ComingSoon Editor-in-Chief Tyler Treese talked to The Absence of Eden star Garrett Hedlund about the upcoming drama movie. The actor spoke about his relationship with Marco Perego and the experience of playing a character who struggles with his choices. The Absence of Eden is set to release in theaters on Friday, April 12.
“The Absence of Eden takes place at the border between the United States and Mexico – a hellish landscape inhabited by coyotes, armed officers, desperate immigrants, and refugees,” reads the film‘s synopsis. “When Esmee (Saldaña), a young woman working as a private dancer in Mexico, is forced to commit a violent act of self-defense that results in the death of a cartel member, she flees her homeland for sanctuary in the United States. Guided by a ruthless Coyote and a group of undocumented immigrants, she befriends a young mother and her daughter along the way. Before crossing the border, the mother is taken from the group, and Esmee promises to protect her daughter and help them reunite again in America, touching off an interlocking story about people struggling to survive on America’s border with Mexico.”
Tyler Treese: What’s so interesting about your character Shipp is that he’s having this very personal dilemma where he’s questioning his job. He’s in a relationship with this fantastic woman who winds up being an illegal immigrant into the country, which conflicts with him being an ICE agent. What did you find most interesting about that inner conflict that we see play out?
Garrett Hedlund: That it’s a very normal conflict. It happens every day, a million times a day — just slightly different professions and slightly different stakes at hand. Shipp’s very complex and conflicted and hasn’t had the best go at it or dealt the greatest of hands, but he’s he’s landed a job. He’s grateful for that, but then he is faced with having to make some very tricky decisions and go up against his own internal obstacles of fear every day.
We don’t see your character and Zoë’s character meet up until near the end. They have parallel stories, but when you do meet, it’s a really great scene. Can you talk about that intense chase and the physicality? I was surprised at how physical you both got. How was filming that scene?
Well, Zoë and I, we’ve been dear friends for a very long time. Same with Marco [Perego, director]. So first, I was so happy to get to work with her and Marco on this film [and] collaborate. Finally, when you’re working with somebody you care dearly for and having to do scenes like this, you just want to make sure everybody’s safe. That’s first and foremost. Other than that, her and I are very similar in the way that we like to make everything look as realistic as possible, to our detriment.
So that was the situation we were dealing with there. It’s a gritty, sort of dark scene, but it’s my character. He’s quite angry — not particularly at her, but he’s quite angry about what he’s done previous to this, what he’s had to do. He’s really questioning if he can withstand what this job is going to ask of him and his future moving forward. He’s met himself with the decisions he’s made in life, all the while thinking that he finally made a good one.
You mentioned Marco — I was very surprised this was his feature debut because it’s so confidently shot. What stood out about him as a director?
What stood out to me for Marco as a director [was] his passion, his commitment, his poetry, his artistry, his sensitive aura, his vulnerability — all of that radiated to the crew and the cast wonderfully. It just made everybody want to do something poetic right back for him. Do something honest. Everybody was eager to be as honest as they could on screen. What more could you ask for? What more could you ask for in a director to make you want to do that, to give you the security and space to do that? It was a gift.
