The Starling Girl may be writer and director Laurel Parmet's feature film debut, but its long gestation period led to a thoughtful and mature piece that has already garnered critical acclaim on the festival circuit and in its current limited theatrical run. The film centers on the life of teenage Jem Starling , whose fundamentalist Christian upbringing in Kentucky means her only outlet is worship dance.
Screen Rant spoke to Scanlen about her rehearsal process for The Starling Girl, which is unusual for an indie film, as well as how she practiced her accent and Jem's worship dance. I'm not a dancer, so I had to practice that and work at it. One of the girls in the dance troupe actually was the choreographer for the dance, and she was incredible. It was two Saturdays that we learned it, I'm pretty sure. I was just practicing in my apartment every night before the following day, and I loved it. It's really fun to learn something physical for a role, other than learning lines and stuff.
The Starling Girl really focuses on Jem's perspective and her desires, so what is it that you think draws Jem to Owen? What does she see in him that she's not getting elsewhere? On the other hand, we have poor Ben Taylor, and Austin Abrams just playing him like the saddest boy alive. What was that dynamic like for you? I love that scene where Jem's parents are like, "You're gonna marry into the pastor's family!" And you're like, "I don't know him..."
Eliza Scanlen: Yeah, we were so lucky to have rehearsals, and we made it a priority. Lewis and I really wanted that time, and so did Laurel. This film has been with Laurel for a long time, so she knew exactly what she wanted from every scene. She had thought about it so much that she knew exactly what she needed to say for us to understand where she wanted us to go with the characters. And she's really good at talking to actors.