‘The Actor’ Trailer Teases André Holland’s Search for His Missing Memories

He’s challenged society in Moonlight, taken on the forces of evil in American Horror Story: Roanoke, and picked up the pen of one of history’s most influential sports writers in 42. Still, André Holland will soon step into his biggest role yet when he appears as the titular character in The Actor. Today, Neon has revealed the debut trailer and first-look poster for the upcoming film and the latest title to come from filmmaker, Duke Johnson, following his 2015 trippy stop-motion flick, Anomalisa. With a cast that also includes Crazy Rich Asians and Don’t Worry Darling’s Gemma Chan, the trailer teases one man’s mind-bending journey back to himself.

Holland’s memory is completely erased at the top of the trailer for The Actor, where we get our first glimpse of his character — Paul Edwin Cole — as doctors ask him what he knows about himself aside from the name found inside his wallet. At a complete loss for personal information, Paul is just as confused as the medical team watching over him, but is still released back into the perilous world even with these gigantic chunks missing. One piece at a time, the puzzle begins to fit together, with Paul soon recalling that he’s an actor who fell in love — just perhaps with the wrong person. Dark, mysterious, and visually stunning, the rest of The Actor’s teaser follows Paul’s mission to regain his memories — or maybe just leave them on the cutting room floor altogether.

Joining the two love birds at the center of the story is a lineup that includes May Calamawy (Moon Knight), Joe Cole (Peaky Blinders), Fabien Frankel (House of the Dragon), Asim Chaudhry (People Just Do Nothing), Youssef Kerkour (Home), Olwen Fouéré (Texas Chainsaw Massacre), Simon McBurney (Nosferatu), Edward Hogg (Harlots), Scott Alexander Young (The Day of the Jackal), Tracey Ullman (Black Doves) and Tanya Reynolds (Sex Education).

‘The Actor’s Foggy Poster

Mimicking the loss of memory felt by Holland’s confused character in The Actor, the debut poster for Neon’s upcoming psychological thriller fully embraces the confusion at the center of the tale. Teasing the production’s senior Hollywood vibes, we see a movie theater with the film’s title scrawled across the marquee, while a giant full moon rises in the background. A lone man walks on the sidewalk in front of the cinema, while a foggy haze erases much of the detail of his surroundings.

For his latest foray into feature-length filmmaking, Johnson is pulling the story of The Actor straight from the pages of Donald E. Westlake’s novel, Memory. Along with directing, Johnson also co-penned the film’s screenplay alongside Stephen Cooney and also joins as a producer with Abigail Spencer, Paul Young, and Ken Kao.

Check out the trailer for The Actor above and the poster below, and unravel one man’s identity when the film arrives in cinemas on March 14.

Image via Neon