By Josie Gagliano
One of Australia’s busiest actors, Ryan Corr goes impressively deep on the dark, gritty, emotionally charged noir thriller Catching Dust.
In the densely layered, desert-set dramatic thriller Catching Dust – the debut feature film from acclaimed British short filmmaker Stuart Gatt – Ryan Corr adds another fascinating film to his already packed-to-busting resume, which includes big screen features like Wolf Creek 2, Ladies in Black, The Water Diviner, Holding the Man, Sting, High Ground and Below, and TV series such as House of the Dragon, In Limbo and The Commons. Corr plays Andy, who, along with his partner Amaya (Dina Shihabi), is drawn into the strange, violent and abusive world of Geena (The Boys’ Erin Moriarty) and her criminal husband Clyde (fellow Aussie Jai Courtney). The ensuing psychodrama plays out against the background of a bitterly hot and unforgiving desert, which provides for a feast of stunning vistas even while it bears down hard on those who live in the sun-scolding heat. Covered in sweat and grime, the gifted and charismatic Ryan Corr once again rises to the occasion, juicing his complicated characters with plentiful texture and shading…
Let’s set the scene: where are you doing this interview from, and where are you usually based?
“I’m based in Sydney…I’ve been there since I was 18. I moved there from Melbourne for acting school [NIDA], so ‘based’ is a loose term, because of the nature of what we do. We find ourselves living in three or four places a year. When I am in Sydney, I’m in Tamarama. Both my mum and dad are based in Melbourne, so I spend a few months here each year with all my family. When I’m in the US, I stay in LA. I’m in LA rather regularly, usually for work…my last travel over there was a couple of years ago. It was just pre-Covid and it all obviously tightened up; the industry went on hold for a little while. I just got back from the Northern Territory where we were shooting Kangaroo. That’s where I spent the first half of the year, and then I went travelling for a little while, and now I’m back in Melbourne for Christmas. I’m going to let the year slow down a bit before January next year…”
And what happens then?
“We’re still in development for a couple of things, but there’ll be the release of the movie Kangaroo, which I think is in May or July. We’re in talks at the moment about a second series of In Limbo, which we did for the ABC last year, tackling men’s mental health.”
Which brings us back to Catching Dust…
“It’s an odd one, isn’t it? It’s layered and quite complicated, it always was. [Director] Stuart Gatt wrote a really poetic piece, and it’s noir in style. It’s this slow-moving noir thriller that breadcrumbs out things about the story, and things about the characters. We meet these couples in this vast isolated landscape, which is very much a part of the film, and we don’t know why they’re there. As the story slowly unravels, it tackles themes, from coercive control to betrayal, abuse, and murder…so it’s a piecing together of the things that you can glean from the characters in the way they’re interacting.”
The characters are very complex…
“Stuart was really adamant – which is quite rare in a film of this size – to have three to four solid weeks rehearsal. We were talking about characters and where they’d come from, and what their relationships have been before we’ve met them in this film. When we got up to the Canary Islands we sat down, and we went through a number of different ad lib style scenes. Stuart is very much a character driven director. He wanted us all to have a full picture of who these guys were before stepping into it so we could play within those realms. The film relies on what’s not being said, and this tension that’s created. Stuart really wanted to create a place where we could be organic with each other, and where we can feel natural with each other. We were able to work out what these relationships were outside of the story of the film, because their histories permeate the film so much, even if you don’t know what that is and it slowly comes out as it unfolds. One of the main themes we dealt with is that you can’t escape your destiny, and you can’t escape your fate. It’s a very personal film for Stuart too. He was exploring different relationship dynamics that he’s had in his life within his family, within his relationships, and dealing with different kinds of darkness that he’s dealt with in his life. He’s channelled that very much into his characters.”
You mentioned the location in The Canary Islands…
“Yes, it’s right on the border of Morocco. It’s volcanic and vast, and there’s a desert and it was really like a wind tunnel…it’s been used to double as Mars, and when you’re out there filming, it feels like Mars. We’d often have to finish on some days, because of the changing wind. We were being tested every day, from the hotel to the desert, and we had this incredible contingent of crew local to the island itself, and they all came together to make this. With films of a certain size, you arrive together, you prep as best you can, you hold hands, and you jump in the deep end. You never know where you’re going to end up. Catching Dust was one of those films where we all felt very much a part of it together. When Jai, Dina, myself, and Erin got there, it was really just us four in a hotel with nothing else around really for three months. We’d be living and breathing the film, and we’d be talking about our characters in the evening and getting to know each other personally in an incredible way, and that intimate nature of the interplay between characters in this finds its way into the film.”
How did US audiences respond to the film at the Tribeca Film Festival when it premiered last June?
“Erin and Jai were there… it was sort of split. We had mixed reactions. We’re used to a lot of content now that has an A to B trajectory, and the hero’s journey path – here’s the inciting incident, this happens afterwards, and everyone will save the day in the end. Stuart doesn’t make those sorts of films, and we knew that coming in. It was an arthouse piece coming in, and the ambiguity of what the film is trying to explore is its strength. Some people saw that, as much as Stuart envisaged them to, and they understood the pacing of it, and the detail, and the character driven nature of the piece. You’re constantly working in this film, and you’re not sitting back. Some people said there wasn’t enough happening, or they didn’t understand where the parts connected, and that’s okay.
“It’s good to have that diverse reaction. With this sort of film, it’s impossible not to have that sort of reaction. When you go out on a limb, and you try and make things that aren’t necessarily mainstream, and you deal with themes that aren’t squeaky clean and are hard to look at in our humanity, and issues of that nature, you’re always going to have a dual response. But we certainly went in there with the most respectful and honest of intentions, and Stuart was really incredible in working with us all. It was a way of him exploring violence that he’d witnessed to women in his own life. Films of that nature are not going to be for everyone, but I think the people that did understand it, really understood it, and that’s really exciting.”
What do you hope that Australian audiences will get from Catching Dust?
“I don’t think it makes a huge difference whether it’s American audiences versus Australian audiences; what we’re talking about is universal across the world right now in terms of violence against women, in terms of coercive control, in terms of abusive relationships and toxicity within relationships. Those things are pretty universal, so I hope it helps continue a conversation we’re having pretty actively in Australia right now. I hope it helps shed light on some of the intricacies and the complications within that from a victim’s point of view. I hope that people are engaged, and that they try and put the pieces together. I came up watching lots of indie films of this sort of budget, and I hope it adds to that canon. I hope it encourages people to go out on a limb more in terms of their storytelling, and not necessarily just go for mainstream ideas.”
What sort of things have you been reading for?
“I’m auditioning for knights, and then people in the 1700s, and a rock climber from Thailand… all in the same week at the moment, so it’s all over the place!”
What do you love about spending so much time here as opposed to LA?
“I stop into LA for work, and it’s never been a base for me. It’s head down, butt up, in a room that you’re renting for six months just doing your work. When I’m home, it’s home. I’ve got my family, my friends here, I’ve got my dog, and my hobbies, and my wonderful goofy friends… so it’s always a different feeling when I’m working at home. I always feel somehow more grounded and more supported. I like being a part of the Australian ‘canon’ too. I like being a part of my own culture and being a part of the narrative that helps that grow, in the same way that I grew up with all the Australian content that I did. But we’re really international right now. We have international level crews, and you can see that with the Americans and Europeans coming down here to shoot in Australia. But for me, it’s always been story first, and who you work with. Stuart is from the UK, Dina and Jai and Erin live in LA, and I live in Australia, and we all shot this in Spain…that’s the nature of it. It’s about who you get to work with, and whether that be who you’re acting with, who the director is, or what the writers produced, as long as you keep that at the centre, it usually doesn’t lead you awry. That’s the exciting part of the job.”
Australia’s relationship with international audiences is now a really solid one…it’s strong.
“We’re on the map. We’re starting to represent ourselves, and we’re starting to make bolder decisions in terms of the way that we represent ourselves, and the stories we’re telling. That should really encourage us to just keep thinking outside the box, and to do things that we haven’t done before. That goes for indie film, as well as our big budget cinema, and our television and streaming content.”
I just watched How to Make Gravy…
“I watched that last night! It’s magnificent! I’ll watch anything with Daniel Henshall in it for the rest of my life, and Hugo Weaving’s just the greatest actor living. He’s just got so much presence, doesn’t he? I was just sitting there with my father watching, and he goes, ‘How good’s Hugo?’ Oh, that man. The elegance, the class…it just oozes off that man. What a beautiful tale. It’s really well dealt with, really well measured, and it was a lovely little touch to have Paul Kelly in there as the bus driver. There’s a perfect example of someone taking a song and a story being extrapolated out of it from a piece of music, and to come up with something like that, it’s truly special. It’s an exciting time for Australian pictures.”
Catching Dust is available on Digital from 4 December 2024
