Katherine Waterston is a true chameleon.

The daughter of veteran actor Sam Waterston, she has been gracing the stage and screen for 15 years, making her feature debut in 2007s Michael Clayton before appearing in Taking Woodstock, The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby and the HBO series Boardwalk Empire. However, it wasnt until her memorable turn as Joaquin Phoenixs ex-girlfriend in Paul Thomas Andersons loopy comedy Inherent Vice that she merited attention.

As of late, Waterston has starred in projects ranging from the HBO miniseries The Third Day to the film Alien: Covenant and the Fantastic Beasts franchise embracing the craft she loves.

Now shes in Mona Fastvolds The World to Come, currently in theaters and on demand March 2, that Waterston has found another layer to shed.

The movie, shot on 16mm film in wintry Romania, follows 19th-century woman Abigail (Waterston), a grieving mother isolated on an upstate New York farm with her withdrawn husband Dyer (Casey Affleck). Just as shes craving connection, new neighbors Tallie (Vanessa Kirby) and Finney (Christopher Abbott) arrive and the women strike up a friendship that soon turns romantic. With breathtaking cinematography by Andre Chemetoff and poetic narration by Waterston, The World to Come is a rumination on hardship, loneliness and female desire.

Waterston was drawn to Abigail the minute she read the first page of Jim Shepard and Ron Hansens script, based on Shepards short story of the same name.

I was so struck by the density of the script and the efficiency of the writing, Waterston told HuffPost in a phone call this week. One of the very first lines of voiceover, which didnt make it into the film, was, At night I often wonder if those who have been my intimates have found me to be a steep hill whose view does not repay the ascent. And it told me so much about Abigail. Heres a woman who clearly was of very limited means and is kept up at night not by what she hasnt gotten from life but questioning what she has given. When I carried that notion through that first read, I was completely devastated.

Abigail is immediately described as an asset to Dyer, which Waterston found interesting considering the negative connotations of that word when compounded with marriage. But the chance to play around with the space in each scene and the mystery of the relational dynamics excited her. Its an ensemble piece that provides specificity for each character, allowing nuance to seep into every frame.