Lurker’s Alex Russell, Archie Madekwe and Theo Pellerin on Hollywood liars and real friends

Filmmaker Alex Russell is familiar with the toxic dynamics of inner circles.

When he sat down to write the screenplay for Lurker he had plenty of his own experiences to draw on for the story about a young retail worker named Matthew, who worms his way into the entourage of a rising music star named Oliver.

Matthew wants to be a documentarian, so he says, but what he really wants to be adjacent to fame and power. It’s not just that he wants it, he becomes convinced that he needs it, and people who need something that’s hard to attain can be paranoid and dangerous.

Lurker, Russell’s first feature, premiered at Sundance Film Festival at the start of the year, and immediately gained notice for its dark psychological thrills as a Gen Z exploration of stalking, stanning and obsession.

Russell knew a lot of musicians and people in that industry that both support and leach off the artist whose profile the public knows. He saw how people rose and fell in favour, and the rivalries and jealousies that destroyed people.

Lurker is affective and chilling because it feels real, far more than something like Entourage.

Yet, for all that Russell channelled on screen about the music industry, he told The Nightly the screen entertainment business is worse.

“Because everyone is a much better liar, and Hollywood has the best liars of all time in one industry. Their jobs are to make things believable,” he said.

“(For example), no one ever says ‘we’re not going to make your movie’. (It’s always), ‘we’re so excited about everything you’re doing’, and then you find out when the results come in, what’s actually happening in your life.”

Russell, whose previous credits include some of the best reviewed TV shows of the past few years such as The Bear, Beef and Dave, half-joked that directing a film he had written, put him in the position of “top manipulator” on set.

“I felt very at home and it felt very natural for me to be in this manipulative ecosystem, and to be the top manipulator of all the manipulations going on,” he said, cheeky grin on his face as he sat next to his lead stars, Archie Madekwe (Oliver) and Theo Pellerin (Matthew).

The filmmaker even ribbed Pellerin by suggesting everyone had a group chat without the actor, just so they could coordinate how to terrorise him.

As Matthew, Pellerin spends much of his onscreen time either clamouring to be one of the gang or on the outs.

It’s a deeply uncomfortable role, but Pellerin insisted it was a lot of fun, except for, well, “it was tough to be constantly be in those dynamics of humiliation, of trying to fit in and be accepted. I think that whenever you shoot a movie, the lines between fiction and reality kind of become blurred a bit”.

With all the pretence and false promises in an industry that ascribes your literal value based on your status or how many Instagram followers you have, Madekwe said there is a lot of anxiety that comes with the job.

“There are lots of people and it’s a part of their job to be smiley and then (they’ll) say something else about (you when you’re not around). Especially when you’re the ‘talent’, you often know everyone’s smiling and then via email, they’ll say something else.

“This is just a peace you have to make,” the British star said.

Old friends who knew you before when becomes more important. Madekwe had that night three friends coming to Lurker’s London premiere. He’d known them since he was 14 years old, before drama school, before Midsommar, Saltburn and Gran Turismo.

“Those friends become anchors, especially when you’re jumping around and staying in hotels, and work life is sometimes a bit hectic. It’s nice to come back and have something that feels actually real and tangible.”

Lurker is in cinemas