VIDEO EXCLUSIVE: Director Anthony Chen On Working With Cynthia Erivo On ‘Drift’

The film Drift follows once-wealthy refugee Jacqueline (Cynthia Erivo) as she struggles to survive on a small Greek island. In between squatting in abandoned houses and stealing food, Jacqueline meets an American tour guide, Callie (Alia Shawkat), and struggles to form a friendship with her.

In an exclusive interview with uInterview at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, director Anthony Chen discussed why he wanted to work on the film.

>WATCH CYNTHIA ERIVO’s uINTERVIEW NOW

“I was very moved and haunted by the character of Jacqueline,” he explained. “I thought it was a real person but it was actually adapted from a novel. But I myself, I grew up in Singapore, an immigrant, I lived in the U.K. for 17 years and you know, I think when you look at all my films, my films are always from the outsider and I think I really really related to the character yeah and I think it’s it’s a story that needs to be told.”

Chen went on to talk about what directing Erivo was like.

“It was very very collaborative and you know I have to say this, I think it’s it’s one of the most compelling performances,” he revealed. “It’s so naked, it’s so vulnerable, and you know I saw that everyone – Cynthia, Alia, like all the actors, like everyone on the team – I think they put so much of their own emotions into this film and I think and I hope people would feel it when you see on the screen you know there’s been so much tragedy in the film.”