Name: Alice Englert
Notable past credits: The Australian actress, who is the daughter of director Jane Campion, starred as Camille in the TV adaptation of “Dangerous Liaisons,” out on Starz last year.
Sundance project: Englert makes her directorial feature debut with “Bad Behavior,” which stars Jennifer Connelly and Ben Whishaw.
What she loves about Sundance: “The glam really gets iced out. And what remains is really good puffer jackets and really good movies, you know? No shame to the other [festivals] — everywhere is fantastic. But I love it here, because I feel that I can get a bit, ‘Oh, does my body look like s–t’ or anything and here it’s like, ‘Ha-ha! They’ll never know who I am.’”
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Casting Jennifer Connelly as her lead: “We heard a rumor that she might read it. We were like, ‘Oh, my god.’ So I wrote to her, because I love her. And I think she’s so ethereal and grounded. And whenever I watch her in something I feel very in love. I feel like you can really go into the character. I feel like I’m really allowed inside. And she read it, and she read it twice. Then she did her homework on me, which felt very lovely and I just couldn’t believe she was taking the time.”
Where the idea for “Bad Behavior” came from: “It kind of came out of a hunger or an ache that I have to see stories about adult women who are coming of age, in a way, that is beyond the kind of teenage mode. I really want to be allowed to grow up,” Englert says. “And I want to let that be thrilling and meaningful, and not a space where you’re just trying to…it’s hard to explain, because I’m so mad that it’s even the case. But I just feel like there’s so many more stories now and it just feels really lovely to be part of that, that allow for uniqueness, allow for layers. And you’re not just trying to make a symbol; you’re allowed to be more real about what life might do to us. And I know I need it. I also know so many women who are happier and happier and more themselves as they get older. That’s what is reported, and I feel that from my own experience.”
Having an Oscar-winning director as a mom: “I always have paid attention to what she does. I was fascinated by it. And I was difficult to get to go to school because I would force my way into the edit room and then get kicked out when they were editing the sex scenes,” she says. “I feel very, very lucky to be able to be privy to this world and be able to survive in it. I love it. I love it so much.”