Riley Keough says she “loved” working with Barry Keoghan in Kantemir Balagov’s Butterfly Jam. “I think we were very similar in a lot of ways, in the way we work,” she said at Deadline’s Cannes studio. “I found it very easy to to work with him and build that relationship. It came very naturally.”
The film opened Cannes Director’s Fortnight on Wednesday. Keough plays Zalya, sister to Barry Keoghan’s Azik, a chaotic chef working at Zalya’s cafe in New Jersey. As part of the local Circassian community, Azik and his son Pyteh (newcomer Talha Akdogan) navigate the latter’s ambitions as a wrestler, alongside Azik’s best friend Marat (Harry Melling). When disaster strikes, Pyteh finds himself becoming close with fellow wrestler Alika (Jaliyah Richards).
For Keough, the decision to join Kantemir’s film was inspired by seeing his 2019 feature. Beanpole. “It was just such a beautiful film,” she said. “And we just had a really a good chat, honestly, and I wanted to work with him. That was kind of it for me.”
Working in the Kabardian language spoken by the Circassian community was a challenge at times,” Keough said. “The dialect was tricky because we all kind of did our own thing a little bit, because we didn’t really have time together before we were shooting. It was sort of like a little bit of Jersey, a little bit of… I think it was a little different for everyone.”
‘Butterfly Jam’
Cannes Film Festival
As Marat, Melling had to explore some intense ups and downs. “His entrance into the movie, without giving too much away, is he’s in this weird kind of role-play situation. It is a very strange way of meeting a character, but at the same time, that’s what I found so fascinating about someone like Marat, someone who’s so uncomfortable in so many ways.”
Melling also had to work very closely with Keoghan in an especially harrowing scene that changes the course of the characters’ lives. “I think we did it with much care as we could,” Melling said. “Obviously, it’s very hard to talk about. Working with Barry is wonderful. He’s so free, and that’s a lovely place to start when you’re working with someone who’s so up for finding it in the moment, not really setting it too much, but really exploring what this could be. He’s always about keeping it loose and free, so I think that really helped us find different moments within it.”
To see the full conversation, click on the video above.
The Deadline Studio at Cannes is sponsored by SCAD.
