Abbie Cornish as: Ashley Colton
Other Cast: Will Patton, Maritza Santigo Hernandez
Production Status: Post-production
Release Date: n/a
Directed By: David Riker
Screenwriters: David Riker
Genre: Drama
MPAA Rating: n/a
Studio: Journeyman Pictures
The Girl tells the story of Ashley Colton (Abbie Cornish), a desperate young mother who tries unsuccessfully to turn her life around by smuggling immigrants across the dangerous border between Texas and Mexico - a trade she learns from her hard-living father, Tommy (Will Patton). When this quick money scheme fails horribly, she unwillingly ends up travelling across Mexico with a newly orphaned eight-year-old girl from Oaxaca (Maritza Santigo Hernandez) — embarking on a journey that will change her life forever.
Trivia & Facts
• Filming Locations:
Austin, Texas
Oaxaca, Mexico
• Emily Blunt was attached to the project but dropped out due to scheduling conflicts. Abbie Cornish was later cast.
• Abbie learned Spanish for the role. She prepared for the film a total of six months before cameras started rolling.
Quotes from Abbie Cornish
• "It's the story of a 25-year-old Texan girl who lives quite close to the Mexican border. She has a five-year-old son that she's lost to the welfare system, she sees an opportunity to make money bringing illegal immigrants across the border. So she does it as a one-off and during this incident in a river, she's left with the responsibility of a 9-year-old girl. So it's her journey with a 9-year-old Mexican girl through Mexico to get her home."
• "I'm prepping more on this film than I have on any other film before. The only one that would come close in regards to preparation is Sucker Punch but that was very much physical preparation, because we trained for three months before we started filming. 70 percent of my dialogue is in Spanish. I don't know how to speak Spanish, if only the NZT drug was real!" [she said, referring to the smart drug in Limitless that allows its users to unlock the other 90 percent of their brain and therefore unleash an intelligence that makes learning new languages an afternoon task.]
• "I've only got a couple of months, but I can only do what I can do. I go to Mexico really soon. I'm going to spend a lot of time with the little girl, her name is Maritza, she's a non-actor and doesn't speak a word of English, so it's pretty awesome."
• "It's quite a challenging film as I've had to learn to speak Spanish and I don't know how to speak it at all. It's an incredible feat because I've only got a couple of months to prepare."
• “I'm actually really excited and I love places because I love to travel and I've never been to Mexico. I love that energy where the culture and the life is so vibrant."
• "It totally rebirthed me as an actor. It felt like it was the first time again. In making the film, I felt like it was the best I had ever been as an actor in all regards — as an actor, as a collaborator, as a human being."
• "There was so much work to do in prepping this film in terms of research and spending time in Mexico. Bit by bit this character found itself and I found her. It was an amazing process."
• "To me this is more of a personal piece than any other film. I can't be objective about this film. I just can't disconnect from it. I don't think I've done a film that is this intimate."
Quotes from her Character
• The movie has not been released.
Quotes from the Film
• The movie has not been released.
Quotes from Others
• "Ashley Colton's journey is epic and full of surprise, taking us from the hard grit world of south Texas to a remote mountain village in southern Mexico. Abbie disappears into this character, delivering an indelible and compelling performance."
- Paul Mezey (The Girl producer)
• "But when you have a film that is pretty much riding on the shoulders of one key performance I think discussion of that, and certainly recognition of what Abbie has accomplished here is going to help bring audiences to the film which at the end of the day is the most important thing."
- Paul Mezey (The Girl producer)
• "Abbie Cornish's portrait of a struggling mother is the core of David Riker's very impressive tale of relationships and borders."
- Geoff Gilmore (The Chief Creative Office of Tribeca Enterprises)
From Critics
• "Writer/director David Riker shoots impressively, making the best of the striking border locations, and with Abbie Cornish he has an actress whose quiet resolve fits her character perfectly. Solid, proud and gently determined, her anger at everyone around her – as she apparently seeks to blame everyone but herself for her predicament – gradually fades as she finds a certain grace in her mission of motherhood."
- Mark Adams, Screen Daily
• "While Cornish's Spanish is perhaps a little too clean and unaccented to be that of a working-class Texan girl, her performance is riveting, channeling an air of Jodie Foster in her English-language scenes. She plays Ashley's slow transition – from helplessness and selfish expediency to devastated culpability and hard-won self-knowledge – with a conviction that is no less stirring for being so understated."
- David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter
• "While the Australian Cornish does have mild issues with sticking the landing on her Texas accent, it's her meatiest role since the deeply underrated Bright Star and lesser-seen, but no less valuable indies like Somersault and Candy (the latter featuring her going toe-to-toe with Heath Ledger and giving as good as she got) and she makes the most of it."
- The Playlist
Staff Comments
• The movie has not been released so there are no staff reviews at this time.
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