TIFF 2022 Interview: Fred Hechinger Talks Butcher's Crossing, 'There's An Intentional Murkiness and Emptiness'
Move over, The Power of the Dog. There's a new boundary-breaking western in town.
Gabe Polsky's Butcher's Crossing, based on the 1960 novel by John Edward Williams, follows a young Harvard drop-out, Will Andrews (Fred Hechinger), who joins a group of buffalo hunters, led by Miller (Nicolas Cage), on a life-changing expedition. As the journey continues, the team finds themselves at the crossroads of humanity, ambition, and nature.
The movie had its world premiere at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival on September 9 to critical acclaim, landing at 71% on Rotten Tomatoes (with 14 reviews). At the festival, Game Rant had the opportunity to chat with lead actor Fred Hechinger, previously seen in Eighth Grade, The Woman in the Window, Netflix's Fear Street trilogy, and The White Lotus.
Related: TIFF 2022: The Whale Review
This wasn't Hechinger's first trip to TIFF — he recalls that he attended six years ago. «My dad and I were here for two days and we saw as many movies as we could. I went to a 9:00 A.M. screening of Moonlight. It was one of those amazing life-changing movie experiences.»
It became a full circle moment for the actor who recounts, «Years later, I had the honor of working with Barry [Jenkins] in an episode of his limited series Underground Railroad, and while I was preparing for that and doing research, I stumbled upon this novel,Butcher's Crossing by John Williams, and became totally fascinated by the material.»
Game Rant: How was the premiere for Butcher's Crossing? Were there any standout audience reactions or Q&A questions?
Fred Hechinger: Yeah, we got really good questions. I think the experience of watching [movies] on a big screen with an audience is so major, in terms of being able to process and
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