Two years ago, when Angus MacLachlan’s “A Little Prayer” premiered at Sundance Film Festival 2023, it did so with a wave of critical adulation behind it. The Virginia-set film about Bill (David Strathairn), a flailing patriarch whose only balm in the face of his flawed children is his kindhearted daughter-in-law Tammy (Jane Levy), was immediately attached to Sony Pictures Classic. But as the film took longer and longer to see further screens, the buzz died down around, causing many to wonder what happened. For reasons that are still unclear, Sony Pictures Classics fell away, and Music Box Films arrived.No matter the who, what, when or why, “A Little Prayer” is arriving at a fascinating time. The modestly scaled film with major emotions is filled with frank conversations about pressing themes. When Patti, the daughter of Bill and Verdina (a quietly affecting Celia Weston), appears at her parents’ doorstep with her child, she seems to be separating from her abusive husband. With nary any backstory, we immediately know this isn’t the first time Patti has shown up unannounced. Bill’s son David (Will Pullen), an alcoholic war veteran who works at Bill’s sheet metal company, has been arriving home late to Tammy with the worn out excuse of being at the office. And then there’s the supportive and thoughtful Tammy, a storybook daughter-in-law who grapples with whether to have an abortion. Among these big troubles are also small wonders: the mysterious woman who sings gospel at the crack of dawn, nights out dancing at the VFW, the tender bond between Bill and Verdina.As Matt Zoller Seitz wrote in his four-star review, “The film is refreshingly content to present its characters in their complexity and contradiction, and ask that we accept them in totality rather than condemn for their sins.” Such is the beauty of a film interested in everyday people and led by one of our great actors, David Strathairn. In fact, another line from Seitz’s review could also be applied to Strathairn’s more nuanced choices as an actor: “Making it bigger would not have made it better. It’s perfect just as it is.” Strathairn, who, in this writer’s opinion, is the best American actor of his generation, has never reached for implausible notes or chewed any scenes. In John Sayles’ pro-labor films “Matewan” and “Eight Men Out,” in World War II period pieces “Memphis Belle” and “A League of their Own,” noirs like “L.A. Confidential,” action thrillers like “The Bourne Ultimatum,” capers like “Sneakers,” and quiet character studies such as “Nomadland,” he also provides the right proportion of gravitas, dignity, shame, wonder and approachability. Even in his Oscar-nominated turn as Edward R. Murrow in “Good Night, and Good Luck,” he delivers among the most powerfully understated lead performances to be recognized. In “A Little Prayer” as Bill, he combines all the facets of his presence to present a salt of the earth character that has seemingly disappeared from American cinemas. For the film’s release, Strathairn sat with RogerEbert.com over Zoom to talk about making relatable films, acting opposite Jane Levy and Cecilia Watson, and abortion.This interview has been edited for length and clarity. Rather than ask you about how this film came your way, I’m wondering why you wanted to work with Angus. Were you a fan of “Junebug”?I saw “Junebug” and then “Abundant Acreage Available” and I thought, this is a filmmaker who is telling stories that have both a very specific world and a sincerely perceived, honest depiction of these little worlds. And yet, these films have a huge resonance, like “A Little Prayer,” and have people you can identify in these recognizable situations. They may not be dealing with the same exact issues that you’re dealing with, but you can sort of peek into the kitchen through the back door and see your family, see things that you can recognize in your family’s history or life.I love Angus’s very incisive, very gentle equanimity of character development. It’s a wonderful composite of experiences that I think people can relate to on a wider scale. Some films do that, and there are others I feel like have nothing to do with me. That film? I don’t relate to at all. It’s a great film, but I don’t know what those people are going through. But with “A Little Prayer,” I think there’s a sort of subtle commonality between people who see that film and their own lives, and I think Angus is very deft and very loving about telling these stories. And in films like “Nomadland,” “Fast Color,” a few more actually, you’ve played salt of the earth men, so to speak. People who a person could actually meet at the bar or at the post office. Is there a specific aspect you find interesting about these characters, particularly when it feels like less and less films are being made about everyday people?I do feel drawn to those characters. Things like “Dune,” these grand films about fantastical situations, they ignite some thought. But I like these little films because I think the more of them we have out there, these sort of honest investigations of what we’re all going through, the less alone you feel. It’s like: That’s my neighbor going through a similar situation.It’s also like John Sales’s films, he’s always talking about the little man underneath the big dome of oppression of some kind, how the individual relates to the larger issues of society. With “A Little Prayer,” there’s a lot of stuff in there, whether it’s the Vietnam War, the war that David was involved with, and then his alcoholism, his wife’s life, and then my Venida’s life, all of these wonderful little tributaries of experience are all taking place in this little household. Celia Weston has worked with Angus a few times before and already has a rapport with him. When your co-star has a prior relationship with a director and you’re relatively new, do you try to gain some pointers on what a director might expect? I was eyeballing Ceclia a lot, how she was moving through the day with Angus. The familiarity was really infectious. But Angus is like that with all the actors. He’s very right down to earth, gives wonderful, simple, and very generous direction. He watches a lot. But with him and Celia, it was almost like they’d totally grown up together. And she was amazing. She’s just so grounded, so solid. I just loved sitting on that couch with her, going through what those two are going through. And you could see that Angus trusted her and she knew what Angus was up to. Did you and Celia also build your own kind of language in your performance?One wonderful little gesture that she made is that every time I would leave the house to go to work, we’d reach out and touch hands. It’s just a little habitual thing that she’d do as she was working on her little crossword puzzle or something like that as I’m leaving with my lunch, and David and I are going out the door. She would just reach out. That little gesture just told volumes about their relationship.Your performance requires a lot of listening and is filled with so many gestures. It’s not really dialogue heavy. When you get a script like this, where the dialogue is sparse, what are you notating and highlighting for your approach to the character?It comes down to what happens on the day and in the scene. Because Bill is sort of in abeyance of a lot of things, he doesn’t give up too much. A lot of stuff comes in. So, I had to be really ready to let what comes in affect me in some way and not make any preconceived notions about what he’s going to think about or what they’re going to say. I wanted to be present and respond to the energy, attitudes and information I was getting. I think that was one of the things Angus evoked from a lot of us was, I’m not going to say too much about the scene. We know what’s going on. You all know what’s going on. Just let it roll and see what happens. I love that you have to be really alert and at the same time, holding on to what you think about your character’s own instincts. It’s funny that you mention being present and reacting. Bill is a silent man, which signals listening. But his actions, which are usually to prod or be an intermediary, are often the opposite of a person who’s listening. How did you play that contradiction? Well, he had a lot going on in his mind. Whether he is really listening specifically or he’s thinking how am I going skate through this is, I think, a wonderful thing about the film. It’s seeing people who deal with situations that bang, kind of hit ’em in the back of the head. But they also think about it. They take time to let it filter in, so they don’t potentially make a mistake of judgment. I think that’s kind of what was happening to Bill. He may not have a playbook on how to get through this, but he’s willing to let it play out. But that’s a really great question. It makes me think about how the story evolves and how it might evolve for the audience while they’re experiencing it.Bill also rarely makes eye contact. In fact, he’s often looking in the complete opposite direction of the person he’s sitting next to, particularly in the final scene between you and Jane Levy. That composition inspires a strained relationship between you and the camera. Could you talk about the interplay between you and the camera here because I’m thinking about you explaining to BW/DR about Haskell Wexler teaching you about the camera’s importance.Well Bill, when he looks askance and something has come in, he doesn’t really know how to process that right away. He needs to think about it. He’s not going dismiss it, but for me, he’s kind of searching for an answer outside the window. Or maybe he was kind of waiting for something to actually become palpable in his mind that he could move forward with. In that way, the camera is watching this guy think. And you’re right, Haskell Wexler did teach me a wonderful lesson. No matter where you are, if you’re on camera, even if you’re not the focus of the scene, you’re still part of the scene. What you’re doing is informing the scene. You are an essential color on the palette of the picture. With “A Little Prayer” so much is happening. You have to be present. And what I think that does is hold the audience. At least, I hope it would hold the audience’s attention to say: What is he thinking? It’s that sort of transference which the camera can do. It can guide an audience’s way of perceiving a moment, and Angus was quite clever in doing that too.A side note: I can’t lie that, being from Chicago, when I heard Music Box films picked this up, my mind immediately jumped to “Eight Men Out,” particularly because the theatre had recently played it as part of a baseball series. But also, there’s so much shame to the character of Eddie Cicotte, and with Bill, there’s shame as well. Or a realization of maybe not shame, but a realization of I just missed the boat. I couldn’t come up with a way to fix it. Which is more a kind of frustration. There’s one thing about the film, which I think is really wonderful, is that people do have fallibilities, and they can’t answer everything. Sometimes they can’t step up to the situation and fix it because of who they are. We are inept in some ways. We don’t have the experience to help us through this minefield. We have to find our own way through it. I think that’s when things start crashing in. I think Bill has a lot of questions about whether he was a good father or not. That’s what I love about the film. Not everybody’s perfect, but if you recognize that in yourself and in other people, then there’s room for compassion.When we’re talking about compassion, so to speak, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that when this film premiered at Sundance 2023, abortion was front and center and still is for that matter. How do you think this film plays today, particularly after the overturning of Roe v Wade?I’m real curious to find out when it opens this weekend—I’m going to be doing some Q&As—to see what weight that issue in the film holds in addition to some of the other issues that are there, like domestic violence, alcohol abuse, and PTSD.The abortion issue obviously is always relevant. And I think it was extraordinarily brave and courageous of Angus to address that in this way. I don’t think I’d seen a film that did it so gently and so frankly. And of course, there’s what Jane had to go through on that day, thinking about that scene [on the bench] up until then must have been hard. I thought the way Angus shot that scene was just right. Very simple, really powerful. Also, that was shot, I believe, was either the day of or the day after Roe v Wade was overturned. And so, and we’d all heard about it and read about it by the time we were going to shoot that scene.The emotion of that scene with Jane on that day must have been difficult for both of you. How did you approach it with Jane? Well, we didn’t talk about it much. We kind of didn’t have to, everybody knew it was in the air. We wanted to give her as much support as possible. It was a very brave thing for her to do; she just plumbed the depths that day. That was amazing. The wonderful thing about the relationship between Bill and Tammy was that I didn’t know Jane and she didn’t know me. So, we were really discovering each other as characters, and also as people. You know, you always do that when you’ve never worked with someone before. But I so admired her and the way she moved her character throughout this film. When I think about her performance, I think about how delicate it is. And yet, there’s so much underneath. You could just feel it there. It was beautifully crafted.