“Epic” is an overused word in modern parlance, but it’s a fitting descriptor of Joel Edgerton’s lead performance in writer/director Clint Bentley’s Train Dreams. Without any complex melodrama or massive set pieces, the film tells the simple story about a man living in the Pacific Northwest through the early 20th century, but Edgerton’s work is special, as it’s powerful to see how the protagonist’s hard life changes him/takes a toll over several decades. By the end of the movie, the Australian actor wears some incredible makeup that transforms him well beyond his natural 51 years of age – but in addition to his appearance, one also has to greatly appreciate the actor’s efforts to portray a very specific physicality.
Late last year (prior to it being available for Netflix subscribers), I had the chance to sit down with Joel Edgerton during the Los Angeles press day for Train Dreams, and I made a point of specifically asking him about aging his character over the course of the film. I joked about him one day looking back at playing Robert Grainier and assessing that he looks far better as an old man than his character, but I also asked about the impact of his makeup and his approach. He noted that he greatly relates to his part in the movie, and he made a special effort when it came to understanding how Robert would both look and move in his final years. Said Edgerton,
That's my plan. I felt like a good person to play Robert for a lot of reasons. I'm a dad and I'm a husband, and my greatest fears play out in the film. So like, it felt appropriate on an actorly level. But I did get excited by the sort of imagining myself as an older man and asking the question of how emotional experience and grief can wear a person's demeanor, shape them in one way, but how physical labor can shape them in another.
In the case of Robert Grainier, both emotional tax and physical labor are significant parts of his life. In order to support his family, he spends seasons away from them working as a logger (which is backbreaking and dangerous work) – and events of the film that I won’t spoil here end up shattering his world. He bears a lot of weight both literally and figuratively, and it ends up being specifically reflected in the way he carries himself in his retirement.
Continuing, Joel Edgerton offered great credit to the crew of Train Dreams and the artists who made his aging realistic, and emphasized that his job in making the third act of the movie was to recognize how the totality of his life would reflect on his body:
You have to sing the tribute to makeup artists and costume designers, of course, wonderful teams that we had. And then it's our job to inhabit those things. So for me it was, 'How does a man who's logged all his life move?' And that was a nice physical challenge too.
Also featuring tremendous performances from Felicity Jones, Kerry Condon, William H. Macy and more, Train Dreams was voted by CinemaBlend to be one of the very best films of 2025, and it’s now available to stream on Netflix.
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