Phoebe Dynevor Was Nearly Arrested Filming ‘Inheritance’ Says Director

When drama is brewing before your very eyes, what might be the first thing you grab? The shoulder of the person next to you, in fear? Or maybe that iPhone of yours, resting in your pocket or handbag, to capture what’s ensuing for the sake of documenting this crazed public scenario. But be careful — you don’t want to get caught filming by the wrong person, or there could be dire consequences. There’s something edgy about filming covertly when you’re not really supposed to, and this adrenaline rush is what fuels the new IFC Films release Inheritance, from co-writer and director Neil Burger (The Upside, Divergent).

Starring Phoebe Dynevor (Bridgerton) like you’ve never seen her before, Inheritance is thus shot entirely on iPhones, and don’t let that stir you the wrong way. This sprawling, international spy film keeps you gripped from start to finish, and MovieWeb recently caught up with director Neil Burger to find out more. Apparently, Dynevor was almost arrested during the clandestine production. Since Burger’s iPhone-shot film was so “under the radar,” that means the New York City scenes in the film’s opening looked particularly authentic, especially when Dynevor is in character chugging a giant bottle of booze on a street corner.

“The way we shot would be Phoebe and the cameraman, and he literally didn’t have any stabilization on his phone or anything. Like, he’s handheld, and so it just looked like a friend,” said Burger in explaining those kinds of setups. “I would be about 10 feet back with an iPad watching transmission, so I could see what was going on. Then the sound man was about 25 feet back with the recorder in his bag, you know, no boom mics, no lights. And then the A.D. was just somewhere else, and everybody else was around the corner.” He continued:

“I’d always told Phoebe, ‘Whatever happens, you stay in character. If somebody bumps into you, if somebody talks to you, asks you for directions, whatever it is, you stay in character.’ So she is playing a character that’s, at the beginning of the movie, very self-destructive and troubled and lost, and she’s drinking on the street, kind of trying to obliterate herself.”

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“We were on Eighth Avenue and, you know, she’s doing that,” continued Burger. “Real people are walking by, and they’re giving her a wide berth because she seems like she’s messed up. And suddenly, I’m looking at my iPad, and I see the three biggest New York City police officers I’ve ever seen kind of coming in on her. And they’re like, ‘What do you think you’re doing?’ And she, bless her heart, stayed in character, as I’d asked her to.”

“She was like, ‘What does it look like I’m doing?’

The cops said, ‘It looks like you’re drinking.’

‘Yeah, I’m drinking tequila. Do you want some?’

And they’re like, ‘No.’ They’re like, ‘What are you drinking tequila for?'”

“And she’s like, ‘Because I like tequila.’ She stayed in it, and they’re like, ‘I need to see some ID.’ She’s like, ‘I don’t have any ID,'” added Burger. “And so then finally, I stepped in, and I was like, ‘That’s not a real bottle of tequila, we’re making a movie, and she’s an actress.’ And they were like, ‘Why didn’t she just say so?’ And I’m like, ‘Because she’s staying in character!'” That kind of commitment absolutely pays off in Inheritance, which arguably features her best performance.

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Why ‘Inheritance’ Is Filmed on an iPhone

Beyond the ease of filmmaking, filming on the iPhone had a direct thematic purpose for Burger. “It had a stolen aesthetic, you know — which actually, I always think, is kind of nicely unified with Phoebe’s character, who is a thief,” Burger told us. “She had a problem with kleptomania, but really it was about access. You know, we didn’t shoot it on an iPhone as a gimmick. We didn’t shoot it merely as a substitute for a motion picture camera. We did it so that we could walk through a crowded Cairo market and nobody would look at us.” Burger added:

“And I really wanted to kind of look at the world in this point of time, especially sort of post-COVID, like, what was the new normal? What was it like in Egypt? What was it like in India? What was going on? And, you know, when you bring in a big film crew, they disrupt things, and everybody ends up looking at them. And so I wanted to just be under the radar and be able to see the world.”

“When you think about it,” added Burger, “there’s been other movies shot on iPhones, but we are very much the first one that is an international thriller, you know, that goes around the world, that has a grand scope to it, with the excitement of an international thriller, even though it’s shot on this more intimate device.” From IFC Films, Inheritance will be released in theaters on Jan. 24, 2025.

When Maya learns that her father was once a spy, she suddenly finds herself at the centre of an international conspiracy. In her quest for answers, she must travel the globe, mastering her father’s skills and unraveling the mysteries of his past.

Release Date

January 24, 2025

Director

Neil Burger

Runtime

101 minutes

Cast

Phoebe Dynevor
, Rhys Ifans
, Ciara Baxendale
, Kersti Bryan
, Majd Eid

Writers

Neil Burger
, Olen Steinhauer

You can view the original article HERE.