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Maxwell Jenkins considers Anupam Kher his guardian angel. “Whenever I encounter any kind of struggle, he always gives me a call,” says the 19-year-old actor on a video call from Chicago. “I worked with him when I was nine years old on A Family Man, which also starred Gerard Butler, Willem Dafoe, Alfred Molina, and Gretchen Mol.”
Learning bhangra for a year and a half, (when?)got Maxwell to watch Hindi films. “They showed us some pretty great Bollywood films. I know I sound pretty mainstream for saying this, but DDLJ (Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge) was phenomenal. I’ve seen it twice. I was shocked to see Anupam in the film. He was in every Bollywood film I watched!”
Love at first sight
Nicolas Cage, Maxwell Jenkins and Jaeden Martell in a still from ‘Arcadian’
| Photo Credit:
Patrick Redmond
Maxwell plays Thomas in Arcadian, a post-apocalyptic thriller. “I remember falling in love with the character of Thomas right off the bat because it was unlike any character I had done before. I was intrigued at the opportunity of playing a character who is not squeaky clean, who isn’t necessarily the hero at all times. One of my favourite things to hear is when people tell me they hated Thomas,” he laughs.
A call with the director, Benjamin Brewer, sealed the deal. “We talked for about an hour and a half and maybe just 10 minutes of that conversation was about the movie. The rest of our conversation was about comic books, school and growing up. I was starting the process of applying to colleges, which is crazy to think about now because I’m going into my sophomore year of university. So yeah, I read the script, fell in love with the character, talked with Ben and next thing I knew, I was in Ireland.”
Twin tales
Thomas, Maxwell says, is one of two twins who, unlike his brother, Joseph, (played by Jaeden Martell), leads with his body. “He is like any kid today, experiencing growing pains and trying to stretch out his arms in a world that doesn’t let him. The stakes are different; when Thomas makes mistakes, people die and loved ones get hurt.”
Today’s constructs do not necessarily account for mistakes, Maxwell says. “Everyone’s lives are so much more public, because of social media. Mistakes are costlier and out in the open and affect more than one person. Thomas can be a little bit hot-headed. He thinks he’s invincible until he’s not. At the end of the day, he’s a teenager who loves his brother, and is struggling to find independence in a world that doesn’t account for it.”
Cage theory
Nicolas Cage plays the boys’ father. “Nic was incredible. He’s a phenomenal actor, a great person and super generous. On set, he is collaborative and wants to hear your thoughts and ideas. If he says something that you disagree with, or envision another way, he wants to hear that. We rewrote and went over so many different options, that it feels like we filmed three different movies in 20 days. He is a history buff and in between takes, he wouldn’t just disappear into his trailer. He’d stay on set and talk to us; it made the filming process fun.”
Cage’s first day on set was about a week into filming. “He had come from filming another project. I think it was a Dream Scenario. We didn’t get a chance to meet face to face before filming, other than a quick hello. It is the first time you see our dynamic in the film. I’m running in late and the line is scripted as ‘Thomas you are late’ and I was expecting something along those lines. I come running in and Nic gets in my face yelling ‘Thomas, you’re late!’”
Setting the tone
Maxwell who was running full speed, stopped dead in his tracks. “There were slide marks in the grass from where I stopped! That’s the type of type of actor Nic is, he gives 110% to every moment. That’s one of my favourite moments because it set the tone for how we would approach the role and was a valuable lesson for me, both in acting and outside of it.”
Brothers in arms
Maxwell Jenkins in a still from ‘Arcadian’
| Photo Credit:
Patrick Redmond
Arcadian centres around the bond between the brothers, Maxwell says. “Jaeden and I understood, we’re going to need to get pretty close to make this believable. That wasn’t too hard as Jaeden and I got close super fast. We went golfing together. We were in the middle of the woods in Ireland so we’d just hang out together and run the scenes. Jaeden, Ben, Sadie (Soverall who plays Thomas’ love interest, Charlotte) and I, had about a week where we were constantly rehearsing and going over scenes to establish these character dynamics.”
For a science fiction-horror film, Maxwell says, you do not want to fall into the trap of loading it up with action and forgetting about character work. “We wanted to make sure that the character work drove the action by establishing these connections beforehand. So you end up with a film that has horror, gore and action that’s driven by the choices and dynamics of the characters.”
Pushing boundaries
Growing up in his family’s travelling circus, Maxwell describes himself as a physical person. “Oftentimes my way into characters is through the physicality. Characters that have that element to them are always fun to play, so long as they are character-driven and have unique, layered backgrounds. I love to explore different things. I grew up playing Will Robinson (Lost in Space), who is squeaky clean, not the most physically gifted, cerebral, who leads with his heart and mind.” Stepping into the role of a polar opposite like Thomas, Maxwell says was a chance to push the envelope.
In the pipeline
Maxwell played young Jack Reacher in the first season of the wildly popular Reacher. “As far as I know, I’m not in the new season. I probably got a little bit too tall, a little bit too big,” he says with a laugh. In the pipeline is The Bondsman for Amazon Blumhouse. “It stars Kevin Bacon and Jennifer Nettles as my parents and Beth Grant as my grandmother. Like any Blumhouse project, there are some fun thrills. It was shot in Georgia and I got to see a cool part of the country that I’d never seen before. Last year I did a film called This Too Shall Pass. They are two exciting, totally different projects.”
Maxwell says his dream role would be to play a Jedi. “I grew up as a total nerd. Before I got sucked into the acting world, I would go to these conventions to get my cape and shield signed and take photos with my childhood heroes.”
Arcadian is currently streaming on Lionsgate Play
