Angus Cloud Emotionally Remembered by Alex Wolff

The excellent new college campus thriller The Line has a phenomenal cast — Alex Wolff, Halle Bailey, Lewis Pullman, John Malkovich, Cheri Oteri, Austin Abrams, Denise Richards, Scoot McNairy, and others. Of the many excellent performances, the quietly searing one from the late Angus Cloud stands out, and is fondly remembered by director Ethan Berger and main star Alex Wolff, who spoke with MovieWeb about the film. “Watching him with Angus was unbelievable,” said Berger.

“I’ve been not wanting to get too emotional talking about it, but yeah, Angus is part of the reason the movie is also so valuable to me,” added Wolff. “I believe that Angus Cloud was one of the best actors of this generation. It reminded me of when you act with a little kid, or you act with an animal, you saw what it was to be purely emotional. And he had no bad habits, no anything. If I was ever being phony in a scene, which would happen often, because I’m an actor, he would find a way to say something that was real, and so he went on not only to become one of my best friends.” He went on:

“You know, John Malkovich and everybody were unbelievable to work with, but working with Angus was unlike anything I’ve ever experienced, or will ever experience. And I said that long before he was gone, that it just… How he did what he did as an actor really escaped me. I couldn’t see any tricks, any tools. It was all from his gut, and it was the most inspiring thing in the world. And I think about him all the time when I’m acting in other things, and I think about, well, how would Angus do this?”

“And I think since then, I’ve tried to approach every role with a sense of Angus too, you know, a sense of that innocence and fragility and openness and fearlessness. Less was more with him,” continued Wolff, “and that was kind of his gift. He always would say to ask for forgiveness, not for permission as an actor, and I stole that, and I try to do that.”

The Line Was One of Angus Cloud’s Last Movies

Wolff and Cloud both star as fraternity brothers in The Line, Berger’s debut feature film, but you wouldn’t think so. The movie, about a frat bro who begins to question his loyalty to the cruel insider tradition of fraternities, has a unique tone that’s hard to define. It’s darkly funny, often claustrophobic, but also inviting in its mysteriousness. Josie Greenwood, in her review for MovieWeb, said:

“In spite of these great performances, the star of the show is the ominous and, frankly, odd atmosphere of
The Line
. No offense intended to the frat bros out there (or maybe a little), but the rituals, conversations, and traditions that go on among these characters are incredibly strange. Rather than going down the route of seducing the audience by making this lifestyle seem glamorous and desirable at first, before pulling the rug out from under us,
The Line
makes it glaringly obvious from the outset that this is weird behavior.”

Do yourself a favor and seek out The Line, if not for the film’s brilliance, then for Cloud’s performance.