variety.com
08.09.2022 / 16:29
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Fred Hechinger on Toronto Drama ‘Butcher’s Crossing,’ Nicolas Cage and Luck
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.”