by Dov Kornits
“There is no film like this. It is so new and original. That’s what drew me to the project. It’s breathing new life into what I think Australian cinema can be. It doesn’t have to lean into the Australian Gothic in the way that it has for so many years. It brings this new energy.”
Actor Nicholas Denton is talking about James Litchfield’s impressive debut feature, Alphabet Lane, which premiered last year to sold out theatres at the Melbourne International Film Festival, and is about to release in cinemas around Australia.
Alphabet Lane is about a couple, Jack (Denton) and Anna (Tilda Cobham-Hervey), who tree change to a glorious property in the country (shot in scenic Cooma) but find themselves rarely spending any quality time together or making any meaningful connections with the locals. The serenity drives them to invent imaginary friends, which quickly spirals into very unexpected places.
“It’s from the perspective of Jack and Anna, it’s their idea of what they think country folk would be like,” explains Denton. “That comes from being stuck in your inner city bubble, not actually going out and realising, ‘oh, we’re all kind of similar to some extreme’. You don’t have to force it. I think Jack and Anna realise that they can’t assimilate as quickly as possible with their own prejudices, and they slowly unravel.
“They idealise and romanticise things. It’s not just living in a beautiful barn with Country Road designer clothing on. You actually have to do some things to make friends.”
Our conversation turns to Australian cinema, and this difficult to categorise film’s place in our screen culture [ED: sorry, sounds wanky].
“Australian film does need to have an identity,” Denton reckons. “There is an isolation to our country. There is a difficulty in relationships, which everyone does suffer from at any time. There is something in the spirit of Alphabet Lane and then the way that James captures the land [ED: with artful help from DOP Grégoire Lière), our placement on the land, and the next generation coming up.
“But also, there’s space, a vastness between us. What do they say? There’s one kilometre per person in this country. We have a lot of isolation, and we fill that with our own feelings and yearning and wants.
“I think when you give an audience space to breathe in a movie, they put into it their own feelings. They think deeply by having time to mull and contemplate and be curious. And that’s what this film has. It has space. It’s not fast paced. It’s going to build on you. And then it’s going to get you in the jugular.”
Denton was attached to Alphabet Lane early on. “I met James at Heartattack and Vine in Carlton. We had a three and a half hour coffee, talked about the entire thing. I’d never read something that was so buoyant in its humour, yet had such a sinister darkness, this very peculiar playfulness.”
That initial meeting lit a fuse, which continued for months, before the cast and crew arrived on set. “We lived together in a bungalow, two separate rooms, a little kitchen, a little coffee table,” Denton says about the chemistry that developed with the rest of the cast, and especially Tilda Cobham-Hervey. “All day, we were more or less in character. I think that was something that James was hoping for. And we even worked with an intimacy coordinator, even though there isn’t that much intimacy in the film, but to develop a language that felt fluid. We knew that this relationship was falling apart, but we knew that this couple wanted desperately for it to come back together, and would do anything possible to make that happen.”
Even though Nicholas Denton’s mother is an actress [ED: Jane Turner, best known as Kath from Kath & Kim], he says that he never dreamt of performing. “I went to university, I did a history, art history degree. I didn’t finish it. A friend of mine asked me to come and do a children’s theater show that was paying a lot of money. I was like, ‘alright, yeah, I’ll try it’. And I just liked it. I realised I could enjoy myself, I could make some money, I could meet really nice people and I could travel. I also realised that a lot of time with acting, if you just care enough about the thing that you’re doing, be it the press, be it the scene, be it the writing process, be it the whatever, as long as you care enough, you’ll have a good time.”
In 2022, Denton was one of the leads in the series Dangerous Liaisons, opposite Alice Englert [ED: a bit of trivia: Englert provides humming to the soundtrack of Alphabet Lane, along with Ben Whishaw, both friends and close collaborators of the composer, Mark Bradshaw].
Two years later, he played a supporting role in Ron Howard’s Eden, opposite Jude Law. “I was really taken by him, because he’s got this ability to hold space for everybody else around him,” says Denton. “He makes you feel very welcome and accepted into the fold. Even if you come on for two days, you’re always welcome to make a suggestion.
“I like playing a leading role, but I also don’t mind playing a supporting role. I like doing lots of different things. I love being on film sets. I love making anything, but I think to get the most out of it, you have to be very kind, you have to be very patient, and you have to have some ideas. You have to bring some ideas to set, and they’re wrong most of the time, for me anyway, but you come with a couple ideas, you know your lines, you’re kind to people. It’s not that hard.”
Apart from Alphabet Lane, Denton was also the lead in high profile series Talamasca: The First Order, part of Anne Rice’s Immortal Universe, with the likes of William Fichtner, Elizabeth McGovern and Jason Schwartzman in the supporting cast.
“Sometimes it gets scary,” admits Denton about playing leads on big shows. “Sometimes, I’m like, ‘Oh, there’s a lot of things going on around me’. The budget’s really big, you don’t want to mess it up, but if you think too much like that, you freak yourself out. You just have to be like, ‘I’m here, I’m showing up’. I like meeting all the people that I’ve always looked up to. I used to work in a video store for years. I used to watch Ordinary People a lot and Elizabeth McGovern was in it, and I got to work with her on Talamasca.”
As we wind up our chat, we cannot help but return to what makes Alphabet Lane so effective, and most significantly, what does it all really mean? “I guess the answer is that it’s a love story,” muses Denton. “This is a love story where the love has gone and they’re trying to get it back. It’s a very twisted love story, and it’s new and it’s original, but it’s a love story at its heart. And it’s got all of those things that come with love – stress, strain, beauty, hopefulness, everything…”
Alphabet Lane is in cinemas from 23 April 2026, with special Q&A screenings from 19 April. Find out where the film is playing near you, here.
