Eliza Scanlen Talks Character, Community, And Coming-of-Age In “The Starling Girl” [Interview]

At just 23 years old, Eliza Scanlen has already amassed one of the most formidable filmographies of her Zoomer peers. “The Starling Girl” is just the latest addition to a sterling résumé packed with commercial success and indie darlings alike. If there’s anything that seems to unite her roles, it’s how one finds themselves within the context of a family unit. In projects like “Little Women” and “Babyteeth,” familial bonds can be a mostly positive and protective force — even if they can form a closed ecosystem from the world around them. But in others, ranging from TV’s “Sharp Objects” to Broadway’s “To Kill a Mockingbird,” these connections can lead to a more dangerous insularity.

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“The Starling Girl” falls into the latter camp. As the titular character, 17-year-old Jem Starling is defined by the patriarchal heritage that precedes her. She’s wading through the murkiness of her burgeoning attractions, attempting to sort out what she wants for herself and what her fundamentalist Christian community demands of her. In an environment that favors submission to authority over self-knowledge, Jem begins to bristle against her confines.

She spots a kindred individualist spirit in late-twenties youth minister Owen (Lewis Pullman), who’s returned from mission work with new ideas about how to enliven worship practices. Their quiet rebellions against orthodoxy lead to the two kindling other feelings for one another that go beyond their assigned roles. Ultimately, it escalates into a furtive release of respective sexual repression.

Laurel Parmet’s direction never loses sight of what determines their relationship: abuse. But “The Starling Girl” also resists easy categorizations or moral judgments about characters or events. There’s grey area in which Scanlen must walk a delicate tightrope. Her masterful performance holds both the ambiguity of Jem’s particular predicament and the accessibility of widely-shared tensions around self-expression, desire, and consent.

The Playlist spoke with Scanlen shortly before “The Starling Girl” opened in theaters. The conversation covered how she developed the character of Jem, what she did to understand the world of the film, and where she falls on the unresolved questions posed by the story.

Shamelessly as a big Greta Gerwig fan, I do have to ask about your time on the “Little Women” set nearly five years ago. I think she has such a unique, inspiring way of running a set and inspiring all her collaborators — is there anything you learned on that film you’ve carried with you, either in being directed or being the director?

There are just so many things I carried from that film into the next job. Greta is so collaborative, like you said, and having that rehearsal time before we started shooting was very memorable. Greta comes from a theater background, and an acting background as well. I think she just knew implicitly what was needed. We needed to be sisters, so she got us together and threw us in the deep end together. I also hadn’t had much experience at that point, honestly. I had done “Sharp Objects” a year before, and when we had wrapped that, Amy [Adams] told me that I need to go start working with young people. And so I did that! And was very lucky to do it with the likes of Florence [Pugh], Emma [Watson], Saoirse [Ronan], and Greta [Gerwig].

What keeps bringing you back to these family stories, if that’s conscious, and what challenges does that present as an actor to make those connections feel authentic?

I don’t know if it’s a conscious decision to be a part of these projects that explore family dynamics. I think that maybe, subconsciously, I find them interesting because they’re often especially dysfunctional. My mom says every family’s dysfunctional in their own way, and I have to agree! I think that was the beauty of “Babyteeth.” Everyone loved each other, but everyone was self-medicating in their own ways with different coping mechanisms. I also love working in an ensemble. It’s a lot of fun for an actor to have various actors to work with. It’s an opportunity for you to show another side of your character as well. That’s why I loved playing those family scenes in “The Starling Girl” because you were able to see the many different ways that Jem was feeling pressure from this community, whether it was through her mom or through the pastor.

This also isn’t the first time you’ve worked on projects set in religious communities in the American Midwest and South. Were you able to build on that existing knowledge for “The Starling Girl?”

Yeah, somewhat. I think that the time makes them quite different, though, because “The Devil All the Time” was set in the ’60s, and “The Starling Girl” is set in current times. One of the biggest challenges for the communities like that, in current times, is the impact of technology as society is becoming more secular. It’s harder to escape external influence, and it makes young people in those communities more easily susceptible to being influenced by that, doubting their faith, and potentially even leaving the church. I do think that knowledge of the Bible was something that I had in my back pocket from “The Devil All the Time” and “To Kill a Mockingbird.”

Getting a little more specific to Jem, how did you develop the character’s physicality? It’s instantly noticeable how she contorts herself in awareness of the way she’ll be interpreted by the gaze of others, especially men.

Jem’s physicality was an important element for me in building the character. She’s clearly an expressive person, and I think she struggles to suppress her expressive nature more than other young girls in the church. I understood the character a lot through her dancing, but beyond the dancing, she’s holding herself with the knowledge that she has to uphold men’s dignity so her movements are restricted. As the film progresses, we see her reach a breaking point. Along the way, she gives into her sexual desires and becomes more expressive.

Was it any different than finding the physicality of any other character? The distinction here is just that Jem is so much more aware of how others perceive that physicality than most.

Yeah, I think so. I think. With Jem, though, I wanted to capture that fiery spirit, and I think dancing was my opportunity to do that. When you’re acting, you don’t want to be thinking too much about how you’re holding yourself. You want to be more focused on the character’s intention and the emotional nature of the scene rather than whether they’re putting your hand on your hip or not.

You talked about building an Instagram profile for your character on “Babyteeth” — were there any similarly out-of-the-box ways to find your way into the character of Jem?

Oh, gosh, nothing too out-of-the-box because I don’t think Jem can be. Laurel gave us a lot of research material. We had two consultants working on the film. Honestly, it was such a loaded shoot. We were shooting for six weeks, and I was on set every day. I think I had to just take one step at a time and try not to worry too much. I just followed Laurel’s lead, and I think we did a good job.

How did you develop the relationship with Lewis Pullman’s Owen, specifically as it pertains to the body language they share? So much of the initial forays of their relationship come from these loaded non-verbal moments.

Yeah, there are many looks exchanged between Jem and Owen that are loaded. I think that can be attributed to Laurel’s direction. But I think Jem is also quite an interesting contradiction because she is feeling sexual desires, yet at the same time, can’t articulate them or feels uncomfortable articulating them. She’s attracted to Owen but isn’t ready to have sex. She doesn’t want to take off her top; she’s not comfortable doing that. She’s experiencing sexual desire, but her environment stunts her in a very significant way. That contradiction was fun to play and made those scenes with Owen a bit more complicated. It wasn’t unbridled desire. The desire was restricted and forbidden. It made the scenes a challenge to play. They’re quite complicated, not just black and white.

The first sex scene with Jem and Owen is such a rich text. The camera really lingers on Jem’s face as she’s feeling pain while he’s expressing what can only be described as animal instinct. And then, the script flips whenever she starts to exhibit agency and take initiative by leaning into her desire. That’s kind of the first moment that he really starts to pump the brakes on it all.

Yeah, totally. I found that quite interesting. I think the common assumption in inappropriate relationships like this where the man is much older than the woman the woman never wields power. But we see the power shifts from Owen to Jem many times, and that feels like more of an authentic portrayal of those relationships.

How do you handle the challenge of the script’s ambiguity? Are you, as an actress, making the call of whether Jem loves Owen or just the idea of him even if the character might not know?

Hmm, that’s interesting. I think that Jem is lonely. When we first meet Jem, she is alone in her feelings, and she’s frightened by the sexual feelings that she’s having. And when she gets to know Owen, I think she sees herself in him. Owen provides a sense of possibility, and I think they both see themselves as outsiders. It’s what draws them to each other. Jem is drawn to Owen because of what he gives her and the idea that he represents. He gives her a new way of understanding God, a new conception of God that speaks to her. It’s the idea that God takes joy in anything that you love, and God will love you for being you. That’s not what she was taught growing up, and that sets her free and unlocks this sexual awakening. I do think that she falls in love with the idea of Owen more so than Owen himself.

Given that the film is entirely from Jem’s perspective, were you also limiting your exposure as an actor to what other castmates were playing with for their characters? Or is it helpful to have that full picture and compartmentalize it when you shoot?

I think because the priority for Lewis and I was to feel comfortable and connected with each other, it was helpful for us to be privy to conversations about our characters with Laurel. We had a week of rehearsals to talk about our characters, and it’s helpful for me to conceptualize the characters and understand what we’re trying to achieve even the scene. Why [did] Laurel write a certain scene? What is it showing? Why is this necessary for the story? That’s really helpful for me to understand. I think I’m able to straddle that conceptual world while, at the same time, getting in the subjective headspace of the character. After doing that work before shooting, I was able to throw it away. Once I was on set, [I was able to] just focus on my character. When Laurel gave Lewis different versions to explore in scenes, I wasn’t privy to those conversations, so I was able to be surprised whilst we were in the scene.

Were you surprised at the version of Owen that emerged from the edit when you saw the finished film?

Yeah, I was. I felt sorry for him. When I was doing the film, I was acting, obviously, from Jem’s perspective, who is infatuated with Owen. And when I watched the film, I was quite repulsed by those intimate scenes. That’s exactly what Laurel wanted. Laurel wanted the audience to, in one moment, root for them and then the next moment wonder why they’re rooting for such an inappropriate relationship.

A number of people online have noted that you tend to gravitate toward dark material where you’re often sick or die, and I went to look at your IMDb to see what’s coming up … a kidnapped child story in “Caddo” and resisting the Nazis in “All That I Am.” Do you have any desire to do something a bit on the lighter side of the spectrum?

[laughs] Honestly, I feel like I’m so deep down this dark path that hopefully there’ll be a fork in the road where I can have some light comedies, maybe. I love comedies, I love dark comedies, and hopefully, I’ll be able to do something a bit lighter one day where I don’t get into trouble so much … or die.

“The Starling Girl” is now playing in select theaters.