Breeda Wool Talks National Treasure: Edge of History, the Premiere of Birth/Rebirth at Sundance, and More

Breeda Wool is an award-winning storyteller who has captivated audiences with her work in front of and behind the camera. Past credits include Mr. Mercedes, UnREAL, and Mother’s Little Helpers.

Currently, she can be seen in not one, but two projects: National Treasure: Edge of History on Disney+ and birth/rebirth premiering at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.

Pop Culturalist was lucky enough to speak with Breeda about National Treasure: Edge of History, birth/rebirth, and her journey in the industry.

PC: You’re one of the stars of National Treasure: Edge of History. Were you a fan of the original films before jumping onto this project? What has it been like for you getting to introduce this beloved franchise to a new generation of viewers?
Breeda: I actually hadn’t seen the movies. I knew of the movies. I read some of the sides, and I was given the opportunity to make a tape for the Wibberleys and Jerry Bruckheimer. It was at the end of the year last year. It came across and I was like, “Oh, yeah.” So I went and I watched the movie. That’s when I was introduced to the films. I was a newbie.

I was someone who was coming into the IP without knowing the movies. Watching the Nicolas Cage movies was fun. They had this historical fiction aspect to them. It was very interesting. I was like, “Okay, okay.”

I’m essentially bad guy number two in the series. I was like, “Well, I don’t know who bad guy number one is.” My agents were like, “It’s Catherine Zeta-Jones.” I was like, “All right. I’m going to Baton Rouge then. Guess I’m moving my family to Baton Rouge for six months.”

PC: You’ve done so much in your career. What was it about this particular script and character that attracted you to it?
Breeda: I’m definitely attracted and interested in stories about people who do very morally challenging things for a higher concept. When I got the first script, I thought I was a hired gun. I thought it was a mercenary-type of person who you hire to knock heads around. Then I quickly learned from the Wibberleys that Billie is my family. I’m indoctrinated into an ideology that we will learn about as the series unfolds. I’m part of a larger organization of people who have strong motivation. That’s the story that we unfold. Right now in the series, we know that Billie and Kacey are chasing this Pan-American treasure, but we are not really sure what their reasons are. Billie comes from a very wealthy support system. We see her playing. We see that she has an exorbitant amount of funds in contrast to Jess and her friends. It’s an interesting portrait of the haves and have-nots.

PC: You’ve played so many powerful female characters throughout your career. Who were the women in your own life who shaped the storyteller that you are today?
Breeda: You’re coming in with some good swings. I’m part of a family of pretty much all women. It was my dad, who is deceased, and then a family of four women. I’m the youngest of three daughters. My mom always used to say that she’s a pretty wild, brilliant feminist. She didn’t know if she would have treated us differently if she had had a boy. Because she had all girls, I had the opportunity to explore any interest regardless of my gender identity. There was a lot of freedom from the obligations of femininity in my household. I grew up sailing, and I played a lot of sports. My mom set the stage. Then my father was a very avid feminist as well. It was a place where I didn’t have restrictions around that type of identity. There was a freedom of identity.

PC: In addition to acting, you’re also a producer and writer. How have your experiences behind the camera impacted the way that you approach your work on screen, specifically as Kacey in this project?
Breeda: It’s a very, very collaborative art form. I think sometimes we get a little bit focused on the actor because they’re the last point of connection between the audience and the project/story. It’s a very, very important juncture in the process, but it’s hundreds of people that are on set every day. There are people driving trucks. There are people unloading and loading trucks. Those people are as equally integral to the story as I was.

The skill of organization that you need to put everything together for a production is extremely challenging. So when I’m an actor I know that you really need to respect everybody’s job. But when you’re a producer you need to know what everybody needs, and you need to understand pre- and post-production. Actors always fly in and then do their thing and leave. If you’re producing something, that takes years. I worked with a director for a long time, and we developed something and shot it. That took years to make. The producers, the directors, and the writers are setting the stage to capture that magic that comes in when you have this moment where the story is king or queen. The story is queen. We can all escape into this alternate shared narrative. Then you all can sit at home with your Disney+ subscriptions and participate in this shared narrative.

The camera department on this show was incredible. We have different directors. There were different directors coming in. The actual rolling out of episodes makes me nervous. The part where I’m shooting it with a group of people is like a childhood game that is very, very joyful for me. But it’s hard work. It’s a strange sensation when it’s rolling out. But it’s wonderful too. I like when you’re getting coffee and someone’s like, “Hey, I watched your show last night.” If my mom is with me, there’s this deep satisfaction. [laughs] I’m like, “Well, I’ve succeeded in my life. This random person at the coffee shop watched National Treasure last night. Now they’re saying that in front of my mom. I can die a happy woman.”

PC: You were talking about how this character is very different from who you are and you had to find her motivations. As an actress, how did you create the space for yourself to dive into that arc and the morally gray area that she finds herself in?
Breeda: When you say this person is different from me it’s weird because it would suggest that I have a strong sense of who I am—which I do, but I don’t see myself as somebody who in another situation wouldn’t be Kacey. That’s me in an alternative universe. I’m not sure if it’s still in the series or just some backstory between Billie and I, but I don’t come from a very nice background. Billie really tucked me into her world. In any circumstance, we could be anybody. There are limitless amounts of possibilities. So all you have to do is imagine this alternative space to exist in. It is me. It’s a version of me. It’s me who wields a knife. It’s always interesting when I hear actors talk about how characters they’re embodying are this other person, but I’m like, “It’s just this other version of me. It’s a version of me that wields a knife, hunts treasure, and is probably secretly in love with Catherine Zeta-Jones.” I mean we’re all a little secretly in love with Catherine Zeta-Jones. I studied with a woman in LA named Diana Castle at the Imagined Life Theater. That’s where I studied how to approach an imaginative life when it comes to this stuff. That’s my background. I feel like you have to give props where they’re due.

PC: Outside of that project, you also have a new film premiering at Sundance. Tell us about birth/rebirth.
Breeda: Birth/rebirth is really fu*ked up. I’m so excited about this movie because it’s so fu*ked up, which is a weird thing to say, but I had a baby during the pandemic and there’s a part of having a baby that is terrifying. It’s a horror movie in itself.

You think that they’re going to die all the time. Being a mother has a horror movie aspect to it. There’s such a lack of female filmmakers in the canon. Ilana Glazer came out with a horror movie about motherhood. We’re seeing this wave of female filmmakers that are making movies about the psychological bizarreness that is motherhood and becoming a mother. It’s the physical and emotional horror involved in making life and pushing it out of your body and having it be so helpless. That’s so scary.

The movie explores that. It’s a horror movie about motherhood. After having a baby, I was like, “I have to make this movie.” I’m part of a mommy group, and I told them about some of the things that happen in this film and how it’s basically every mom’s nightmare. There are a lot of scary things about motherhood that we don’t get an outlet or catharsis for. When we do, it’s in mommy groups or there’s a pandering or cuteness to it. I was like, “Cuteness?” There’s blood, sh*t, and human waste. There’s someone drinking milk out of your nipples. That’s a horror movie. There’s postpartum and so many weird things happening in your brain.

This film is beautifully crafted and perfectly toned and explores these ideas. There’s something that happens in this movie that I’m involved in that is my worst nightmare. I basically got this role and then was like, “This is my worst nightmare. This scares me. I have to go do it.” It’s that trope that people say: “If it scares you, go do it.” But I wanted to do the thing that scared me in the safety of art. Horror fans are going to love this. But if you’re a mom and you’ve got wiggly jiggles around topics like C-sections, all the prodding, the suctioning, watch this film in a safe space and enact all your fears. Live out your fears and your shock with this film as opposed to in the doctor’s office.

You don’t have to sit with these weird feelings. Go out to the movies and act it out. That’s the function of horror. That’s why there are waves of horror movies: because we’re all scared sh*tless from the pandemic. We’re all like, “What’s happening? Let’s go make a horror movie out of it.”

To keep up with Breeda, follow her on Instagram. Watch National Treasure: Edge of History on Disney+.

Photo Credit: Sela Shiloni