Werner Herzog arrived at this year's Venice Film Festival with a new feature, a lifetime achievement award, and a dedication to his late friend David Lynch on his mind.
Bucking Fastard premiered on the Lido Thursday, with Herzog joined at a press conference by cast members Kate and Rooney Mara, Domhnall Gleeson, and Orlando Bloom. Herzog is also receiving the Golden Lion Lifetime Achievement Award at the festival this year.
When asked why he dedicated the film to Lynch, who died in January 2025 at the age of 78, Herzog did not hesitate. "During editing, I said to the editor just casually, 'That's a film that I would like David Lynch to be with me in the first public screening' — which is in a few hours," he told the room. "We had a deep, deep understanding of each other's work, although we were quite different. And I had the feeling [that] I wish he could be my first audience… I wish we could turn the wheel of time back and invite him tonight," he added with a smile, "but it doesn't happen like this."
The film follows sisters Jean and Joan Holbrooke, played by Kate and Rooney Mara in their first-ever appearance together onscreen. The sisters dress alike, think alike, and speak simultaneously. They fall for the same man, a rowdy rogue named Gareth Mulroney, played by Bloom with a thick Irish brogue. Their shared obsession leads to legal proceedings and a restraining order. Gleeson plays Timothy, a government-issued social worker assigned to help the sisters adapt to modern life after they become tabloid sensations.
The film is loosely based on the real case of British identical twin sisters Freda and Greta Chaplin, who were the subjects of a tabloid court case in the 1980s. The film's title refers to a synchronized verbal slip the sisters made in court.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Herzog said the Mara sisters required almost no rehearsal time. "They were so good instantly that I said, after five days, 'We stop that. I'll meet you in Ireland in front of my camera,'" he recalled.
Rooney Mara said their shared history made the work easier than expected. "I think we found pretty quickly that having a lifetime together and all this history and a childhood of playing together… There was just an unspoken world between us that we didn't have to work very hard to create at all," she said. "Once we really found our flow together, I've never laughed so much. We had so much fun. it was a very once-in-a-lifetime, unique experience."
Kate Mara added that once the rhythm of speaking in unison clicked, it took on its own momentum. "Once we figured out the rhythm of our speaking in unison, it felt almost like a song. It was very musical and it happened quite naturally. Surprisingly, it came with a lot of a lot more ease than we were expecting."
