What if your adoptive parents weren’t just from another country, but rather… another world? It’s one of several intriguing plot points in directorJeffrey St. Jules' new filmThe Silent Planet, which is now available on digital. Lead actressBriana Middleton(The Inheritance) plays Niyya, a convicted felon who is sentenced to labor on another planet. It probably doesn’t seem that absurd a penalty, given her parents are seemingly from another planet. Yes, Niyya was raised by aliens due to a long-ago tragedy that struck her actual parents' lives. MovieWeb recently spoke with both Middleton and St. Jules in separate interviews to learn more about how they put their heads together to better understand and flesh out the unique lead character — beyond just the words on St. Jules' script pages.
“A lot [of what we did] with her was talking about kind of how she grew up… and what it is about the alien culture that influences who she is,” Jules told us about working with Middleton. “So a lot of just the discussions with her were about how [Niyya] views humanity and how she views the world. She has a real hatred for humanity because of what it did to her [biological] parents. But she is a human, so there’s a real inner conflict within her — but kind of hating herself, hating the human parts of herself because humans are weak and they’re vengeful, and they’re all these things that the aliens are not. So yeah, for her, it was a lot of talking about who these aliens are and how that formed who [Niyya] is as a person.”
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“Our Nature As Humans”
St. Jules noted in his director’s statement forThe Silent Planetthat he actually grew up pretending he was otherworldly, interestingly enough. Hey, maybe you did as a young child, too. Middleton spoke about what drew her to St. Jules' latest script, which ultimately takes on a personal angle for both parties. “There was a lot of what Niyya was struggling with that I really resonated with, and I think that was a really good starting place,” explained Middleton. “Me and Jeffrey talked about that, and how he sort of had similar feelings growing up, just sort of feeling that you’re an alien living amongst humans.”
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If the picturesque backdrops ofThe Silent Planethappen to strike you, that’scourtesy of glorious Canada— more specifically, the Tablelands in Newfoundland. “It really helped the sort of alienation that I felt and just trying to get my bearings in this new place,” said Middleton, who is from Louisiana. “It really helped with what Niyya is feeling in this, you know? She’s purposefully isolated herself, but she is still in this situation that I think is very counter to our nature as humans. And so I felt like it was easy to tap into that.”
From Quiver Distribution,The Silent Planetis now available on digital platforms such as Fandango at Home and on Apple TV through the link below:
Watch The Silent Planet
The Silent Planet
