Yahoo Lifestyle Théodore Pellerin Takes the Lead in Sundance Debut ‘Lurker’
Name: Théodore Pellerin
Sundance project: Pellerin leads “Lurker,” the feature directorial debut for “The Bear” and “Beef” writer Alex Russell, as a young retail worker who befriends a music celebrity.
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Notable past credits: Last year he starred in “Becoming Karl Lagerfeld” as Lagerfeld’s former partner Jacques de Bascher; he also starred in the Apple TV+ miniseries “Franklin” and led the 2023 Toronto Film Festival film “Solo” as a young drag queen living in Montreal.
French Canadian actor Théodore Pellerin is the star of Alex Russell’s feature filmmaking debut “Lurker,” about a young retail worker in Los Angeles who finds himself increasingly enmeshed in an emerging pop star’s inner circle.
“It’s a very entertaining and fun and hard movie,” says Pellerin. “Hard in the sense of it plays a lot with shame and humiliation,” he adds. “I thought Alex’s writing was so funny and heartbreaking at times. I just love the script.”
Pellerin was cast in the lead role, the starstruck Matthew, four years earlier at the age of 23. Going from his early 20s to now late 20s over the course of getting the film changed the actor’s initial perspective on his character.
“The L.A. music [industry] power hierarchy dynamics — as you get a bit older, you understand them differently and feel them differently,” he says. “It’s not a very clear thing that changed. I was just more mature. I was someone a bit older.”
The film, which costars Archie Madekwe as the emerging pop star, explores the impact of fame on relationships and the social dynamics within it.
”[Matthew] is definitely a lonely character, latching onto the idea of something and someone that he really looks up to, and also a world that he looks up to,” says Pellerin. “Feeling like it’s his one chance to go all the way in that world. There’s an impossibility to let that go, and that’s when the stakes get so high. Because he cannot go back to the mediocre life that he was living. And I put mediocre in quotes because that’s his perception, of course.”
The film arrives at a time when celebrities feel more accessible than ever thanks to social media, and parasocial dynamics are apparent on the social media profiles for the “Lurker” stars. Pellerin explains that the film touches on the idea that celebrity can take the place of a “god-like figure” for many people.
“[Celebrity] truly becomes a form of religion and an aspiration. Matthew has the incredible opportunity of connecting with someone that he puts on such a high level,” says Pellerin. “And then, throughout the movie, there’s the whole disillusionment from seeing that actually all the people that are around Matthew are kind of the same as him, they’re all trying to reach something higher. They all want to be at Oliver’s spot. And Oliver is also someone who has certain things that allow him to be there, but he’s not that different from him — and he’s not that superior.”
Pellerin had yet to see the final cut of the film, but had high praise for an earlier version.
”Usually the first time I watch something that I’m in, I always hate it the first time,” he says. “I have to watch it another time or two other times to kind of be able to receive it as a viewer would for the first time. But I really didn’t hate it — I enjoyed it.”
After heading home to Montreal, Pellerin will reunite with the “Lurker” cast in Europe for the film’s premiere at the Berlin Film Festival. The actor recently finished shooting French film “Nino,” directed by Pauline Loquès.
“ I love great writing. That’s the only thing that I really care about,” says Pellerin. “Well, great writing and talented, caring people. That’s what I really wish for.”
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