“I did the craziest thing I’ve ever done for a project”: How Rosebush Pruning landed Lukas Gage his most challenging role to date and a new therapist
Actor Lukas Gage is no stranger to tackling all things twisted in his roles. But in Karim Aïnouz’s dark tragicomedy Rosebush Pruning, the actor pushes the limits of his artistry like never before.
Lukas Gage has never backed down from a twisted tale. The 31-year-old sent shivers down spines in Smile 2 as a possessed drug dealer, Lewis Fregoli, who meets an untimely demise. In Drew Hancock’s Companion, Gage takes on the cold-blooded role of a robot overridden to assist in a murderous plot. He also appeared in the cinematic whodunit The White Lotus and Netflix’s serial killer series You.
“I have that feeling of, ‘How am I going to pull this off?’ That’s something that I connect to, especially if a character is really unlikeable. I try to find that challenge of making them more human, more interesting and more relatable,” says the Californian of the roster of misfits and deviants that he’s played.
This year, Gage continued on his pursuit of these roles in arguably his most unsettling project to date. Mubi’s dark thriller Rosebush Pruning is a tale of a family in the throes of debilitating dysfunction, battling with a dark set of secrets, all set against the backdrop of the serene Spanish community of Catalonia. Incest, murder and self-harm are just some of the stomach-turning themes consuming Gage’s deeply troubled character Robert. Joined by Callum Turner, Elle Fanning, Riley Keough, Jamie Bell and Pamela Anderson, Gage takes a tumultuous turn, disappearing into the role that pushes his artistry to its limits in one of 2026’s most “weird and intimate” watches.
Following the film’s initial release, Gage joined EE72 to talk about the project’s appeal upon first read and how his new therapist helped him prepare for the role…
I watched Rosebush Pruning this morning. We have a lot to unpack, as it was crazy. What initially drew you to this project when you’d read the script?
I think the fact that it was, as you said, so crazy. I read the script and found it so unsettling, bold, wild, and it scared me. That made me want to meet on it. After watching Karim’s past films, I noticed he’s similar to his material. He’s a bold and dangerous artist. That combination was really appealing to me.
Do you find yourself running towards the projects that scare you the most?
Yes, I like having that feeling of, ‘How am I going to pull this off?’ That’s something that I connect to, especially if a character is really unlikeable. I try to find that challenge of making them more human, more interesting and more relatable. That’s so fun to me.
The project is out in certain parts of the world. Have you seen any reactions from people outside of the cast and crew? And if so, what have they been like?
I saw it at the Berlin Film Festival and got to talk to people there, and they had the widest range of emotions, from disgusted and repulsed to touched and weirdly heartfelt. I think that’s exactly the hope with something like this. It’s not an easy watch, so I think all those emotions are valid. I’d rather be too far on either end of the spectrum than somewhere in the middle where you feel nothing. I hope people leave feeling something, even if you can’t fully explain it. I love projects that you can’t put your finger on, that stay with you and that keep unfolding after you’ve watched them. That’s what I connect to in music and movies. I like a song which, when I first listen to it, I feel like I don’t like it, then I become obsessed with it, and it starts to mean more and more to me.
[Viewers] had the widest range of emotions, from disgusted and repulsed to touched and weirdly heartfelt. I think that’s exactly the hope with something like this. It’s not an easy watch, so I think all those emotions are valid and it’s good. I mean, I’d rather be too far on either end of the spectrum than somewhere in the middle where you feel nothing.
LUKAS GAGE
Have you had that with any films or songs recently?
I really like Kim Petras’s album and Olivia Rodrigo’s album. I have to be honest, on the first listen, I was like, ‘I don’t know if I like it as much as their old stuff,’ and I think that’s just a judgmental, weird thing that my brain likes to do. When I sit with it longer, suddenly both of those albums, to me, are now my two favourite albums of theirs.
Your character goes through a lot in the film. Self-harm, epileptic fits and incest are just some them. How did you get into the headspace to touch on those wildly disturbing things?
There was so much going on in this movie. There was so much to wrap my head around. I did the craziest thing I’ve ever done for a project. There’s an app called Better Health in America where you can talk to a therapist, and I lied and pretended to be Robert. I pretended to have an affair or a romantic relationship with my family member and talked to a therapist about it. I got into his headspace. Kudos to this therapist who was so unjudgmental and really empathized with me, and through him, I was able to not judge the material or this character. Of course, after eight sessions with the guy, I was like, ‘I gotta tell you, I lied’. Then he became my actual therapist.
I did the craziest thing I’ve ever done for a project. There’s an app called Better Health in America where you can talk to a therapist, and I lied and pretended to be Robert. I pretended to have an affair or a romantic relationship with my family member and talked to a therapist about it. I got into his headspace. Kudos to this therapist who was so unjudgmental and really empathized with me, and through him, I was able to not judge the material or this character.
LUKAS GAGE
ROSEBUSH PRUNING FILM STILLS
No way, so you’re still in touch with him?
Yes. I felt so guilty for lying about it, but it was so helpful because I couldn’t relate to the idea of being intimate and sexual with a family member. They broke it down to love and connection and loneliness and isolation. When he broke it down for me like that, that’s when the movie started making sense to me. I was like, ‘Oh, that universal feeling of loneliness, I think we can all connect to right now.’ But I had to put the incest out of my mind because that felt so far for me to connect to in any way.
The story brings up a few moral questions. Beyond the shock factor, is there a moral takeaway from the film you think people should be contemplating, or one you left thinking about?
I think there’s a lot in this movie about dependency and how codependent we can be as people, in families and relationships. We’re all so desperate for connection right now, and we don’t know how to find it, so we go about it in the most unhealthy ways. I think this movie is a heightened, extreme version of that.
Was there anything in the role that challenged you in ways you hadn’t been before, and equally, was there anyone you were really blown away by in the cast?
I mean, all of them, honestly, it was surreal. I grew up watching so many of these actors, and suddenly I’m in Spain making this very strange, but intimate movie with them. Everyone came in so prepared and committed and also very open and free. The one person that stands out to me is Pam Anderson. She’s lived such an amazing life. It had so many hardships and wins along the way, but she’s still this gentle, playful artist who is so into the work. I think that was so cool to see. Something really hard for me physically was the epileptic seizures. I’ve never done such physical acting where I wanted to bring a lot of truth to it. I worked with this movement coach, Julia Crockett, and she’d worked with people who had these seizures, and so she was able to help me connect the dots emotionally and physically. Although it was a heightened world, I wanted to make that grounded and truthful.
What does life after Rosebrush Pruning look like to you?
After the last day of shooting, I hopped on a plane at 4 AM from this crazy, dark movie and flew across the world to do a rom-com the next day. That was the biggest shock in the world to me. I was recalibrating and figuring out how to be a normal person after being an animal for eight weeks. Right now, I’m working on the remake of Prison Break, which is super fun. I’m just hoping to keep working with amazing filmmakers like Karim and making weird and intimate movies like this.
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