Why An Oscar Winner Asked For Fewer Lines In Eternity [Exclusive]

The adage "less is more" has been around long enough for it to enter into conventional wisdom. While it sounds perfectly understandable to most folks, it feels like its application can't be seen too often in films and television these days. Take, for example, the proliferation of film adaptations being split into two movies rather than one (this month's "Wicked: For Good" being the latest iteration), or films that are recut and re-released in extended editions. To that latter point, most extended cuts are considered by fans to be superior to the shorter theatrical cuts. If this is true, is less really more?

Fortunately, we have an Academy Award Winner to give us a current example of the adage and why it still applies. In this month's "Eternity," Da'Vine Joy Randolph (who won Best Supporting Actress for her turn in "The Holdovers") plays Anna, who is an afterlife coordinator at a place called the Junction, essentially a happier version of purgatory where departed souls relax while choosing which type of world they'll spend eternity. The film centers around Anna's client, Larry (Miles Teller), discovering that his wife, Joan (Elizabeth Olsen), must choose an eternity with either him or her first husband, Luke (Callum Turner). Given all this high-stakes love triangle drama, it's no surprise that we don't learn a ton about Anna or her fellow afterlife coordinator, Ryan (John Early). 

However, according to an interview I conducted recently with co-writer/director David Freyne, it turns out that Anna's full backstory was part of the original script, resulting in a much longer monologue scene. Yet it was Randolph who chose to nix those extra lines, realizing that she could do more with less.

In "Eternity," we learn a great deal about the lives of Larry, Luke, and Joan, but relatively little about what Ryan and Anna were up to before arriving in the Junction. As originally written by Freyne and co-writer Pat Cunnane, a scene between Anna and Larry included some revelations about Anna's past life. Freyne explained how this backstory was part of the first talks he had with Randolph about her character:

"...I remember my very first conversation with Da'Vine is she wanted to, again, not to have it in the script, but she wanted to understand where her character came from. When she died, why she chose to stay in the Junction and work there. And it wasn't about having that detail in the film, but just for her to understand it so it's fully fleshed out and she knows how to embody this role and why this character, Anna, is maybe disenfranchised at this moment. She has this very beautiful scene with Larry where she explains why she chose to stay."

Although the scene itself remains in the finished film, the full explanation of why Anna decided to forgo her eternity was something that Randolph considered extraneous. As he recalled:

"Originally, that monologue was longer, and it went into [her backstory], and it was actually Da'Vine herself who said, 'We don't need her to say that. We can feel it.' And that was really amazing. That's what a great actor does. They don't need the lines, they just need to feel it. They need to understand it."

Indeed, she didn't need the lines to convey her character. They don't give Academy Awards out for nothing.

"Eternity" is in theaters on November 26, 2025.