‘Aftersun’ star Frankie Corio reveals she had “no idea” it was “supposed to be sad”
The actor in Aftersun, Frankie Corio, has admitted that she had “no idea” how sad the film was supposed to be during the shooting of the movie. Corio, who stars alongside Paul Mescal in the Oscar-nominated film, shared on social media that the writer and director, Charlotte Wells, purposefully kept her in the dark about the sad parts of the film.
Mescal stars in the film as Corio’s on-screen father, whose vacation takes a dark turn. For her directorial debut, Wells said that she took inspiration from her own family dynamic with her late dad.
When working on the film, she only told Corio about the scenes that she was involved in. This meant that Corio didn’t know about the darker scenes, which only involved Mescal and the more internal sequences that used Mescal’s character.
“Funny story, I had almost no idea the film was supposed to be sad,” Corio wrote on TikTok when discussing the movie, “Charlotte the director let me read my scenes. None of Paul’s… She wanted it to be very natural and truly unaware.”
In a four-and-a-half star review, Far Out wrote of the film: “Aftersun’s greatest achievement is its innovative narrative structure which actually reflects the complex machinations of human memory.”
It continues: “While many filmmakers have used the cinematic medium to conduct memorable investigations of memory, Aftersun is actually a commentary on the technological evolution of memory and its impact on our collective cultural consciousness. Wells effortlessly connects the personal to the universal, inviting the audience to explore a liminal space.”
For his performance, Mescal was nominated in the ‘Best Actor’ category at both the Academy Awards and Baftas.
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