Noah Wyle: 'At the Gates' hides important issues in 'Trojan horse' thriller

NEW YORK, Nov. 3 (UPI) -- ER and Leverage: Redemption actor Noah Wyle says he signed on to star in the new independent film, At the Gates, because it embeds serious, real-life issues in an entertaining thriller.

"It's nice to be part of a Trojan horse -- something that walks through the door in one [set of] clothing and actually is delivering something else entirely on the inside. This really does that," Wyle told UPI in a recent Zoom interview.

He was granted a waiver from the Screen Actors Guild to speak about the independent film during the ongoing strike.

"I was bowled over when I read the script and how fine a line it walks for so long creating this sense of tension and mystery before the plot really unravels," Wyle said.

Written and directed by Augustus Meleo Bernstein, the film follows Ana (Vanessa Benavente), an undocumented housekeeper from El Salvador whose luxury-loving, but cash-strapped employers, Marianne (Miranda Otto) and Peter (Wyle), insist she and her teenage son, Nico (Ezekiel Pacheco), hide in the basement of the couple's Los Angeles home.

They, too, must surrender their cell phones to avoid detection by immigration officers allegedly conducting investigations in the area.

As time wears on and tensions rise, however, the two families begin to not only question the other's intentions, but to fight among themselves.

Opening in theaters Friday, the movie co-stars Sadie Stanley, Peter Murnik, Jack Eyman, Kelly Sry and Max Davis.

"I thought, 'This must have been written by a veteran hand.' I didn't realize this was a freshman attempt and I was in the presence of a very sophisticated filmmaker who just came in a youthful package," Wyle said.

"He created a wonderful ensemble of actors and a great environment for creativity and this is the perfect example of how you don't need a lot to make something special," he added. "It really was just a skeleton crew with a lot of people throwing in to tell a story."

The 52-year-old actor found it easy to relate to Peter, an out-of-work attorney, struggling to keep his family together when his wife drags them into an impossible situation involving a mother and son who will face poverty and gang violence if they are deported to their native country.

"In my most self-pitying moments, I think I resemble this character," he said.

"When I'm really not operating at my highest self and I'm really myopic in terms of seeing what options are available to me, I can get a sense of what this guy feels," Wyle added.

"I do know a lot of people that feel this way right now and feel that their best days and years are behind them and they can't quite figure out what their relevancy is in their own homes or careers."

This all makes Peter a fascinating character for an artist to dissect, since he already was losing his money, power and status when he suddenly faced the possibility of being disbarred, arrested and fined if he is discovered harboring Ana and Nico.

"He's the guy who had it all and projected a really confident and competent image to the world, realizing that that is a lot of facade and not knowing quite how to fix it and then being hit with a situation where he is being tested on an ethical level like he's never been tested before," Wyle said.

The actor uses different muscles when he is working on a film, as opposed to long-form television.

"It's a different process in the sense that TV is such an ongoing narrative. You only get one week's script at a time and you're churning out these moments, whereas this is one story in very finite circumstances," the actor said.

"Instead of going out with your work, you are going deep down with your work. So, the rehearsal process and the character work and the texture becomes a little bit finer brushwork."

Over the last few years, Wyle has tried to pare down his most basic needs to get into character, regardless of the production's story, location or season.

"I require black coffee and a folding chair and that was tested with this," he joked about the film's low budget, adding he has a "masochistic gene" that propels him out of his comfort zone.

"Every time I look for a new thing to do career-wise, I try to see what scares me and what I haven't done and why I don't want to do it and see if there's probably value there."

Unable to act because of the strike, Wyle said he spent most of the "long, hot summer" walking picket lines to support his union, as well as the Writers Guild of America, which recently settled its strike.

"I really care about what I do and I care about that opportunity that was given to me being given to everybody else that's coming after me," he said.

"I felt it was really important to go out and support fair contracts," Wyle added. "Strikes and unions aren't about the highest earning members, they're about protecting minimums and jobs on the lower rungs of the ladder.

" We need to support and protect artists and allow them earn a living age and still make content that we all enjoy. I love being a part of [the fight]."