Lengthy earlier than Ruben Östlund’s darkish comedy Triangle of Unhappiness debuted on the 2022 Cannes Movie Pageant — the place it received the celebrated Palme d’Or — it was apparent who’d wind up because the breakout character. Filipina star Dolly De Leon barely even reveals up within the movie’s first two acts, every damaged out with its personal title card and its personal distinct story. However De Leon’s character Abigail completely dominates the movie’s third act, whereas nonetheless remaining an enigmatic determine proper up by the movie’s ultimate moments.
Abigail is strongly paying homage to Ana de Armas’ character Marta in Rian Johnson’s Knives Out, one other soft-spoken immigrant working for highly effective, wealthy individuals who underestimate and overlook her till occasions meet up with all of them. However whereas their triumphs and journeys are comparable, Marta’s backstory and motivations are clearer and extra centered in her film, whereas Abigail appears to return from nowhere. That’s very clearly intentional — however De Leon tells Polygon it didn’t preserve her from arising along with her personal elaborate rationalization of who Abigail is and the place her energy comes from.
“I undoubtedly needed to create a backstory!” De Leon says. “If I’m going to embrace the thriller each time I do a job, I’m going to be so misplaced on set, and it’s gonna present. So I wrote a journal, speaking about her historical past and what led her there, what made her the particular person she is. That basically helped form all her actions and justify why she stated sure issues within the movie, or why she behaved in sure methods.”
Abigail’s secret historical past may additionally assist viewers resolve interpret the top of Triangle of Unhappiness, which writer-director Östlund (Power Majeure, The Sq.) leaves as a provocation for the viewers.
[Ed. note: Spoilers for Triangle of Sadness follow, including end spoilers after the final header.]
Who’s Abigail and what does she do in Triangle of Unhappiness?
Picture: Fredrik Wenzel/Plattform Produktion
Östlund’s movie tells three linked tales that every focus totally on a distinct set of characters. Within the first act, trend fashions Carl (Harris Dickinson) and Yaya (Charlbi Dean) navigate their risky, manipulative relationship. Act 2 strikes the motion aboard a luxurious yacht, the place Carl and Yaya have been invited as all-expenses-paid visitors due to their influencer standing. However they’re minor characters within the story, which focuses extra on the yacht’s wealthy, entitled passengers, the drunken mishandling of the boat by an incompetent captain (Woody Harrelson), and the breakdown of order throughout a violent storm.
Within the third act, a number of the yacht’s complement, together with Carl and Yaya, find yourself collectively on a distant island the place they do not know survive. Abigail, a cleaner and “bathroom supervisor” from the yacht, emerges as the important thing to their survival, since she is aware of catch and clear fish, construct a fireplace, and forage for different meals. She rapidly takes ruthless benefit of her new energy, declaring herself captain of the island and forcing the opposite passengers to obey her. Within the course of, Östlund makes it clear that the social order folks so typically take as a right, with folks commanding energy largely as a result of their wealth (or magnificence or fame, for Carl and Maya), is a well-maintained fiction that quickly unravels in a scenario the place precise talent, information, and expertise matter.
That phase of the story particularly highlights the place of “OFWs,” or Abroad Filipino Staff, a well-established class of migrant staff residing and dealing exterior their dwelling nation, and sometimes taking menial working-class jobs no matter their schooling or previous work expertise. De Leon says OFWs have been a specific focus for Östlund in conceiving the movie.
“I believe he needed to see the OFWs’ lives from the lens of an individual who’s a passenger, somebody from a spot of privilege,” she says. “I believe he needed to maintain it that approach, as a result of the main target actually was the shifting of energy. He needed the OFWs at first and the second act of the movie to be coasting alongside, nearly invisible characters, with no actual presence, no weight. And also you see how [Abigail] assumes a place of energy, coming from a spot of being invisible and nondescript.”
The place did Abigail come from?
Picture: NEON
Triangle of Unhappiness doesn’t say a lot about Abigail’s origins, however De Leon felt it was crucial to present the character extra depth with a purpose to make her extra genuine.
“I don’t know if all actors do that, however I do it,” she says. “I all the time have a personality secret that solely I do know. After which I solely reveal it as soon as the movie has been proven. Whereas we’re engaged on it, on set, I might inform my co-actors [sing-songs] ‘I’ve a secret. I’ve a secret! I’ll by no means let you know! I’ll let you know after.’ And so they’re like, ‘Yeah, me too, I’ve a secret!’”
Her headcanon about Abigail was even a secret from Östlund. De Leon says he allowed her numerous freedom with the character, together with making her a single lady with no youngsters, however that she stored a full journal about Abigail’s life that was solely for her personal improvement.
“She undoubtedly grew up by a lake or the ocean,” De Leon says. “She lived someplace in Cavite, a province on the sting of Luzon, the place I come from. I grew up within the metropolis, so the closest I ever bought to nature was dragonflies and butterflies. She grew up the place her mom would go to a river and do their laundry there, by the operating water, and Abigail would play with the opposite children there, and catch fish and tadpoles. That’s why she bought actually good at fishing, as a result of she began early in life.”
De Leon says it’s apparent that Abigail wasn’t from a fishing household, as a result of she doesn’t use nets or boats to catch fish, simply her naked palms. “I felt that needed to come from a deeper supply, from approach again when she was actually little. While you’re a baby and also you’re enjoying make-believe video games, it will get actually ingrained into your system, and you actually consider it, and grow to be actually good at it. That’s what occurred to her.”
De Leon particularly needed Abigail to be unattached, with nobody she wanted to get again dwelling to, however that a part of the character additionally required cautious navigation. “The half the place she has no youngsters, she has no household, I needed to make it possible for was clear, and what circumstances led to her being a single lady,” she says. “As a result of that’s nearly exceptional within the Philippines. All of us have households, we’re all married. If we’re not, there needs to be a very good stable motive.”
Her answer was to fill Abigail’s adolescence with tragedy, and causes to mistrust her employers and crave energy over them.
“She labored for a really wealthy household — she began as a youngster, when she was 16 or 17, as a result of generally that’s how early we begin working,” De Leon says.” “And the son had a relationship along with her, with out the information of his dad and mom. She bought pregnant, and naturally, she knew she couldn’t preserve the newborn. So she left the family.”
De Leon characterizes that relationship as “form of abusive, in a approach,” as a result of her lover had energy over her and was older, possibly 19 or so. “To her, it wasn’t abuse — she was actually in love,” she says. “However he didn’t take care of her. He simply used her. And when she left the family, she bought a miscarriage, and that’s how she misplaced the newborn. After that, as she grew up, as she matured, she checked out that have on reflection, and realized that he took benefit of her, and that the person he beloved betrayed her.
“So after that, she was very bitter about love, and he or she felt like a scorned lady. She didn’t ever need to fall in love once more. That was a acutely aware determination she made. And that’s how sturdy she is, to decide like that and stick with it. That takes numerous willpower and power. In order that’s why she doesn’t have a household.”
What does Abigail’s story imply for the top of Triangle of Unhappiness?
Picture: Fredrik Wenzel/Plattform Produktion
Triangle of Unhappiness closes on a pregnant second, with Yaya and Abigail alone collectively. They’ve simply found that what they thought was a abandoned, remoted island is definitely a spa and resort. As quickly as they make contact with the opposite folks on the island, Abigail will return to being a menial employee, and probably face authorized bother over how she handled her former bosses on the island. So she picks up a rock and sneaks up on Yaya, clearly planning to homicide her after which return to the others and lie about what they found.
It’s unclear whether or not Yaya is totally oblivious to the hazard, however along with her again to Abigail, she gives the older lady a job as her assistant as soon as they return to civilization. It isn’t the form of energy Abigail has been having fun with, but it surely isn’t homicide and lies, both. Abigail hesitates, and the movie ends.
Given De Leon’s elaborate fantasies about Abigail’s previous, does she have fantasies about her future after the top of the film as properly?
“That query has been requested again and again,” De Leon says, “however I by no means get uninterested in answering it, as a result of it’s actually very attention-grabbing to reply. It actually relies on the day, on what my mind-set is, on the place I’m as an individual. After all after I was filming it, I had my very own ending in thoughts. However as soon as you place a personality on display screen, they’re immortalized, and their story can change relying in your interpretation. So it relies on the viewer, and it additionally relies on me.”
She says she’s watched the movie 3 times now, and he or she’s imagined a distinct ending every time. She’s additionally heard from followers of the film who spin out much more elaborate endings. So whereas she says she’s shared a few of her theories up to now, she’d somewhat folks reply the query themselves. Her backstory may assist viewers interpret what Abigail does subsequent, given the place she got here from and the way she feels about it. It may also make their determination tougher — Abigail clearly comes with each a robust sense of ethical justice, and a burning starvation for vengeance. Which one prevails is as much as you.
Both approach, De Leon hopes Triangle of Unhappiness evokes viewers to “change the best way they understand individuals who they suppose are decrease than them, or larger than them.”
“If anyone particular person on that yacht had confirmed Abigail some measure of kindness, or some private connection, I believe her arc would have taken a completely totally different journey, a completely totally different spike on it,” she says. “So I hope viewers take into consideration that, about including somewhat private contact, or some further kindness to folks that they encounter. It’s not even staff, it’s simply being type basically, to anybody. Why do now we have to be type to folks in energy solely? I believe kindness ought to attain each human being, as a result of it needs to be our nature to be type to one another, and to not be evil or violent.”
Triangle of Unhappiness debuted in U.S. theaters on Oct. 7 and is at the moment rolling out worldwide.
