Slamdance 2023: Filmmaker Jeff Rutherford and Star Charlie Plummer Talk A Perfect Day for Caribou

Filmmaker Jeff Rutherford and star Charlie Plummer are the creative team behind A Perfect Day for Caribou.

Making its North American premiere at Slamdance 2023, the poignant film follows an estranged father and son who spend the day ambling around a cemetery, wandering the wilderness, searching for family, and stumbling through disharmony and heartache.

Pop Culturalist was lucky enough to speak with writer-director Jeff Rutherford and star Charlie Plummer about A Perfect Day for Caribou, the film’s exploration of masculinity, collaborating with friends, and more.

PC: Jeff, you’ve worked with Jeb [Berrier] and Charlie in the past. Did you write this story with these two actors in mind? How did those prior relationships help you shape this narrative and inspire this film?
Jeff: The answer is yes, very much so. Charlie and I were talking before this call, but a huge inspiration for me was getting to see Charlie play a father with a beard and talk about X, Y, and Z. That really was a certain inspiration from the jump. Of course, I also wanted to make another film together. The same with Jeb. I know how he talks, the way he walks, and certain things that I’ve either gotten to see him do before and love or hadn’t but knew he could do. It was that strange combination of all those things.

I’ve spent a lot of time with Charlie talking about scripts that he’s reading and things that he might do and going to films together and talking about what we liked or didn’t like. There’s a certain excitement in getting to write a character knowing that this friend of mine is going to play it. There were certain scenes that I wrote where I couldn’t picture how Charlie was going to play it, but that brought this excitement. That’s also the magic of when I step back and let these guys do the things that they do. It’s a definite advantage to get to write with people’s voices in mind—and certainly, the way that they walk because we do a lot of walking. [laughs]

PC: Charlie, what was it about Jeff’s script and Nate in particular that resonated with you?
Charlie: The whole script resonated with me. I’d known Jeff for a few years before he gave me the script. Like he just said, it was those years of conversations leading up to the script. Once I read it, I completely fell in love with what I was exploring and specifically this disconnected masculine dynamic that ultimately is between these two people that love each other deeply but don’t know how to express it or express anything around them. That’s something that has always been interesting to me.

But for Nate specifically, I was drawn to the way he spoke in the script. As Jeff mentioned, he’s a young dad. I haven’t gotten to experience that before in terms of playing a character that’s a parent and has that responsibility. I’ve played older siblings and caretakers, but this is very different. It’s a lot of responsibility to have on your shoulders at such a young age. That was something that was also really compelling to me. But most of all, it’s the people involved. Jeff first and foremost.

PC: Jeff, this film does such a beautiful job of exploring these serious subject matters with a bit of humor. How were you able to tread that line so masterfully?
Jeff: Well, thank you. A lot of this is related to what we were just talking about and how I knew these guys and their voices so well. Jeb is genuinely a really hilarious person. I feel like there’s this thing where I know if I write a line and Jeb says it that it will play in a way that could possibly be funny. Similar with Charlie. The one thing that I kept saying to them was, “Just be earnest.” We knew that certain lines and moments would offer humor. We didn’t have to push for it. Honestly, repeating those words over and over again is what led to the humor.

One of the things that I think is really funny in the film is when they’re talking about Nate’s car. There’s nothing there where they’re trying to be funny. But Charlie’s character really thinks his car is impressive. If he really believes it when he says it, people might find it funny. I think a lot of it was actually not trying to play to it all that much because we knew that the story was heavy enough in terms of its subject matter. If we could try to offer a bit of lightness, it would probably be a big benefit for us.

PC: Charlie, when we’re introduced to your character, he’s dealing with so much in his life. You handled that journey with so much nuance. Like you were saying earlier, this is a role unlike any that you’ve done before. As an actor, how did you create the space for yourself to dive into the emotional mindset of Nate and where he is in his life?
Charlie: Thank you so much for saying that. For me, it’s so much about the immediate space and the people there. We were so lucky that we had such a close group of people. It was like what Jeff was saying about finding those moments where it’s these two guys who are trying to connect for the first time and what that could do for them. Then when things got more intense and emotional, I felt like I was really protected by everyone from our sound guy Zach to our DP to all our producers and everyone who had a role in this film. We were all so close, and I felt that sense of safety.

I was just talking to another actor who I’m going to do a project with and we were talking about the importance of rehearsals and why it’s important. It’s about building that trust because you can’t fake that. We got really lucky that when I walked onto this set the trust was there because all these people have had years of experience of knowing each other. I’ve known some of them for a couple of years as well. It felt like that trust was there. There was also the music and the writing that Jeff and I spoke about leading up to this project.

PC: Jeff, this is also your first feature film. Did anything surprise you about this overall experience? What was the biggest lesson that you learned that you’ll now apply to future projects?
Jeff: That’s a good question. Honestly, as we got close to finishing this film, it actually didn’t feel that much different from making a short. It felt genuinely much bigger. It was very straightforward. The size feels more significant. I was lucky to add a couple of extra people to the crew. Like Charlie said, the vast majority of the crew were friends of mine already. Charlie has worked on short films of mine and other films with some of the crew. It felt cohesive. Charlie was saying that he felt protected. I felt the same way. Everyone was friends to some degree. We didn’t go in approaching it like, “This is Jeff’s first film. Let’s make it feel like that. Let’s put a lot of circumstances around it.” I was protected in that we had a few extra days. We had a longer script, but we were still focused on the same things we were focused on when we made shorts together.

A lot of the learning process has happened in the last six months while showing the film in bigger theaters and bigger festivals and having more reactions to it. At the end of the day, the idea is to make something and have a lot of people see it and react to it. But yeah, I would say the biggest learning curve is actually what we’re doing now. The cozy part and the part that I love is getting to be in the desert with my friends and having good actors say lines that I wrote. That part felt relatively familiar, but hopefully, I’ll get to do it again. If I’m lucky to be put in a similar position again, I want to protect this feeling. Usually, more money means that there are more opinions involved that aren’t completely my own, but I want to protect that feeling of going out into the woods and nobody knowing you’re making a movie. That’s a good feeling.

PC: Charlie, you’ve worked on projects of all sizes. What is it about independent filmmaking that excites you as a creative? Is the experience different when the person who created this world is also at the helm directing?
Charlie: To answer the second part of your question, when someone’s a writer-director as opposed to just a director, in my experience that person is a lot more flexible in the moment. They’re more confident in making changes at the last second. There is one less rung of communication to confirm that something can shift. In a working experience, that is a real asset at times because when you don’t have a lot of time and you’re working spur of the moment, it’s nice to only have one person to look to and go, “Can I jump in that direction?” and they give you the nod.

In terms of indie films, I was lucky that my first substantial experience with a film was an indie film. I actually was working with a guy who also graduated from NYU. This was when I was fifteen. Most of that crew (similar to this project actually) were all college friends and had worked on each other’s projects for years. That experience set the bar high. The template was very much guerrilla filmmaking. It was like, “We’re going to go, go, go until the very end and give it everything that we’ve got.” Jeff put it really wisely. That feeling that nobody knows you’re making a movie is infectious. It feels like you’re running away from life a bit. When you’re so aware of the movie that you’re making all the time and you’re constantly going to a big dressing room or you’re in front of a green screen all the time, you lose that feeling over time.

So whenever you’re in that environment where all you have is the group of people that you’re with and you don’t know where you’re going, that’s when I get the best work out of myself. That’s how I push myself the most. That’s also how I have the most fun and can actually grow with the character in real time. It’s different for everybody. I commend the actors that know how to come in and crush it no matter what the situation is, no matter who’s involved. But for me, it’s so much about the experience and the people involved and making sure that the priorities are right. Indie film lends itself to that experience more than anything.

Make sure to follow Jeff (Instagram) and Charlie (Instagram). A Perfect Day for Caribou is making its North American premiere at Slamdance 2023, streaming January 23-January 29.