ComingSoon Editor-in-Chief Tyler Treese spoke with American Cherry star Hart Denton about the romantic drama thriller. The actor discussed growing up in Arkansas and his attraction to darker roles.
“American Cherry is a psychological thriller-romance about a mysterious, troubled boy who meets an impressionable girl in their small town,” reveals the synopsis. “Together they embark on a romance where his love turns into obsession as he tries to protect her from her dysfunctional family — he makes her a video diary that confesses an intricate story of love, mental illness, and the tragic consequences if left untreated.”
Tyler Treese: Hart, you’re from Arkansas. Did you relate to this theme throughout American Cherry of small-town pressure and feeling trapped in such a small area?
Hart Denton: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it was such a surreal experience for me to get to go back and shoot in the place that I grew up. I mean, right outside of it — it was a couple of towns over. I definitely connect with growing up in a small place, but it was very easy for me to do because I was in my real environment, like how it was for me growing up — being in a place that’s very underdeveloped and a lot of nature.
We were originally supposed to shoot somewhere in … I can’t remember, somewhere in the Caribbean, or maybe … I think it was [the] Dominican Republic and something happened where we couldn’t, and then all of a sudden, they wanted to shoot in Arkansas, unbeknownst that I was from there, and it just was perfect. It all lined up so well that I got to be in this environment that was very natural to me and pulled me into what was real life for me growing up.
That’s so crazy that it all happened by accident, but I assume it just pulls you more into that mindset, more into that character. I’m sure it was more natural, filming so close to home.
Oh, it was. It definitely was. It felt very similar to how I grew up, even environment-wise, which was cool.
Finn and Eliza’s connection throughout the film was so powerful and well-done. What did you find most interesting about these two people that have gone through a lot and, in so much trauma, have found each other?
There’s actually a lot of that. I feel like there’s a lot of that in real life — that people tend to gravitate towards people that may have a shared feeling from a trauma. It may not be the same trauma, but there may be a same result that has changed that person because of whatever that trauma is, and I felt that with them. They had this unspoken connection because of a mutual residual effect that they had felt from things that they dealt with early on in growing up.
I love the use of the young versions of the kids in the film. I thought that was beautiful, especially Finn’s. I think the kid that played the young version of me just did so well and portrayed that feeling of wanting his mother, especially, to love him so much and not really receiving that and how that can, over time, gradually change somebody and affect somebody. It inevitably leads to what Finn becomes.
Those flashback scenes are great and I was impressed with just your chemistry with Eliza’s actress, Sarah May Sommers. Can you speak to working with her and how you two managed to make such a great, authentic-feeling bond on screen?
Yeah, she’s awesome. She’s very talented and it was easy. Right away, we just understood these characters and the way that they saw one another and it felt seamless. It felt very natural. That’s a huge testament to her. She’s a great actress.
We get a good mixture of scenes between Finn and Eliza. There are some sweet, slower scenes, there are some very intense emotional scenes. I was curious if there was one that really stuck out for you that, when you think about filming, comes straight to mind and that you’re really proud of?
There’s so many moments between them that I loved. First of all, we shot this film on 35 millimeter film, so you couldn’t do a ton of takes of stuff. It wasn’t digital and that’s a rarity this day and age. A lot of stuff is digital and I find with digital that you can look at things right away. You can watch what you just shot immediately. There’s a lot of flexibility in takes. And with this, we would get two or three takes with stuff. So it felt like the movie flew by and it felt like there was no moment where I’m like, “Oh gosh, that scene was like 30 takes long,” which has been the case on some other projects. This wasn’t that. It was … we had one or two takes, so it really just went by like a blur and it all felt like … yeah, there’s several moments, especially upon watching the film again, that I was pulled right back into that space. One of those was definitely that tattered barn that we feature throughout, when it overlooks all that vast greenery and that was such a … that was a very hot day.
Most of the days were, because we were shooting this in June in Arkansas and it was like a hundred degrees and with the humidity it feels like 120. I was so grateful to be doing the whole project and there was something about it being on this big old film camera that felt like a camera wasn’t there. It felt like we were just playing with one another. It was the first time I had shot on film like that. And with digital, for some reason, I was more aware there was a camera because you could watch it immediately and and whatnot. But with this, there was something about it that felt like there was like a mental trick. This footage has to be developed and it’s ages away from anyone seeing it. There was a great freedom in that and it allowed Sarah and I to have a lot of great moments that were very authentic and organic. It felt very natural to me.
You’ve managed to play these troubled characters very well. Are you attracted to that type of role or did it just happen to be like that?
I don’t know … I’ve asked myself [Laugh]. That’s how I started a lot of my stuff, be it Riverdale or 13 Reasons Why or American Cherry, I was doing these roles that had a much darker, heavier tone to them. It’s just the way that it played out. I wasn’t necessarily trying to to start that way, but I knew I didn’t want to start on the opposite side of that because I knew that that was a more difficult hill to get over if you aren’t seen in that way. I like being seen in a way from a professional standpoint that I can get to that place because I think it takes more to get there than the opposite side of things that are very light and happy.
But I have done two other films that are coming out this year that are on the lighter side and doing them after these heavier, darker-toned things that I did was a lot of fun like to do. I did a movie called The Duel that just won some awards at Mammoth Film Festival and I have a lot of comedy in that film and it’s the first time that I was given this palette to play around with humor. I was so grateful of it and it was so much fun and I want to do more things like that. But I like the mix of stuff. I’ve always been drawn to … I think the villain tells the story — not that Finn’s the villain in this film — but I think the villain does carry the story because without the villain, there isn’t really a story.
There’s not anything to overcome, there’s no adversity there. I’ve always been drawn to villainous characters in movies and, especially since I was a young kid, I remember even the Riddler when Jim Carrey was doing that. When I was … I had to be five or six years old watching it and I was so entranced with that character, or the Penguin — a lot of the Batman films, there was a lot of things. I loved Beetlejuice. There were these characters that were kind of antiheroes and they were just a darker tone and I wanted to be that. My favorite movie growing up was Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Seeing Gene Wilder play this character that is good but also has its own intensity and its own flaws was so alluring to me. And I think that naturally, that has all just sort of come about in a beautiful way that I’m very grateful for, that my career has been going in this direction of being able to do things that were a little darker.
One thing that I really liked about American Cherry was just how emotional the ending was and how it really capped off the movie. I don’t want to get into spoilers, but can you speak to how that registered with you emotionally?
Yeah, I loved the ending too. We shot a little bit more footage and I don’t want to give too much away as well, but we shot some footage that was right at the end that I’m actually happy seeing, upon the final cut, that it wasn’t used, because it was a little more on the nose of how it ends and a little more graphic. I like that it keeps it a bit ambiguous to a point. You definitely know where the story goes after that, but there is a sense of ambiguity that I appreciate them editing in the way that they did.
It’s interesting to see an indie film on film, as you mentioned. What impressed you the most about working with the director Marcella Cytrynowicz?
So Marcella came to me with this story. I had known Marcella for a while and she came to me with this story that originally was called … the original script was called Fishbowl. When it changed to American Cherry, I always kept this feeling of Fishbowl throughout the project because it felt like I was living in this like little tiny fishbowl like a goldfish would. Her and I kept this dialogue throughout the whole project that was very easy. She’s so easy to talk to. She’s such a calming person. It never seemed … sets can be chaotic at times. I’ve seen people lose their cool. It’s easy to do that on a set because, especially as a director, you’re handling so much. You have so many people relying on your choices and your decisions and your commands.
With this being a first time feature for her, she handled it so well. She handled it so gracefully and I loved working with her. And every note the we had was just … it was almost like she has a therapeutic quality to just her voice and she has such a good vision for what she sees and what she wants. I loved working with her and I love her whole family. Her sister’s in the film, Valentina, and I love their parents. Her smallest sisters in it as well. They’re all amazing. I’ve known them for a long time and it’s a pleasure to be around them for about a month shooting this.
