Along with Banksy's self-distributed Exit to the Gift Shop, City Island's ongoing box office run is one of the more inspirational indie success stories of the year to date. The excellent ensemble comedy about a dysfunctional, secretive family living on the titular island just off the Bronx expanded over the weekend, crossing the $2 million threshold that few (if any) observers expected it might reach. Among the beneficiaries: Steven Strait, who stars as Tony, a convict in whom prison guard Vince (Andy Garcia) takes an unusual interest on the cusp of his parole.
It's not quite clear why, or what would compel Vince to invite the young man to stay with him and his wife (Julianna Margulies) and kids (Ezra Miller and Dominik Garcia-Lorido), but such is City Island's entire M.O.: to keep its snowball of secrets gathering speed and suspicions by the minute, building to writer-director Raymond De Felitta's melo-farce conclusion. Bottom line is it works, and it's a nice showcase for Strait, who has now officially done a little bit of everything since his 2005 superhero-school film debut in Sky High, bounding from genre thrillers (The Covenant) to international blockbusters (10,000 B.C.) to mid-level prestige efforts (Stop-Loss) before landing in City Island.
Movieline spoke with the 24-year-old actor about the road so far, his master plan, and how he finally got over wanting merely to stand in the background in the school play.
City Island is having quite the run, and you've been with it as long as anybody. What's your take on this kind of long tail the film is having?
It's really exciting. It's been so gratifying and cool to see how well it's been received by those who've seen it and reviewed it. It was really a labor of love by all the people involved. It was just this little film we shot in New York two years ago, and it's having this life. It's so nice to see. Everyone involved really cared to much about the film. It's really cool.
How did you get involved with it?
Originally I read the script and it was so funny; I found myself laughing out loud while I was reading it. So it's got that great humor to it, but it's also got an incredibly human quality that's really charming. All the characters are flawed in their own ways. I really related to the feeling of the script as a whole. I met Raymond and talked with him about the character and the film and how he saw it. Then I met Andy, and it was all a go from there.
The films you've done are kind of all over the place budget-wise and genre-wise. Was that always the plan? How did you get to City Island from something like Sky High?
Yeah, and it continues to be kind of the plan. What's fun for me is to try new things and push myself and not get stuck in one genre or another, or stuck with one character or another. I enjoy doing it all, whether it's a comedy or drama or action movie or whatever. There are aspects to all of them that I find fulfilling. So I'm always keeping my eye out for something different. And City Island certainly was that for me. I'd done a few films before that, but this was a really different movie for me, and kind of a different role. It was something that I thought I'd have a really good time with it. And meeting everyone involved, and reading it, I knew that it was going to be special. It just felt right.
Is it true that you had to be kind of nudged into acting -- that it was something you resisted at first?
I guess to a certain extent. I mean, I started doing it pretty young. I grew up in New york, in the Village, and I started going to Stella Adler pretty young. I was 13 or 14 years old. but I was also really shy when I was growing up. Initially, with those mandatory middle school plays and what not, I guess it was kind of a push for me. I was the boy who was asking to be the tree in back, you know?
So how did you acquire the comfort level that encouraged you to do films -- or at least take a more conspicuous role?
It was the school. It was Adler. As much as I was shy, I did enjoy it, and I knew that it was something that I wanted to pursue just to see if it was something I really wanted. I auditioned and I got into Adler. Those first experiences there was kind of a freeing experience -- putting yourself out there, falling into a character and letting those fears kind of disappear. That was kind of the linchpin that set it off for me. I really started falling in love with it once I got into school.
Last week, your co-star Ezra Miller elaborated on the learning environment provided by an ensemble piece like City Island. What was that like for you?
It was amazing, man. I think the thing that I took away from City Island more than anything else was watching Andy and Julianna and Alan [Arkin] and Emily [Mortimer] work -- and working with them, and everyone working together so intimately. I mean, the unit as a whole needed to be incredibly cohesive for the thing to work as it did. I found everyone to be so generous as people, but also as actors. Everyone was there to push the project up; obviously everyone had their individual characters and stories to build and work with, but there was definitely a sense of a whole. It just felt like one unit that was very tight, and everyone was giving 100 percent whether or not the camera was on them. They might have just been giving you lines for your coverage. It was very cool. The whole process in and of itself was very organic. It wasn't forced; it just was. I guess you have to attribute that to the fact that everyone involved was so cool. I grew a lot out of it for sure.
Another thing that can have a huge impact on younger actors is a film that maybe meets with a less-than-warm reception. 10,000 B.C. made a fortune, but was critically reviled. Stop-Loss underperformed critically and commercially. How did those affect you?
With 10,000, our aim was to make a film that was entertaining and a roller-coaster ride; it is what it is. It's an adventure film. I had a blast doing it, and I learned a lot on that film as well. It was certainly disappointing the way it was received, but with that being said, it did incredibly well, and obviously a lot of people went to see it. And at the end of the day, that's really who it's for. And it was nice to see that it did so well, and people did like it and enjoy themselves and went on a ride with it.
With Stop-Loss, I thought it was an incredibly important topic, and to be able to work with Kimberly Peirce was amazing. The heart was definitely in the right place for both of them. I certainly don't regret anything. I took away a lot of really valuable experiences as an actor and as a person for sure.
So what's next? Are you working on anything now?
I'm looking at a few things. I've been incredibly fortunate to be able to have different opportunities and be able to choose, which is kind of amazing. I just finished a pilot that Amy Holden-Jones wrote that I had a really good time with, and I'm looking at a few different movies now. I haven't really decided what I'm going to do next. I'm just incredibly fortunate to have had the opportunity at all.