The Death & Life of John F. Donovan (2018) on Netflix
Rupert Turner, a popular actor, publishes the letters John F. Donovan sent him when he was a boy, and a Times journalist interviews him about the television star, who has died.
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- Netflix2.0/5
- IMDb6.1/108,406 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes19%
Trailer
Plot summary
In 2017, Audrey Newhouse, a journalist at the Times, interviews the actor Rupert Turner about Letters to a Young Actor, his book of the correspondence he kept as a boy with John F. Donovan, a television star who has since died of a drug overdose. Donovan played the lead in the teen drama Hellsome High, and the tabloids often speculated that he was gay and closeted. As a young boy, Turner idolized Donovan and wrote to him, while homophobic classmates bullied him at school and his mother was emotionally abusive to him.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Death & Life of John F. Donovan (2018)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- During post-production, director Xavier Dolan cut Jessica Chastain's character from the film for timing and pacing reasons, confirming it on Instagram in February 2018. Bella Thorne's filmed scenes went too, because they were with Chastain's character.
- Adele nearly turned up in Xavier Dolan's film: in November 2015 it was announced that the singer was in talks to appear in a cameo role.
- The film was invited to premiere at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival, but Xavier Dolan, still unhappy with it, opted to keep editing instead. It became his first film to have its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival.
