“What kind of guy are you, Paul?” That’s the loaded question posed to André Holland’s character in the eerie first trailer for The Actor. But the real problem? Paul doesn’t have an answer. He’s woken up in a small town with no memory of who he is, how he got there, or even his own name—only discovering it through his ID.
Set in 1950s Ohio, The Actor follows Paul Cole (Holland), a man who survives a brutal attack only to find himself stranded in a town where nothing—and no one—is quite what it seems. As he attempts to rebuild his life, he falls for a local costume designer, Edna (Gemma Chan), but his search for the truth becomes increasingly tangled. With time slipping away and reality bending at every turn, Paul is forced to question which version of himself is real—if any at all.
Joining Holland and Chan in the ensemble cast are May Calamawy, Asim Chaudhry, Joe Cole, Fabien Frankel, Olwen Fouéré, Edward Hogg, Toby Jones, Youssef Kerkour, Simon McBurney, Tanya Reynolds, Tracey Ullman, and Scott Alexander Young.
Directed by Anomalisa co-creator Duke Johnson in his solo live-action debut, The Actor is a noir-tinged psychological thriller that explores identity, memory, and deception. Johnson co-wrote the script with Stephen Cooney, adapting the story from Donald E. Westlake’s posthumous novel Memory. Charlie Kaufman, best known for penning Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, joins as an executive producer, marking another collaboration with Johnson following their Oscar-nominated stop-motion feature Anomalisa.
If The Actor sounds familiar, it might be because the project first made headlines in 2021 with Ryan Gosling set to star and executive produce. While Gosling remains on board as an EP, André Holland stepped into the lead role, bringing his signature depth to the mysterious and layered protagonist.
With NEON backing the release, The Actor is set to hit theaters on March 14. Watch the trailer below and prepare to piece together the puzzle for yourself.