Finally Dawn is a coming-of-age historical drama set in 1950s that sees stars from Stranger Things and A24 hits joining forces to tell a story about an unforgettable night. The film was written and directed by Saverio Costanzo, a storied director known for his work on Italian-language projects like My Brilliant Friend and In Treatment. In Finally Dawn, a young woman on the verge of being engaged travels to Cinecittà for work as an extra, only to find herself swept away by more than movie magic.
While that young woman, Mimosa, is played by relative newcomer Rebecca Antonaci (who ScreenRant’s Finally Dawn review dubbed a “revelation”), the world around her is populated by faces a bit more familiar. Lily James (A24’s The Iron Claw) and Joe Keery (Stranger Things) enter the story as Josephine Esperanto and Sean Lockwood, respectively, who are the lead and co-star of the fictional movie in which Mimosa is cast. The cast is rounded out by well-known actors Willem Dafoe and Rachel Sennott.
To discuss their work on Finally Dawn, ScreenRant’s Joe Deckelmeier spoke with Lily James, while the site’s Grant Hermans interviewed Joe Keery. The pair discussed their experience working in Rome on the Italian film and their characters’ relationships with Mimosa. Finally Dawn is available on digital platforms now.
Lily James & Joe Keery Reveal How They Prepared For Finally Dawn
“I Had The Best Time Researching For This”
Lily James and Joe Keery play leading characters in Finally Dawn who play leading characters in that film’s movie-within-a-movie. To get there, both actors had their own personal journeys with screen legends, Italian and otherwise. “I had the best time researching for this,” Lily James shared. “I basically just got to watch tons of movies with all the greats: Joan Crawford, Ava Gardner, Bette Davis, Monica Vitti. I watched all the Fellini films.”
“And,” James continued, “my grandmother was an actress, and she was so glamorous and beautiful. I have her headsH๏τ on my coffee table, and she had this beautiful, transatlantic American drawl that I tried to encapsulate in the movie. It’s like an homage to her.”
Joe Keery admitted that “Cary Grant was a good touchstone,” but also said his inspiration stretched to “the time period as a whole, and the sort of guys that were the leading man.” Although he and the director discussed Grant quite a bit, Keery said, his performance is more of a “general homage to the time period itself, rather than maybe sticking to one person in particular.”
Finally Dawn Stars Reflect On Shooting In Rome
“It Was Almost Like A Time Warp”
Once James and Keery were ready to start shooting, they traveled to Rome, where it became even easier to step into the lives of their characters. “I connect with [Josephine] as Lily and, even though we’re time and worlds apart, as an actress, the very human things she’s going through feel universal,” James said. “To be an actress living in Rome and feeling what that feels like, it kind of felt [like a connection happened] by osmosis. I was drinking as much red wine and eating as much pasta as possible”
Joe Keery had a similar thought, saying “A lot of the film is mirrored in my own experience. I am a guy from America coming to film this movie in Rome, just like [my character] Sean is. Saverio and everyone were so warm and welcoming and wanted to show us all around, so the actual experience I had making the film was fantastic.” “We’re at the Spanish Steps and it’s completely empty,” he added (they were shut down for production), “[and] we got to travel all around the countryside as well.”
“It’s not an experience that anything can really prepare you for.”
Keery and James got to do more than what James described as “running around in these Roman ruins in the middle of the night,” however, as they also sH๏τ Finally Dawn’s movie-within-a-movie at Cinecittà, the largest film studio in Europe. “We were recreating one of those very classic Egyptian, kind of big Pharoah movies, and we were doing it at Cinecittà with hundreds of extras, so it was almost like a time warp. Saverio really wanted it to feel very authentic and of that time.”
“It [felt] like a film from that time–from the ‘50s,” James added, continuing, “to be on set that day, there was almost no acting required. It was epic.”
Finally Dawn’s Josephine & Mimosa Dynamic, Explained
“[Josephine] … Sees Something So Pure And Innocent”
As much as Finally Dawn celebrates Sean and Josephine as movie stars, the actual audience follows the story of Mimosa, played by Rebecca Antonaci. James hinted that Mimosa serves as something of a mirror for Josephine in a discussion of the first time the characters see each other. “I think [Josephine] sees purity and innocence [in Mimosa,] James shared, adding, “I think Josephine is at a point in her life, even though she’s not really old herself, [where] she’s been doing it for such a long time [that] she’s been kind of twisted, or become bitter about what it is.”
“I don’t even think she knows who she is as a real person anymore. She’s just the star–the actress.”
“This divide between her authentic self and this projection of herself is so vast that she’s completely lost in between,” James continued, “and she sees this young Italian girl with big eyes adoring her. Of course Josephine, the great actress, loves to be adored, but she also sees something so pure and innocent, and I think she just needs that … she wants it, and she almost wants to destroy it at the same time.”
Keery was quick to praise the actor behind Mimosa, saying “Rebecca was so great to work with. The amount of emotion that she’s able to convey just through a look [is impressive]; her dialogue is pretty slim in the second half of the movie.” The actor seemed especially impressed that Antonaci held her own in a situation where “you’re cast in this movie [and] you’re working with Willem Dafoe and Lily,” saying “she really stepped up and really delivered. It was a pleasure to work with her, and I feel like I honestly learned a lot watching her as well.”
Finally Dawn Became A Family Affair For Joe Keery
How His Sister Became His On-Screen ᴀssistant
As Joe Keery’s Sean acts his way through Finally Dawn’s fictional sword-and-sandal film, the actor managed to share some screen time with a family member. While discussing his work on a scene about movie production (Keery said some of his tricks to ensuring a good end result were asking yourself the question “‘What is going to serve the film best right now?’” and “making sure … they have options [in the edit.]”) the actor stated that “my sister, actually, is in that scene with me.”
“She was working on the job with me, living in Rome,” Keery shared, “and she’s in that scene when we’re walking up at the end of the shoot. She’s holding the umbrella, and is kind of the ᴀssistant character, which is really funny.” Hopefully, that star-ᴀssistant moment didn’t work its way too deeply into the family dynamic.
Finally Dawn is out now on digital platforms.
