Alex Wolff stars in the new drama The Line, directed by Ethan Berger with supporting performances from the likes of Lewis Pullman, Halle Bailey, Austin Abrams, and Angus Cloud. This cautionary tale on the potentially dangerous environments of college fraternities provides a glimpse into the dark side of frat culture and asks questions of responsibility and culpability. ECHO contributor Thomas Manning recently sat down with Wolff to discuss the South Carolina roots of the production, Ethan Berger’s collaborative spirit as a filmmaker, and sharing scenes with John Malkovich and Scoot McNairy.
Thomas Manning: Alex, we spoke a few years ago and we were talking about Pig, and I think you told me that my [Carolina] accent is exactly what you were going for, for a certain movie. I was really curious what that movie was going to be, and I was on the lookout for this. Now here we are. And I’ve just got to say, you did a really good job as a Carolina boy.
Alex Wolff: Thank you, man! So funny, man. The second you started, I was like, “I know this guy, I’d know this guy anywhere.” Wow, I mean, it’s exactly what I was going for. I guess you’re – where are you from?
Thomas Manning: I’m from North Carolina.
Alex Wolff: North Carlina, okay. Mine is a little more South Carolina, a little more Florida and South Carolina, but yeah, North Carolina, pretty close to what I was going for.
Thomas Manning: I know a few members of the cast are from South Carolina, Bo Mitchell and Mason Roberts. And I understand that Mason in particular was a major resource for you and [director] Ethan Berger. He was almost like a primary source of research. Can you speak a bit to that significance of having them there to kind of guide you through that regional culture and environment?
Alex Wolff: Well, you know, Mason [Roberts] and Nick Basile, who’s a real integral part of the movie and plays kind of a big part. We found them when I went to go live with a fraternity in South Carolina. And I was really taken with a few of the kids and found them to be charming and interesting, and understood the complexity and the darkness underneath what was happening with the fraternity. There’s a lot of people who were nervous about what we were doing and a lot of people who were hostile. But also, a lot of people who got what we were going for and understood that it’s not like we’re trying to make some big moral statement or blame anyone per se, but we are trying to expose a problem. And we needed people from the inside in order to make it authentic. And they were brave enough to stand up and join the movie.
Thomas Manning: And a very specific detail about this film that stuck with me is how it uses tears with the characters. There are a few pivotal moments with tears streaming down a character’s face, and it’s just kind of this incredible release of repressed emotions. I think you have a moment like that, Bo [Mitchell] has a moment, and Austin Abrams as well. So, I’m interested to hear your thoughts on the power of well-used tears as an actor and what decisions have to be made from a filmmaking standpoint to capture that desired effect?
Alex Wolff: Good question. I think, if you’re doing your job as an actor – this is my opinion –if you’re doing your job as an actor, you really shouldn’t be thinking about the tears themselves. I think if you’re thinking about the tears themselves, then the audience can somehow taste that those tears, you know, taste like silicone. That they’re not from a deep place. I’m a very emotional guy, playing someone who’s got a lot of repressed emotions. And so, probably a director’s job is just mostly cutting away from my face and cutting away from the tears. So that’s probably the job with me. But, I think it’s really that the circumstances warrant deep emotional catharsis at the end. And I don’t think it’s specifically about tears or about crying. I think it is about – I think it magnifies that they’re kids. And that doesn’t take away responsibility, it just magnifies how young they are. And how they are products of an institution that gives them too much freedom and too much power at too young of an age.
Thomas Manning: The Line is Ethan Berger’s feature film directorial debut. And I think he already has such a confident voice as a filmmaker.
Alex Wolff: I agree.
Thomas Manning: You can add him to the long list of other brilliant directors you’ve worked with – Ari Aster, M. Night Shyamalan, [Christopher] Nolan, Michael Sarnoski. You’ve also stepped behind the camera before for The Cat and the Moon, and then you’ve got another film coming up that you’re directing, If She Burns. So, is there anything that stands out to you about Ethan as a director that, you look at moving forward and say, “I want to make sure I’m doing my job as a director just as well as what Ethan did there?”
Alex Wolff: I think Ethan is really open to change and I think that’s the rarest quality of a director. I would say that is the number one most rare, but maybe the most brave. I’ve never worked with a director who has been very open to change that hasn’t yielded some positive response. I think that I’ve worked with many directors who cling to their vision and [they] think that that protects them from failure, but I think often, it leaves them stranded. And I think being open to the environment and things moving and coming up with things on the day has only helped. At least in my experience. I think Ethan is one of the great masters of that, of kind of rolling with the punches.
Thomas Manning: There are two really powerful scenes in this film that I feel like are kind of in dialogue with each other. In one of them, you’re having a dinner conversation with John Malkovich. He’s playing your best friend’s dad, this big corporate exec. You can tell that [your character] Tom is a little bit out of his element here. It kind of feels like he’s being interrogated a little bit. This comes full circle in another scene with Scoot McNairy, and without spoiling the context there, that tension is ramped up even more than in the earlier scene with John. Can you walk me through some of your memories of filming those scenes and compare how they both challenged you as a performer?
Alex Wolff: So the scene with John Malkovich for you, you felt like that was [John’s character Beach Miller], you feel like that was Beach sort of sussing out Tom? Is that how you interpreted that scene?
Thomas Manning: Exactly. Yeah, that is how I took it.
Alex Wolff: Very interesting. Okay. So I had kind of a different interpretation, probably because of where I was at, and that’s some people’s thing. I love that interpretation. I wouldn’t take it away. My interpretation was – that was more [Beach] trying to invite Tom into his club, a club that [his son] Mitch has never been a part of. So that’s how I took it kind of from Tom’s perspective. But I see totally from another perspective – he’s trying to, you know, “who is this kid?” So, I like that. I think the Scoot McNairy [scene] – Scoot really looks down on these kinds of people, and thinks that the tight-lipped nature, the protecting each other, the secrecy, the faux purity of fraternity, that we take care of our brothers, is bullshit. You know, they’re criminals, they’re over 18 and they’re criminals, and I think that what I love about the movie and the fine line of it is – you know, no pun intended, or actually kind of pun intended, because I think that’s what the movie is about. Are they just kind of kids who are out of their depths, or does everybody have agency, you know? It really rides the line. What I like about the scene with John is it looks like the most fun, sexy thing in the world the way he describes a fraternity. He’s like, “oh how fun is that” to Tom. But you as an audience member, I think you just feel sad that that’s what Tom thinks is really cool and interesting. So, I just like that that scene is sort of like, the seed. And it grows into this kind of rotten tree. I think the movie has a lot of glamor on the outside and I feel that it kind of rots on the inside. Ethan did an amazing job curating that, and those two scenes are the opposite ends of someone being so enamored with what could it be, and how I’m going to get so much money, and I’m going to be so successful – to what have I done? What did I go through?
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.