Cinema Scholars interviews After The Hunt writer Nora Garrett at the Austin Film Festival 2025. The new drama, directed by Luca Guadagnino, stars Julia Roberts, Ayo Adebisi, and Andrew Garfield. After The Hunt is currently in theaters nationwide.
Introduction
Since 2017’s “Me Too” reckoning, there have been a slew of films around the subject. From epic revenge tales like Promising Young Woman to the post-mortem of the Weinstein scandal, She Said (starring Carey Mulligan), the subject remains as popular as ever. As with most hot-button topics, however, once the fervor wanes, debate around the gray areas remains.
In Luca Guadagnino’s After The Hunt, Yale ethics and philosophy professors find themselves in the middle of a scandal, exploring the complex dynamics between men and women, professors and students, and the inner circles of the Ivy League world.
Synopsis
Alma (Julia Roberts) is a distinguished professor on the road to tenure at prestigious Yale University. When she’s not cultivating an open dialogue with PHD candidates in the classroom and boozy soirées at the home she shares with her psychiatrist husband Frederik (Michael Stuhlbarg), Alma leans on her close circle of colleagues.
In particular, a very tight bond with cohort Hank (Andrew Garfield), whose firebrand attitude elicits adoration and controversy alike. When Hank is accused of sexual assault of favored student Maggie (Ayo Edebiri), Alma must contend with the current situation in addition to her own past indiscretions.
Analysis
Based on the screenplay by Nora Garrett, After The Hunt perfectly illustrates that as much as we wish these topics to be black and white or good vs evil, the devil is always revealed in the convoluted details. As each character’s motivation gradually comes to light, the story you thought you knew is flipped on its head with a careful meditation on optics over substance.
In his usual captivating style, Luca Guadagnino builds the intrigue immediately with a “Time’s Up” ticking clock (or is it a time bomb?) signaling the dramatic wind of change soon to come. Details like close-ups of hands, partially framed visages, and mirrors peppered throughout point to the intimacy and duplicity of the difficult topic while also signaling the delicate nature.
Where some directors spell out exactly what they want you to think, Guadagnino’s visual interpretation of Garrett’s compelling narrative leaves the audience to make their own inferences right up to the surprising and heartbreaking conclusion, while providing a window into the varied nuance of human nature.
Performances
As Alma, America’s sweetheart, Julia Roberts sinks her teeth into a character that isn’t the most redeemable. Roberts can channel Alma’s no-nonsense resolve while also giving glimpses of her vulnerability and long-buried inner anguish that resurfaces in light of the current controversy.
Ayo Adebiri plays Maggie with the eagerness of a brainy student who is blind to her own naiveté. Though you feel compelled to “believe women” like Maggie, Adebiri reveals a hint of entitlement and immaturity that makes her story questionable. While entitlement and sexual assault are certainly not mutually exclusive, Adebiri’s nuanced portrayal allows for the discussion in a post-“Me Too” world.
As Hank, Andrew Garfield exudes a confidence and swagger befitting of a person who literally makes a living waxing philosophical. He gives his character a renegade sensibility fitting of the accusations against him. But when he is confronted with the demise of his entire world, Hank, via Garfield’s careful interpretation, may or may not be the only moral beacon in this story.
Further Discussion
Other subtle topics like Gen Z vs Gen X, rich kid entitlement and special treatment, and often-insufferable political correctness are broached but not preached. While these themes could weigh down an already heavy narrative, these elements add surprising moments of comic relief. Well, depending on your standpoint, of course. But these interludes also point to each of our perspectives based on our personal and collective experiences.
In the end, the common thread between all these moving parts is that, ultimately, everyone on some level is out for themselves. It’s all about Number One. It’s simply human nature and our innate compulsion for self-preservation. Sometimes, even when we know certain actions might be wrong, it may be necessary to maintain the greater good. Sometimes problematic? Yes. Blatantly realistic? Absolutely.
Cinema Scholars’ Rebecca Elliott recently had the opportunity to sit down for an in-person interview with After The Hunt screenwriter Nora Garrett. They discuss the intricacies of such a story in a post-#MeToo world, collaborating with a visionary director, and seeing an iconic performer nailing lines she wrote.
Interview
Rebecca Elliott:
First of all, thank you so much for being here and for sitting down with me today. I really appreciate it. And thank you for writing such an incredible story. It’s so interesting because the story begins as the archetypal “Me Too” story, but then it splinters into all the different dynamics behind such a difficult situation. Tell me about your process exploring all sides of a complex issue like that without betraying the whole “Me Too” movement.
Nora Garrett:
Sure. It’s funny. The film really began for me with the character of Alma. Not to say that I wasn’t conscious of social themes. Or not to say that I wasn’t aware of the current social-political moment that these characters were living in, and that I was living in. But to me, I think it’s tempting to believe that the film was created “outside-in” because of those themes and because of their temporal resonance. But for me, it’s always “inside-out.”
I have to start a story with characters and with their dynamics. The dynamics of the film and the dynamics of Alma, played by Julia Roberts, Maggie, played by Ayo Adebiri, and Hank, Andrew Garfield. That was always the crux of the triangle where I started the story. I think the resonance that’s had in the public and the “Me Too” nomenclature that’s been ascribed to it, that, I think, all came after.
Rebecca Elliott:
Interesting. Of course, you mentioned Julia Roberts, the incredible, iconic actress.
Nora Garrett:
I know. I’m like that little indie film artist.
Rebecca Elliott:
I see you’re actually speaking on a panel tomorrow at the Austin Film Festival on “Writing Great Characters To Attract Amazing Talent.” And I was like, “Yeah, she definitely checked that box!” What does it feel like to see an iconic actress like Julia Roberts-and all the other incredible players in the film- delivering lines that came out of your brain? And what did she bring to the role that wasn’t on the page?
Nora Garrett:
Yeah, it’s incredibly surreal. I feel very grateful that I was an assistant for as long as I was because, thank God, I had met other very famous people. Not quite her level of famous. She exists in her own pantheon of truly one of the last great movie stars that I think we have. I grew up watching Pretty Woman over and over and over again. And you’re watching that person coincide with the person you’re talking to, coincide with the character that you wrote. Very strange.
But I’m so grateful for her participation in the film. I just can’t imagine anyone else playing that character. Because she has such accessibility and warmth. She comes with an aura of accessibility and warmth because of her body of work and because of who she is in the world. Putting that on top of Alma made that character, I think, so much more accessible than otherwise she might have been.
Rebecca Elliott:
Absolutely. You also worked with such a visionary director as Luca Guadagnino. And I mean, his body of work is pretty varied from Susperia to Bones and All and then Call Me By My Name and Challengers. He really nails complex storytelling. Did you guys get to collaborate at all, or does he just take the screenplay and do his own thing? Tell me about your collaboration with the director.
Nora Garrett:
I think Luca is a rare auteur in the sense th as at he collaborates with his writers and keeps his writers close. I was on set for the entirety of filming, and I think the same thing was true of Justin Kuritzkes when he did Queer and Challengers. Part of that is because Luca is very facile and spontaneous, even as he is deliberate. There was a necessity for me to be on set because there was a lot of rewriting happening on set all the time.
But I felt very lucky. I felt very lucky to be included in that process because I think it’s incredibly rare. Film is known as a director’s medium, and I think that makes some directors feel like they have permission to exclude anything that came before their involvement. And that was not my experience, so it was really wonderful.
Rebecca Elliott:
Good. Yeah. I’ve had the privilege of knowing and being friends with a few screenwriters, and they have told me different experiences with different directors. So sometimes they’re right there with them, and other times it’s like, “Bye, thanks for that script!”
Nora Garrett:
Yes, exactly. It’s either a closed adoption or an open adoption. Yeah, totally.
Rebecca Elliott:
Ha! That’s a perfect metaphor. Okay, so you seem super comfortable in this whole Ivy League realm of philosophy and ethics. Can you tell me if you have a background in that, and if so, and if not, what was your research? It’s a high concept, but you also made it digestible for laypeople like me. And then also, obviously, the comparisons between what they’re talking about, ethics and philosophy, and then the actual issues at hand.
Nora Garrett:
I think my choice to set this in academia was much about the slippery power dynamics and the worshipful relationship between student and teacher, and the narrowing concentric circles of prestige that occur in academia. Especially as you move closer to tenure, and especially if you’re in an Ivy League institution where you’re already in this elite space. And somehow, yet there’s a higher mountain to climb! But I certainly have. I love academia, and I am someone who loves school. I was a huge nerd. But a lot of the dialog and a lot of the scenarios were initially borne out of my willful imagination of what that salon-like intellectual atmosphere looks like.
I had taken a couple of philosophy courses at Hawk. And my cousin was getting her master’s in philosophy from Stanford, so I mined her. But we had a researcher who Luca uses on all of his films, who was wonderful, who really helped us. I wrote syllabi for all the people who play professors in the film. It’s very subtle, but Alma in the prologue is teaching a group of freshmen. She teaches a seminar class, and then she also teaches to a much smaller group, which is her group of PhD thesis students. We made sure that we were showing a teacher who was teaching at all different levels of her capacity and that hopefully there was some verisimilitude to the academic experience.
Rebecca Elliott:
Very cool. All right, I think I have time for one more. Is this type of complex storytelling your wheelhouse, or are you going to bust out a romantic comedy or go into a genre film? What do you think? What’s your future hold as far as writing
Nora Garrett:
God, I wish…you tell me. I was an actor. I still act, but I was pursuing acting for so long, and I think something that I felt really stymied by was not only how little control you have over actually doing the thing you say you want to do. But also how little control you have over what you, as a person, bring into a room based on what you look like, what vibe the people get off of you, and how that limits what you’re able to do. If you’re lucky enough to have a career, you can expand that scope, but it’s still quite limited.
I feel like the lovely thing about being a writer is that I hope I can explore so many different genres. Because it’s like, obviously, hopefully I am able to have a long career. There’s always going to be stuff that I’m constantly interested in and like, stones that I keep turning over and over and over again. But yeah, I would love. My ideal thing is if I could do a version of something like 10 Things I Hate About You. I could probably die happy. I’m all over the place. I think that’s fun.
Rebecca Elliott:
I love that! That’s really cool. Well, I think we have to wrap it up then. Again, thank you so much for taking the time to chat with me today about After The Hunt. I really appreciate.
Nora Garrett:
Thank you.
After The Hunt is currently in theaters nationwide courtesy of Amazon-MGM Studios.
