Emerald Fennell, who had her directorial debut with the award-winning dramedyPromising Young Woman, talks candidly about the casting process and her intense research on the mid-2000s for her latest film,Saltburn. The latter of which made her cringe. Set during the mid-2000s, the film centers around a shy Oxford University student, Oliver (Barry Keoghan), who is invited by a charismatic classmate, Felix (Jacob Elordi), to spend the summer at his family’s estate. Rosamund Pike, Richard E. Grant, Archie Madekwe, and Carey Mulligan also star in the film. WhileSaltburnhas an acclaimed award-winning cast and has grossed $6 million at the box office, the film has garnered mixed to positive reviews, with 70 percent fresh from fans and critics.
Along with casting director Kharmel Cochrane, Fennell revealed that she sought to cast the film’s protagonist, Oliver, before any other character (viaRogerEbert.com).
“I had to start with Oliver. I was just obsessed with Barry Keoghan, having seen The Killing of a Sacred Deer. He’s such a compelling performer. I remember watching that movie, and it was one of those movies I watched like twice, immediately, one day after the other, because I just couldn’t get my head around how fascinating and beautiful and savage and hilarious it was. I loved Barry.”
Fennell further explained that during the audition, she wasmesmerized by Keoghan’s performance. Additionally, she describes her casting method as “charisma casting,” in which she chooses an actor based on previous performances and not only an audition.
“I don’t like to audition people because I just don’t think it’s that useful unless I’ve never seen them do anything before unless they’re new. So I asked if he’d ever done an audition in an English accent. They sent me a tape that he’d done for something else and it was the same feeling I got. I just can’t take my eyes off him. I cannot think of a performer who is more compelling than this. So I met with him, and I loved him.”
As for Felix, who Elordi plays, Fennell explains that while she never saw the HBO drama seriesEuphoria,she was captivated by his audition and dry humor.
“I had never seen “Euphoria.” I met him, and I just immediately thought he was such a clever, perceptive, funny, dry person. He came in and auditioned, and he just did the most f–king brilliant audition. But it wasn’t just that it was a great performance. It was an extraordinarily deft piece of observational comedy. It was exactly what I needed because lots of people came in and did amazing auditions that were just brilliant, but they didn’t have the thing that I was looking for with Felix. Which was that he was kind of a dope. He’s the nice guy who actually does something quite cruel in every single scene, kind of unthinkingly.”
Related:Barry Keoghan Is Having a Moment, But His Career Is Far From New
When asked why she chosethat specific era, the 38-year-old director stated that the mid-2000s aesthetic blended well with the “Gothic Country” genre and because “it felt right.”
“Firstly, from the very beginning, I knew I was making a Gothic country house movie, so I knew that the structure had to be a narrator taking us back over a time that changed their life forever because the past is another country, they do things differently there.”
During the research process, Fennell utilized old magazines and Facebook pages, which made her feel nostalgic and embarrassed about her old fashion choices.
“For all of our references, of course, we were looking at magazines and all that kind of stuff, but really we were just mining our own Facebook pages. They were, I’m sorry to say, they have not stood the test of time.
We spent a lot of time looking at things like Livestrong bracelets. We looked at the cringiest tattoos, like the Carpe Diem tat. The eyebrow piercing. The long sideburns. The bootcut jeans. The patchy fake tan for the girls. The bad extensions. Too much eye makeup. Too many accessories. That kind of stuff. What it does is really remind us all that you can be the coolest, most beautiful person in the world and still, you know, in 15 years' time, you’re not going to look great. And it’s sort of deeply humanizing. There was also something very fun and wicked about making a period drama set in the 2000s, the least cool of all the periods.”
Saltburnis now out in select U.S. theaters.Check out our review here!
