Fred Hechinger on Toronto Drama ‘Butcher’s Crossing,’ Nicolas Cage and Luck

variety.com:

Gregg Goldstein The last time Fred Hechinger was in Toronto, he came to see a film that left his acting on the cutting room floor.

Six years later, in one of several full-circle moments, the breakout star of HBO’s “The White Lotus” and Sony/Marvel’s upcoming Spider-Man Universe entry “Kraven the Hunter” returns with the Sept.

9 Gala premiere of “Butcher’s Crossing,” his first lead role in a feature. “It was my first time going to a festival to see something that I was a part of,” the actor recalls. “I was working behind the scenes on [the romantic drama] ‘Tramps,’ they put me in one scene and I got cut, but it was technically the first thing I’ve ever acted in.” Yet that trip ignited a bizarre series of events that helped launch his career. “To connect a lot of crazy dots, the next morning I saw the first [TIFF] screening of ‘Moonlight’ and a Q&A with Barry Jenkins.” When the director hired him years later for the 2021 Amazon Prime miniseries “The Underground Railroad,” Hechinger read some revivalist western novels on set for research … including John Williams’ 1960 book, “Butcher’s Crossing.” He emailed around  to see who had the rights and discovered that director/co-writer Gabe Polsky was almost ready to film the adaptation. “I just stayed on it and pestered them as much as possible.

Then there was an audition call for it — that was actually just luck.” Fate may have played a role in him landing the part of an 1870s Harvard student who embarks on a treacherous journey with a buffalo-hunting guide (Nicolas Cage), in a film that exposes an obscure, dark incident in US history.