Here’s what it’s like working on the set of a movie by critically acclaimed British filmmaker Mark Jenkin: For one thing, there’s no audio recorded — that all gets added in later during the editing process, including the dialogue. For another, Jenkin, uses an old, Swiss-made Bolex camera that can only record 27 seconds of footage at a time.
“We would stop and just rewind the camera, go back two lines and continue,” George MacKay, who stars in Jenkin’s latest film, Rose of Nevada, tells Polygon. “He only does like one or two takes.”
Mark jokes that he tried to study quantum physics and ended up just watching tons of Quantum Leap.
MacKay broke into the film industry with 1917, the propulsive World War I epic from director Sam Mendes. For his latest role, he plays a man desperately in need of work who accepts a job on a fishing boat and winds up stuck 30 years in the past alongside his fellow fisherman Liam (Callum Turner). While Rose of Nevada, out in June, has some light Back to the Future vibes in the way its protagonists most adapt to their new lives, Jenkins is more interested in exploring the world of 1990s Cornwall, UK than breaking down the rules of time-travel. The film’s sparse dialogue and naturalistic soundscape make it a unique experience that both fans of the sci-fi subgenre and Letterboxd film snobs can both enjoy.
For Polygon’s 2026 Summer Preview, we spoke to MacKay about the experience of making a movie the Mark Jenkin way and the surprising time-travel classic that inspired the film.
Polygon: What were you most excited about when you started working on Rose of Nevada?
George MacKay: Mark, the director. I saw his first film, Bait, a few years ago in the cinema just on my own. I went to see it because I’d heard it was getting a real buzz. It’s all black and white. He filmed it on a Super 16 and he didn’t see any of the footage until after they wrapped because he developed it all himself in his dark room with a homemade developing fluid of instant coffee. And because he developed it himself, he wasn’t doing it throughout the shoot. So he literally finished, didn’t know what he had, and then all put it together. And then all the sound, that aural landscape that is very particular to Mark. I just love him as a filmmaker. So the opportunity of being in his next one was the biggest draw.
The film relies more on visual storytelling and interaction than traditional dialogue. What did the script look like?
It’s equivalently sparse. The first page is just one line descriptions of those shots. It’s like: “A rusting chain. A broken bone. Boys in the water. The tideline.” But I love that because when you get really clear sparse direction or dialogue, it allows you to project and interpret so much.
There are multiple scenes where you’re on the ship. What was it like filming those? Were you actually out at sea?
There was only one time we were out deep. Everything else we filmed usually by the harbor. The entire storm sequence is done with the harbor wall right there. The boat never moved anywhere. It was just a crew pulling a rope at the top of the boat, then hoses pumping the window.
For the fishing scenes, the boat’s not moving. We had a jet ski tucked by the side of the boat that was nosed into a sort of little wall of floats and it would pump its engines to give the boat the wake. And then as we threw the net over, another tiny boat would pull the nets away to kind of backwardly give the illusion of forward motion.
Rose of Nevada is a time-travel movie, to a certain degree. Were there any other time-travel you talked about or watched to get inspiration?
No, not really. Mark jokes that he tried to study quantum physics and ended up just watching tons of Quantum Leap.
Do you have a personal favorite time-travel movie?
We got asked that question by the press earlier and then someone said that this was like a bit of an un-PC answer with the dynamic of the relationship in hindsight, but I love Big, which in a way is a sort of time travel film. I guess he goes from child to man. If he goes forward and back. I don’t know. Actually, I tell you what, I only recently watched Interstellar for my sins and that was really beautiful. So yeah, I’d say Interstellar‘s probably a safer answer.
Rose of Nevada releases in U.S. theaters on June 19, 2026.
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