Cosmo Jarvis on The Shadow of Violence, His Acting Process, and Title Changes – The Film Stage

One of my favorite films from last years Toronto International Film Festival, The Shadow of Violence (renamed from its UK release title Calm with Horses) has finally arrived stateside. A critical darling with enough momentum for Saban Films to reward it with an exclusive theatrical window despite the COVID-19 shutdown, you have to wonder if it might find its way to the eyes of Oscar voters looking for screeners now that the field is wide open with rule changes and postponements.

If nothing else they need to watch it to make certain that star Cosmo Jarvis performance isnt left out of the conversation. A career-making turn just a couple years after being introduced internationally in Lady Macbeth, the US-born Englishman provides Arm the complexity and pathos to earn our empathy from the first frame.

The following is our email conversation with Jarvis about his process, acting partners, and a character that wears his heart and pain on his sleeve.

The Film Stage: Howdid your casting in The Shadow ofViolence come about? And what attracted you to the project whether ColinBarretts original short story, Joe Murtaghs script, Nick Rowlands vision asa first-time feature director?

Cosmo Jarvis: ShaheenBaig, the casting director, had cast me before in a movie called Lady Macbeth, but, just in general, shesalways working on interesting stuff. I remember reading the script and admiringthe character of the language Joe used and his dedication to honoring the feelof the place and its inhabitants.

Ive met Arms [hischaracter]. I remember looking forward to whittling away at Arm and beingexcited that a character like him had been written [along with] the archetypalnature of the story. Also Nick was my age and so was the producer Dan Emmersonand it really felt, even in the early days, like this could be somethinginteresting. It felt like a mission that would be great to be on. Nicksattention to emotion, his care for his actors and love for the story was clearin the audition room. I got a callback and then did another and yeah.

You packed on muscleand adopted what your cast-mates call a pitch-perfect Irish accent, but whatwas your mental process like digging into an emotionally and psychologicallycomplex character such as Arm with all the trauma hes experienced and carriesupon his shoulders?

Mentally, I found it to be a case of minimizing futureprojections and past reflections and just sort of trying to get on with thingsin their immediacy with very little thought put anywhere other than what washappening. I knew there was a reason why Arm wasnt able to see what seemed tobe happening to himdespite the shouts from his beloved around him. I tried toreside in that head.

How did shooting onlocation in the west of Ireland help shape the character especially consideringyou were an Englishman within an Irish cast?

I learned a great deal whilst researching there. Theresnowhere like Ireland. I interacted with as many Irish people as I could andjust generally lived. There is a kind of character alive in Irelands peopleand a musicality that is just unique. It was great having so many people totalk to in the crew and in the towns where we shot.

Yours is a year-bestperformance for me thats so heartbreaking to watch as a whole, but the scenesyou share with Niamh Algar as your ex-girlfriend Ursula really stick outbecause they allowas her character saysfor Douglas to peak through Armsfaade. How was it working with her to construct their affectingly tragicshared history?

Amazing. Naimh is some force breathing stark, unfiltered,brutal life and logic into everything and every crack in the space around her.We spent a lot of time together before shooting to establish a feeling of thehistory between them. We sort of had a bunch of good, easy times as Ursula andArm would certainly have had to form that familiarity and the comfort they havewith each other. Drinking beers and chatting shite by the lake. Just beinghuman, etc.

What was it likeshooting that final telephone call with her in a long take focused solely onyour emotional reaction in saying congratulations and goodbye? The simultaneousshow of pride in her accomplishment, hope in your familys future, and anguishin knowing you wont be with them is unforgettable.

Ursula (Naimh) was in the same room with us delivering herperformance with Arm off camera, which was brilliant and kept it real. Our crewwas amazing and everyone was just ace. As usual Nick was at the helm observingand gently guiding the proceedings. I dunno what to say, really. When I firstread the script that scene had stuck with me, I felt I understood it. Greatcrew we had in that room.

One could say you arethe Ursula to Barry Keoghans Dympnathe single real(ish) relationship he hasbeyond the true nightmares that are his uncles. What was it like toeing thatline between friendship and subservience with his character, knowing compassionstill exists beneath the obvious utility? Juggling loyalty against humanity andmorality?

With regard to this matterI learned a great deal about Armfrom the script [and] his interactions with Dympna. The sort of person Armwould have to be to keep going forward with Dympna as he does. I concluded thatArm just doesnt consider the flavors of hierarchy in Dympnas actions to beanything alarming. Arm just sees Dympna, this amazing confident character, assomeone whos willing to associate with him. A friend. That wonderful unhingedfriend we all have or perhaps are.

Ive met many groups of people who consider themselvesfriends with each other, but one party clearly has more interest to plan ormaintain the structure of the groups activities and momentum than the otherpartyeventually leading the other party, by default, to end up just going alongwith flow of activity. This utility (good choice of word by theway) can sometimes only be observed and acknowledged from an outside party. Itis possible for the accused propagator of this arguably one-sided arrangementto be subjectively and sincerely innocent in his/her influence on the otherparty because they themselves truly have no wider context. The other party hasno objections.

Dympnas mum makes Dypmna and Arms and Hectors breakfast.Dympna does the talking. Arm does the threatening. Its like if Im the friendwho brings the beer and youre the friend whos house were at: No big deal. Soif Dympna was raised in this cycle of the Devers family model and Glenbeigh(the setting) was small in sizeif Arm had been with the Devers for some time,I thought his friendship with Dympna, warts and all, would be the onlyfriendship with Dympna that Arm could know. A spade with cracked wood along itsshaft and rust on its blade is still a spade.

Whats your opinionon the title change for America from Calmwith Horses to The Shadow of Violence?There seems to be such a huge disparity between the optimism and hope of theformer as it deals with your characters son and the potential for healing andthe nihilism of the latter as an all-consuming darkness Arm will never be ableto escape.

I remember refusing to watch This Spinal Tap for many years because the title, just the words,conveyed the sentiment of badly lit horror movies with blood that is way toolight red from the early 80s. I admit that was my own precursory illusion. WhenI [finally] watched Spinal Tap, Ifell in love with it and the title seamlessly morphed into the only truereflection of the movies sentiment that I could imagine henceforth.In the end, however, I am aware that I am working in an industry.I know certain territories may react better, commercially, to certain stimulior language, but in catering to this, or our idea of this, do we hijackeveryones ability to adapt?

The Shadow of Violence is currently in limited theatrical release.