Simon Callow on THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER and Molly Manners, Marni Duggan & Galaxie Clear on EXTRA GEOGRAPHY

Kermode on Film

This episode of Kermode on Film features two distinct interviews conducted live at the BFI South Bank. Mark Kermode first speaks with director Molly Manners and actors Marnie Duggan and Galaxy Clear about their

Key takeaways

• Director Molly Manners adapted *Extra Geography* from a Rose Tremaine short story, aiming to capture an authentic, bold teenage girlhood experience.
• Casting director Lucy Pardee scouted inexperienced youth across northern England, with chemistry reads ultimately bonding Marnie Duggan and Galaxy Clear for their roles as Minna and Flick.

Main topics

• Debut feature filmmaking and coming-of-age storytelling
• Casting inexperienced actors and chemistry reads

Notable quotes

"Cinema is a machine for creating empathy. I am a 63-year-old man, and I felt watching your film that I had some idea what it might be like to be a teenage girl."

Conclusion

Listeners gain a dual appreciation for contemporary indie filmmaking's raw authenticity and

Transcript preview

Speaker 7 (0:00) In every job that must be done, there is an element of fun. You find the fun and snap! Speaker 7 (0:08) Did you know that the very first assembly of photographs in sequential order to create a motion picture was a two-second clip of a black man on a horse? Speaker 1 (0:18) We want the finest wines available to humanity. We want them here, and we Speaker 2 (0:22) want them now. Speaker 7 (0:24) You really don't want me to play, huh? No, I do. Captain Hardy said no. Captain who? Speaker 2 (0:32) Hi, this is Mark Kermode. Thanks for downloading this Kermode on Film podcast. This episode is the second half of the September 2026 MK3D show recorded live at the BFI South Bank in London. I'm joined by director Molly Manners and actors Marnie Duggan and Galaxy Clear to talk to us about their debut feature Extra Geography, a coming-of-age comedy drama set in an English girls' boarding school. I also talk to acclaimed actor, director and writer Simon Callow about his recently updated BFI film classic. Night of the Hunter. So sit back, relax and take a front row seat at MK3D recorded live at the BFI South Bank in London. Enjoy. Speaker 2 (1:16) Right, here is a trailer for a film which opens in a few weeks time and I absolutely loved it I think you'll love the trailer take a look at this. Speaker 7 (1:23) Have you got a Harry Fudge? We're just doing a survey. No. Speaker 7 (1:28) Okay, cool. Thank you for your response. What'll happen if we don't get into Oxbridge? Maybe we'll just... Speaker 5 (1:39) die. Speaker 5 (1:43) Thank God we're here. Finished. Finished. Not getting distracted by like drugs and boys. Speaker 5 (1:53) Horrid. Speaker 7 (1:57) What are you going to do for your summer project this year? It's a secret. God feed me. What if we like, Speaker 5 (2:02) fall in love? Make it our summer project. We've fallen in love with the first person we see. Hello Fleck. Hello Minna. Speaker 5 (2:12) I love that. Speaker 5 (2:16) We need to get her attention. Speaker 7 (2:18) You look well rounded. Oh my god, you did that already. I need to catch up. They're Speaker 5 (2:24) not red, but they'll do. How'd you feel? Speaker 4 (2:28) I feel kind of sexy and I'm scared. Speaker 5 (2:35) Everything's about to feel really good. Speaker 4 (2:37) In everything Speaker 7 (2:37) I read it didn't seem like it felt that good. Do you think something's gonna happen? Oh my god. Did you just write... Long? Speaker 7 (2:50) By being weird I'm friends with toys now Speaker 7 (2:56) She's called Vosflint, by the way. Speaker 7 (3:03) What's going on about her? Speaker 7 (3:05) It Speaker 4 (3:05) was your idea. I didn't plan to fall in love until I was 25. Speaker 3 (3:20) We go all the way. Speaker 7 (3:22) Now I don't have time. Speaker 7 (3:24) Maybe love like nature and so Speaker 2 (3:41) I'd just like to say in the evening of technical problems, that trailer is so bangin' it appears to have blown up our entire speaker system. So well done, it kind of speaks well for the movie. So please welcome to the stage, Marnie Duggan, Galaxy Clear and director Molly Manners. Speaker 2 (4:09) Congratulations on blowing up NFT One's speaker system. They've got movies in after this, so that's great. Tell us first about the source. Where does it come from, the story? Speaker 3 (4:21) So the original short story is by Rose Tremaine and it's called Extra Geography and then it was adapted as a screenplay by Miriam Batty. And Speaker 2 (4:29) what was it that caught you about the story? Speaker 3 (4:32) So I'd read the short story and just loved it and... It had a very particular kind of tone to it and it felt kind of very unique and also tapped into kind of the girlhood experience for me. But then when I read Miriam's script, I don't know, it just captured this. It just took me back to my school days, but also in a very kind of bold and funny way. Did Speaker 2 (4:58) you have any other movies in mind when you were making it? Because obviously one of the things that... film critics do all the time, I both apologise for this, but I understand why, is that as soon as you see anything, the tendency is to go, it's a bit like that and a bit like that and from the producer of this and with the tone of that. Speaker 3 (5:13) Did Speaker 2 (5:14) you have anything in mind when you were making it? Speaker 3 (5:17) I actually didn't have a specific film in mind. It definitely does, that has definitely happened. It gets likened to a Speaker 2 (5:23) show. Speaker 3 (5:23) I know, and it's Speaker 2 (5:24) going Speaker 3 (5:24) to get worse. But there were lots of... I guess there were lots of films that I watched growing up and in my early 20s that cover the same themes. I mean, obviously the whole American high school movies and there are other films like Heavenly Creatures that sort of felt like... Heavenly Creatures, Speaker 2 (5:41) I think, is definitely... There is a touch of that in there. There Speaker 3 (5:45) is a touch of that. Speaker 2 (5:46) There is. Speaker 3 (5:46) And then... But I guess those are sort of... Yeah, I think I just drew from a lot of different places, but, yeah, not one specific. Speaker 2 (5:54) OK, now, in order for the film to work, you have to cast it. brilliantly. I have to say you have done so. I think the performances are terrific. Tell me how the casting happened. Speaker 3 (6:03) So I work with Lucy Pardee who did After Sun and Rocks who is a brilliant casting director and particularly expert at finding kind of young actors who haven't necessarily been on screen before and so we went through this huge process of kind of trawling the whole of the UK and particularly actually focused on the north of England and wanted to cast quite young in the roles. The dialogue in the whole experience is very, I guess, very specific and quite naive and quite bold and quite sheltered. And so it felt important to have like a real kind of authenticity of youth in the two actors. And then we went through that process and these two just kind of rose to the challenge and became quite... I don't know. I always just say I didn't believe the words in anyone else's mouths by the end. Speaker 2 (6:56) Very good. What Speaker 3 (6:57) can Speaker 2 (6:58) you tell us about the audition process and what it was like? Speaker 5 (7:02) I mean, for me, it was my first audition process. Wow. Molly found me in my Saturday acting class. Literally Speaker 2 (7:11) first audition, that was it. I was one for Speaker 5 (7:13) one for a brief period of time. I got used to the rejection in the industry very quickly. Speaker 5 (7:20) I think you were very good at working with relatively inexperienced actors. And I think I was just so enchanted by this really honest depiction of my teenage years that realistically weren't that far off from at the point I was auditioning. But I really think it was the chemistry read that... I cemented my minna with Marnie. I think it was really nice to have someone alongside who was going through Speaker 4 (7:50) the same thing as me. Speaker 2 (7:51) Marnie. Speaker 4 (7:52) So I got sent the audition by my agent and then I did a self-tape and then I was asked... Speaker 2 (7:59) For anyone who doesn't know, a self-tape is when you literally have to tape yourself. It's so annoying. Speaker 4 (8:04) just completely Speaker 2 (8:05) unnatural like it's never ever going to happen in the real world I Speaker 4 (8:08) know and you have to look at like a wall and pretend it's like your mum or whoever your place it's just so unnatural but you get used to it I guess but I'd done a few of them and like faced rejection and then I've been asked to be seen in Manchester and then London for in-person auditions and then a chemistry read where I met Galaxy. And I got so attached to the role, I was like, if I don't get this role, like, I'm not going to watch this film. I was like, this is like, this is me. And if I don't get it, I'm refusing to watch it. And then when I got the role, I was just, I was so happy. And I think the script is, the writing by Miriam Batty is so raw and realistic to how... teenagers talk and gail hood and molly managed to capture like these little small details of their friendship so beautifully yeah could Speaker 2 (8:55) can you say what a chemistry read is as well what what what's happening in a chemistry read um Speaker 4 (9:00) so i i would say it's to just see if there's any natural chemistry because you can't leave really fake chemistry i mean you can have two actors who work well alongside each other but at the end of the day if they don't have chemistry they don't have chemistry like is Speaker 5 (9:13) it a believable friendship yeah because you could be an amazing actor but if you don't believe the friendship i mean so much of the film relies on that dynamic yeah i think you have to be very conscious of that Speaker 2 (9:23) No, I absolutely agree. That's what I meant when I said it only works if you have two great performances. And I do believe from the first time we meet you that you've been friends for a long time. You're almost, you know, the vocal inflections, the way. I mean, I know it's choreographed Speaker 1 (9:37) and Speaker 2 (9:37) everything, but it's done rather brilliantly. Speaker 3 (9:39) Well, Speaker 1 (9:40) they Speaker 3 (9:40) have, I think in the chemistry read,