Hannah, a teen actress, just wants to be great. And she’ll sacrifice everything to get there.
In writer-director Sophia Takal’s new film “Act One,” debuting at the Tribeca Festival on June 10, Ella Beatty throws herself into a performance as a would-be star who, snubbed by her school’s drama club, enrolls in an acting class led by the compelling and enigmatic Melanie (Ari Graynor), a stage star who’s downshifted into manipulating and dominating the performers in her thrall. Beatty begins to lose her sense of self as alcohol-fueled late-night sessions, a sexually compelling fellow student (Nate Mann) and Melanie’s own relentlessness push her to the edge.
All of this was familiar territory for Takal, who shot the film in New Jersey close to where she grew up as an aspiring actress herself. In the years since, Takal’s films have played festivals (2016’s “Always Shine” won Mackenzie Davis an acting prize at Tribeca) and played multiplexes (she collaborated with Blumhouse on the 2019 remake of sorority-slasher drama “Black Christmas”); “Act One,” with its gnarly willingness to explore teenage ambition and sexuality, makes for a new calling-card.
Takal spoke to Variety about what from her teen acting days made it into “Act One,” the ‘90s thrillers that inspired her and whether Hollywood has grown scared of depicting sex onscreen.
