Exclusive Interview with Anthem of a Teenage Prophet’s Cameron Monaghan, Peyton List, and Robin Hays

By all accounts, Luke Hunter (Shameless’ Cameron Monaghan) appears to be your typical teenager from a small town. He loves hip-hop, skateboards, smokes weed, and has a secret crush on this best friend’s girlfriend, Faith (Jessie’s Peyton List), but his life takes a drastic turn after he predicts the fatal accident that kills his best friend and is dubbed “The Prophet of Death”, a nickname no teenager wants.

Based on the award-winning novel by Joanne Proulx, Anthem of a Teenage Prophet is a coming-of-age tale with a twist. It’s a grounded story that navigates the often difficult, but at times inspiring, road to adulthood. Pop Culturalist spoke with cast members, Cameron Monaghan and Peyton List, as well as director Robin Hays, who’s making her feature film debut, ahead of their premiere at the Vancouver International Film Festival.

PC: Tell us about Anthem of a Teenage Prophet
Cameron: Anthem of a Teenage Prophet is about a teenager named Luke from a small, middle-of-nowhere town called Stokum. At the beginning of the film, he discovers he can see people’s deaths before they happen. The first time that it happens, it’s his best friend’s death, and he can’t prevent him from dying. He’s dealing with the emotional fallout of that, while also dealing with adolescence and developing feelings for his best friend’s girlfriend. It’s a movie about coming of age and dealing with death and responsibility, but it’s one that I find ultimately optimistic and that’s what drew me to it. It’s a raw, emotional, and real movie, but at the same time, it still finds the levity within the subject matter.

PC: The film is based on an award-winning novel. How familiar were you with the source material? How faithful is this adaptation?
Cameron: Prior to getting the movie, I wasn’t familiar with the source material at all. Afterwards, I went and looked at it. A lot of what was in the book was in the script. I wanted to tackle the film and the script on its own merit and move away from the book. Ultimately, when you’re making a movie, it has to stand on its own for people who aren’t familiar with the source material. We also wanted to make something that was tailored to the actors and what they were going to bring to the table.

PC: When you’re developing a character that’s part of an existing story, how challenging is it to stay faithful while making it your own?
Cameron: It’s always a challenge. In general, most things that you work on as an actor are adapted from source material, whether it’s from a real person, a book/comic, or is a remake. I think it’s important not to get too caught up in trying to emulate or translate something. You want to stay true to the emotional core of whatever will make people attracted to this character or this story—you want to get to the heart of it. You need to portray that in an hour and fifteen minute narrative. Film is a different medium. It’s visual and it’s going to require certain things. Making something that feels authentic and genuine as an actor is more important than trying to directly translate from a book.

PC: Luke is at the center of the story. Which of his relationships was your favorite to explore and why?
Cameron: There are a couple of relationships that I really loved in the movie. I find the relationship between Luke and his mom (played by Juliette Lewis) really interesting; it’s warm and supportive. I find that it’s rare to see a teenager in a film who has a genuinely beautiful and great relationship with his parents. Their relationship is obviously under a lot of stress and strain throughout the story, but there a few wonderful moments of intimacy between him and his mom. I think what she brought to those scenes is really great. They’re some of my favorites in the movie.

I also love the scenes between Luke and Faith (played by Peyton). I had so much fun shooting those. They bring some light, wonderful moments to the movie and a lot of the heart to the story.

PC: Peyton, this is a different type of project for you—it’s a lot darker than your other work. Did that affect your preparation and were there any nerves?
Peyton: It definitely did. I’ve never worked on a project this heavy. My character, Faith, loses her boyfriend at the very beginning and that weighs on her throughout the film, but like Cameron said, she does bring some lightness when she is with Luke because it’s comforting. It feels familiar and it’s something that she had with Stan (her boyfriend) when he was alive. It’s a distraction for her and it’s a way for her to find happiness and lightness even though he’s gone. I feel like a lot of it was heavy, but there were also moments when it felt light.

PC: With this being a heavier film, how were you all able to keep the atmosphere lighter on set?
Robin: For me, that was something that was really important. The actors were amazing at being so vulnerable. I found it to be really important to create an environment and atmosphere that was positive, fun, and light, so that they weren’t feeling all those heavy emotions the whole time that we were shooting. Even though it is a dark film, the environment was quite nice.

Peyton: Robin brought the best snacks. In between scenes, she was such a mom. She would take such good care of us. [laughs]

PC: Robin, with this being your first feature film, what was this experience like for you?
Robin: I learned a lot. It was great to work with the actors. There are a lot of amazing things that came out of this project.

PC: The film touches on a lot of different themes from self discovery to living in the present, death, sexuality, which theme resonated with you the most and why?
Cameron: For me, what really stood out was the discovery of yourself during a very difficult time in adolescence. Luke is a bit of a wallflower. He’s really lost. He’s self-medicating with weed. He doesn’t really know what he wants or what he wants to do with himself. He has a very heavy weight on top of him. I think a lot of teenagers are dealing with a similar situation and they don’t know where to turn or who to talk to. That felt very true to me. I also think the theme of loss is something that’s universal. For a movie to deal with that optimistically and to find truth and humanity in it with these moments of beautiful levity and fun, I think is really important. Those were the two of me.

Robin: For me, it was definitely dealing with death and realizing that we still get to live. There’s a line in the movie that says, “Yes, we all die—but first we get to live. And that’s big, that’s beautiful, that’s not to be missed,” and I think that’s really important. This project came to me when I was going through an extremely difficult time in my life and that line deeply resonated with me. So, it’s my hope that even if one person who sees this film and is going through a difficult time realizes that, “Okay, this is going to pass,” then it’s all been worth it for me because I think we can forget when we go to those dark places that things will get better.

PC: With Anthem of a Teenage Prophet premiering at the Vancouver International Film Festival, what do you hope audiences take away from seeing the film?
Cameron: I hope they relate to the story. I hope they’re along for the ride. I hope they cry, laugh, and everything in between. I also hope that young people see it—people around the age of these characters. A lot of the movies that deal with teens and are watched by teens tend to not deal with these subjects very honestly. They tend to glamorize them and turn them into something that doesn’t always feel truthful. I like that this story has a raw edge to it without being excessive. It’s representative, at least to me personally, of what it felt like to be that age. I hope that people around the age of these characters come and see it and feel a little better about themselves and their futures.

Photo Credit: Sepia Films