‘Dragonfly’ Jason Watkins Interview

At the 2025 Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, Jason Watkins discusses his role in Dragonfly, a genre-defying film by Paul Andrew Williams who was also present during the conversation. Known for bringing quiet intensity and emotional nuance to the screen, Watkins takes on a complex role in this atmospheric work: a haunting exploration of the fragile friendship between two neighbors from different social backgrounds. In this conversation, he reflects on the collaboration with co-actors Brenda Blethyn and Andrea Riseborough, the film’s deeper themes, and what inspires him. 

Lida Bach: Hi Jason, here we are at Karlovy Vary to speak about the amazing film Dragonfly.

Jason Watkins: Nice to meet you. 

You play a key role in the film. It’s a story about two women, neighbors, who become friends. How did you first learn about the project?

Jason Watkins: First of all, it’s just great to be in a film with two brilliant performances. I mean, Brenda and, Andrea. Extraordinary performances. It’s a film about their friendship. But, I know Paul [Andrew Williams], and I think we’ve played football together.

Paul Andrew Williams: No, we haven’t! 

JW: We haven’t?

PAW: You’ve played football with people I’ve played football with.

JW: [Jokes] I think that would be an unfortunate meeting anyway, because I’m much better than him at football. But we did a TV show together not long ago. It’s called Archie. But that’s simply how I heard about it. He gave me the script and it was just brilliant. It’s a brilliant script. 

You have a small but pivotal part. The story that starts out on a rather light note, takes a very dark turn. You’re the key character to put this unsettling turn into action. Not intentional, but it happens nevertheless. How did you approach your character?

There are other characters which are beautifully, economically written: the care workers and the nurses. The way that they interact with both the characters is great. My guy is the rather absent son of Brenda Blethyn’s character, who should be supporting his elderly mother more than he does. But, like a lot of people, he lives far away with his family. Still, he neglects her and this stands in contrast to the way that Colleen is attempting to form a friendship with Brenda.

Did the story originally have more space for your character? Was something cut out?

No. That was it. But it’s so telling. It’s something that I feel is exciting and I could do something with. This is a project where I recognise that Paul likes to write about people that he may have known. Real people that populate our country and aren’t often highlighted.

Did you have a specific source of inspiration?

I love photography, street photography. Martin Parr and the documentary idea of looking at our country and presenting them in a story. In this case, a really heartwarming story of connection between two people you wouldn’t necessarily think would find a connection.

The plot undermines preconceptions of what these characters will do, particularly Andrea’s character …

And it’s just a beautifully balanced piece between slightly growing dread and this desperate need for these two people to somehow make it work.

Do you see your character also as an allegorical figure? 

Yeah, I represent the audience in some respects. Looking at Andrea’s character, John sees the negative and dismisses far too quickly any positive influence on his mother. He assuages his own guilt. He projects that onto Andrea’s character to offload his sense of not really caring enough for his own mother.

He also submits his mother to a lot of care workers, which she often says she doesn’t really need, not to that extent. Would you say John also does so out of guilt?

Yeah. It has to do with money as well. He’s got money, and obviously, Colleen doesn’t have money. But John, my character, just throws money at it. He doesn’t actually think about the emotional impact it’s gonna have on his mother. Get three, four or five nurses, every day and she’ll be fine. He’s completely ignoring her emotional needs. And I think that’s a growing pattern, isn’t it?

The whole story carries deep undertones about financial status and social class. 

Money is becoming more and more important in basic things. If you don’t have money, even in the last five years, life is a lot harder. Exponentially, though, people are getting richer and richer.

To get back to your character, how was the experience working with Brenda Blethyn and Andrea Riseborough? 

I didn’t know Andrea, but I knew Brenda. So that was a good place to be. I had to learn about Andrea. I’ve worked with Brenda before many times. I’ve also done Mike Leigh as well. There’s a weird sort of connection there between us. Although this film is not like a Mike Leigh film, but it’s about detailed characters. 

You just have very few condensed scenes with each of the two women, but they say so much. We really have the feeling we know those characters forever.

It’s a very good point in the film because we’ve got to know very much about all of the characters, including John on the telephone and the context. You don’t need to do too much. We had conversations while were making it, about not showing too much, but showing enough.

The context said so much for me that I tried not to get in the way of it. 

How much of the scenes did you rehearse? Did you do a lot of it organically without any rehearsals?

JW: I don’t think we did rehearse it a lot. You don’t want to over rehearse it. We only had a couple of days to do all of the scenes. So you make quick strong decisions. But I think Paul and I, we’re on the same page.

PAW: All of us are on the same page, I think.

JW: And that’s why I think he probably cast me because he knows there’s probably just: Get on with it, be imaginative and creative and real. So we had a good working relationship. [Jokingly aside to Williams] Although he was a very unpleasant man, of course!

John is a very interesting character. We could easily see him as the villain, but he just has the best intentions and they have a horrible effect. What does a character need to interest you as an actor?

What you’ve talked about, it’s that, I think. I like the idea of seeing a perception of a character that then you confound in your performance or that it’s flipped around. The depth.

You always like that when you’re reading a character, you think, oh, he’s this sort of type. And then suddenly, the character goes much wider than you thought, and contradicts the stereotype. I think those characters are my choice: the ones you can find depth in. We were gonna tell a story where people change all the time. In certain circumstances, they behave completely differently. I think that’s reflective of humanity, isn’t it? That we do things under pressure.

Do you take most of your acting inspiration from real life? Or would you say it’s more artistic work that inspires you and your portrayal?

Well, it’s funny. Things change all the time, and I’m older now. I’ve just finished working in London with [theatre director] Thomas Ostermeier. I found that absolutely riveting. That’s very different from a lot of the work I’ve done before.

The idea of actually presenting yourself as an actor, telling a story, not necessarily just being embedded in a character, which is what I spent a lot of my career doing. I like things to change all the time. And you should change your system of work all the time, I think, as well.

There’s a lot of award buzz for your role, that you’re going to be nominated for best supporting actor. Do you believe it?

I wasn’t aware of this. That would be a very nice place to be in. It would point a lot more interest toward the film. I was in extremely good company and those two elevated the whole film. It’s a nice club to be in.

Given the time, I have to jump to the final question: What’s your next project?

I’m finishing something where I’m playing a bishop in a story about a priest who falls in love. If you know Jack Thorne, the writer: I’ll be in A Rose Between Two Thorns. I’ve done an Enola Holmes movie, too. And then I’m doing a show about the water companies in The UK and how terrible they’ve been behaving. In that I play a scientist who discovers what’s been going on.