Emmy-winning filmmaker Alex Russell & stars Archie Madekwe & Théodore Pellerin talk LURKER

As LURKER opens in US theaters on Friday, August 22nd from ‪@mubi‬, writer-director Alex Russell (The Bear, Beef) and stars Théodore Pellerin (Becoming Karl Lagerfeld, Franklin, Beau is Afraid) and Archie Madekwe (Saltburn, Midsommar) speak exclusively with The Queer Review's editor James Kleinmann about how they went about making the film's depiction of the world of a rising music artist feel so authentic and their approach to playing their characters. While Russell reflects on the sexual tension between the lead characters in two pivotal scenes.

Synopsis: When twenty-something Los Angeles retail clerk and loner Matthew (Théodore Pellerin) encounters rising pop star Oliver (Saltburn’s Archie Madekwe), he takes the opportunity to edge his way into the in-crowd. But staying there isn’t easy.

With an entire entourage (Bottoms’ Havana Rose Liu, Abbott Elementary’s Zack Fox, Y2K’s Daniel Zolghadri, mid90s’ Sunny Suljic) vying for attention, Matthew must prove himself to Oliver as more than just a follower. As their bond grows strained and mainstream fame appears within reach, access and proximity become a matter of life and death.

Online fixation meets reality in this parasocial, paranoid cat-and-mouse film driven by star-making performances. With an incisive view to contemporary culture and a brilliant score from Kenny Beats (known for his work with Vince Staples), LURKER presents an exhilarating take on the music industry, the blurred line between friend and fan, and our universal search for validation.

Alex Russell most recently served as a Co-Executive Producer on Netflix/A24’s BEEF, for which he won an Emmy award for Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series. And he was recently a Supervising Producer on FX’s THE BEAR. His episode – ep 207 - titled “Forks,” was one of the best reviewed episodes of television last year and nominated for a WGA award. He got his start as a staff writer on the first two seasons of DAVE – and was also recently a Producer on Hulu’s series INTERIOR CHINATOWN.