Jonathan Tucker on Playing a Charming Predator in ‘Palm Trees and Power Lines’: ‘I Just Deplore This Man’

variety.com:

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and Media“Palm Trees and Power Lines,” an unnerving and deeply disturbing look at an older man who grooms a bored teenager, asks challenging questions about consent and predation.As Tom, Jonathan Tucker, a veteran scene-stealer in “Kingdom” and “Westworld,”  is a revelation, painting a picture of pure evil that is nonetheless charming and seductive.

He appears on the scene as Lea (newcomer Lily McInerny) is feeling bored and disconnected from her single mother and friends and prays on that loneliness and dissatisfaction for sinister ends. “Palm Trees and Power Lines” marks co-writer and director Jamie Dack’s feature film debut and earned rave reviews when it debuted at this year’s Sundance with some critics praising it as one of the best films of the festival.

Tucker is thrilled with the reception, but admitted to Variety that watching the finished film was one of the most challenging experiences of his professional life. Why did you want to make “Palm Trees and Power Lines”? Over the past 30 years of working in the entertainment business, I’ve sort of honed my intuition.

Oftentimes we put all this dissonance between our gut and the choices that we make and we don’t trust that voice in our head that is telling us what’s the right way to go.