‘On Swift Horses’ Director Explains How Film “Transcends Sexuality”

Although Jacob Elordi and Daisy Edgar-Jones lead the upcoming romantic drama On Swift Horses, don’t expect the typical sparks between the pair.

Director Daniel Minahan teased the film, now playing in theaters, and how the dynamic between Elordi’s Julius and Edgar-Jones’ Muriel “transcends even sexuality” to explore the LGBTQ characters’ “platonic” romance.

“I thought it was so unique, the idea of these two queer people falling in love and having this huge impact on each other’s lives,” Minahan told Entertainment Weekly. “It’s a romance that’s platonic, but it transcends even sexuality. It was a really interesting way to keep people apart, but they have almost a twinning or a spiritual bond.”

In On Swift Horses, Muriel and husband Lee (Will Poulter) begin a new life together in California after he returns home from the Korean War. But the arrival of Lee’s charismatic younger brother Julius threatens to upend their new home.

Edgar-Jones said of exploring Muriel’s sexuality, “I feel like it’s always been a part of herself. You can love multiple people in multiple ways. She does really love Lee. I don’t think that’s in question, but he represents a version of her life that she’s realizing isn’t enough.

“It’s through meeting Julius in this almost transcendent bond where they recognize within each other,” she explained. “This outside-ness, this feeling of, ‘I recognize your truth,’ that then instigates her confidence to start to explore it.”