It’s cool to be kind
RELATIVE NEWCOMER TAYLOR JOHN SMITH MADE HIS SISTERS VERY HAPPY BY TAKING ON A LEAD ROLE IN THIS NEW FILM
When Taylor John Smith told his sisters he’d landed a lead role in Where The Crawdads Sing, they had one burning question.
You know, was he the essentially kind-hearted Tate or the entitled Chase?
Fortunately, he does, in fact, play the former.
“This is the first project that I’ve ever worked on that my sisters cared about,” Smith laughs as we chat down the line from LA. “They were like ‘OK, shut up and tell me, Chase or Tate – which one are you playing?’ I was like ‘Tate’ and they were like ‘Thank God’.
“If they cared that much, I can’t imagine how the rest of the world feels about this book.
“When I finally got to read it, I understood exactly what they were talking about.”
It does seem as if the whole world has read the lyrical, beautiful novel by Delia Owens, including actor and book lover Reese Witherspoon. The literary phenomenon skyrocketed to the top of the bestseller lists when Witherspoon picked it for Reese’s Book Club – and its recordbreaking run has lasted more than 191 weeks. Witherspoon – not only an Academy Awardwinning actor but a powerhouse producer with her billion-dollar production company, Hello Sunshine – got her hands on Owen’s manuscript and, as she has with Big Little Lies and Little Fires Everywhere, adapted it for the screen.
Smith hastens to reassure all of the loyal fans who worry that the book is always better than the movie.
“I got to see the film in its entirety a couple of weeks ago and it felt like such a loyal adaptation of the book,” he says.
“I think Reese Witherspoon actually nailed it. Delia’s vision wasn’t tainted in anyway.”
Where the Crawdads Sing tells the story of Kya (played by Daisy Edgar-Jones), an abandoned girl who raises herself in the dangerous marshlands of North Carolina. For years, rumours of the “Marsh Girl” haunted Barkley Cove, isolating the clever and resilient Kya from her community. Drawn to two young men from town – Tate and Chase (Harris Dickinson), Kya opens herself to a new world; but when one of them is found dead, she is immediately seen as the main suspect. As the case unfolds, what actually happened becomes increasingly unclear, threatening to reveal the many secrets that lie within the marsh.
The marsh itself is a leading character in the book and the movie was filmed on location in the regions surrounding New Orleans. It was the beginning of hurricane season; thunderstorms flooded the set, and cast and crew were forced inside to avoid the lightning.
“Look, you could have filmed on a soundstage but it wouldn’t have been as magical,” Smith says.
“It just wouldn’t have had the same character. There’s almost a soundtrack to it and it really allowed us to get into the story. And getting into our characters was really easy when you showed up and you’re snapping the gnats and mosquitoes.
“And you see alligators cruising in front of you in little estuaries – it made it all really real for us.”
It was a little too real one time when Smith was up to his waist in the water as his character collects samples from the marsh. Production had a hidden walkietalkie in the boat next to Smith so they could communicate.
“The walkie-talkie starts to crackle and there’s a wildlife ranger saying ‘Taylor, heads up we’re going to start rolling and ah, you’ll see just a little bit behind you there’s a ’gator, you should be fine’.
“And then I hear ‘action’ and as I’m doing the scene, I see this giant shape – it looks like a floating tree – go right behind me.
“I’m trying not to make eye contact because then it will be looking right at you.
“I did think ‘well, at least if I’m eaten alive, they’ll get it on film’.”
Obviously, and rather fortunately, Smith lived to tell the tale with all limbs intact.
He confesses he was pinching himself most days on set, especially working closely with Witherspoon and Edgar-Jones.
“Reese would come visit on set and make sure everything ran smoothly and she was such a champion for the story and wanted to make sure we got it right,” he says.
“And Daisy is just a force to be reckoned with. She is absolutely one of the finest people I’ve met. We would have to be separated sometimes in between various scenes because we would just be giggling with each other.”
Stringent Covid protocols meant that Smith, Edgar-Jones and Dickinson – “by the way Harris is the sweetest guy in the whole world, he’s the exact opposite to Chase” – couldn’t all stay together in the same house as initially planned. Production worried if one got sick, all three would be taken out. But that didn’t stop the trio from forming close bonds.
“Pretty much every day we were at Daisy’s house watching movies,” Smith shares. “She was teaching us how to DJ. We’d sit around and drink for hours and talk and laugh and tell stories.”
It felt like your all-American summer camp for Smith.
“I didn’t want it to end, you know and leave all my very best friends,” he explains.
“We were in a cool place together and got to tell this really beautiful story. I don’t usually get emotional at the end of a shoot. I’m usually pretty excited to go home and see my friends and family, but this one was much different and it kind of saddened me for it to end.”
Although a quick glance at his Instagram, and you’d be forgiven for wondering just how much he did want to see his friends. There’s a picture of Smith holding a cake at his going away dinner. A closer look shows written in icing on the cake – “We know you can’t eat this, so we got it for us”. Seems a bit mean?
“I do have the best friends in the world, but they are also very cheeky,” Smith laughs as he explains. “Tate works on a shrimping boat with his father and he’s strong and very fit and I put a lot of work into preparing (physically) for this role.
“So they got the cake as a joke and thought it was so very funny. It sure gave me an ab workout laughing at that.”
He didn’t give up cake
altogether. Nor did he forgo a crayfish – the crawdads of the title – boil.
“I was not going to miss out on that – there’s such good food in Louisiana,” Smith says. “So I’d treat myself and I just made sure I ran an extra mile or two later.”
Smith is gracious and generous as we chat and it appears there are many parallels between him and his character who teaches Kya to read and sets her on her path to becoming a published author.
While he shares Tate’s innate kindness “that’s one of my favourite qualities in people, kindness – I try to be kind every day” – he does not share his passion for science.
“My favourite class at school was creative writing and English,” Smith shares.
“I was not great at science or math – it’s amazing that they ever let me graduate. And, thankfully, I have not had to do Pythagoras’s theorem my entire life since. Or memorise pi.”
Smith – who’s had a number of smaller roles in films and on TV, but is probably most recognised for playing John Keene in Sharp Objects with Amy Adams – kind of fell into acting. One of his aforementioned sisters was at a mall and was approached by a casting director.
“I ended up going in her place and then ended up falling in love with (acting),” he says.
“When I graduated high school I got a manager and an agent and I started going to community college.
“I just gave it a shot and it started working out. It was 99 nos in a row, but there was one yes so that kept me going through the other 99. I couldn’t think of doing anything else now.”
And the 27-year-old is certain to be a having a whole lot more yesses now.
“I don’t know what I’m going to be doing next but right now I’m just crazy happy that (Crawdads) is finally out for everybody else to enjoy.”
And so are his sisters.
Where The Crawdads Sing is in cinemas July 21, with previews this weekend
A little bit behind you there’s a ’gator – you should be fine