Caleb Landry Jones, who is starring as Australia’s deadliest mass shooter ever in Nitram, says the movie will never say the killer’s name.
Caleb Landry Jones is set to play as Australia’s deadliest mass shooter, who killed 35 people and injured 24 more in Port Arthur in 1996. The actor is known for his roles such as Banshee in X-Men: First Class, Jeremy Armitage in Get Out, Red Welby in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, Ty Carter in The Outpost, and Jeff in Finch.
In an interview with Indie Wire, the 32-year-old actor described how he and the filmmakers would broach the sensitive topic of depicting a killer such as the one portrayed in Nitram.
“There’s this idea of infamy, and this idea of fame, and this idea of recognition, and it’s very dangerous,” Landry Jones said. “We, by not saying his name, by not mentioning him once, don’t want to participate in this.
I think they wanted to not be a part of that aspect of it as best as they could while still trying to express something that maybe we can only really do in places like film, to have a conversation afterwards about something like this, which is probably harder to do after watching the movie.”
Landry Jones also talked about the reasoning behind why certain mass shooters commit such acts of violence, “Maybe there are other things to talk about in the stereotypical conversation piece we [could] have. ‘Must be evil! Must be the mother!’ You know what I mean?
By not saying his name, it’s something similar to what I can only think of is… what I hate from the news and what that does, and how people have done these things because they know they will get 15 minutes. The higher the number, the bigger the story, and this is terrifying.”
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Caleb wraps up by talking about how he doesn’t know how to avoid getting wrapped up in his characters, “I’m always Caleb. I don’t know how to do the Daniel Day-Lewis, separate 100 percent. Andrew Garfield’s pretty good at it too.
I like to feel like I’m playing different characters, but for me, it’s more imagination and exploring parts of myself and parts that I don’t have maybe, and parts that I can identify from a small degree, whether it’s loneliness or heartbreak.”
