Based on Russell Wangersky‘s short story,Sharp Cornerserves as writer-director Jason Buxton’s second feature film. The movie, which had itsToronto International Film Festivalpremiere on September 6, focuses on a literal sharp corner that leads to a series of tragic crashes and takes over the once-normal life of a family man named Josh. He soon gives up even pretending to care about his career and marriage in order to spend his time preventing the next crash, even as his wife begs him to return to reality.
Ben Foster (Hell of High Water)stars inSharp Corneras Josh, withCobie Smulders (How I Met Your Mother)playing his wife Rachel. The movie begins by showing their seemingly idyllic life, including their new dream home in Nova Scotia, but the picturesque portrayal is broken when a teenage driver crashes on the corner and into their house. From that moment on, Josh can hardly focus on his wife, job, or 6-year-old son Max because he is too focused on saving the next victim of a car accident.
Screen Rant’s Toronto International Film Festival 2024 Awards
Screen Rant covered the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival. We saw so many films and had to hand out some awards for the best films of the fest.
Screen Rantinterviewed Foster and Smulders about getting to the mindset of their characters inSharp Corner, how they collaborated with their director to get to the heart of the family dynamic, and how they feel about some of their other projects —3:10 to Yumaand the MCU respectively.
Ben Foster & Cobie Smulders Dive Into Their Complicated Sharp Corner Characters
“You evolve and change, and I think this is an extreme version of that.”
Screen Rant: Ben, I read that you didn’t fully understand Josh when you first read the script. What was your way into the character and his existential angst??
Ben Foster: Quiet desperation. The mundane repetition of being a person in a skin suit who has all the markers of comfort and feels of a vacuous black hole inside of them that he won’t recognize. Until an event happens, and then he’s stirred and becomes obsessive rather than self-reflective.
Screen Rant: How about you, Cobie? Rachel is someone who seems to understand herself, but a lot of her feelings are about the feelings of her son and her husband. How did you approach her and her interiority outside of that?
Cobie Smulders: Yeah, I think it’s hard to prepare for a character that is surprised by something. Luckily, I got to be on set with Ben, and we got to explore this relationship in a happier place. Then a lot of my time was spent watching and analyzing my husband on set and just saying what is happening and constantly examining each scene.
I think that happens a lot in marriages. You go in thinking, “Okay, this is it. We’re married, and this is what I signed up for. You’re like this, and I’m like this, and we stay like this forever, and we’re good.” And then as people do, you evolve and change, and I think this is an extreme version of that. She’s watching this metamorphosis happen and can’t really do much. She could probably do more in all honesty, but because they have this child, that’s where her focus and her drive goes.
Screen Rant: Speaking of the child, Will Kosovic seems like such a brilliant young actor. What was the family dynamic like on set, and how did you each approach your parental relationship with Max?
Ben Foster: Cobie, Will, and I would just spend time together building these marble structures. We had an activity and a build, and we just hung out. And it creates a shorthand and hopefully a safe way to be together for some of the more complicated places that we go with the material. I think we had the good fortune of some downtime just to hang out with the kiddo. That was important to us.
Sharp Corner’s Crash Scenes Serve As A Powerful Metaphor
“Maybe in other circumstances, they could have found healing, but not in this timeline.”
Screen Rant: The crash scenes are really visceral. What was it like to be there on set on the day? What does that look like from an acting perspective?
Cobie Smulders: It was funny watching it because I think I wasn’t really a part of any of the crashes. [Ben] dove in, but I was just there. We spent a lot of time with the initial one because it was such a starting point of the madness. The wheel coming through the window was a thing to figure out. But I think Rachel was sort of spared the real violence, and she didn’t really want to engage in it at all as opposed to her husband
Screen Rant: Do you think that this marriage could have survived without that first crash or were you always on this collision course?
Ben Foster: It’s a great question: can a relationship survive without an inciting event? It seems that everyone grows at their own rate, and they are at a particular reflection point in the relationship, and this becomes a catalyst that disrupts it. So the short answer is that it’s hard to say.
I do believe they’re working on very two different wavelengths. There is a line early on in that first scene before the first accident which very subtly points to it. Jason Buxton, our writer-director, wrote it with such austerity. [He says,] “We should do this more often,” which suggests there hasn’t been intimacy in a long time. And it’s a brief but sweet moment of careful, kind, hopeful, longing; a desire to reconnect. Maybe in other circumstances, they could have found healing, but not in this timeline.
Screen Rant: This is Jason’s second feature film, but he seems to have a really specific vision. What was it like for you on set with him both collaborating with him?
Cobie Smulders: He was wonderful. He was extremely collaborative, and I think he gives us a lot of freedom. And I think he was very smart to just let it roll on Ben, who’s just so freaking talented. And there are moments in this movie that I find myself laughing so hard at, and I’m not supposed to.
Ben Foster: Laughing with or laughing at?
Cobie Smulders: Laughing with and at.
Ben Foster: Laughing near.
Cobie Smulders: He has an amazing instinct, obviously. And [the fact that he] just allows us to play and feel the confidence to give us that it is unique to making a film for the second time.
Maria Hill’s Future In The MCU & Ben Foster’s Love Of Westerns
Screen Rant: On another note, Cobie, I will never forgive the MCU for killing off Maria Hill.DespiteSecret Invasion, would you come back in the flesh if MCU corrects their horrible mistake?
Cobie Smulders: Yes. Yeah, sure. Absolutely. When Marvel calls you on the phone, you go. You do the things they ask you to - or at least I do.
Screen Rant:3:10 To Yumais finally on Netflixand has been hailed as one of the greatest modern Westerns. Between it andHell or High Water, what draws you to the genre?
Ben Foster: I dig the West. I love road trips. I live in the South, and I love driving through the countries of America. I’m drawn to the stark nature of a man against landscape. What will you do to survive? Those are questions I think we all ask.
Check out our otherTIFF 2024interviews here:
Sharp Cornerpremiered on September 6 at the Toronto International Film Festival and is currently seeking U.S. distribution.
