Nora Garrett’s original screenplay for “After the Hunt” netted big Hollywood names such as Julia Roberts, Ayo Edebiri and Andrew Garfield — by any standard a coup for a first-time screenwriter.
But the R-rated film, which premieres in Denver theaters Oct. 17, also finds itself in the middle of radioactive debates about sexual assault, academic freedom, race and gender. That #MeToo bent is intentional, but “After the Hunt” offers no easy answers in its tale of ambition, shame and forgiveness.
Movies about these topics often get stuck in circular arguments and sermons to the choir. But Denver native Garrett trades simplistic politics for provocative psychological drama. It’s got all the markings of an Oscar contender, both in Roberts’ commanding, nuanced performance and in Garrett’s original writing.
“Some people assume I went into this intentionally writing about this social moment, or these lightning rods of culture,” said Garrett, a graduate of Denver School of the Arts. “That was totally not part of my conception. It’s very much part of the unconscious amalgamation of having lived through all of these social moments and certain campus incidents. To me, everything really begins with characters, and the story springs from that.”
Industry hype trailed “After the Hunt” as it became one of Hollywood’s hottest unproduced scripts over the last two years. Garrett’s agent eventually connected with Oscar-nominated Italian director Luca Guadagnino (“Challengers,” “Call Me by Your Name”), whose own agent happened to be married to Oscar-winner Roberts’ agent.
The top-down talent set a worldly tone that the dialogue-heavy, 2-hour 18-minute movie needs to hang together. In “After the Hunt,” Roberts plays Alama, a Yale philosophy professor jockeying for tenure against fellow philosophy professor Hank, played by “Amazing Spider-Man” alum and Tony award-winner Andrew Garfield. Emmy- and Golden Globe-winner Ayo Edebiri (“The Bear”) plays grad student and Alma acolyte Maggie, whose race and family connections to Yale cast suspicion on her academic worthiness.
After being walked home by Hank following a drunken party at Alma’s one night, Maggie confides in Alma that Hank sexually assaulted her, prompting twists and turns that move past liberal and conservative orthodoxy into the realm of piercing drama.
“My background is in acting and writing plays and short stories, but what differentiates this as a script is because it needed to be filmic,” Garrett said. “It felt like the interiority of Alma needed to be seen and felt through the currency of images — and felt by an actress who (had that) vulnerability like Julie Roberts, because it does have a lot of machinations that aren’t made clear texturally.”
It’s a grown-up drama, to be sure, and one that doesn’t hold its audience’s hand as scandals rush through the cloistered halls of Yale. Garrett felt an unusual freedom to explore the topic, especially since hardly anyone else was touching it.
“People in my field respond to originally and being true to what you like,” Garrett said. “There’s always going to be a certain amount of mimicry, and that’s OK. … But you need to allow yourself space to experiment and grow your own taste. ‘After the Hunt’ was the opposite of what everybody tells you to write.”
Garrett, notably, also got an executive producer credit on “After the Hunt,” which means she not only gets an extra screen mention but that she could potentially take the stage multiple times at the Academy Awards (provided “After the Hunt” nabs nominations — and wins).
While critics have been cool thus far, Academy voters are likely to pick up on the film’s sophistication, which Garrett teased out from years in the performing arts and film industry. That includes dancing with Colorado Ballet while growing up in Denver, but also making short films, producing and acting in various projects after moving to Los Angeles (her best known is likely “Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders”), as well as working as a personal assistant for big names and reading countless other scripts.
Garrett credits her Denver upbringing for setting the stage, as well as her education at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and her Off Broadway work in New York. But there’s also her humility and deep connections forged from years in Los Angeles, which she moved to in 2014. That’s something many first-time screenwriters lack. Passion for original ideas has sustained her, she said, despite the ongoing discouragement of competing in Hollywood, and the pool of talent on “After the Hunt” speaks to the depth of her experiences.
“Some of the best early advice I ever got was from a playwright called Amy Herzog,” Garrett said. “She said, ‘I think you just need to live a little bit more. Find what you’re obsessed with, and move on from there.’ ”
