Sarah Gadon on Indignation and love between renegades
Irreverent boy meets unconventional girl.
It's 1951 in the U.S., and young men are being drafted to fight in the Korean War. Marcus, a Jersey boy, enrolls at a small Ohio college to escape the draft — but the school's conservatism quickly rubs up against his defiant spirit.
Things get more complicated when Marcus meets Olivia, a bright young woman who isn't as demure and passive as her society demands.
But don't mistake this for a standard romance. The new film Indignation is based on the novel by Philip Roth, and it takes a hard look at the dark side of the wholesome 1950s.
Toronto actor Sarah Gadon plays the pivotal role of Olivia Hutton. Today she joins guest host Rachel Giese to discuss the textured adaptation, how the director James Schamus added dimensions to her character, and the tense negotiation around moral and personal boundaries.
"What happens when we questions power structures? What are the consequences?" asks Gadon, adding that similar questions still plague us now. Against that backdrop, her character reaches for agency.
"She's coded in all these very specific ideas of what it was to be a young college woman in the early 50s, but underneath that she is fraught with tension and fighting the exterior expectations of her as a woman."
