Archie Madekwe and Théodore Pellerin, stars of the new film Lurker, in theaters August 22, are sweetly bickering via Zoom about their friendship. They are both casually dressed in T-shirts — black for Pellerin, white for Madekwe. To prepare for the incredibly toxic dynamic they have in the film, they spent a lot of time hanging out and getting to know each other. “We would go to Archie’s Airbnb and watch Couples Therapy,” Pellerin says with a laugh.
Madekwe jokes that watching the Showtime series was “an [acting] exercise” for Lurker — which actually makes sense. Observing other pairs in conflict-laden scenarios couldn’t not be helpful.
Lurker is writer and director Alex Russell’s debut feature film, which looks at the troubling relationship between Matthew (Pellerin), a retail employee, and rising pop star Oliver (Madekwe), whose inner circle Matthew finagles his way into. This proximity gives Matthew an opportunity to help with a documentary on Oliver, who is preparing for a new phase of his career. As Matthew films and befriends Oliver, he’ll do anything to stay in his magnetic orbit.
Russell wanted to explore how the power dynamic between a regular person and a celebrity has continued to blur throughout the age of social media. “Social media makes these things quantifiable just by being tagged in a photo,” Russell tells Teen Vogue. “All of a sudden people are like, ‘That person is something.’ It's this weird waterfall of clout. Typically, in a movie, Matthew would want to replace Oliver; but in this movie, his big goal is just to be next to him forever.”
While Matthew wants to be next to Oliver in a frightening way, you can tell that Madekwe and Pellerin have enjoyed the close proximity that working together has brought them. Their personal dynamic couldn’t be more different than in the film as they joke about who liked who best when they first met. “Breaking news: [Pellerin] hated me initially. Put that in the interview,” Madekwe deadpans, then bursts into giggles.
Working on Lurker brought many firsts for both actors. Pellerin, a 28-year-old Quebec native, has been steadily working in indies and some larger films, like Beau Is Afraid, for the last few years. He’d been attached to Lurker since 2021, after his audition tape for Matthew was the first and last that Russell watched.
Not knowing if or when the film would actually get made, Pellerin had time to get into Matthew’s psyche. “For years, Alex and I were exchanging books. We would talk and then exchange books that were mostly about friendships, obsessions, infatuations, and manipulations,” Pellerin recalls. He ended up going out to Los Angeles, where they would eventually film, to shoot a teaser with Russell to try to get the movie made.
Madekwe’s journey to Lurker was quite different. He also auditioned for Matthew in 2021, but says his tape got “lost in the ether” and never made it to Russell. After the 30-year-old became known for his role in 2023’s polarizing romp Saltburn, he became a breakout darling with a Loewe campaign, a role in an Apple TV+ series opposite Sophie Turner, and a cameo in Haim’s “All Over Me” music video.
But years after his first audition for Lurker, he received a call saying that Russell wanted to meet him in New York — but not for the role of Matthew; instead for Oliver, the charismatic pop star. “I had to reframe myself,” Madekwe says. “I had seen it through the lens of Matthew, and it felt so intimidating to play the person that was confident and charismatic and all the things that I don't always feel.”
Casting Oliver was hard, Russell says, because finding that right mix of charisma, vulnerability, and singing ability in one person felt impossible. He knew that Madekwe could pull it off, even if Madekwe didn’t. “You're a socialite. You're out here partying, everyone loves you, and you're charming everyone all the time," Russell jokingly describes Madekwe. "It's not that far off.” Madekwe’s accent clinched it when they decided to have Oliver be British instead of American, as originally written — Russell says it made the character “cooler.”
After Madekwe was cast as Oliver, work on the film began quickly. It is the actor's first time being a producer, so he was having conversations with Russell about locations and casting. Another thing he had to do, though, was dive into the music of it all, recording an EP for the film. Madekwe picked the brain of British singer-songwriter Rex Orange County, a former classmate who ended up contributing the song “Love and Obsession.” Madekwe also worked with producer Kenny Beats, who has previously worked with artists like Dominic Fike and FKA Twigs.
After seeing the final product of the film and the music that Madekwe has been teasing on his Instagram of late, you’d never guess it’s his first stab at making music. For Oliver's character, they wanted to evoke artists like Steve Lacy, Omar Apollo, and Brockhampton. Madekwe recalls, “I said to Kenny, ‘I really want to make a song like ‘The Dress’ [by Dijon],’ and he said, ‘I just worked with Dijon. We just did six songs — choose one.’”
As Madekwe continued recording, he sent Pellerin the songs they were working on. “Before we started shooting, Archie was sending me little clips of the music, and I was like, ‘Archie, are you f*cking kidding me?,’" Pellerin exclaims. “It was so exciting. Now I understood even more who Matthew was and who Oliver was.”
Understanding the core of Matthew and Oliver’s relationship is integral to the film, especially as the plot of Lurker comes to a head. Think All About Eve but make it Instagram. The dark heart of their relationship is the weird manipulations they both play into with each other. Oliver, the breakout star, has everything to lose; Matthew, a directionless loner, has nothing.
Their relationship reminded Madekwe of friendships he had in college. “I do know lots of people that are incredible one-on-one and make you feel like you are the entire world,” Madekwe says. “And then as soon as you enter a room with a group, that seemingly fades away, or you realize that it's not so special, and all of a sudden this strange kind of rivalry begins with all these different people.”
Those experiences helped him understand Oliver and realize the root of that behavior. “It really comes from a place of insecurity and anxiety," he says, "and the need to be liked and the need to develop these intense attachments with people.”
Oliver’s desperation to be liked comes out in different ways, whether it’s befriending random strangers or tinkering with his personality to fit a social event. In a weird way, Oliver and Matthew are two sides of the same coin: They both operate as blank slates to reflect whatever someone needs or wants from them.
That blankness was both appealing and terrifying for Pellerin when playing Matthew. “It felt like he was becoming real only when he is given a cue or understands what is asked of him and how he should be interacting in a given situation,” Pellerin says of the character. “There was something very unfinished, [someone] who is shape-shifting all the time to the best of his ability, and in reaction to what's in front of him.”
For all the toxicity between these characters, there’s also a kind of love, both in friendship and in a queer undercurrent — that question of, do you want someone or do you want to be them? In conversations with the director, they talked about Oliver most likely having some sort of sexual fluidity in his private life. And for Matthew, in the palpable loneliness of his outside life, his relationship with Oliver can be seen as kind of a dark love story. Most of their dynamic, however, comes down to power.
“You have this intense connection with someone that's like, Is this about sex? Is this about violence?" Madekew says. "I can't remember who said it, it's a very basic quote, but it was like, 'Everything in life's about sex…'”
“'…except sex,'” Pellerin adds, jumping in, "'which is about power.'”
“Yeah, that's the full quote,” Madekwe finishes. “It doesn't become about that because the power, what's happening in the power dynamic, is actually quite clear. For Oliver and Matthew, it is more complex than just sex — it's not just about sex. As Alex [Russell] put it, they didn't need the sex to consummate the idea of the power dynamic.”
That power dynamic shifts throughout the story. When Oliver sees bits and pieces from what Matthew has filmed of him, he sees himself through Matthew’s eyes. “Matthew has seen something in him, has produced something honest and raw in this weird, messed up dynamic. He sees it and thinks, This person really gets me,” Madekwe explains, pondering what this means for the mutual obsession that links their characters together. “The question is, for your masterpiece, would you give up this awful dynamic and let it go? Or do you give up the thing that you've always wanted?”
Pellerin, meanwhile, thought about how intoxicating it is for Matthew to attach his own identity to Oliver’s with the documentary: “There's something very comedic about someone taking the hat of like, ‘I'm an artist now and I'm just now doing a documentary.’ Just really taking in the identity of that very quickly because you have the platform to do it, and you assume that means it's a real thing,” Pellerin says.
He continues, “I discovered that this was something very real. People hire their friends or become friends with the people they hire and everybody gravitates around the famous person. Then everybody's kind of working and fighting for it, getting a little bit of fame that cascades from their fame.”
After Lurker’s release, Madewke and Pellerin are bound to be gravitated around, but right now they are gravitating only toward each other. “You got the obsession [of Lurker] because you became obsessed with me,” Madekwe jokes. And the two return to their banter about who liked who instantly. But it seems like the feeling is mutual — take a look at Madewke’s loving comments on Pellerin’s rare Instagram posts. Obsession, at least with these two costars, might just be a two-way street.
