The celebrities of Heel nonetheless cannot fairly consider simply how far the thriller took them as actors. Directed by Academy Award nominee Jan Komasa and a wonderfully subversive follow-up to his 2025 dystopian character-drama Anniversary, Heel follows a household that forcibly takes in a troubled younger man and topics him to a dehumanizing “rehabilitation” program.
What begins as a dramatic horror story shortly turns into one thing else, although, with a much more emotional core and sense of humanity to the characters that elevates Heel into a much more efficient exploration of humanity. Throughout an interview with Display Rant, Stephen Graham, Andrea Riseborough, and Anson Boon mirrored on the individuality of the movie and bonding on set.
Why Stephen Graham, Andrea Riseborough, And Anson Boon Wanted To Be In Heel
“Stephen had it first,” Andrea Riseborough revealed, explaining that she was already working with director Jan Komasa on one other mission when Stephen Graham approached her about co-starring in Heel. “Stephen cherished it, so I knew it was going to be good. So many issues come to us, and it’s so uncommon that you simply love one thing a lot that you simply keep it up so long as Stephen did. I learn it, and it was simply elegant.”
What was so good about it was that these individuals type actual relationships and much-needed connections — nevertheless it’s in all of the improper locations… they’re genuinely counting on one another to get by way of this grief, as a result of they are going by way of the waves of it. Grief is available in its personal time. You’ll be able to’t plan it. It is like the ocean. It comes out and in. It is like a tide that takes you, and you must go together with it, and you must be respectful of when it is about to bubble up in you.
Graham cherished the script for Heel, nevertheless it additionally wasn’t the very first thing that caught his consideration in regards to the mission. It was the presence of Jan Komasa that actually caught Graham’s consideration. “I bought a letter from Jan explaining this piece, and I hadn’t heard of him. Then I watched Corpus Christi, and I used to be blown away. I phoned Jan immediately, then our brokers. Mine went, ‘Have you ever learn the script but?’ I mentioned, ‘No, I have not learn the script, however I’ve seen his movie, and I am in. I need to be part of that.'”
Chris and Kathryn are very complicated characters, particularly because the movie’s preliminary touches of horror give option to way more unsettling and emotionally attention-grabbing locations. It is also what actually caught Graham’s consideration as an actor, with the star noting {that a} character like Chris “was one thing I’ve by no means performed earlier than. I feel as actors, we all the time say we would like roles that deliver one thing else to the desk, that put us in a spot to surprise if we are able to do that.”
I am paraphrasing, however I feel it was David Bowie who mentioned, whenever you’re within the water, hold going till that time the place your tiptoes are simply touching the secure floor, after which simply hold going a bit extra. That is whenever you discover true freedom and true expression. For me, that is what this was. I saved pondering, ‘Am I able to doing this?’ This can be a form of character I’ve by no means actually performed earlier than, and a facet of Stephen that I’ve by no means been capable of specific.
That script was the north star for Anson Boon, who had a unique problem in Heel. On paper, audiences ought to instantly sympathize with Tommy, on condition that he is a younger grownup kidnapped and held captive by Chris and Kathryn. Nonetheless, Boon turns the road punk into a completely unlikable mess, complicating the movie’s purposefully tough morality. “Once you’re making a movie,” Boon defined, “you are so centered on the fabric that you’ve got within the script and fleshing out your character, it may be an actual shock whenever you really watch it.”
I used to be actually shocked by this grim fairy story facet to it. Making it, I spent a lot of the movie chained up within the basement, so it did not really feel that approach whereas taking pictures it [Laughter]. However watching it, there’s form of this whimsical nature to it. I keep in mind actually being struck by the truth that it felt so distinctive. So usually, there are these binary points to movies, the place you are a goodie or a baddie. You may have the protagonist and the antagonist.
With this movie, I keep in mind studying it and pondering, ‘Oh, I am form of rooting for this horrible individual, and I am additionally rooting for these good individuals doing horrible issues. It is this unusual toss-up. It is all there within the script. I learn what’s on the web page, and the character could be very a lot created for you. As an actor, you may have enjoyable fleshing that out in no matter approach you see match, however I am all the time occupied with diving into the pinnacle of a personality and determining why they do the issues that they do. That is not essentially only for a nasty character; everybody does every part for a cause. With Tommy, I actually wished to get into that headspace and take into consideration why he behaves like this. Why is he like this in the true world?
Discovering Household, Limitations, And Surprises In Heel
Stephen leapt on the probability to deliver Andrea into the mission, even getting the possibility to play a married couple once more — albeit a far completely different one from the pair that seem in Matilda the Musical. Describing her as an absolute pleasure to work with, Graham might assist himself from getting misplaced in her efficiency whereas on set throughout the manufacturing of Heel. “She’s trying to find the reality. I really like that we would not transfer one foot ahead till we discover the reality as a collective, after which we go there collectively on that journey.”
Graham particularly recalled one scene, watching Andrea simply “glide by way of the kitchen like a ghost, and the digital camera was behind me. I will be lifeless trustworthy with you. I really like performing, and I really like actors after they’re on it, what I imply? So, as a result of I do know the digital camera was behind me on the digital camera, I might simply watch her and go “Hell, that is magnificent. Wow.’ And she or he rotated, and I went, ‘Oh! Proper! I am on this! [Laughter].”
Graham and Riseborough had been complimentary to their total solid, however particularly Anson Boon, with the previous noting that “‘I would by no means met Anson earlier than [Heel]. I would by no means seen his work, however he actually excited me as quickly as I bought to know him. He is such an exquisite younger man. He is simply discovering his approach into the trade, and he is exceptionally gifted, and on this position, he is phenomenal. His journey is large, and he does it so properly.” Graham was simply as sort when talking about Monika Frajczyk and Equipment Rakusen, calling them good in their very own methods.
“What was actually fantastic to find,” Riseborough recalled, “was that once we had been within the state of affairs, we did change into like this surprisingly fortified household. Firstly of each scene, we needed to get ourselves on the identical inventive web page. That was a really distinctive expertise, as a result of that does not all the time occur. Filming is quick and livid. It turns into a really intense course of. You do not all the time have time to dive into every part. Firstly of every piece of Heel, we needed to commune. We actually felt strong and powerful with one another.”
Graham concurred, revealing that “we sat and had dinner downstairs within the resort. We watched soccer and stuff.” It even reached a degree the place Anson could be absent from a dinner, and the pair would get aggravated with him in the identical approach a mum or dad provides the side-eye to a youngster. With amusing, Riseborough remembered giving him a parental “The place have you ever been?” remark when he was late getting again to the resort one evening.
There was an individual deep down in him who wished to be cherished, even when he would by no means admit it.
Trying again on the expertise of creating the movie, Boon mirrored on how, over the course of the story, Heel focuses on “two completely different characters with Tommy. The one originally of the movie and the one on the finish are completely completely different individuals. Clearly, the strategies they use on Tommy’s rehabilitation are completely unorthodox and improper. But it surely provides me excessive hope that deep down in Tommy, and what I all the time appreciated in regards to the character, was that there was an individual deep down in him who wished to be seen and wished to be heard and wished to be cherished, even when he would by no means admit it.“
Past the emotional depth, Boon additionally famous that the chain that connected to Tommy was additionally a considerably distinctive problem as a performer to work round. “I by no means might have predicted simply how limiting and debilitating that will actually be, till I really put it on. The script gave you this sense of claustrophobia anyway, however whenever you really put that on and understand simply how helpless the character is within the palms of this couple. That was an enormous shock, however one that actually helped me play the character.”
Fortunately, it is only a movie. I wasn’t trapped in it. However you need to really feel these issues as an actor. It is humorous; as an actor, you all the time have a dialog with your self about how deep into a personality you will get earlier than one thing simply turns into not sensible. I am so glad with Heel that we managed to provide you with this wonderful, secure, however actually efficient collar that, because the actor, allowed me to really feel that sense of restriction that the character would really feel in actual life.
That distinctive vitality and surprisingly optimistic core are central to what the filmmakers are going for with Heel. It is a highly effective and surprisingly emotional thriller that Graham knew, even on set, was one thing particular. “No matter that is that we’re doing on this studio in Poland, it is actually attention-grabbing, and I am actually invested in it. I like it, as a result of each single individual was bringing one thing fantastic and distinctive to the desk.”
Heel
6/10
- Launch Date
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March 6, 2026
- Runtime
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110 Minutes
- Director
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Jan Komasa
- Writers
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Naqqash Khalid, Bartek Bartosik