Why Power Of The Dog’s Peter Seems So Familiar

Kodi Smit-McPhee has been playing from a young age, carving out a niche for himself as a child actor capable of making drama that leans on darker themes. His performance in the Australian drama “Romulus, My Father” in 2007 is what caught him enough attention to start securing roles in Hollywood, starting with “The Road” in 2009. Director John Hillcoat said Collider they were originally looking for American actors for the young role of “Boy” out of fear that a child might be the accent, but Smit-McPhee quickly took on an American accent without needing a coach. dialogue.

He and Viggo Mortensen (Aragorn in “The Lord of the Rings”) play a father and son trying to survive in a desolate post-apocalyptic world. Critics praised Smit-McPhee’s acting, with Roger ebert writing that the characters couldn’t be better played. “Kodi Smit-McPhee is compelling as a child stunned by destruction,” he wrote. Not all was dark on set, however: Between takes, Hillcoat said Mortensen taught Smit-McPhee the sword fighting moves he learned while working on “The Lord of the Rings.”

“The Road” kicked off a series of lonely “strange child” type roles for Smit-McPhee that lasted until his most recent role in “The Power of the Dog”. In an interview with Document, he said of playing these kinds of characters, “I like that, because they’re generally calm, with a lot of stuff going on in them. So the game isn’t just in the speech. C ‘is more subtle. “