought, “I’m gonna be good. Bare minimum, I will be taken care of.” And that’s what you need on a film like this, because it’s so vulnerable. And we’re all goofballs, as well, because it’s a dark film, and you need levity, as well.
Yeah, I couldn’t agree more. Even the throwing of the water scene around felt like a nice little reprieve from some of the darkness.
Erin Moriarty: Oh stop. Remember on the day when I was like, “Stop throwing it!”? [Laughs]
Stuart Gatt: It’s funny, because even as the reprieve in the whole film, it’s still got slightly dark music, I could have let it be too Hollywood. [Laughs]
Erin Moriarty: Also, it’s the darker moments where you find yourself laughing the hardest in between, because you need that. It’s like a human coping mechanism.
Moriarty Found A Unique Emotional Link To Geena Through Her Art
I did also want to ask, Erin, as someone who I personally have no drawing or painting skills whatsoever, I know how challenging that can actually be. That is so ingrained into Geena’s character and finding a way to escape this isolated world that she’s in. What was it like for you exploring that side of her, and how did you prepare to make the artistic scenes look as authentic as possible?
Erin Moriarty: I definitely practiced to try and make it feel as authentic as it can feel. But I did not draw those drawings. I did not draw them. I have to say that my way into that character’s gravitational pull towards that hobby and that catharsis, I had to find what the emotional meaning of it was for her. That was the most important part for me, because there’s so many characters that we get, and we don’t know how to — like, I played a character once, and I had to know how to ride a Harley-Davidson. I don’t know how to do that, but what that means to that character, so what this means to Geena is cathartic.
She’s suppressed, and so she’s able to subconsciously, and then consciously, allow her suppressed internal thoughts and psyche come out onto the page, and so it was a matter of learning how to make it look accurate on screen, because that’s a big pet peeve of mine, when people do things in a way that [isn’t accurate]. I like taking a granular approach, and I think you do too. We want it to look as real as possible, of course, so I wanted to do that. I can’t take credit, because the drawings were beautiful, and they were not drawn by me. I was able to mimic them, but it was about finding why the whys behind that draw to — no pun intended — draw. The whys were very emotionally sourced in some real foreshadow, actually.
Stuart Gatt: I will say, though, when everyone first got on set, we were practicing, do you remember those paintings you were doing? They were actually really good.
Erin Moriarty: I do, yeah, and it’s funny. I think it’s because, through Geena, I was feeling so much that I may have been able to have done something via her, that I couldn’t have done as Erin. But that’s what’s cool about acting. You access these parts of yourself that you’re not aware exist, and maybe they won’t come back. And I don’t mind that, because it means that I tapped into her in that moment. But yeah, it was about what it meant to her, and the gravity of what it meant to her, and therefore, why she makes this connection and why it really just opens her eyes. It seems like it’s a trivial thing, but it means so much to someone in her position.
AboutCatching Dust
Geena finally decides to leave her criminal husband, Clyde, and their isolated Texas hideout when a couple from New York suddenly arrives, in search of respite from the city. Ignoring the risks their presence may bring, Geena convinces Clyde to let them stay, a decision with dangerous consequences.
Catching Dustis now in select theaters and on VOD.
Catching Dust
Cast
Erin Moriarty stars in Catching Dust, a drama film from writer-director Stuart Gatt. Geena (Moriarty) is an artist looking to make it big, hoping to leave behind her desert home and controlling/abusive partner, Clyde. Before she’s able to leave, a new couple from New York City move in next door, hoping to escape exactly what Geena wants to head towards. What starts off as a friendly meeting of neighbors devolves into a clash of egos - with disasterous results.
