NEW YORK, July 25 (UPI) — Smile 2, The White Lotus and Euphoria alum Lukas Gage says he wanted to star in Rosebush Pruning the minute he read the script for the dark comedy about a caustic, wealthy American family who moves to Spain.

“I thought it was the wildest, most bold, insane-in-the-best-way-possible script I’ve ever read and I thought it didn’t give any easy answers and it was uncomfortable and oddly emotional and touching,” Gage, 31, told UPI in a recent Zoom interview.

Directed by Karim Aïnouz and written by Efthimis Filippou, the film is now playing in theaters and co-stars Callum Turner, Elle Fanning, Pamela Anderson, Jamie Bell, Riley Keough, Tracy Letts and Elena Anaya.

“It exceeded my expectations because I never had worked in the way the Karim had worked,” Gage explained. “I never had the opportunity to rehearse for a film before and we had two weeks in this beautiful, gothic, Brutalist house in Spain, to just explore and play and find this family and character.”

Gage described Aïnouz as a creative risk-taker and someone who doesn’t play by the rules.

“That’s my kind of guy. So, he lived up to that idea [and expectation]. That’s what I felt when I was watching his movies and talking to him. That’s the kind of director I thought he was going to be,” the actor added. “He was one of my favorite directors I’ve ever worked with.”

Gage plays Robert, the youngest Taylor.

“He very much fits the archetype of a classic baby of the family. He is very into fashion and art, but he is also incredibly isolated and lacking connection and his way of expressing it,” the actor said. “On top of the extreme trauma that he has for many reasons in this family, he also suffers from epileptic seizures.”

Rosebush Pruning, which screened at the Berlin Festival, makes some salient points about how money and happiness are not always connected.

“This movie captures a strange feeling of how even though you can be surrounded by wealth and beauty and a gorgeous house and all these things, you can still feel so isolated and alone,” Gage said.

“We inherit these things from our families, manifest in different ways, but at the bottom of it, we’re all these lonely animals that are just looking for love and to feel safe.”