2018’s Hereditary put Alex Wolff on the map as a young actor to look out for. Though, if you watched Nickelodeon in the mid-2000s, you knew this charming child actor had all the confidence in the world to tackle some of the meatier roles in years to come.
Since the finale of the rockumentary kids’ show, The Naked Brothers Band, Wolff, demonstrates an emotional intelligence, on and off screen, that will put him at the head of his generation of actors.
In the film, Castle in the Ground, Wolff plays Henry, a teenage caretaker for his terminally-ill mother. After routinely crushing and serving his mom (Neve Campbell) Oxycodone pills, his earnest attempts to nurse his mother back to health are swiftly followed by her funeral. Turning to drugs to cope with his mother’s death, his life spirals out of control, not without the help of his budding friendship with a recovering addict neighbor (Imogen Poots).
Wolff has been outspoken about the importance of playing an addict and also the portrayal of a recovering addict such as his neighbor in the film – Imogen Poots.
He said, “I lost like 30 pounds in a couple of weeks… It ended up causing a ton of health problems… But when I see the movie, I do look really gaunt and a bit emaciated and white… So I feel like it’s worth it.”
Many actors will mimic this same sentiment…”They want to feel like they’ve gone all the way, so they push themselves as far as they can go.” When an actor has to really immerse themselves into a role, that of a drug addict can be particularly hard.
