While known to many as Starlight/Annie January on the hit Prime Video series The Boys, Erin Moriarty shows off another side of her acting skills as Geena in Catching Dust.
Written and directed by Stuart Gatt, Moriarty plays Geena, a woman planning to leave her criminal husband Clyde (Jai Courtney) and their isolated Texas hideout. However, when a couple (Ryan Corr and Dina Shihabi) unexpectedly arrives, Geena convinces Clyde to let them stay. This decision leads to dangerous consequences for everyone.
We talked with Moriarty about the thriller, released in select theaters and on VOD on August 23rd.
HGL: Did the role of Geena resonate with you right away, or was it a longer process in terms of committing to the role and the film?
Erin Moriarty: Committing to the role and the film was an easy yes for me, but the process of preparing for her was extensive. I think for me, the interesting aspect of that question, or the answer, is that I love finding these characters that, at face value, if you were looking at my upbringing on a piece of paper, me versus Geena, the differences would be so obvious. You would expect her not to resonate with me.
I think she resonated with me on such a deeply profound level, in spite of the fact that I grew up in New York City, not Texas. I grew up with parents who exposed me to everything and didn’t stigmatize mental health. I grew up feeling equal to men because of my upbringing, my surroundings, and my family. That was such a fortunate thing. She did not grow up with that. However, it’s more about what it reflects in society, in terms of psychology and our self-limiting beliefs and how much they affect us. I found that resonance even more profound because it wouldn’t be expected.
HGL: I love how the film is set in the desert, yet so many scenes feel claustrophobic, especially those involving your character Geena. How was it working in that environment?
Erin Moriarty: It was fascinating because it reflected a lot on what I have experienced before. I like to go to Joshua Tree (National Park), when I’m in California, and when I’m ever in the middle of cyclical thinking, or having a lot of thoughts that aren’t serving me, I love to go out into the desert. I find it’s so confronting when you’re in this environment that’s so quiet that the volume becomes dialed up on your thoughts, and the volume is dialed down on all the bullshit. That’s good for me because I look out into the expanse of Joshua Tree, and it actually puts things into perspective.
However, I think the opposite can be true when you are going through something inherently claustrophobic and abusive. Although I use that word, it feels reductive to me because you learn that Clyde has been through so much himself, and you hopefully gain some sympathy for him. There is no black-and-white in this film.
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If you’re going through a rough time and don’t have the tools to deal with everything, and you’re out in the desert, you don’t have a way to break out of that constant cycle. Whereas, if you come from the city and go into the desert, I know what’s waiting for me back there. She doesn’t know, and that’s why when a couple arrives from a different world, she sees what she could be and where she could be, and that’s the answer to her literal prayers.
But for the same reasons, it can be psychologically beneficial, it can be psychologically claustrophobic, and it’s completely contextual. I found the desert to kind of be the journey to help find herself. She wouldn’t have been able to realize what her position in that relationship was unless she was in the desert and other influences were around. She was confronted with the reality of who her husband really is.
HGL: There are some very powerful moments of silence. Is selling a scene without dialogue using just your facial features difficult?
Erin Moriarty: No, it’s the opposite for me; it’s kind of heaven. I find that to be more present in European films or older films that have been made. These days, we seem to have this necessity to keep the momentum going by drawing on more exposition or something to feed the audience. The simplicity of relaying what someone is going through in non-verbal communication, I think is beautiful. I want to see that more in film.
I forget, and I don’t want to report this incorrectly, but a large percentage of how we communicate is non-verbal. It’s interesting to me there can be character-driven films lacking in those elements. I think they are informative and beautiful because, as an audience, you can interpret whatever you want from them and project whatever you want onto them. Films are ultimately about how you perceive and metabolize them; hopefully, you can get something from it.
HGL: There are some pretty intense scenes between Geena and Clyde. Do you rehearse those scenes more or ride the emotions of the moment?
Erin Moriarty: Definitely the rehearsal process, exclusively for the physical component, because it was shot on film, so it’s not like we have endless opportunities to discover what is happening. Also, we are shooting an independent feature with a much lower budget and less time, so time is precious. The DP must know where we’re going to be, so on a physical level, we know the general blueprint of the scene.
However, because of the intensity of the scene, the work that Jai (Clyde) and I did in preparation for these roles, in terms of our own backstory and working on that, really fed these scenes. But the actual presence of emotions was found in them because they mandated a level of presence, a level of spontaneity, and just an organic reaction to what the other person was doing.
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What I found, and this is why Jai and everyone else were so amazing to work with, is that I didn’t know what he was going to do. You think that a character is going to do one thing, but hopefully, that’s what an actor is going to bring to the table—their interpretation. And, hopefully, it’s not what you expect because then it makes the movie interesting and avoids cliches.
Certain lines were read or played in ways I didn’t expect and you’ve got to react off of that. So physically, we rehearsed the scenes and knew the geography of that. But emotionally, we did the prep work for the general dynamic of that relationship to find the nuances. And in that moment, we just let it all go, just let it fly and reacted off of each other. It was fun.
HGL: What do you hope audiences take away from Catching Dust?
Erin Moriarty: This is what I’m taking away from it, and I’m projecting, of course, but I want to see more films that are more paradoxical than we’ve previously portrayed them as, especially female ones. I think human nature means we are paradoxical, complicated, and messy. That doesn’t take away from what our strengths are or who we are at our core.