First came Bob Dylan acting out A Complete Unknown before giving the thumbs-up to James Mangold, now Rebecca Hall getting a pronunciation guide from Linda Rosenkrantz. At Sundance 2025, Hall recalled receiving notes on her portrayal of the author of Peter Hujar’s Day from the woman herself. “She has a very specific voice, a way of talking that is nothing like mine,” Hall told Vulture. “And I did speak to her on the phone and asked her some questions. She even recorded the odd word that I had questions about.” This process really ramped up the metatextual vibes for Hall. The film Peter Hujar’s Day is based on the book Peter Hujar’s Day, which is based on the transcription of a conversation between Hujar and Rosenkrantz from 1974. “It’s a recording of her saying the line of the thing that she said many years ago,” said Hall.
Director Ira Sachs sees Peter Hujar’s Day as a way to fix one particular time in history. He told Vulture the film is about “how a moment, this moment, can be lost. To pay attention is what the film requests.” Sachs and stars Hall and Ben Wishaw noted the timeliness of the film, which comes out just as the new Trump administration works to erase queerness from the public record. “This group of artists that came out of New York — specifically the East Village in the ’70s and ’80s — they weren’t just pioneers; they were risk-takers,” Sachs said. “If I get nervous, I just think about them and they give me strength.”
We’re back at Sundance in the Vulture Spot, where we’re interviewing the casts and creators of the year’s buzziest films. Check out the rest of our coverage from the film fest here.
