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Hi Everyone! If you’ve been following The Joel Edgerton Miscellany for any length of time you know that it offers at least 2 new posts every day. Well, I’m afraid that I’m heading off on a project where I’ll be unable to access a reliable internet connection for the next month or two, which means that I cannot promise a daily post during that time.

I’ll do my best to post when I can, but I’m pretty sure that I will not be able to update The Miscellany on a daily basis as usual. But never fear – The Miscellany is not signing off or closing down; just going off on a short hiatus. It will be back to the usual daily posts soon!  :-)

In the meantime -- please enjoy the 5000+ archived posts in The Miscellany, and accept my deepest thanks for all your kind and generous support of Joel's work and The Miscellany! Keep smiling and searching for the work and people you love!  xxoo 

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“What makes Edgerton interesting is that on the one hand he's an all-Australian lad who'll just about try anything; on the other he's a discriminating, hard-working actor who's taken almost 15 years to harness his talent fully, to reach the career sweet spot he's now."

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"Joel Edgerton truly embodies the role of Richard with his slimmed down appearance, cropped blonde hair and stoic swagger. Ruth Negga shines as Mildred too, her pensive stares and large eyes conveying a multitude of emotions. [Director] Nichols places focus on how their relationship shifts under the strain, and how their love eventually prevailed against the odds."

--  'The List' review of "Loving"

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When asked what he would do if he was ever down to his last $5, Joel Edgerton promptly replied, "I’d ask a mate to kick in $5 and give the lot to The Fred Hollows Foundation so it could restore someone’s sight. I’ve been down to my last $20 before. I wasn’t so selfless at the time, just depressed and annoyed."

Photos show Joel working with the Fred Hollows Foundation at various clinics in Australia and Nepal. Joel has been a longtime supporter and Ambassador for the Foundation, the Australian charity which does exceptional work eradicating preventable blindness amongst Indigenous Australians and in developing countries around the world.

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Jason's character has "the ability to talk his way out of anything. The teachers would have thought butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth. He could talk his way into a girl’s pants, and he was probably a guy who lived by his wits. That person is really dangerous because they have the ability to shape-shift."

"I knew I needed that guy to be very likable when we first entered the movie -- unthreatening, trustworthy. It’s like, 'Who do we like? And who is going to be more interesting when he becomes a jerk when we stop to see the true nature of his character?'... [Jason has] got everything he needs to do to make this movie sing. And I just love watching him."

--  Joel Edgerton on why he cast Jason Bateman against type as Simon in "The Gift;" shown on set with Bateman

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“I always check with my brother when I’m offered a role. And he’ll say, ‘Take the money away from the equation, do you really want to do that movie?’ And when I say, ‘No, but they’re going to give me X amount of dollars,’ he tells me not to do the movie because I already get paid enough. And he’s right.”

--  Joel Edgerton

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If you’ve seen “The Gift” you know that Robyn’s (Rebecca Hall) very charismatic dog Mr. Bojangles plays a pivotal role in the film, and every so often someone sends me a message asking if I know what breed he is.

Jangles was played by Bolt, a beautiful St. Bernard/Australian Shepherd mix who is trained by Gary Mui. Bolt is an incredibly appealing and intelligent dog, and has appeared in many films and television ads. When Joel was once asked who was his favourite cast member on “The Gift,” he physically melted and replied, “Oh, my God, I love that dog. I love the dog.”   :-)  

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When asked how he thought he would respond if he ever found himself a desperate survivor of a global disaster as does his character in "It Comes at Night," Joel Edgerton laughingly confessed that his first reaction would be to "Cry. I'd eat all the canned food on day one. Cry, and hide in the cupboard. I'm no leader."

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Joel Edgerton and Ridley Scott developed a mutual respects for one another's talents when they worked together on "Exodus: Gods and Kings," and when Joel later began shooting his first feature film "The Gift," Scott sent him an encouraging text offering his help:

"Ridley Scott sent me a message going, 'Let me know when you need me to turn up to shoot second unit'...In the middle of the night saying, 'Don’t take any shit from anybody,' with a martini kit [emoji]."

"At the time, I thought was a joke, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he backed it up...I was like, ‘Ha ha ha!’ Then I was like, ‘I wouldn’t imagine that was a lie. He would.’"

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Although 'It Comes at Night' is full of fear, horror, and pain, there is one  welcome moment of comic relief between Joel Edgerton's character and Christopher Abbott's. Joel has revealed that that bit was not in the script, but was completely ad-libbed by him and Abbott. As one reviewer noted, "it was also a vital moment for the film, as it provided some much needed hope that this new community could work."

As Joel explains, "That's the one moment of levity. That was unscripted and let us show the family, because in order for the family to go on their downward spiral -- the two families -- they really need to get to a place of, 'Aw, this could work.' There's a hopefulness. There's a sense of community" before it all goes wrong.

Photo: Joel Edgerton and Christopher Abbott keep each other entertained at the NY premiere of "It Comes at Night"

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"It Comes at Night" cast mates Joel Edgerton, Carmen Ojogo, and Kelvin Harrison Jr. share some laughs whilst describing the things they did to bond as a family on the film, and reveal who they think would be the most capable survivor in a post-apocalyptic world...

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“I narrowly missed out on a job [in 2006] in London playing the youngest PM in Britain, William Pitt, [in 'Amazing Grace']. I did a really good audition and I worked really hard to get the job. The director ummed and ahhed on me for weeks. Finally, he said, ‘My issue with Joel is that he doesn’t strike me as blue-blooded enough.'…When he looked at me, I didn’t seem like the upper class, silver spoon type. Inside, I was like, 'No, no, I can be that!'" 

So anyway, then I get to [casting] 'The Square' and I had this realisation.  There’s this thing I refer to as the - You Are The Guy Or You Are Not The Guy - and I realised when I was dealing with this director in London that I just wasn’t The Guy. If I was the only guy in contention, I could’ve been The Guy and I could’ve done a good job, but because there was another person in the frame (Benedict Cumberbatch) that was more The Guy than I was The Guy…Well, now I’ve completely given up all those feelings of, ‘Arghhh!’ because if I was the director, I would’ve picked the other guy too!"

--  Joel Edgerton on losing out on a role to Benedict Cumberbatch and learning that casting decisions are rarely personal 

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"I'm not that into preening. Some might just call me lazy."

--  Joel Edgerton on his decidedly low-maintenance personal style

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"I wanted there to be a certain desperation ,,, kind of like there's a certain fragility to his paranoia as well. The dynamic between him and Will (Christopher Abbott, the patriarch of the family Paul takes into his home) is, 'I want to trust you but I don't know if I can.' That sense of self-doubt. And so I definitely needed a presence, in the energy and in the eyes."

--  Joel Edgerton talking about the character he plays in "It Comes at Night"

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Click on the attached link to watch a very informative 30 mins. interview with Joel Edgerton, Carmen Ejogo, Kelvin Harrison Jr. and writer/director Trey Edward Shults as they discuss their new film, the deeply disturbing "It Comes at Night."

Joel, Carmen, and Kelvin provide some particularly interesting insights into how they appproached creating a family on screen.

https://build.aol.com/video/5935acf4f3bdc946b9a35e58/#nav-videos

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"It seems like a parable for today's times of paranoia. The press is feeding it. We're all feeding it. World events are exacerbating it, this sense of going, 'Some people we can trust and other people we don't.' And I'm afraid if you don't have a certain level of intelligence and your own discernment, then we fall into generalizations. Everyone stands to learn something about taking a moment to really weigh up the way that they judge other people."

--  Joel Edgerton commenting on how the fear, paranoia, and mistrust so prevalent in his new film "It Comes at Night" reflects the prevailing mood in the world today

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A short interview with Joel Edgerton and Riley Keough who appeared on the US television show "Good Morning America" this week to discuss their new psychological horror film "It Comes at Night."