Warning: SPOILERS for The Starling Girl!The Starling Girl, now in theaters after a highly successful film festival run, is a beautifully told story about the journey from abuse to self-empowerment. Though it serves as writer and director Laurel Parmet’s feature film debut, the movie is masterfully crafted and boasts a high-caliber cast led by Eliza Scanlen (Sharp Objects). Scanlen portrays Jem Starling, a teenager growing up in a fundamentalist Christian community who finds herself courted in secret by her youth pastor.
The pastor in question is played by Top Gun: Maverick‘s Lewis Pullman, who walks the tightrope between danger and desire throughout his performance. Owen Taylor sweeps Jem off her feet, despite her youth and vulnerability and his own marriage, until society turns their judgment on them — and on Jem in particular. Jem’s relationship with her parents (played by For All Mankind‘s Wrenn Schmidt and Pachinko‘s Jimmi Simpson) is vital to The Starling Girl as well. Their fervent belief in the community is undercut but her father Paul’s alcoholism and her mother Heidi’s unhappiness, and the family members do not seem to know how to help each other heal.
Screen Rant spoke to Schmidt about the conversations she had with her costar Jimmi Simpson and their director regarding Heidi and Paul’s backstory. The actress also shared The Starling Girl scene she felt was pivotal to her character’s trajectory, which viewers may need to read between the lines to understand on first viewing.
Wrenn Schmidt Talks The Starling Girl
Screen Rant: Though the story is told through Jem’s perspective, we see glimpses of Heidi and Paul’s somewhat repressed marriage. What did you establish about their dynamic, either with Laurel or Jimmi?
Wrenn Schmidt: Jimmy and I talked a bit about when Heidi and Paul met and where they were at, because we both had a sense that it was a very different place from where the story begins, given Paul’s alcohol addiction. I think we talked with Laurel a little bit about this too; that Heidi and Paul knew each other before they were part of this more conservative community.
As far as what their marriage is like, I felt that Jimmy and I were able to be creative about that in our own ways. We got to experience what we were each bringing to that on set, and if we had a question for Laurel, she was very open and interested in talking. But otherwise, I think she really trusted us to bring our best collaborative and creative abilities to filling out who these people are.
I think that, fundamentally, Heidi and Paul have a really good relationship. But like any marriage, there are things that they really don’t see eye to eye on. And there are also ways in which it’s like, “Man, these five things about my partner are amazing, and then these two are things that if I could just change…” And within that, of course, is the belief system. Heidi sees herself as a helpmate to Paul, and Paul is the household figure and the family’s conduit to God, so she really revered him in that aspect — while I think she’s also secretly having opinions about how he’s doing that and how well he’s doing it.
We see a very big arc for Jem from the start to the end, in terms of herself her own relationship to her faith, and how she expresses herself. How much do you feel Heidi changes from beginning to end, especially in how she sees Jem and her behavior?
Wrenn Schmidt: That’s a great question. And it’s so interesting that you asked that because I think the audience gets to see only a little bit of that. Like every indie film, you always wish you had more time than you do. And the day that we were shooting Jem’s confession to the church, we were running out of time. It’s a really big scene because there were so many extras, and there’s the church and the lighting for the church. Our crew was just working tirelessly to get everything set up, and I remember watching Eliza’s performance. It was so good that people — who were just background extras, and I think some of them were part of the church — clapped. I was sitting there, thinking, “I get it. That was incredible.” But we ran out of time for the other stuff that had to be shot outside of Jem’s confession.
When I say other stuff, I mean coverage on Heidi or on Owen. And in some ways, that was really painful for me because I felt like that was the pivotal moment where the change starts with Heidi. But at the end of the day, the time is what it is, and the most important part of that was really Jem’s confession. I think that’s the moment when Heidi really starts to question the choices that she’s made on behalf of her family, because she’s seeing her daughter who’s been hurt by this man, and she is paying a price in front of their whole community. It’s not the full picture, and she knows it can’t be the full picture.
But I think that’s the moment that she really starts to wonder, “What have I done to my family? What have I done to my daughter?” because she’s paying the price for something that he very much took part in. I really feel like that moment when Owen walks up to Jem and says, “I forgive you,” is really the moment where the chain reaction of how Heidi responds and the rest of the film starts. I don’t think Heidi thinks that she’s done the wrong thing necessarily, as far as bringing her family into that community. But I think she is a mom who’s looking at it less through this belief system that they all adhere to and more as, “Somebody hurt my child, and I don’t know how to repair this, but I’m gonna try.”
As Wrenn, I look at some of the choices she makes after that with very specific opinions. I think that’s maybe why the audience reacts the way that they do when Heidi punches Owen — spoiler alert. Because, really, “You’re an adult and you should know better. You’re a youth pastor, you should know better. This is a 16 or 17-year old-girl, and you took advantage of her naivete.” I think that’s really the turning point. I also like the way that Laurel wrote that scene, and even the fact that it’s such a surprise that she gets on the car. I hope that takes people off guard.
Heidi, really in that moment, feels like she’s losing her child. But I definitely don’t think she’s in a place of maybe understanding the full scope of that.
About The Starling Girl
Seventeen-year-old Jem Starling struggles to define her place in rural Kentucky’s fundamentalist Christian community. Even her greatest joy of dancing with the church group is tempered by worry that her actions are sinful and she is caught between a burgeoning awareness of her own sexuality and her religious devotion. With the return of Owen, an enigmatic youth pastor, Jem soon finds herself attracted to his worldliness and charm. Slowly, he draws her into a dangerous relationship that could upend their entire community.
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The Starling Girl is currently playing in select theaters.
