Joel Edgerton Goes Full Leading Man in ‘Train Dreams,’ a Philosophical Western

True to its title, Train Dreams is a hallucinatory experience. The movie — which is out in theaters November 7 and hits Netflix November 21 — stars veteran Australian character actor and filmmaker Joel Edgerton (Animal Kingdom, Warrior, The Great Gatsby, The Gift) and is loosely based on the acclaimed 2011 novella by Denis Johnson. We watch the entire lifespan of Robert Grainier (Edgerton), a logger born in the late 1800s who witnesses the turn of the century, has a family (a wife, played by Felicity Jones, and a young daughter) and suffers enormous tragedy. 

As he moves along, Grainier’s grip on reality becomes unsteady. He recedes into the wilderness, living as a hermit with a heavy past that constantly revisits him in visions. The film, cowritten and directed by Clint Bentley (Jockey), powerfully vacillates between the concrete and the illusory, backgrounded by sublime shots of Northwest U.S. nature and its many dangers, courtesy of cinematographer Adolpho Veloso. Grainier doesn’t push through life so much as allow it to wash over him, for better and worse. But he ultimately learns to embrace the world and all its unexpected ups and downs. 

For Edgerton, however, things are looking up: He’s already earning raves for his performance in Train Dreams (which currently holds a 97 percent critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes), flexing his skills as not just a chameleon but also a leading man. We talked to Edgerton, 51, over a video call about his own family, stoic men and how his career is blossoming in his 50s.

Edgerton as Robert Grainier in "Train Dreams."

Netflix

Train Dreams is an independent film that was purchased by Netflix out of Sundance. You’re an executive producer in addition to the star. How’d you get involved?

I'd read the novella back around 2018 and I tried, at the time, to get my hands on the rights to the book. And they were taken. And I have to say, in hindsight, I'm very happy that they were because I don't think I would have done nearly as good a job of adapting a very complicated, structured novella the way Clint [Bentley] has managed to do.

You wanted to direct it originally?

I was just really interested as an actor, as a producer and potentially as a director. And the rights were taken. Cut to four years ago, they reached out to me about playing Robert, and it felt almost too serendipitous, like my love for the novella was out there in the ether, and I was so nervous to read [Clint’s] adaptation. I thought he'd done such an incredible job, and he was such a self-assured young director. By then I’d become a dad, and I had 1-year-old twins at the time that I met Clint.