‘Causeway’ Producer Justine Ciarrocchi On Why Jennifer Lawrence Sparked To Film’s War Veteran Lead – Contenders New York
deadline.comJennifer Lawrence’s Excellent Cadaver producing partner Justine Ciarrocchi said the Oscar-winning actress was “itching to do something small and intimate” after years of doing bigger studio movies when she signed on to make Lila Neugebauer’s Causeway. “We were submitted the original draft of the [Causeway] script towards the end of Jen’s (three- year) acting hiatus,” said Ciarrocchi, who appeared via Zoom for a panel at Deadline’s The Contenders Film: New York award-season event. “So much of what we were reading at the time was super traditionally structured and predictable, and sort of checking all the right boxes.
We were reading scripts that just didn’t feel particularly inspiring or relatable, but when we got this piece, it was the opposite of all of that. [Causeway] was a true character piece.
We could feel the mood on the page. So, we reacted right away.” In the A24 and Apple Original Films feature, Lawrence plays Lynsey, an Afghanistan war vet who is suffering from body and brain injuries.
She forms an unlikely friendship with a mechanic named James (Brian Tyree Henry). Causeway, which is Excellent Cadaver’s first project, also appealed to Lawrence on a personal level, Ciarrocchi said. “Jen lives a glorious but strange life as most public figures do,” the producer said. “I think she’s always grappled with the idea of wondering where she belongs and where home is and has experienced, like all of us, isolation.
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