Note: This piece originally ran as part of our 2010 Tribeca Film Festival coverage. The Trotsky is now available on DVD, on iTunes, and on Netflix Instant!



Tribeca audiences met actor-turned-filmmaker Jacob Tierney Monday night at the U.S. premiere of The Trotsky. His high school comedy is about senior Leon Bronstein (Jay Baruchel), who believes he is the reincarnation of Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky. Joining the director were actors Emily Hampshire (Leon’s older love interest) and Michael Murphy (Leon’s lawyer), editor Arthur Tarnowski, "and, last but not least, my producer slash father Kevin Tierney."

Where did the idea for the film originate? “I was a teenager who was interested in Trotsky,” the young director said, amusing the crowd with the story of his tortured writing process. “At first I wrote a very serious communist high school movie—which is very similar to this movie, only not funny—and it was not good. I had this moment reading it again where I started laughing. ‘You suck!’”

To reenvision the film as a comedy, Tierney looked at several high school movies, but cited one cinematic inspiration in particular. "Bulworth kind of led me towards where I could go."  

How difficult it is to make a feature? “I was blessed with total stupidity,” Tierney said about making his first feature Twist (2003). Once you’ve done it you know you can do it again. “The thing I’ve come to realize I really like about directing movies is there’s a process: It’s a day, there’s a scene, there’s a series of shots. It is very structured, and like Leon, I respond positively to structure.” 

How did famed character actor Murphy enjoy working with such a young director? "I've done two movies with these teenage director types," he joked, referencing his role in Sarah Polley’s Oscar-nominated Away From Her. "I thought, 'She can direct. Maybe he can [too].’”  
One audience member seemed angry that the film was praising a “dangerous man.” The director respectfully disagreed. "What captured my imagination about Trotsky as a young man was that I thought of him as an intellectual, I loved his writing, I found his life very engaging. Certainly he's a checkered dude, historically. But I thought there was something there worth revisiting.”

The charismatic director built a funny rapport with the Q&A audience. After one lengthy “two-part question” from a moviegoer, Tierney replied, “Sir, that is three questions. I'm going to have to ask you to withdraw one of them. I choose the one about the creepy age difference. I know that Emily is very old. It might be uncomfortable for you to watch her.”

Hampshire, who is only 28, took the ribbing in stride. "I had about ten years of rehearsal living next door to Jacob. I believe he first wrote the script when we were 19. I was going to play the teenage girl in it. And then I got older, so I'm the older woman. That was the rehearsal. He saw me grow up."

Leon was the toughest role to cast. “I felt like it would be very easy to find a kid who could do speeches or a kid who could do comedy, but somebody to actually put it on its two feet and make it like a human being seemed like a challenge to me." At one point, Tierney recalled, he thought of Jay Baruchel. "Once he occurred to me, I couldn't imagine anyone else pulling off that role.” 

The young Tierney explained that the film is being released both On Demand and theatrically via Tribeca Film, Tribeca's new distribution initiative. “We're distinctly hopeful. Cautiously optimistic in a Canadian way."

The elder Tierney had access to financing from a recent hit film and decided to back his son’s comedy. “I took a leap of faith, and in retrospect, it seems like a small step.”

The Trotsky is now available on DVD, on iTunes, and on Netflix Instant!

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