In “The Violent Heart,” the latest film from director Kerem Sanga (“First Girl I Loved”), actress Grace Van Patten plays an 18-year-old girl looking for escape who gets swept up in a romance with a 24-year-old man (Jovan Adepo) with a troubled history When deeply buried secrets of their small town are revealed, reverberations of the violent past threaten to tear the couple apart. It’s a Romeo & Juliet-style thriller set in the American heartland and one that refreshingly isn’t overt about the racial dynamics at the center of the relationship. It’s just a relationship (Mary J. Blige and Lukas Haas co-star).
An up-and-comer on the verge of really breaking through in a major way, Patten brings her distinct mark to the character as she has shown to do in past roles. Having already delivered strong, head-turning performances in “Tramps,” “Under the Silver Lake,” “The Meyerowitz Stories” — and recently, a standout turn in the Sundance indie “Mayday” — Van Patten has already created an eclectic and exciting filmography, and we can’t wait to see what she does next.
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We spoke to her about “The Violent Heart,” the lovers on the lam films she loves, shooting in Nashville, and the challenges of playing a character so different from herself.
Warning for light spoilers ahead.
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How did you first get involved in the project?
I met with Kerem Sanga for the first time back in 2017, so it feels good to be out in the world finally. I had a meeting with him and was already a big fan of his, and I have always loved romantic thrillers — they’re my favorite kind of movie. Films like “Badlands,” “Natural Born Killers,” “True Romance,” I’ve always wanted to do one, so I was instantly hooked into the idea. When I read the script, I really fell in love with Cassie. I thought she was such a refreshing character, and I was really drawn to her innocence.
Is Cassie the type of character that you’re able to bring some of your own personality into?
I think Cassie is a part of myself that only the closest people in my life get to witness. I feel like mostly that’s how I feel inside but don’t necessarily show. Before I played Cassie, I had played mostly internal characters and people who deal with things internally, so I was excited to play this person who wears her heart on her sleeve and cannot hide her emotions for the life of her.
I liked Cassie because, as you said, she can’t hide her emotions at all, but she also behaves as if she thinks she’s more mature than she is – something common to teen girls. Was this something that drew you to her?
I liked the contrast between her peers, where to them she was probably this mature girl ahead of her age, but then she meets Daniel, and the world kind of opens up to her. It was the adventure that she’d been craving this whole time because up until this point when she meets him, her life is tied up in this little bow and was very normal and very boring, so I think she’d been waiting for something like this to happen. What I thought was so unique about the script was that you see the couple meet in most romances, and everything gets better for them, but in this case, life comes tumbling down on them, and they have no choice to deal with it. But they still serve as this beautiful escape for one another.
So the film has some big twists and turns throughout – did they also catch you by surprise while reading the script?
I’ve never been so genuinely shocked while reading a script. That definitely pulled me toward it.
Is there a type of role that you gravitate towards?
It’s always a connection. I feel lucky to have been able to play such different types of people, and I hope to play a million more. It’s my favorite when they’re particular characters that I can bring parts of myself and bring out aspects of people that I know or have heard of. It’s all exciting.
You mentioned you first met with the director back in 2017 – how was the collaboration process in coming together to make the film?
It was silent for a bit, but once we got up and running again, we had a chemistry read, and my first chemistry read was with Jovan Adepo, and I think we all knew right away. Jovan is so amazing, so dedicated, and so present and open, so it just clicked in.
That relationship with you and Jovan Adepo and you and Lukas Haas, who played your father, are so integral to the film. How important was it to cement those dynamics? Especially since the relationships, we’re introduced to aren’t the ones we see by the end.
I thought that was a significant relationship. I remember reading it and loving their relationship and thinking it was so beautiful and this close father-daughter relationship, and it ends up being a full 360, and that was one of the things I was most shocked by. I thought it was important to emphasize that closeness so that it does become this twist in the end. I know Cassie didn’t see it coming, but she was so naive to the darkness she was surrounded by since she was little, and at the snap of the fingers, it all comes tumbling down.
How was it shooting in Nashville and outside of it? I read something that said this was your first shoot outside of L.A. or New York?
Yes, it was! It was my first time being on location, and I was a little nervous. I’ve been so lucky that I’ve been able to shoot in just L.A. or New York, which are basically two of my homes. Nashville was so amazing. There was live music everywhere — you go to the grocery store, there’s live music, you go to the gym, and there’s a band playing in the corner – you can’t get away from live music; it’s the best place. We had so much fun there, and we got to shoot on Main Street, which is the one with all the music and bars, so we really got thrown in it. It was originally supposed to be shot in Austin, which I’ve never been to, but Nashville was a good fill-in.
Was there anything while shooting that surprised you, or was being on location a big enough change of pace?
I think being away from home is always tricky. I’m super close to my family, so I always tend to miss them, but I loved the new experience of being on location, and I think it pushed me to get closer with the cast and crew, who were all so great. I also had my family and boyfriend visit, so it was cool for all of us to be in a new place together. I also thought it was a challenge in playing Cassie, who is, so what you see is what you get, because I do in my own life and in past roles tend to play internal, close to the chest people. I didn’t expect it to be as challenging as it was to be so “on” all the time, but I loved it. I loved the challenge.
You’ve jumped around from working on television to films and a lot of stage work so far in your career. Is there a trajectory of sorts you’re trying to follow?
I always tend to fall in love with the character. There’s been no mission to find a specific type of role to play, but I’ve loved every single one of them equally. I think a goal of mine is to play as many different types of people as possible.
Is there a dream collaboration you have with any filmmaker?
I love Yorgos Lanthimos. I think he is amazing, and I would love to play that heightened and absurd personality. I love his movies so much, so he’s definitely up there.