Maxwell Jenkins on ‘Arcadian’ and why Anupam Kher is his guardian angel

The actor talks about working with Nicolas Cage in the post-apocalyptic thriller, his wish to play a Jedi, his year-long tryst with bhangra and how Anupam Kher is his guardian angel

Maxwell Jenkins considers Anupam Kher his guardian angel. “Whenever I encounter any kind of struggle, he always gives me a call,” says the 19-year-old actor on a video call from Chicago. “I worked with him when I was nine years old on A Family Man, which also starred Gerard Butler, Willem Dafoe, Alfred Molina, and Gretchen Mol.”

Learning bhangra for a year and a half, (when?)got Maxwell to watch Hindi films. “They showed us some pretty great Bollywood films. I know I sound pretty mainstream for saying this, but DDLJ (Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge) was phenomenal. I’ve seen it twice. I was shocked to see Anupam in the film. He was in every Bollywood film I watched!”

Maxwell plays Thomas in Arcadian, a post-apocalyptic thriller. “I remember falling in love with the character of Thomas right off the bat because it was unlike any character I had done before. I was intrigued at the opportunity of playing a character who is not squeaky clean, who isn’t necessarily the hero at all times. One of my favourite things to hear is when people tell me they hated Thomas,” he laughs.

A call with the director, Benjamin Brewer, sealed the deal. “We talked for about an hour and a half and maybe just 10 minutes of that conversation was about the movie. The rest of our conversation was about comic books, school and growing up. I was starting the process of applying to colleges, which is crazy to think about now because I’m going into my sophomore year of university. So yeah, I read the script, fell in love with the character, talked with Ben and next thing I knew, I was in Ireland.”

Thomas, Maxwell says, is one of two twins who, unlike his brother, Joseph, (played by Jaeden Martell), leads with his body. “He is like any kid today, experiencing growing pains and trying to stretch out his arms in a world that doesn’t let him. The stakes are different; when Thomas makes mistakes, people die and loved ones get hurt.”

Today’s constructs do not necessarily account for mistakes, Maxwell says. “Everyone’s lives are so much more public, because of social media. Mistakes are costlier and out in the open and affect more than one person. Thomas can be a little bit hot-headed. He thinks he’s invincible until he’s not. At the end of the day, he’s a teenager who loves his brother, and is struggling to find independence in a world that doesn’t account for it.”

Nicolas Cage plays the boys’ father. “Nic was incredible. He’s a phenomenal actor, a great person and super generous. On set, he is collaborative and wants to hear your thoughts and ideas. If he says something that you disagree with, or envision another way, he wants to hear that. We rewrote and went over so many different options, that it feels like we filmed three different movies in 20 days. He is a history buff and in between takes, he wouldn’t just disappear into his trailer. He’d stay on set and talk to us; it made the filming process fun.”