Actor Jonathan Tucker chatted about his new movie “Palm Trees and Power Lines.”
The synopsis is as follows: A disconnected teenage girl Lea (Lily McInerny) falls into a relationship with Tom (played by Jonathan Tucker), a man twice her age. She sees him as the solution to all her problems, but his intentions are not what they seem.
On playing Tom, he said, “I liked the opportunity to create physical and spiritual trust in the relationship with Lily’s character Lea. You want to be able to have a character that offers himself as a guide towards a certain destination vs. somebody who will force them to a corner.”
Lily McInerny
“Working with Lily was one of the greatest privileges that I’ve had as an actor because I was able to recognize how lucky I was to have a front-row seat to a world-class performer. I think Lily is an actress that will end up having an extraordinary career, so to have participated in her first film is quite a thrill,” he said.
Quadruple Independent Spirit Award nominee
“Palm Trees and Power Lines” will be in theaters and On Demand on March 3, and it has been nominated for four 2023 Independent Spirit Awards, which include nods for “Best First Feature” and “Best First Screenplay.”
“You appreciate the platforms, the institutions or the people that are able to get your film to reach an audience. The critics are the champions. This is a very small movie with a very small crew. You want to support good movies and good stories that are well-told about important subjects and it is written, produced, and directed by a female, and it’s their first feature film. It is helpful to remember that you want to support those voices as t hey step out onto the edge,” Tucker said.
The film was directed by Jamie Dack, and it was written by Dack and Audrey Findlay. “I want people to see this movie, and I hope they see it in theaters. Believe the hype,” he said.
“It’s my 30th year paying my dues to the Screen Actors Guild, and it has been very gratifying that my intuition about Jamie Dack proved to be spot-on. I knew from the very beginning that she is a very real and important filmmaker, and she has proven it over and over again,” he said.
The digital age
On being an actor in the digital age, Tucker said, “One hopes that it provides more opportunities for audiences to see the film. There are many movies that resonate more deeply on a big screen, and/or with an audience. This film is one of them so it is thrilling that the movie will be playing in a handful of theaters for the first few weekends, and we hope that people make the effort to see the film on the big screen.”
For young and aspiring actors, Tucker said, “Slow is smooth, and smooth is fast.”
‘In The Valley of Elah’
He recalled being a part of the Oscar-nominated film “In The Valley of Elah” starring Tommy Lee Jones and Charlize Theron. “Paul Haggis was a very important part of my career, and he is a very important storyteller. I hope I will have an opportunity in the future to make movies again with him.”
“This movie is probably one of my favorite roles of Tommy Lee Jones,” Tucker added.
On the title of the current chapter of his life, he said, “We do hard things.”
Tucker noted that it was the periods of unemployment that helped define him. “Nothing builds character and passion more than hot water or profound adversity,” he said.
His favorite motto to live by is the following: “honor fairness, kindness, and truth.”
Tucker defined the word success as “being a good father and the opportunity to tell the stories that he wants to tell.”
To learn more about Jonathan Tucker, follow him on Instagram.
