First Joel Edgerton and Clint Bentley Became Fathers. Then They Made ‘Train Dreams’

Train Dreams, the 2011 novella by Denis Johnson, had a profound effect on both Clint Bentley and Joel Edgerton. The story, about a logger named Robert Grainier who helps build railroads at the turn of the 20th century, is a moving meditation on grief, change, and one’s place in the world. “I found myself thinking about things from it years after reading it,” says Bentley. “It gets in people’s bones and just sticks to them.”

That’s true of Edgerton as well, though he and Bentley didn’t know each other when they each first encountered the novel. Bentley read it some 14 years ago; Edgerton first stumbled upon the book a few years later. He immediately started looking into acquiring the rights to make an adaptation, but at the time, they’d already been snatched up.

Edgerton now sees that as a good thing. By the time Bentley reached out to him about Train Dreams, both Bentley and Edgerton had become fathers, and had been through more highs and lows in their own lives. Those big life moments would weave their way into their version of Train Dreams, directed by Bentley and starring Edgerton, and adapted by Bentley and his Sing Sing cowriter Greg Kwedar. Their movie is delicate and deeply existential, with breathtaking imagery and a moving, heartbreaking performance at its center.

“The story tells me that life is really worth living, despite some of the hardships,” says Edgerton. “Through Robert, there was this sense that human beings are incredibly durable and incredibly resilient.”

Train Dreams, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and will next play the Toronto Film Festival on September 9, follows Grainier (Edgerton) as he comes of age in the Pacific Northwest and falls in love with Gladys (Felicity Jones). They build a home and have a daughter, but Grainier’s work often forces him to travel far from his family. He then suffers a devastating loss that upends his entire way of life, leaving him searching for meaning and reflecting on the rapidly changing American landscape.

Bentley began working on his script for Train Dreams just as he had his first son, which was also around the time he lost both his parents in quick succession. “I wanted to express that aspect of grief that happens right away,” he says. “But then there’s an aspect that stays with you—the filter that it puts over the rest of your life.”

Bentley was looking for a lead who could relay the wide range of emotions Grainier experiences without using many words. “I come from a working-class background. My uncle was a logger and my grandfather was a rancher,” says Bentley. “They’re these men who on the surface don’t seem to be thinking much because they’re not saying much, and yet they say three words and it’s something very deep and resonant and beautiful.”

Bentley reached out to Edgerton—not only because the actor had played similarly internal characters in films like Loving and Midnight Special, but also because he had another side to him. “He plays a lot of hard and tough characters,” the director says of Edgerton. At the same time, he has “this very sweet quality to him, a boyishness that I think we haven’t seen in a lot of his roles.”

By the time Bentley connected with Edgerton the actor had become a father as well, welcoming twins in 2021. His experience allowed him to relate to Grainier’s grief in a way he couldn’t have before. “Any parent, I imagine, has a lot of emotions that they can’t entirely get rid of. As much as they might be upsetting feelings, they’re really a reflection of love, of how much you care,” Edgerton says.

He’d also been looking for roles that felt closer to him than the parts he’d played when he was younger. “Look, as a young actor I loved the idea of pulling out of yourself qualities that aren’t natural, which is why a lot of young guys want to be tough guys,” Edgerton says. “The older I’ve gotten, I’ve realized that perhaps the greater challenge for me is to play characters that are closer in nature to who I am.”

Though Bentley and Edgerton researched the physical demands of working the land in the early 1900s, Edgerton spent most of his energy on deeper, more personal work. “I’m quite drawn to quiet and stoic characters,” says Edgerton. “They feel weirdly comfortable and uncomfortable at the same time. There’s a sort of weirdness about trying to express yourself with very few words, but I think there’s a kindness to Robert and a ceiling of intelligence that I thought was interesting.”

The result is a career-best performance from Edgerton, alongside memorable supporting work from Jones, William H. Macy, and Kerry Condon. Though Grainier goes through something unimaginable, the film finds beauty in his journey, which is reflected in the magical natural setting of the Pacific Northwest. Says Bentley, “The thing about it is what that grief does to you is not all bad. That’s a really difficult thing to reconcile with. You would’ve never wanted the thing to happen that caused the grief, and yet there’s some things that come from it that just change you as a person.”

Train Dreams will play at the Toronto Film Festival on September 9 before it is released in US theaters on November 7 and on Netflix on November 21. This feature is part of Awards Insider’s exclusive fall film festival coverage, including first looks and exclusive interviews with some of the biggest names set to hit Venice, Telluride, and Toronto.