 |
| Alex Trewhitt as Cherry |
A rising star who has recently made a splash in Netflix series From Scratch, Alex Trewhitt is a keen traveller, boxer and dancer who loves to engage with new things. She’s in almost every scene of Sophie Galibert’s new drama Cherry, which follows a day in the life of a young woman with a life-changing decision to make. Suddenly discovering that she’s ten weeks into an unplanned pregnancy, Cherry has to work out whether or not to keep the baby before the point at which a pill-based termination would cease to be possible.
Although Cherry’s eventual decision is a very personal one, and comes right at the end of the film, it’s not a spoiler to say that the film celebrates the importance of choice. Whilst this is something which Alex connects with, however, what really attracted her to the role was the way Cherry was written.
 |
| Cherry in the magic shop |
“I, unfortunately, rarely get to play such complex and dynamic women,” she explains. “I saw that there was something very special about her and she had so much depth, and you could really play with so many aspects of her. I mean, you get to really see her in such a short period of time, you really get to see her thought process and what her life is like and what it could be like.”
I note that it seemed like a coming of age film, even though she's not actually a child, because she grows up very fast in a short time.
“Yeah, that's actually what I think makes it so interesting. If you find yourself getting pregnant at 25, versus 18, things are a little bit more complicated. You're a little bit more established in your life. And so I think generally people just expect you to figure it out. And there's still some more choice there. You know, despite your age, you still have that option to live your life.”
It’s also refreshing because Cherry isn’t caught in some additionally tragic situation and she isn’t presented as a saint. She’s quite a disorganised, messy person.
“I love messy girls, because I am one!” Alex laughs. “But I just think it's so interesting, because so often everyone is so well put together, and I just think it's so much more fun to have someone who you can relate to. And maybe if you aren't that messy girl, you definitely have a messy friend like that. So I think everyone can kind of relate to her and understand her. And it was also really important that we didn't make her a villain. She is undecided on a lot of things and doesn't have like a clear path that she's following in her life. But it was really important, like you said, I mean, nothing tragic happened to her. She wasn’t raped, there was no incest. It was just an accident. And that is what happens so often, and I don't think that we really share that part. Because those girls also deserve to choose.”
 |
| Cherry talks to her boyfriend |
It's a really life affirming film. Did she feel that it needed to have that element of joy?
“Yeah, that was really important to me, because I think even in really tough situations, things still end up kind of funny sometimes, and I just wanted to keep it real in that way. I mean, I created a lot of different colours. Cherry has her own playlist that I sometimes still listen to. So just making her a real person was really the most important thing that I could do. What I would do in some of these situations? You can process things but processing isn't always standing in the shower and crying about it.”
She's also a very physical character. Alex is a physical person to, but taking on the role required picking up a new skill.
“Trying to roller skate for the first time was crazy because I had never roller skated prior to this movie,” she says. “As I come from a dance background, it was kind of counterintuitive, actually. Because the way that you rollerskate is similar to dance in a way that's just confusing enough. Like when I was learning how to spin, you know, on pointe shoes, you're on both toes, whereas when you're spinning on roller skates, you have one toe and one heel. And so due to those muscle memories, your stance is just not quite there. But it was really cool to have such a physical aspect to work on and learn as well as the art of it.
“Initially my agent called and was like, ‘They really want to book you but it's really contingent on how well you can pick up rollerskating.’ So we scheduled two sessions with a coach. I worked with Morgan Weske from the LA Roller Girls, who are just total athletes, like beyond. It's not like roller derby, it's more like ice skating on roller skates. It’s really beautiful to watch them perform. But I worked with her for two sessions, and I was like, ‘What do I need to do? We have six weeks. How do we train?’ And then they ended up booking me which was great. But it was really tough. There were a lot of falls.
 |
| Dinner with the family |
“What's more impressive, I think, is that Damien [Steck], our DP, almost every time I'm on roller skates, he also roller skates. So there was a lot of coordination between us and judging stopping time and distance. And so there was a lot involved in just the physical skating aspect – and trying to embody a roller skater and an athlete, because I think I present myself in a very different way than she does. So it really was a full body experience.”
As part of the job she has at the start of the film, Cherry also does magic tricks. Did Alex learns those too?
“I tried,” she says bashfully. “It was still the height of Covid when we were shooting. There were very limited places and people that I could talk to and work with at the time. So a lot of YouTube. I think that we tried a couple things that just could not be folded into the movie, but I think there's one trick that is acceptable, and I would have liked to learn some more. I did learn how to do balloon tricks, though.”
There’s a wonderful ensemble scene in which Cherry has dinner with members of her family, which allows all the actors to tease out the nuances of their characters. I ask how they developed that to make it so intimate and so successful.
“The way we shot was actually seven long takes. I think our longest take was maybe 29 minutes,” she says. “So what we did is we rehearsed it almost like a play. We had like a full day of rehearsal with each actor. We had to also get the camera motions and everything in place to shoot. So we did get to rehearse a lot, which was great. I think everyone felt like it was kind of a play. The woman who plays my mom, Angela [Nicholas] actually comes from a theatre background so she had some fun tips.
 |
| As night falls |
“That, I think, is actually my favourite scene, because I think it's just really cool to see how clearly you can jump into a family dynamic of all the different women in her life. And I think it's really neat that she trusts her grandmother the most, who has dementia, so it seems like that may not be really the optimal choice, but it's where she feels safest. And my little sister is also my favourite person in the world so I love anything with a sister scene. And that was also our audition scene. I don't know, I think it's just nice to see all the women there.
“I started talking to some of my friends and also [thought about] my own experience of how, at a certain point, you stop seeing your parents as like superhero people and you know who they are, with the things you want about them but also maybe some of their flaws that you didn't really realise were flaws until now. You realise there are things that they hadn't dealt with or maybe wish that situations could have been a little bit different. I think that that is also a very formative period of realising ‘Oh, wait a minute, all those people made mistakes and made their own choices.’ I think that that is a really pivotal point for her because she really is seeing them for who they are, and not just mom and dad.”
Next up for her will be The Electric State, directed by brothers Anthony and Joe Russo, which she’s not allowed to talk much about at present, but she does say “It's like a post apocalyptic movie, but in the Eighties, which is really fun. Cool costumes and a lot of crazy VR headsets. It stars Millie Bobby Brown and Chris Pratt, and they're very nice.”
She has said elsewhere that she loves watching spooky films, so I ask if she has any ambitions in that area.
 |
| A love of life |
“Oh, my gosh, yeah,” she says. “I love, love, love anything scary. I find it soothing because I understand the formula and you know who you're rooting for. And it's also like, I think it’s the only genre where women just dominate. There's always this really cool, badass final girl, and I just I love to see that. So I would love to do some kind of spooky movie.
“I'm also starting to write a little bit. And I'm really hoping to get something that's going to take me out to Asia. Right now I'm working on a backpacking movie that would take place in Asia. So fingers crossed, something will happen with that because that would be such a dream.”
