For Gemma Chan, Josephine isn’t just another film premiere. It’s personal.
Best known globally for her roles in Crazy Rich Asians and Eternals, Chan steps into far more intimate territory in Josephine, a searing drama from director Beth de Araújo. The film follows Claire, a mother grappling with an unthinkable reality: her 8-year-old daughter Josephine (newcomer Mason Reeves) witnesses a brutal rape in a San Francisco park. When a court case hinges on the child’s testimony, Claire and her husband Damien — played with striking vulnerability by Channing Tatum — are forced to decide whether their daughter should take the stand.
For Chan, the story hit close to home.
“The world is a very dangerous place,” she said. “Unfortunately, I know that and many people know that. It just really hit a raw nerve with me.”
The resonance stems from lived experience. De Araújo based the story on her own childhood trauma, and Chan herself testified in court in 2012 after witnessing a fatal stabbing in London. That emotional proximity made the script impossible to ignore.
“It was a big part of me wanting to be a part of the story and connecting to it emotionally,” she says. “I really believed in her vision for the film and it just felt like there was so much truth in every page of the script. It was attempting to tell a story that I didn’t feel had any been told in that way before. This is very challenging, difficult subject matter, but I never felt that she was coming at it from an angle that was exploitative or trying to sensationalize anything.”
Chan was the first to sign on after receiving the script in 2019. Then the pandemic stalled production. De Araújo went on to direct her 2022 psychological thriller Soft & Quiet, but Josephine lingered. Years later, with the support of producer David Kaplan — and Chan and Tatum stepping in as producers — cameras finally rolled in spring 2024.
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“It’s a small miracle that the film was made and I’m so proud of it,” Chan says. “I wanted to do whatever I could to help the project get off the ground.”
On screen, Chan’s performance is restrained yet devastating — a masterclass in quiet fracture. Much of Claire’s turmoil is communicated in silence, in glances that betray what dialogue cannot.
“Nothing had to be forced,” she says. “It was really a place where we could find the truth of the scene and I was able to be just emotionally truthful.”
If there was a secret weapon on set, it was Reeves. Discovered at a farmer’s market with no prior acting experience, the young actor became the emotional anchor of the film.
“She really brought out the best in Channing and I,” Chan says. “There was no artifice at all. I’m just in awe of her — she’s amazing and wise beyond her years.”
That dynamic extended to Tatum, whose portrayal of Damien adds a rarely seen fragility to his screen persona. Opposite Reeves’ naturalism, both adult leads found themselves responding rather than performing.
When “Josephine” premiered at Sundance — where it won both the grand jury prize and the audience award — Chan had no expectations. Watching it with a crowd for the first time proved overwhelming.
“It was special and I was really moved by the way that people connected with it,” she says. “For it to have won the awards is just the icing on top.”
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Now acquired for U.S. release by Sumerian Pictures, the film is beginning its next chapter, with an international premiere in competition at the Berlin Film Festival. European distribution is still pending, but Chan remains hopeful — not just for buyers, but for conversation.
“The film asks the question, ‘How does a young person deal with the violence of the world?’ And really, that can extend to all of us,” she says. “How do we persevere, how do we respond, how can we overcome fear and hatred and trauma and still hold onto our humanity? And that’s a question that I think is really important for where we are at the moment in the world.”
