James Gray admits directing limits, casts Oscar Isaac

James Gray took the stage in Locarno on Sunday night to pick up an honorary award ahead of the Swiss premiere of Paper Tiger on the festival’s giant Piazza Grande screen. The New York filmmaker, known for brooding epics like The Lost City of Z and Ad Astra, used the moment to talk about his stubborn, auteur-driven vision of cinema and why he feels he’s better suited behind the camera than in the director’s chair when it comes to actors.

At 54, Gray is a throwback to the 1970s New Hollywood school—obsessed with widescreen compositions, classical storytelling, and moral ambiguity. He’s been on a quiet festival circuit this year, dropping Paper Tiger after a decade in the making, and the Locarno stop is part of a European swing to reintroduce himself to critics who haven’t seen a new Gray film since 2020’s Ad Astra. He told reporters he’s unapologetic about his methods: long takes, meticulous blocking, and a hands-on approach that can feel glacial to crews. “I’m not a good director of actors,” he admitted, recalling tense moments on set where his focus on visual rhythm clashed with performances needing more freedom. Yet actors keep coming back—Oscar Isaac, Jessica Chastain, and Adria Arjona have all worked with him multiple times, drawn by the promise of working within a singular, uncompromising frame.

The honorary award at Locarno isn’t just recognition for Gray’s past work—it’s a signal that festivals still see him as a key voice in American cinema despite his long gaps between films. Paper Tiger itself is a sprawling, black-and-white meditation on obsession and failure, inspired by the life of real estate heir Robert Durst. Gray shot it over two years in New York and Alabama, using natural light and practical locations to blur the line between documentary and fiction. He’s now editing the next film, a long-gestating adaptation of Joseph Conrad’s The Secret Agent, and has hinted it could be his most personal yet—another dive into paranoia and violence, shot in the same muscular style that’s made him a critic’s darling but a studio’s headache.

What happens next is a waiting game. If Paper Tiger lands strong reviews in Locarno and beyond, Gray will finally have the momentum to push The Secret Agent into production, possibly in 2025. But if the film underperforms, another long silence could follow—something he’s acknowledged himself. Either way, Gray’s Locarno moment wasn’t about nostalgia; it was a reminder that cinema, for him, is still a grand, imperfect act of defiance.