Screen Scene: Foe director Garth Davis on working with Saoirse Ronan and Paul Mescal

The director of the sci-fi thriller lavishes praise on the two Irish actors, writes Esther McCarthy

Paul Mescal and Saoirse Ronan in Foe.

THEY’RE two of Ireland’s most-lauded young talents — so when Saoirse Ronan and Paul Mescal expressed a desire to work together, it was a no-brainer, as far as director Garth Davis was concerned.

After meeting them to discuss their collaboration, the filmmaker even passed on the chemistry tests often used in such projects, so certain was he that Ronan and Mescal would be convincing on screen as a young married couple.

The result is Foe, a sci-fi thriller which sees them play a young couple at a secluded farm as environmental changes wreak havoc on their lives and their relationship, and very hopes of survival are tested.

Ronan and Mescal are Henrietta (Hen) and Junior, whose lives are upended when a stranger arrives at their home in the middle of the night.

“I didn’t test them. I just knew it straight away that it was going to work,” says Davis, having met the two stars separately early on. “That’s what you have to do as a filmmaker, you have to follow your instinct, but I had a really strong feeling that this was going to work.

“You could definitely feel that there was a curiosity and a real interest to work together on both sides, so these things were all lining up really nicely. When we got into the room, to rehearsals, the first thing we did was actually rehearse the intimate scenes with the intimacy coordinator. Each of the lovemaking scenes in the movie are kind of pivotal moments in Hen’s journey, as she’s kind of reconnecting with her old feelings and finding her agency.

Paul Mescal and Saoirse Ronan in Foe.

“So in a way by rehearsing that first, not only did we get them to connect very early on, they kind of understood the journey that they were going to go on through all the scenes in between.”

The futuristic drama thriller piqued the Australian filmmaker’s interest when he initially read Iain Reid’s novel ( I’m Thinking of Ending Things) on which it was based. In search of his latest feature, the director of 2016’s multi-Oscar-nominated Lion co-wrote the screenplay with Reid.

There are a great many elements to the film’s story and it’s fair to say the less audiences know going in to see Foe, the better.

Even from the writing stages, Ronan began to come to mind as its star, Davis reveals: “It had so many layers to it so it was fairly complex. But I guess the heart of it was quite simple. It was really a relationship about identity over time. If you take someone for granted you assume things for them, their identity changes and it happens slowly over time.”

“I was really taken by how visual it was,” he adds. “It reminded me of an old Hitchcock setup with a stranger arriving in the night, that type of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf drama.

“One thing that I was certain about is that I saw Hen as someone that exuded this delight, a sense of play, and someone that would feel precious and full of curiosity in this world that’s very dystopian.”

“So I knew that I wanted to find that quality — and it’s not about acting, you can’t act that stuff. Saoirse is obviously a prime candidate for that because you know, no matter what character she plays, her spirit just shines through everything she does. She’s just got that lovely brightness.”

 Garth Davis , director of Foe. Picture: Jeff Spicer/Getty Images for BFI)

With Ronan on board, Davis met Mescal in Sydney. The Normal People star had read the screenplay and was keen to take on a role unlike anything he’d done before.

“He was crazily excited about the film and the challenge of it,” says the filmmaker. “I could tell he could bring those alpha qualities, but he also had this feminine side as well, which is very important.”

“And the shared Irish heritage was just like hitting the jackpot. It was going to bring even something else to the story. In our story, these people grew up in the Midwest, they married straight out of high school. All they’ve ever known is that part of the world. So there’s something nice about their shared heritage that brought a believability to the screen and just got that started in a really nice way.”

Though the movie is set in the US, Mescal and Ronan headed ‘Down Under’ to Australia to shoot the film, which is almost entirely located in a remote farm. Set in the near future, the source novel has been described as a psychological thriller set against a science-fiction backdrop, and it’s clear from the opening scenes that the planet is in crisis.

“Clearly it was something for both of them that they hadn’t done yet, and that intrigued them,” says Davis of his two Irish leads.

“I know Saoirse was very passionate about the state of the planet and the metaphor of the relationship up against the planet. She found it very fascinating. All in all, it connected to them personally — and when you’ve got that connection, it really fuels the creative process because they’re so invested, and they’re bringing their point of view and they want to own it. Rather than looking for you to give all the answers, it’s quite the opposite. It’s like a true collaboration.”

Davis feels that part of Ireland’s huge success in the international TV and film stage in recent years is down to the choices actors such as Mescal and Ronan make: “That’s what’s so unique about these actors — they’re very specific about the work that they do and it has to be meaningful to them. So they’re not necessarily taking the biggest jobs in the world. They’re taking jobs they want to do, that define who they are and how they see the world.”

• Foe opens in cinemas today

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