VIDEO EXCLUSIVE: ‘The Boys’ Star Erin Moriarty On ‘Catching Dust’ Character, Acting With Jai Courtney

In her new exclusive uInterview, Erin Moriarty discusses transforming into her character Geena in the film Catching Dust, which is premiering this weekend at the Tribeca Film Festival.  

Moriarty, known for her role as Starlight in The Boys, described the strange world of her character.

“She is a young woman who is living in a trailer with her husband and she believes that they’re living in a commune that’s deserted,” she told uInterview founder Erik Meers. “But essentially she’s very secluded, she’s very suppressed by this husband and she’s living in Texas that already has weird, especially this specific part she comes from, the gender roles are not the same.” 

For Moriarty, the most important way for her to prepare for this role was getting Geena’s Texas accent down. 

“One of the biggest things for me, funnily enough, and it may seem trivial, was working with a dialect coach, Jerome Butler, and really getting specific about Geena’s accent, specifically where in Texas and once I started to really get into the details and get granular with the accent, the accent alone made me feel like I was playing a different human being and that granted me something I’ve never been able to do before or feel before.”

In the film, Geena is in an abusive relationship with her husband Clyde, played by Jai Courtney. Moriarty reflected how her character deals with the abuse.

“I think it’s really how are you going to act, how are you going to behave in a situation where you have been raised with no tools, no psychological tools, no physical resources to leave a man like this and you’ve been conditioned into believing that you’re value is as a wife and you do fall in love with someone, and it’s genuine love, but it’s a trauma bond,” she said.

Unfortunately, Geena has grown up in an environment that did not give her the tools she needs to escape this relationship, so the character does struggle with this. 

“It’s more so about really considering where she comes from and what she does and that she’s doing the best she can with the tools she has and really those tools are just lacking,” she said. “She is simply someone who ultimately is trying to escape her abuser and suppress her and on the other end of things her abuser and suppressor is someone that I think we want to put in a box but we can’t because he too is from a really traumatic background.”

Moriarty and Courtney were both tasked with playing these difficult roles and because they were playing husband and wife it was important that they felt comfortable with each other, which they were able to achieve. 

“He knew that he could try anything and vice versa and we were going to encourage each other and that we were both just going to have fun but really dig in but also ultimately really be there for each other so we had a really great friendship off-screen which really helped us go there on screen.” 

Courtney’s character also grew up in an environment that was similar to Geena’s where there was a lot of toxicity. 

“With Jai’s character, you know when I think about that character and we maybe would judge a character like Geena for even falling in love with him, I sort of looked at it in the respect that okay well very often abusers are perpetuating a behavior they grew up with. And so I wanted to show that their love once upon a time she thought was strong enough to push beyond his behavioral patterns,” she said.

Part of the plot of the movie includes a new couple moving into their town and how this affects Geena. 

“This couple arrives and she sees it as an opportunity and also it’s fascinating to her because like any other situation when you meet people and immerse yourself in people who come from a different universe that really expands your mind in terms of what’s possible for you…. It just to me reflects how profound it can be to be someone who is exposed to a way of living and being and that you didn’t think possible.”

Moriarty, who clearly loved playing Geena, also revealed what question she would ask her character. 

“Because she’s young when we meet her, but she’s old enough that she’s lived in that world for so long my question would be, do you think you can really transcend your upbringing and past enough to remove all of the emotional blocks that your childhood and your previous relationships have catalyzed?” she said.

Catching Dust premieres on June 11 at the Tribeca Film Festival and tickets are currently on sale.