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Presents Starring: Jessie Buckley, Julie Walters, and Sophie Okoneda Directed By: Tom Harper Written By: Nicole Taylor Runtime: 101 minutes Rating: R FESTIVALS 2018 Toronto Film Festival 2019 Chattanooga Film Festival 2019 SXSW 2019 Dallas International Film Festival 2019 Tribeca Film Festival 2019 Capital City Film Festival 2019 Annapolis Film Festival 2019 Philadelphia Film Festival 2019 Martha’s Vineyard Film Festival 2019 Independent Film Festival Boston 2019 Newport Beach Film Festival 2019 Orcas Island Film Festival 2019 Phoenix Film Festival 2019 Bentonville Film Festival 2019 Minneapolis St. Paul Film Festival 2019 Montclair Film Festival 2019 Women + Film Festival 2019 Berkshire Film Festival 2019 San Francisco International Film Festival 2019 Provincetown Film Festival SHORT SYNOPSIS: Jessie Buckley delivers an unforgettable, star-making performance as Rose-Lynn Harlan, a rebellious country singer who dreams of trading the working-class streets of Glasgow for the Grand Ole Opry of Nashville. Complete with an expert performance by Oscar-nominee Julie Walters and an electrifying soundtrack performed by Buckley, WILD ROSE is a joyous human story steeped in music, courage, and achieving your dreams - no matter how far away they may appear. LONG SYNOPSIS: Jessie Buckley delivers an unforgettable, star-making performance as Rose-Lynn Harlan, a rebellious country singer who dreams of trading the working-class streets of Glasgow for the Grand Ole Opry of Nashville. Fresh out of prison, Rose-Lynn juggles her menial job, two children, and committed mother, expertly portrayed by Oscar-nominee Julie Walters, as she pursues her bold ambition of a one- way ticket to musical stardom. With the support of her boss (Sophie Okonedo), Rose-Lynn embarks on a life-changing journey that challenges her sense of self and helps her discover her true voice. Complete with an electrifying soundtrack performed by Buckley, WILD ROSE is a joyous human story steeped in music, courage, family, and achieving your dreams - no matter how far away they may appear. After all, all you need are three chords and the truth. A CONVERSATION WITH DIRECTOR TOM HARPER How did this project come your way? I had just come back from Texas, where I was working in Austin and listening to a lot of country music, both live and on the radio. I was meant to be doing something on my current project, The Aeronaut, but it was coming together slowly. My friend, the producer Faye Ward, called and she asked if I wanted to read this project that at the time was called Country Music, and seeing as I had been listening to so much country music, I said why not? Within a couple of pages, I fell in love with the script, and the character Rose-Lynn Harlan, and I knew exactly who should play her. I told Faye, we've got to make this, and as soon as possible. You were reconnecting with Jessie Buckley after working together on War & Peace. How did she stand out in your eyes? In life you occasionally stumble across people who you not only think are wonderfully talented, but you also connect with personally. Early on in War & Peace we realized we inspired one another and could get the best out of each other, and so when that project ended, we both started looking for something else to work on. Wild Rose came along at just the right time. When did you know she could sing? She sang actually in War & Peace. It's a classical piece, and the character of Marya Bolkonskaya in general couldn't be more different than Rose-Lynn Harlan — in terms of the music, it's on the opposite end of the spectrum. So, we knew she was musical, and I knew she could sing, but I didn't know that she could sing country music. Why else was Jessie Buckley right for the part of Rose-Lynn Harlan? By page two, as I was reading the script, I knew it had to be Jessie, and I knew I could only make the film with her — because if Rose-Lynn isn't cast perfectly, the film wouldn't work. You wouldn't be able to bring it to life or make it work in reality because it's such a difficult part, finding someone who's feisty that can have the kind of charisma to lead you through some of the tough decisions she makes. Rose-Lynn isn't particularly likeable at times, so you need someone that's going to be able to take an audience on a journey and convey the brilliant musicality she has as well, I think that's few and far between in terms of available actors. There is also a very strong mother-and-daughter component to this movie, how did you go about casting Julie Walters? We were pretty lucky overall in terms of the casting, it very rarely happens like this. Julie was the first person we went to for Marion, and Faye and I met her for a cup of tea. She was a little bit hesitant, despite loving the script. I think she knew that it was quite close to the bone for her. There was something of her own relationship with her mother, her being an actress, and what her mother wanted for her in life, and how that changed over time. But she loved the idea of playing the role. She got along with Jessie from the very beginning and when two actors stimulate each other and get on as well as they did, it makes the process very easy. Sophie Okonedo also stands out in the casting, as Susannah, Rose-Lynn's employer... I'd worked with Sophie before on my feature War Book and she's a brilliant actress — because her range is so great, she can play tough characters that go through a big emotional upheaval. But when I worked with her, I saw this other side to her, she also has gravitas, and lightness, and humor, and a wonderful sparkle to her. Where she's really fantastic is her ability to make everything grand and believable. There's a slight danger with a role like Susannah in Wild Rose in that it feels slightly peripheral, so it needed someone very honest and open who could ground that role, and I think she does that fantastically. How did the child actors get along with Jessie? When working with child actors, you need to be responsive to their needs, particularly with someone like Adam, who played Lyle, and who had never done a movie before, he was only six years old when we filmed. He only had a limited amount of time on set, and an even shorter attention span, so we had to construct certain days and scenes around him, enabling him to give his best performance. Sometimes that would mean we would improvise a scene, or Jessie and Daisy, who plays her daughter, would slip into character beforehand and jump right into the scene, and Adam would follow along. Sometimes they did it more rigidly, giving more specific instructions, depending on his mood at the time. We had to be open to what would give the child actors the best environment in order for them to do their best work, which is true for any actor. It's about reading the energy of the room and adapting your filming style to the demands of the scene. Glasgow is a strong presence in this movie. What was your familiarity with the city prior to filming there? Our writer, Nicole Taylor, is from Glasgow, and has a close relationship with the city. I've been there a few times in my life, but I never spent a great deal of time in the city. So it was interesting, knowing the script so well, but not knowing the city as well as I knew it from the story. Being an outsider, I think you can bring a different perspective than someone who knows a place intimately. Because Nicole knew it so well, it made us a nice duo, seeing it more objectively from my perspective. It's a place that's very infectious, it's easy to slip into life there. And it's quite friendly, with lots of great beauty — wherever you go, you can see the surrounding countryside. But it's also teeming with life and creativity, all the things you'd want from a big city. It's a special place, despite all the rain. What was your knowledge of country music prior to this film? Were you a fan? Like most people, I had a good awareness of some country music —surface stuff, like Johnny Cash and Dolly Parton, but I didn't have any great insider knowledge, other than the fact that I had somehow wound up working in Texas, and it had gotten into my bones. It's always a music that I've responded to and loved, but the journey of this film has only increased my love for country music... One doesn't expect country music to flourish in a place like Glasgow — describe the incongruity. Once you scratch the surface, it doesn't seem incongruous for a couple of reasons. First of all, there's a large and healthy country music scene in Glasgow, but when you go even deeper, you realize the roots of country come from Celtic music and came over with immigrants from Scotland and Ireland a couple of centuries ago. If you listen to Celtic music now, or country music, or bluegrass, certain elements, including the instrumentation, are very similar. Once, when I was in Nashville, checking out a gig there, and Jessie was in Glasgow watching a jam, we sent videos to each other of what we were watching, and while there were strong local inflections, the similarities were quite apparent.

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