{"id":267864,"date":"2025-07-16T23:46:12","date_gmt":"2025-07-16T23:46:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/267864\/"},"modified":"2025-07-16T23:46:12","modified_gmt":"2025-07-16T23:46:12","slug":"lily-james-previews-finally-dawn-relay-and-cliffhanger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/267864\/","title":{"rendered":"Lily James Previews \u2018Finally Dawn,\u2019 \u2018Relay\u2019 and \u2018Cliffhanger\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tLily James<\/a>\u2019 upcoming slate of films are throwbacks in uniquely different ways.<\/p>\n

\n\tBeginning with Saverio Costanzo\u2019s 1950s-set Italian drama Finally Dawn<\/a>, James plays Josephine Esperanto, an Elizabeth Taylor-type movie star who ropes a rejected background artist (Rebecca Antonaci<\/a>\u2019s Mimosa) into a pivotal scene of her sword-and-sandals epic. From there, Josephine, her co-star Sean Lockwood (Joe Keery) and her jack-of-all trades, Rufo Priori (Willem Dafoe), pressure Mimosa into exploring Rome\u2019s nightlife with them.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile en route to one of their two destinations, Sean Lockwood\u2019s acting insecurities get the better of him, and Josephine makes a half-hearted attempt to compliment their scene work that day. According to James, it\u2019s a highly relatable scene<\/a> for most actors.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAt their worst, actors are an insecure bunch of self-obsessed, needy humans. Actors and artists are often called upon to be very vulnerable \u2026 so it can trigger some serious insecurity and a need for validation,\u201d James tells The Hollywood Reporter in support of Finally Dawn\u2019s July 18 release. \u201cThere have been so many times where I\u2019ve heard myself go, \u2018God, I should have said that line differently.\u2019 But then I\u2019m like, \u2018Shut up. It doesn\u2019t matter. It\u2019s done. Let it go.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tOn Aug. 22, James returns to the big screen opposite Riz Ahmed in David Mackenzie\u2019s \u201870s-inspired paranoid thriller, Relay<\/a>. The English actor portrays Sarah Grant, a reluctant whistleblower who decides not to expose the unscrupulous company she works for as long as her safety and asking price are honored. To pull this feat off, she recruits Ahmed\u2019s mysterious fixer, who strictly utilizes a teletypewriter and relay service to communicate with his clients. Thus, the majority of James and Ahmed\u2019s scenes involve a dispassionate third-party operator reading typed messages from Ahmed\u2019s character to James\u2019 character by phone.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWhen I watched the movie for the first time at TIFF [2024] on the big screen, I was like, \u2018Wow, it\u2019s incredible that there\u2019s this great electricity between these two characters when they barely meet,\u2019\u201d James says. \u201cSo it was quite a sleight of hand that David [Mackenzie] pulled that off in terms of filmmaking.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd at some point in the hopefully not-too-distant future, James\u2019 reimagining of Sylvester Stallone\u2019s 1993 action-thriller Cliffhanger<\/a> will arrive in cinemas. Written by Ana Lily Amirpour and directed by Jaume Collet-Serra, James is joined by Pierce Brosnan and Nell Tiger<\/a> <\/a>Free<\/a> in the new take on the mountainside actioner.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tSimilar to her Emmy-nominated performance as Pamela Anderson in Pam & Tommy, James went above and beyond for this particular role.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cOh my God, I had the time of my life. It was so hard. I did five hours of climbing a day for many weeks. I was on mountains nonstop. I fell completely in love with it,\u201d James shares. \u201cIt\u2019s the most mind-body-soul activity. And I\u2019m a [mountain-climbing] addict now. I did all my own climbing [in the film], and I got real strong. I was just pounding press-ups between every take.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAs for the film itself, it\u2019s currently in post-production, and James is optimistic about its standing.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI\u2019m really proud of Cliffhanger. I\u2019m so excited. We\u2019re in the edit and getting it ready, and I\u2019m super hopeful,\u201d James adds. \u201cIt is such a cool reimagining, and while it\u2019s really unexpected at times, it keeps all the gripping glory of the original, I hope.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBelow, during a recent conversation with THR, James also discusses how Finally Dawn depicts an uncomfortable scenario that many performers often face in everyday life.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t***<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tIn <\/strong>Finally Dawn<\/strong>, your movie star character sees this young Italian woman who\u2019s wandering the halls of Cinecitt\u00e0 Studios, and so she has her join a scene in her quintessential Hollywood epic. Have you ever seen a random person pulled into a scene like this?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tYou often get those stories of directors seeing someone with an interesting face or energy. They\u2019ll see someone on the street buying a Mars bar, and they\u2019ll go, \u201cOh my God, they\u2019re a star!\u2019 They need to be in my movie.\u201d There\u2019s a desire not to have a [known] actor and to have real people with real faces.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tBut in [Finally Dawn], my character Josephine Esperanto is just longing. She\u2019s longing for inspiration, longing to feel alive, longing for something pure and not cynical or bitter or abused by life and Hollywood. So this girl [Antonaci\u2019s Mimosa] represents that, and she becomes Josephine\u2019s muse. She takes her in, and she wants to steal her light or use her light in a way.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tLily James as Josephine Esperanto in Finally Dawn<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of Samuel Goldwyn Films<\/p>\n

\n\tJosephine then invents this persona for Mimosa in the form of a Swedish poet named Sandy. Was it originally meant to take attention away from Rachel Sennott\u2019s character? Or is this just how she entertains herself?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tSaverio Costanzo\u2019s script is just so layered, nuanced and beautiful. It\u2019s like a gigantic poem, and I fell in love with the script the moment I read it. Josephine\u2019s motivations for that evening are very complex. She\u2019s a woman that\u2019s run out of joy, and she\u2019s run out of the reasons for why she\u2019s doing what she\u2019s doing. So this girl represents this beauty and innocence, and Josephine almost wants to create and destroy Mimosa all at once. There\u2019s these conflicting energies within her, and she\u2019s a character in chaos.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tBut one of her other motivations is to take down Rachel Sennott\u2019s character a peg or two and prove that she\u2019s not that special. Josephine wants to bring someone else into the limelight instead of her. There\u2019s this warring actress in her that\u2019s jealous, but also fed up.<\/p>\n

\n\tShe eventually tries to humiliate \u201cSandy\u201d by putting her on the spot to perform a poem in front of a whole party of self-important people. I\u2019m sure every performer has their version of this story, but have you found yourself in situations off set or off stage where you\u2019ve been pressured to sing or deliver an impromptu monologue?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\t(Laughs.) All the time! My family is like, \u201cGo on, Lily, sing!\u201d And I\u2019m like, \u201cNo!\u2019 There are traditions in Ireland where everyone gets up and sings without being overly self-conscious or worrying. But, yeah, [being put on the spot] is one of my worst nightmares aside from being on stage and realizing you\u2019re naked. (Laughs.) You\u2019re suddenly thrust upon to do something, and you feel completely ill-equipped and inadequate. And then there\u2019s that imposter syndrome where you\u2019re like, \u201cWhat the hell do I do?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat Josephine does to Mimosa in that moment makes and destroys her at the same time. It\u2019s so cruel to do it to this girl that she\u2019s brought into her world to boost and bring alive. But once Josephine sees that Mimosa potentially has something that might overtake her or make people more fascinated by her than herself, she aims to destroy her in an instant. I loved that Josephine was capable of such cruelty, but also of such generosity all at once. She\u2019s such a beautiful, conflicted character. I really related to how you never really know what she\u2019s trying to do, and I don\u2019t think she knows either.<\/p>\n

\n\tTalk shows are known to do that too: \u201cHey, do the accent you did in the movie,\u201d or, \u201cLet\u2019s hear your Arnold Schwarzenegger impression.\u201d\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\t(Laughs.) But the worst thing is that it\u2019s always a little bit planned. So you have to pretend that you haven\u2019t actually said that you can rap this song, but you have because you told the research [team] that.<\/p>\n

\n\tOh, right. The pre-interview.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tBut they do thrust things upon you too. I also love watching that as an audience. I like seeing someone react under pressure and seeing their hidden talents. There\u2019s something kind of exciting about it.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tJoe Keery\u2019s Sean Lockwood and Lily James\u2019 Josephine Esperanto in Finally Dawn<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of Samuel Goldwyn Films<\/p>\n

\n\tAre there lots of real-life Sean Lockwoods (Joe Keery) where you have to constantly put their insecurities as actors at ease?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\t(Laughs.) Yeah, there\u2019s a lot of Sean Lockwoods, but there\u2019s also a lot of Susan Lockwoods. At their worst, actors are an insecure bunch of self-obsessed, needy humans. Actors and artists are often called upon to be very vulnerable and reveal themselves in front of a room full of people. So it can trigger some serious insecurity and a need for validation. But that scene<\/a> [between Josephine and Sean] really made me laugh. There have been so many times where I\u2019ve heard myself go, \u201cGod, I should have said that line differently. If only I\u2019d done it like that.\u201d But then I\u2019m like, \u201cShut up. It doesn\u2019t matter. It\u2019s done. Let it go.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tI last spoke to you when you were filming David Mackenzie\u2019s <\/strong>Relay<\/strong>, which is a \u201870s thriller in modern times. Were you able to read the script without being spoiled ahead of time?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tYeah, when I read Relay, I had the same reaction that I hope audiences have. I hadn\u2019t read a breakdown, so I didn\u2019t know what the twists and turns were going to be. And like Finalmente L\u2019alba or Finally Dawn, I found the script in a very different way. Finally Dawn was this poetic romance looking at cinema and poetry in Italy. It\u2019s a beautiful throwback to La Dolce Vita and the Golden Age of Cinema. And then Relay felt like this really gripping, dark thriller that exposes the world of whistleblowers and the idea of this greater control and always being watched. It felt really surprising, and I was thrilled to get to work with such a unique filmmaker in David Mackenzie. His movies feel so cinematic and grounded and bold and original.<\/p>\n

\n\tRiz [Ahmed] is also one of the most exciting actors out there, especially when you see what he\u2019s able to convey with no dialogue in the first 20 minutes of the movie. The connection we were able to build despite our characters very rarely being in the same room together was a real challenge. And when I watched the movie for the first time at TIFF on the big screen, I was like, \u201cWow, it\u2019s incredible that there\u2019s this great electricity between these two characters when they barely meet.\u201d So it was quite a sleight of hand that David pulled that off in terms of filmmaking.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tLily James as Sarah Grant in Relay<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBleeker Street<\/p>\n

\n\tOn the day, who did you actually interact with during the phone calls with the relay service?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tPhone calls are the worst! It\u2019s usually like the Second AD, but I actually had a really wonderful actor come in. Riz wasn\u2019t able to do it because of our times and turnarounds, and he was probably shooting other things. It was a really tough shoot. We shot a lot of nights, so we\u2019d go in at 9:00 PM and leave at 6:00 AM. But I had a really great actor who was there. With acting, your focus needs to be on what the other person is doing and responding to them, but that\u2019s tricky in phone calls. So I was lucky to have an actor read the off-lines.<\/p>\n

\n\tPart of me wants a spinoff about the relay service operators just to hear their conversations about these high-stakes phone calls they\u2019re facilitating.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tI know! It\u2019s really funny, isn\u2019t it? The actor was giving me the lines in terms of the scene\u2019s drama so I had something to react upon. But the operators are actually just reading the text [they\u2019re provided] like a script. They\u2019re not putting any kind of intentional motivation into the lines. So it was a really unique and tricky situation to navigate.<\/p>\n

\n\tIf <\/strong>Relay<\/strong> went the more conventional route by the end, do you think you still would\u2019ve been interested?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tHonestly, I was so excited to work with David Mackenzie and Riz that I almost would\u2019ve done any old thing that they put in front of me. That being said, you love to find work that\u2019s surprising and characters that take you in a direction you didn\u2019t anticipate. And particularly at this point in my career, I want to keep pushing myself to play unlikely roles, roles that surprise me, and have something to get my teeth into. So that [unconventionality] was definitely what was very appealing about this role and story.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen people think of you, they typically associate you with this role or that role, but in my case, your impressive <\/strong>table tennis<\/strong><\/a> skills are now where I go first. Have you ever gotten the chance to blindside or hustle castmates or crewmembers with your ability?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\t(Laughs.) Literally, the thing I\u2019m most cocky about is my table tennis. My friends laugh that I\u2019ll probably let people know within the first 10 minutes of meeting them that I can play table tennis and that I have a French grandmother. But I\u2019ll give you a spoiler: there might be some more table tennis coming up in my next movie. So, get ready!<\/p>\n

\n\tOh, I\u2019m ready.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tKnowing that you are my biggest fan when it comes to table tennis, I\u2019ll be thinking of you when watching it.<\/p>\n

\n\tI joked about this with Sean Durkin, but your hand-eye coordination was also on display at the end of <\/strong>The Iron Claw<\/strong> when the family was throwing the football around in the yard. Zac Efron dropped the ball, but you caught it.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tWell, I\u2019m so glad you noticed. I\u2019m finally getting the recognition I so rightly deserve. (Laughs.) I am quite proud of my hand-eyeball coordination. I grew up [playing games and sports] with two brothers, so I appreciate that.<\/p>\n

\n\tDid your athletic prowess also serve you well on <\/strong>Cliffhanger<\/strong>?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tOh, good segue!<\/p>\n

\n\tThanks, I planned that.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\t(Laughs.) Oh my God, I had the time of my life. It was so hard. I did five hours of climbing a day for many weeks, and I had the most amazing teacher. I was on mountains nonstop. I fell completely in love with it. It\u2019s the most mind-body-soul activity. It\u2019s so deeply athletic, but also meditative. And I\u2019m a\u00a0[mountain-climbing] addict now. (James holds her hand up to the camera.) I broke my little finger at Christmas, and I was so sad because I couldn\u2019t climb.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tBut I\u2019m really proud of Cliffhanger. I\u2019m so excited. We\u2019re in the edit and getting it ready, and I\u2019m super hopeful. It is such a cool reimagining, and while it\u2019s really unexpected at times, it keeps all the gripping glory of the original, I hope. I did all my own climbing, and I got real strong<\/a>. (Laughs.) I was just pounding press-ups between every take.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tLily James in Jaume Collet-Serra\u2019s Cliffhanger<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of Rocket Science<\/p>\n

\n\tPierce Brosnan playing your father should be interesting for <\/strong>Mamma Mia!<\/strong> fans.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tWe were so lucky to have him, and he\u2019s so brilliant in the movie. He\u2019s one of life\u2019s true gentlemen, and he was such a brilliant actor to have as our father in this story. He just brings real heart, and he elevates the whole thing. He\u2019s just a dream, and getting to work with him again was so wonderful.<\/p>\n

\n\t***
Finally Dawn opens July 18 in movie theaters; Relay releases August 22 in movie theaters.<\/p>\n