Taylor Russell on 'Waves' Role & What Influenced Her Performance

Actress Taylor Russell began her career with TV roles and went on to advance in films with roles in films like Before I Fall and Down a Dark Hall among others. And now, the 25-year-old is receiving great reviews for her performance in the film, Waves. Russell plays Emily, a shy teenager in a family dealing with loss; her parents lavish most of their attention on her older brother (played by Kelvin Harrison Jr.). The actor uses dreams to influence her performance: When she was offered the role of Emily, she texted writer-director Trey Edward Shults with lines of poetry that came to her while she was sleeping. 

On what she hopes that the audiences will take away from Waves, she said, "There’s this profound message of healing and forgiveness. Can we love somebody and not like them and their actions? The opportunity to forgive somebody when it’s really difficult and when it’s the hardest is something that everybody can learn from. It’s something I can learn from in my life."

On if the poetry was based on what she was reading in the script of the film, she said, "I was having a lot of dreams that I was infusing into the character. I would have a dream and I would wake up in the morning and write, and then things would come to me throughout the day, or I would write a poem when I woke up and I would send it to Trey. Whenever it would happen, I would think about something that could work for Emily, felt true to the script or true to the certain emotion that she’s having. I would send that to him and see if he resonated with it."