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Perhaps an obvious point: but, well, there’s a whole lot of mud in Mudbound. Set in the marshy Mississippi farmlands, characters are caked in it, fall in it, heck, some almost even drown in it. Garrett Hedlund, in particular, gets ‘it’ the worst. As Jamie McAllan, a WWII veteran driven to the bottle – the actor ends most of his scenes stumbling and writhing around drunkenly in the filth. These conditions could prove difficult for an actor, but for Hedlund – it allowed him to tap into the conditions working on a 1940s Mississippi farm. To be fair, this actually isn’t much of a stretch as Hedlund grew up on a farm himself (albeit in Minnesota… so substitute snow for mud).

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Image via Netflix

In Mudbound, two families (one white, the other black) struggle to make ends meet on the capricious Mississippi farmlands. Yet despite this common economic hardship, the families come to resent one another, blinded by the racial tensions of the era. When the family’s youngest members (Hedlund & Jason Mitchell) strike up a friendship, the brewing tension between the families boils over into outright tragedy.

In the following interview with Garrett Hedlund, he discusses how his own experiences working on a farm informed the character, his research process and the effects the shoot climate had on his performance. For the full interview, watch above, and click here to read Adam's review.

Here's a list of what was discussed:

  • How did the shooting climate effect Garrett Hedlund’s performance?
  • What did he draw from his own experiences growing up on a farm?
  • What was research Hedlund’s research process into the time period?
  • How much did the novel Mudbound and the characterization within influence his performance?
mudbound-movie-garrett-hedlund-jason-mitchell
Image via Netflix
mudbound-garrett-hedlund-jason-mitchell
Image via Netflix
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Image via Netflix