The Power of the Dog star Kodi Smit-McPhee has opened up about ‘loving’ his ‘non-traditional’ audition for Jane Campion’s new film, her first in 12 years, and what it was like to work alongside Benedict Cumberbatch.
The Aussie actor, who first wowed audiences in 2009’s The Road and horror remake Let Me In, the same year as Campion’s last movie, Keats biopic Bright Star, praised the Oscar-winner’s ‘really cool, organic approach’ to his casting, which folded in character work.
Going for an ‘audition-slash-general-meeting’ with her, Smit-McPhee told Metro.co.uk at the movie’s London Film Festival premiere: ‘I met Jane at one of her friends’ lovely little comfortable houses, and we just improvised with the character a bit and ended up doing some cold reads, and she asked me about my interests. And we kind of uplifted Peter, the character, in the room, which I think was a really cool, organic approach.’
Pointing out the difference between that and the usual actor audition experience, he continued: ‘It was so against the traditional kind of cattle call of the anxious auditions that you receive in LA – so I loved that.
‘I wish – if it could go that way all the time – I feel like I would really excel! But it’s not like that. Not everyone’s Jane!’
When it came to co-star Cumberbatch and him negotiating their characters’ intense relationship, which takes in cruelty, homophobia and an underlying sense of danger as macho cattle rancher Phil (Cumberbatch) torments his new step-nephew Peter (Smit-McPhee), the 25-year-old was also effusive.
‘It was amazing,’ he shared. ‘I think we both faced challenges in terms of the characters that we were taking on, but with the guidance of Jane I feel like we really got to the core of expressing them, and I think it’s an amazing chemistry these characters have on the page and it translates through in the film, and it was really cool to have that dance with it.’
The Power of the Dog filmed mainly in New Zealand, with its stunning vistas standing in for the lone landscape of 1920s rural Montana. Being in a remote location, and grappling with ‘heavier emotions’, Smit-McPhee decided to pick up playing the guitar again in his downtime.
‘Because we were kind of in the middle of nowhere – and I’ve been talking in past interviews about being able to cut yourself off from these heavier emotions – I did spontaneously buy a guitar, an electric guitar and amp, and I just started playing guitar because I love music and I always had it as a hobby, but I kind of took it on a bit more seriously just to pass the time.’
It also led to some interesting jamming with Cumberbatch, whose character Phil twangs away on the banjo throughout the film, mainly to intimidate Peter’s nervous mother Rose (Kirsten Dunst).
‘He was banjo playing on the roof while I’m trying to get my my chords down, like he does in the movie!’, laughed the actor.
He added: ‘No, it’s cool. I’ve got too lazy now, I stopped playing.’
However all that practice is not yet lost, as the star agreed he could see himself picking it up again, perhaps ‘in the next movie’.
The Power of the Dog will be released in cinemas on November 19 before arriving on Netflix on December 1.
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