Luca Guadagnino's After The Hunt is a sublime study of a complicated post-#MeToo world for women.
The film centres around two women, played by Julia Roberts and The Bear's Ayo Edebiri, who find themselves at opposing ends of the “believe women” narrative when student Maggie (Edebiri) is assaulted by her professor (Garfield). When she confides in Roberts’ Alma – also a professor pursuing her dream of tenure – her instinct to believe, support and empower a fellow woman is called into question, particularly if it affects her own social standing and career.
The grounding of a #MeToo story within a misogynistic institution – in this case, education – exposes the fragility behind the idea of ‘women believing women’; how do women and survivors navigate such male-dominated spaces? Especially when the system encourages playing a “man’s game” to get ahead and protect your reputation.
The film also explores how privilege influences our perceptions of success and victimhood, as well as the discourse around cancel culture and generation gaps regarding attitudes towards inclusivity.
Andrew Garfield truly unleashes a dark side to his acting, a gorgeous contrast to his on-screen ‘Good Guy’ appearances in The Amazing Spider-Man and We Live In Time. His description of #MeToo as “a shallow cultural moment” perfectly encapsulates the behaviour of so many men accused of assault, as well as pervasive attitudes that seem to still exist in the discourse today.
At the film’s Venice Film Festival premiere, an Italian journalist targeted a question about both Black Lives Matter and #MeToo movements being “done” at Julia and Andrew specifically, seemingly snubbing Edebiri from airing her views on both matters. She also asked, “If we lost something with the politically correct era?”
“I don’t think it’s done, I don’t think it’s done at all," Ayo interjected at the time in reference to both the #MeToo and Black Lives Matter campaigns. “Hashtags might not be used as much, but I do think that there’s work being done by activists, by people every day, that’s beautiful, important work. That’s not finished, that’s really, really active for a reason because this world’s really charged. And that work isn’t finished at all.” Her response quickly went viral, quickly providing proof that neither movement was ”done", and both are rightly explored in the film.
After The Hunt is an intense look at how difficult the goal of female solidarity continues to be, even post #MeToo, because of the misogynistic attitudes still present within modern society. Both Julia and Ayo are beguiling in their depictions of two women searching for empowerment and freedom from an institution built around disempowering them.
As I sat down with them in a hotel room at Claridge’s, the irony of sitting across from Julia for an interview in this way felt extremely reminiscent of the iconic scene where Hugh Grant does the exact same thing in Notting Hill. I ask Julia if she’s had any Horse and Hound jokes today, in reference to this scene. She responds that I’m the first woman to make one.
Julia and Ayo opened up in a Glamour Q&A about working together on After The Hunt, the ways that cancel culture is explored in the film and the direction that conversations around “women believing women” need to go in now.
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What were your first impressions of each other?
Julia: We met at my house, and my first impression of Ayo was… [To Ayo] You seemed so small and mighty. I was like, how is all that talent and intellect and humour in this tiny space just shooting off sparks? It was like Ayo TV. I just thought I could just sit here all day, just watch what's happening.
Ayo: There was just a warmth, an energy, an embrace or something that I was so beautifully surprised and moved by. We all just very quickly fell in and found the little pockets where we
fit with each other.
What surprised you the most about working together on set?
Julia: I think the overarching surprise was how much fun we had, because it is very serious and intense, and obviously, some days are harder than other days, always. But we all had a similar energy between takes and setups, right? Even though we have different processes.
There’s a moment in the movie where it’s suggested that women believe themselves to be “rotten” and are always trying to hide it, while men don’t feel this way. Why do you guys think this is?
Julia: I would almost say that to me, Alma is saying that coming from this damaged, broken place. I think that if you're talking about women, which I try to never speak for my entire gender, but I think it's more the concept of we're in constant conversation with ourselves about how to do better for ourselves, for our family, our friends, for the world, that we take the idea of loving service as part of our life's work. I'm not saying men don't, I am just talking from my heart space.
The film really explores cancel culture, down to The Smiths being played in a student bar and a conversation as to whether students would've “cancelled” them. Do you think it’s fair for it to be on women to separate themselves from problematic men?
Ayo: I think that it's a conversation that we're clearly having as a society, and I think it's interesting to me and important that we have it, because it's not even as though it feels like a new conversation. It's not a novel concept by any means. Even earlier in the film, they're referring to the great [male] philosophers. You could do that with so many major, important, powerful historical figures as well. So my answer is, I'm not sure, but I think it's good that we're having a conversation about it.
Julia: I think it depends on what it is you're trying to separate yourself from and your own values and what you're comfortable with. I think the important part is we shouldn't as a society be told what to do, or shame people for doing something that is a different choice than we would have made for ourselves.
This film is centred around the idea of “women believing women” but the difficulties that surround that in a misogynistic institution, in this case education. How did it make you feel about your own experiences and thoughts when it comes to “women believing women” and its nuances in your own lives?
Ayo: One of my takeaways is that everything has these complications and nuances. A blanket statement is tricky to apply, because I think these characters are so complicated. What they're going through is clearly so complicated, but also internally, the private histories that we have, the sociopolitical histories that we all walk in, how those things can interact with each other and rub up against each other and cause frictions that you don't even realise is happening. I think we can maybe make more space in our daily lives, which are definitely overloaded, for those complications, because that means we're making more space for ourselves and for each other, and less for noise and oversimplifications.
Ayo, your character Maggie talks at the end of the film about being a Black woman, and how white people profit and benefit from her story being told, while she is even exploited. Why was this an important message for you to portray?
Ayo: Something that I think is very interesting to me about that line, as it is spoken by Maggie in that moment, I'd like to ask: is that really what she believes, though? Is she being honest? Where is she coming from? Who does she surround herself with? What is her angle into the world that she's speaking to? Why is she saying it that way?
After The Hunt is out in cinemas now.
