If an actor doesn’t trust a director, the camera won’t catch much of a performance. The actor has to trust that if he/she jumps off a certain kind of performative cliff, the director will absolutely be there to catch him/her. Both on the set and in post-production.
This kind of faithful bonding surely existed between Elia Kazan and Marlon Brando, Humphrey Bogart and John Huston…any famous pairing along this line.
This said, what does this photo tell you about the relationship between Hamnet director Chloe Zhao and star Jessie Buckley?
A traditional relationship between a director and a lead actor tends to be the opposite of what’s being conveyed here…no? The actor tends to be the emotionally uncertain snuggler and the director is the confident care-giver offering a protective embrace…right?
