Jenna Ortega’s co-star Martin Freeman addresses their film’s controversy
Freeman discussed the ‘disappointing’ controversy surrounding ‘Miller’s Girl’
Jenna Ortega and Martin Freeman star in “Miller’s Girl,” a film trailing the complex relationship that forms between a married teacher and his 18-year old English student. The age gape between Ortega, who’s 21, and Freeman, who’s 52, has sparked some online outrage, with Freeman addressing it in a new interview.
Freeman was interviewed by The Times and shared that he thought the films addressed some complicated topics deftly. He said he believed the film to be “grown-up and nuanced.” He also believed the film is not endorsing its characters’ behaviors. “And that’s a shame,“ he said of people’s backlash. “Are we gonna have a go at Liam Neeson for being in a film about the Holocaust?” he said, referencing the film “Schindler’s List.”
“Miller’s Girl” was written and directed by Jade Halley Bartlett, who had amazing things to say about Ortega and her performance. “She’s so special. She’s very disarming,” said Bartlett in an interview with What To Watch. “She’s a savant. You watch her heart break in real-time and then you watch her calcify, you watch the scales grow over her and it’s a very subtle thing that I think is quite terrifying.”
Bartlett revealed that she initially set out to write a villain with Ortega’s character, and that she ultimately realized that all characters in the film were villains in their own way.
More details about ‘Miller’s Girl’
“Miller’s Girl” premiered in January of this year, at the Palm Springs Festival. It’s currently streaming on Netflix, where it’s described as a thriller of sorts. “In this erotic thriller, a high school student enters a precarious relationship with her creative writing teacher,” reads the streamer’s description.
