In her latest film, Trust, director Carlson Young taps into the uncertainty and fear that comes with asking the question, can I trust you?
Synopsis: After a scandal, a Hollywood starlet (Sophie Turner) retreats to a remote cabin—but she’s not alone. Betrayed by the man she trusted most, she’s trapped in a brutal game of survival. She can hide, but she can’t run.
Directed by Carlson and written by Gigi Levangie, Trust stars Sophie Turner, Rhys Coiro, Billy Campbell, Peter Mensah, Forrest Goodluck, Gianni Paolo, Renata Vaca and Katey Sagal.
Check out our interview with Carlson:
Director’s Statement
As I began pre-production on Trust, I started to realize I was venerating a younger version of myself. That is, the 13-year-old actress inside me that once leapt instinctually into a den of wolves— naive, creative, wholly trusting of the adults around me. As I reflected on my experience as a semi-child actor, new pieces of a strange puzzle began to emerge and long forgotten predators bared their teeth, showing themselves to me plainly, as if for the first time. I got emotional as I crafted Lauren’s character with Sophie— the contained survival thriller I signed up for becoming incredibly real, raw and important to me. Trust represents one woman’s rebirth into a formidable mother— she is guided by spiders and other benevolent energies, led directly into the steel reinforced womb (or tomb) of a dark secret. I’ve actually always been deeply afraid of having children, fearing so much for their psychological safety and doubtful of my ability to protect them in this chaos-fueled world. But Sophie generously accompanied me as I walked deeper into the themes of our story, and together we welded the arc of Lauren’s experience—from ingénue to feral warrior. I was inspired by films like Alien and Fargo, and as grave as the reality becomes in the movie, I did try to find the weird laughs in the same breath. As fate would have it, the moment I turned in the finished film, I found out I too was (very unexpectedly) pregnant. The universe has a killer sense of humor.
