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How Benny Safdie stepped in front of the camera

Benny Safdie, half of the Safdie brothers directing duo, stars in Are you There God? It’s Me, Margaret, which is out this week

May 18, 2023 14:57
Benny Safdie and director Kelly Fremon Craig on the set of ARE YOU THERE GOD ITS ME MARGARET (Lionsgate UK)
Benny Safdie as Herb Simon and Kelly Fremon Craig - Director in Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. Photo Credit: Dana Hawley
5 min read

The sky seems the limit for filmmaker Benny Safdie.

Working alongside his older brother Josh, he’s been feted for works including Daddy Longlegs, Good Time and, more recently, Uncut Gems, starring legendary comedy star Adam Sandler as a hapless New York jeweller spiralling out of control.

But the Jewish New Yorker has also carved out a name for himself in front of the camera. His last big role was playing a closeted gay politician in 1970s California in Paul Thomas Anderson’s excellent coming-of-age tale Licorice Pizza.

And we will soon see him playing the Jewish Hungarian-American theoretical physicist Edward Teller in Christopher Nolan’s long-awaited biopic of J Robert Oppenheimer, the “father of the atom bomb”.

He says it’s an ideal role for him and told the JC: “I love science, and was really very close to becoming a physicist in my younger years.

“When the role came up, I thought, wow, so I can be a part of something my younger self loved as much as film.

“Out of high school, I learned about things like cosmic rays, the speed of light and the standard model with a Columbia professor. I actually understood what e = mc² meant, how you could use that to determine the mass of particles, and with the speed of light… I was really into it all!”

But this week the film Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret opens in the UK, and the role he plays in it could not be more different.

The coming-of-age drama based on American writer Judy Blume’s 1970 bestselling novel of the same name is loved by fans of all ages, but has proved controversial through the decades for its frankness about religion and puberty.

Directed by Kelly Fremon Craig, the film stars Abby Ryder Fortson as 11-year-old Margaret, and Safdie plays her father, Herb Simon.