Joe Alwyn Opens Up On New Cannes Film 'Stars At Noon'

Actor Joe Alwyntook home the Trophée Chopard when he first arrived at the Cannes Film Festival in 2018. He’s hoping that he can replicate his success with Claire Denis’ “Stars At Noon,” based on the novel by Denis Johnson.

The romantic thriller tells the story of a businessman in Nicaragua that falls in love with an American journalist, played by Margaret Qualley. Alwyn sat down with Deadline to talk about his new film and what it was like filming in Panama.

Alwyn admitted that he had only read the script, not the book, but had an “incredible” experience filming in Panama. Although he said that he had never been to Panama before, he said that they got to see a “fair bit of Panama” since everything was shot on location.

“It’s great being on the soundstage and it’s amazing seeing the worlds that you can create in a studio, but there’s something about being on location that just gives it something,” he said. “Whatever it is, that little spark that can be different.”

However, he said that they were “literally at the mercy of the weather” and noted how it could “completely mess with the schedule” when they needed tropical rain for certain scenes and it was sunny.

Alwyn added, “It was incredible seeing the locations that Panama had to offer and the people there were so friendly. The crew was amazing. It was quite chaotic in some ways just because logistically there was trickiness because you can’t control the sky. But it was a beautiful place to shoot and I’m really happy we shot there.”

Alwyn said that it was “amazing” working with Claire Denis, describing her as “a force.”

“She’s unlike anyone I have ever worked with, and her sets are unlike any other set I’ve ever been on,” he said. “She is completely singular and of herself and a real orator.”

He went on to say that Denis can “be both fierce in knowing what she wants and then incredibly tender about what she wants. It feels like she discovers everything in the moment.”

“I don’t think I’ll ever work out how she works,” he added. “Maybe she wouldn’t be able to answer either. It was definitely the most unique experience I’ve had with a director on set, but I think she is completely grand.”

He called Claire his “first and foremost” highlight of working on the project. He also praised working with Margaret in Panama and “everyone that we collaborated with.”

“Eric Gautier shot it, and everyone was brilliant, but Claire was at the helm of it,” he continued. “Seeing the way that she worked out how to work, and what she wanted, how she communicated with the heads of the department around her, and how she functioned, was amazing.”

“She’d be in the trunk of the car. We’d be driving around town with her,” he revealed. “She’d be locked in the trunk, screaming out instructions in French to us who were sitting in the car—crowded with like five other people filming us—and she’s just bellowing out what she wants. She’s just a force like nothing else. I’m really lucky to have gone on that mad ride with her.”

As for the character itself, Alwyn teased, “My character is a mysterious English businessman who’s pretty enigmatic and we don’t know a whole lot about him or why he’s in Nicaragua.”

He revealed that both his and Margaret Qualley’s characters are “both sort of playing a game and sort of pretending to be someone they’re not amidst this backdrops of political unrest and turmoil and complete mistrust.”

“But amidst that, these two strangers, who themselves don’t give a lot away really about what they are at heart, fall for each other and have some strange kind of connection, but then they fall into trouble,” he continued. “Well, he particularly falls into trouble and they have to escape to the border together. Or they have to escape to the border, maybe together.”

He concluded, “That’s the narrative of it, but I think as much as anything, reading it, it was about those moments of tenderness between two people that managed to break through in an environment and world of mistrust and games and falsity.”