Summary
- Dylan Arnold impresses viewers as Stephan in Apple TV+’s noir drama,
Lady in the Lake,
opposite Natalie Portman’s Maddie Schwartz. - The series follows Maddie’s quest to solve the mysterious death of a Black woman in Baltimore, leading to dangerous consequences for everyone involved.
- Arnold describes his experience working with Natalie Portman as collaborative and explorative, highlighting the intensity and “weird” spark in their on-screen relationship. He also discusses how making
Oppenheimer
affected him.
Dylan Arnold is capturing everybody’s attention lately. Last year, the actor morphed into Frank Oppenheimer, J. Robert Oppenheimer’s (Cillian Murphy) physics-savvy brother in Christopher Nolan’s billion-dollar blockbuster, Oppenheimer. He’ll turn heads yet again playing befuddled Stephan Zawadzkie opposite Natalie Portman (May December) in Apple TV+’s stylish noir drama, Lady in the Lake.
The series chronicles the lives of two conflicted women. There’s Portman’s Maddie Schwartz, a Jewish housewife seeking to shed a secret past and reinvent herself as a journalist after the disappearance of a young girl rattles the city of Baltimore on Thanksgiving 1966. Then there’s Cleo Johnson (Moses Ingram) as a mother barely surfing through the political unrest of Black Baltimore. Their disparate lives would not necessarily intersect, but when Cleo’s death stuns Maddie, she becomes fixated on solving the crime.
Director Alma Har’el (Honey Boy) is at the helm of this unexpected tale about the price women pay for following their dreams. As for Arnold, who shares all of his scenes with Portman, the character of Stephan becomes a mysterious presence — perhaps an ally — for Maddie. “He almost wishes he could be underwater because everything’s quiet,’ Arnold noted. “He is desperate for connection — spiritual connection and emotional connection and physical connection. That’s where I put my focus. I tried to simplify it as much as I could, but he’s in search of connection and redemption.”
On Working with Natalie Portman
Working alongside Natalie Portman, who also serves as executive producer of the series, was yet another career milestone for Dylan Arnold. “Natalie was a very wonderful person to work with. There was a lot of collaboration and exploration, and she was willing to try things, and that’s not always the case. It’s really exciting when you kind of get that judgment-free zone where you just get to explore and figure stuff out,” explained Arnold.
“[With] Natalie, there was a lot of discussion about how their relationship builds, because there kind of is this uncovering of a puzzle in their past and how that affects their present as the scenes go on. That intensity had to build…
It is weird. There is a sort of spark. There is a weird relationship that develops between them.
”
“A lot of it we discovered in the scenes when we were doing the takes,” added Arnold, “then afterward we would talk about it and say what worked, what didn’t work — how do we feel like that is in line with what we’re trying to do?”
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How Oppenheimer Changed Things for Dylan Arnold
To be sure, starring as Frank Oppenheimer, J. Robert’s brother in Oppenheimer, must have influenced the trajectory of Arnold’s career. The actor remains humble about it all, noting, “Oh, I mean, I have no idea,” he mused of how the film may be opening more doors. He added:
“But I know that it encouraged me to just want to work with wonderful people. I mean, who doesn’t want to work with people [like] Alma and Chris?
Whenever you’re in an environment that people are at the top of their game, I feel like it just automatically makes me better
. That’s kind of what I found with
Oppenheimer
and
Lady in the Lake
.”
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Between the all-star Oppenheimer cast and elaborate production schedule, Arnold benefitted from working around several A-list actors, such Oscar winners Cillian Murphy, Matt Damon, and Robert Downey Jr. When asked what he learned from Murphy and Damon, Arnold said:
“Honestly, they’re just both such wonderful people.
You never know how that’s going to work out when you have really two powerhouses. They’re just both extremely generous men. And
I think that how they carry themselves on a set really showed me how you can lead a movie and just be a lovely, supportive person off-camera
.”
He went on to say that Murphy and Damon approach their work in a very “focused” way. “It’s not overindulgent, you know? Working with them was definitely one of the highlights of my career. But I think watching Cillian, because I worked mostly with Cillian… watching how he really approached the work and how he kind of all left it on set and didn’t take it home with him — that’s really amazing to watch.” So is Lady in the Lake. Watch Dylan Arnold in the noir thriller starting July 19 on Apple TV+ here. Watch the trailer below.