“It’s a strange thing to see a grown woman swaddled by someone she’s really struggling with emotionally”: Alice Englert on Bad Behaviour

Actress Alice Englert (Beautiful Creatures, Dangerous Liaisons), the daughter of revered auteur Jane Campion, has taken on her first feature film as writer and director. Bad Behaviour takes inspiration from her own experiences on retreats when she was younger, and puts at its centre a mother-daughter relationship, although Englert emphasises the story isn’t autobiographical.

The phenomenal Jennifer Connelly plays Lucy, a former child actor looking for a sense of peace and stability through enlightenment at a silent retreat led by a new-age guru Elon Bello (a cleverly cast Ben Whishaw). Englert also portrays her daughter Dylan, who is being put through the wringer both physically and emotionally as a stunt double who has a crush on her co-star.

A careful tightrope is walked in terms of the movie’s tone, which both sends up the setting and characters for laughs through a darkly comic, satirical lens, while also allowing searingly real emotions to puncture through the silliness. Connelly in particular gives the performance of a lifetime, finding the comedy beats in Lucy’s total disdain for the likes of the Gen Z Beverly (Dasha Nekrasova), as well as the nuanced and multi-layered emotions of a woman on the brink.

The Upcoming had the pleasure of an in-depth chat with Englert about how her experiences growing up influenced the story, having the chance to work with the incredible Connelly and striking the movie’s unique tone, aiming for relatability with her characters’ vulnerability over ridiculing them.

Sarah Bradbury

Bad Behaviour is available on the Icon Channel and released in select cinemas on 5^th January 2024.

Watch the trailer for Bad Behaviour here: