Bleecker Street’s drama Sundown follows a wealthy man who uproots his life and begins again on the Mexican coast, falling into a new romance while trying to cut ties with his past. The film stars Tim Roth and Iazua Larios in an introspective piece, where much happens in the silence between conversations.

To break down the process of capturing these emotional moments, we sat down with star Larios to discuss her role as Bernice.

“She’s a lonely girl, trying to work and be independent and have her own life,” Larios says of Bernice. “She doesn’t have someone around to be with, just this mysterious guy that appears on the beach.”

Larios’s character begins a romance with Roth’s Neil. Interestingly, it’s a romance that largely lives in silent moments; between Neil’s introspective nature and the language barrier between the two characters, much between them goes (literally) unsaid.

Larios describes the volume of silence between the pair in Sundown as surprising, even to her.

“I didn’t realize we weren’t talking!” she jokes. “It was a surprise when I saw the movie. I thought, ‘oh my God, we don’t talk. It’s a silent piece.’ And it’s quite interesting and quite beautiful. It gives a lot to the love story.”

Larios said filming scenes with little to no dialogue could be challenging at times. But overall, she thought it contributed to making the relationship between Bernice and Neil feel very real and natural.

“It happens without being forced or too prepared,” Larios says of their dynamic. “I felt communication all the time, so I didn’t realize we weren’t talking!”

She adds that the on-location filming also contributed to the organic feeling of her scenes. Many take place on the beach, surrounded by other people. They just blended in. 

 “Sometimes I couldn’t even hear ‘cut!’,” she admits.

To learn more about Larios’s experience filming Sundown – and where she’d go to start her life over – check out our full interview with her below.

Sundown premiered in theaters January 28.

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