What Anne Hathaway and Ewan McGregor taught The End of Oak Street's Jordan Alexa Davies
Speaking to Netflix Junkie exclusively, actor Jordan Alexa Davies hints at working with two Hollywood names you know on a certain project.
On David Robert Mitchell’s dinosaur thriller The End of Oak Street, 23-year-old Jordan Alexa Davies says the job meant long days of full-body fear and reacting to “creatures” that weren’t there yet. Years of voice acting, she adds, turned out to be surprisingly useful when the set was dotted with tennis balls and green screens standing in for multi-ton predators.
“You really have to use your imagination when you are working with a lot of visual special effects… acting towards things that are not there yet, that they are going to put in later.”
Davies keeps specifics under wraps, but she describes her character as “the girl next door” who lives in the same small town as the central family and gets swept up in the chaos when the street rips into a prehistoric landscape. “She is very much part of the world they are all navigating,” she said.
Lessons from the leads
Sharing the screen with Anne Hathaway and Ewan McGregor left a mark that had nothing to do with dinosaurs. Watching the two Oscar- nominated stars lead the ensemble, Davies says, was a masterclass in how to run a set with kindness.
“You really can be incredibly talented, but you do not have to be an awful person, you know?… You can be number one on the call sheet, but still be so caring and so kind, making sure everyone feels valued at all times.”
From Disney booth to blockbuster
Before Oak Street, Davies voiced Poppy Peepleson on Disney’s Vampirina and appeared in Apple TV+ ’s Defending Jacob. She started onstage at six years old in The Not So Wicked Wiz of Oz and says the road to a big studio movie thickened her skin.
“There’s a lot of rejection. There are a lot of no’s, but you have to be solid within yourself, keep going, and know that it ’ll click if you want it enough… I feel so grateful that this is my first film. ”
Switching between a quiet, heavy drama like Defending Jacob and a pulse-pounding survival movie required a different kind of stamina, but the same off-switch.
“You kind of have to learn how to leave it at the door… separate what your personal life is from the make-believe… learning how to have a balance between setting healthy boundaries and the really intense stuff is helpful.”
Secrets and speculation
With J.J. Abrams producing through Bad Robot and Warner Bros. distributing, the movie arrived with the usual mystery-box chatter online — including fan theories about shared universes. Davies says that noise wasn’t part of her day-to-day.
“You’re kind of just… zoned in on the work — what the work is and what the script is and what you’re specifically doing — and just trying to deliver the best performances.”
Who’s who in The End of Oak Street:
- Anne Hathaway — co-leads as part of the Platt family
- Ewan McGregor — co-leads opposite Hathaway
- Maisy Stella — in the Platt family ensemble
- Christian Convery — in the Platt family ensemble
- Jordan Alexa Davies — a “girl next door” caught in the upheaval
- David Robert Mitchell — director
- J.J. Abrams — producer via Bad Robot
Music is still the other half of Davies’s creative life — she’s released her own songs and isn’t done with the stage. Asked about returning to musicals, she didn’t hesitate.
“Yeah, I would love to do that. That would be a dream… even just doing Broadway one day… it intimidates me a little bit more, but it is something that I’d love to tackle one day, too.”
The End of Oak Street is now playing in theaters.