Writer/Director David Verbeek and Actress Jessica Reynolds talk to Fest Track about identity, time and approach in regards to their new film: "The Wolf, The Fox & The Leopard," playing the International Narrative Competition section at the 2025 Tribeca Film Festival in New York, New York.
00:00This is Tim Wassberg from Best Track on CERN TV.
00:29Yeah, I'm here in New York City for the Tribeca Film Festival.
00:31You know, there's so much to unpack in a film like this.
00:34Obviously, the notion of society, the primal, but also the idea of identity.
00:41David, could you first talk about looking at it as a whole and the difference, you know, obviously the different structures of the fox, the leopard, you know, obviously the wolf.
00:54Yeah, and how to build that in your mind, visually, emotionally, intellectually.
01:01And then obviously, Jessica, I'll talk to you about one and Alice herself.
01:04Well, I mean, the starting point for this idea was really that I wanted to do a contemporary version of basically this fairy tale or legendary kind of concept of the feral child.
01:21So there have been throughout history, there have been stories of people raised by wolves or coming from the jungle.
01:28And my first thought was, if we were to handle that subject today and make a very contemporary version of it, so we would have to, we would find a human being without the human programming.
01:40And what authority would we have as people living now with all the polarization and the opposite viewpoints that are going on geopolitically, politically, and with our mind on the environment, everyone knowing that, you know, the climate catastrophe is probably upon us.
01:59What right would we have to tell someone who comes from nature how they should be a human being because we're in such a mess ourselves?
02:08So I thought that was probably something that was a structure to make a film to address the state of the world in a way that could potentially really be a way of looking at our human world from the outside.
02:31So that was really the starting point of how I started to work on this.
02:38And that was the beginning.
02:43The狼 was born to save human beings.
02:45The world was born to save human beings.
02:47The forest was born to be born from the island.
03:29And obviously, the person right next to you is the accumulation of that.
03:34Could you talk about finding the right person to play the wolf, to play one, play Alice?
03:40Because she has to be able to function in multi-universes, multi-ways of thinking.
03:46I mean, Jessica, if you'd like to answer this question first, it's up to you.
03:50But you had to find the focus.
03:52You had to find some kind of deprogramming in order to play her.
03:56Yeah, I think it's funny.
04:00The instant that the film, the audition came through my email box, like, this is going to sound cheesy, but I, like, knew that the part was probably for me, you know?
04:13And, like, I wasn't even working very much at the time.
04:16But I thought, it's going to take a really specific person to play this.
04:21And instantly, I thought, I know, I know this, you know, on a real deep level.
04:28I think, because it's, yeah, it was about finding something very deep inside of me that required an ego death, in a way, to be able to play.
04:44And I think so many roles for women these days are brilliant and are very strong feminist roles, but they're also so palatable for the world, you know?
04:55And it's about being, you know, being strong and being resilient, but also being beautiful at the same time and gracious, whereas this was the opposite of that.
05:04And it was filled with so much rage.
05:06And I have all of that in me.
05:10And so it felt like, instantly, as I was reading it, I was like, oh, I'm allowed to be ugly.
05:16I'm allowed to be those darkest demon parts of myself that are in there and are in a lot of us.
05:25And so as soon as I saw that in the email, I thought, this is like therapy for me.
05:30This is like a catharsis.
05:32And it's a scary one.
05:33It wasn't easy.
05:34I'm not saying it was easy.
05:35It took a lot of commitment and kind of throwing myself to the wind.
05:40But it was, it was just, it was a complete honor.
05:47And I don't know if I'll be, I'll ever play something like that again.
05:53Sometimes I have this calling.
05:56Like something's calling me.
05:58I don't know if I'm going to be, I'll be, I'll be, I'll be, I'll be, I'll be.
06:18the new world of strange dreams
06:25The promise of the freedom from the release
06:30The狼
06:33I don't think that I would have continued really to make this film if I didn't get the person that I know I needed for it
06:43Because it's such a demanding role in so many ways, and it requires so many aspects physically and mostly mentally to really tackle a role like that.
06:59And if I didn't find someone that had complete confidence in doing it, I might as well not even try, because then it could become really, really an awkward film.
07:07So the casting process leading up to that was very long.
07:16And finally, when we found Jessica, I realized almost immediately also, just like her, that she had something inside her that was for this.
07:31And I mean, there are these things that I do to try and get to that, right?
07:37Like I give actors exercises to do.
07:39I don't give them scripted scenes, or maybe I do one or two, but the most important things are exercises.
07:46And then you see how they come up with themselves with how to make these or how to create something.
07:52I mean, so there are also things like, you know, are you close to animals?
07:58Do you have a dog in your life?
07:59Have you had a dog?
08:00Because it's very fundamental when you're going to work with wolves.
08:04Physically, are you able to do this?
08:06So, I mean, she fit the bill on all these things.
08:08So that's how the casting process is obviously extremely important.
08:14But what's also very important is that we really took time to search for it together.
08:19We had a very long pre-production.
08:21And we discussed the script very deeply, also with the other cast.
08:28And she had a movement coach for many months, actually.
08:33And also a speech coach to develop how the language ability would, you know, be unfolding step by step.
