"I have two nearly 4-year-olds, and I'm strong and influential in some circles, but I don't have two 4-year-olds," said Joel Edgerton. "Kids run their own country to some extent."

Recently, Edgerton has been thinking a lot in the years before he entered adulthood, thanks to his latest project plaguestudied the complex, occasionally terrifying social dynamics of children, especially for adolescent boys.

The film, the director's debut of director Charlie Polinger, is in a world of competitive water polo summer camps that focuses primarily on the dynamics of a group of 12- and 13-year-old boys who exclude a camper because he has "plague, which is an annoying case of eczema". A camper Ben (Everett Blunck) struggles between his desire to help displaced campers and his fear of causing anger from large groups. In the movie, Edgerton plays the kind-hearted water polo coach.

“In the new era of issues concerning Manosphere and considering issues, plague It is a prescient title. ” thr Criticist Lovia Gyarkye quickly became one of the festival's magnificences in her commentary on the film.

Showing a considerable range of actors in everything except Baz Luhrmann The Great Gatsby To Paul Schrader Master Gardener And George Clooney Boy on the boatEdgerton is also a filmmaker - he won the first DGA NOM of the 2015 thriller Gifthe also wrote and starred.

Before Cannes 2025 plague Set to filter in certain aspects of the section, Edgerton vs. thr About the inherent horror of being adolescent: “I often talk about the experience of school, like a documentary where you are watching the drying water puddles of the savanna in Africa.”

What attracted you to the story that focused on a group of 13-year-olds?

I'm really interested in the idea of ​​when we become responsible adults. We have an unrestricted, unrestricted period, even if we have parents, we have teachers, and in this case the camp counselors. Children’s nature is natural, and can be beautiful or may be dark. It is through experiential moments that we understand what makes others around us feel good and therefore how we reflect our own personality and form our identity. I think the journey in this central character movie is a very, very interesting universal exploration of how we shape ourselves in the world. I just wanted to help ensure the film was made.

What are you saying "the script I want to help it get"?

Excellent in social establishment, the way people understand children can be bad, although they can be bad in understanding consequences or collateral damage. They learn to position themselves in a sheep or cattle place. They understand hierarchy. They understand what is dangerous and safe. Regardless of the instincts and tips we believe are good, they will quickly identify where they need to stand and who they are with. Ben's journey is to understand that caring for the excluded, injured members is dangerous, but his nature has attracted him in this direction and attracted him to danger.

There is an old motto in the movie about not working with kids and animals, but in this movie you just work with kids. How did you find the experience?

No matter the age of the kids I work with, I always marvel at them. You will work with a kid who has never been to the movie and you will learn something from them. Kayo (Martin) who plays the bully can run around me until the point where we are going to shoot things, and when the lines are blurred, I want to impress him. He knew his job was just arrogant to everyone, so he wasn't with me. I'm not just looking up at older, smarter actors. Everyone can learn something. It is also very impressive around Charlie, and he feels dangerous about Ben's character. Intent and effect are different things. I might say something to get my friends to laugh at me for really hurting you. I think there is a real accuracy and detail in the movie. It's not just a bully, "I'm going to be mean." It's "I'm going to be mean because I want to survive." For Kayo's character, his way of living is to be a leader in a group.

When you say that, you were a Darwinian as a kid.

The adult world has its own rules of management, which we impose on our children, said to be to show them the world they will master. But children have their own language and their own rules. They create them. They build their own society. Then, like my character, adults become foreigners within their country.

You are indeed the only adult in the movie. What do you think the character is in the middle of the kids’ dynamics?

Adults can wander around camps, schools, or families, but they can't all know and everyone sees it. Their advice or their own experience can reflect or provide wisdom, but it doesn’t necessarily help when you live in the pain of something. Ben may still remember my character because Charlie remembers Charlie 30 years later, but I can guarantee that it is difficult to get all the wisdom of a parent or teacher when you are in the turmoil of living in a child’s country. This is the closest thing I've ever read King of Flies Type Scenario - A society established, operated and organized by children. I've always been a big fan of movies Thirteen In the past, because they are like peepholes or windows into life, we won't experience it once we are old. We don't know the conversations between the kids. I think we are all afraid of them. I think we are afraid of youth.

Sometimes, a movie feels like a real horror movie, like the audience should be really afraid of being on the screen.

I often talk about school experiences, like a documentary where you are watching the African savanna, the depleted holes of alligators, and a baby antelope, somewhere in between. This is a dangerous place, anything can happen. There is something indeed All metal jacket About this movie. There are similar tones.

I think the choice to set it up in a water polo camp is fun. How do you think of it being set in that world?

What might be. It could be a tennis camp, gymnastics or any culture. In the movie, this cultural particularity is beautiful, and is very effective in the range of a swimming center and the dangers of water. Through this experience, I just recall a lot of my childhood experiences, and everyone on the crew was talking about these things. Childhood was full of sensuality, beautiful memories, but also full of crazy trauma. These things diminish with time, we keep moving forward, events are swallowed up, but they all make their own little scars become.