On December 4, the IndieWire Honors Winter 2025 ceremony will have a good time the creators and stars accountable for crafting among the yr’s finest movies. Curated and chosen by IndieWire’s editorial crew, IndieWire Honors is a celebration of the filmmakers, artisans, and performers behind movies effectively value toasting. Within the days main as much as the Los Angeles occasion, IndieWire is showcasing their work with new interviews and tributes from their friends.
Has anyone had a greater 2025 than Chase Infiniti? This time final yr, the Indianapolis native was a rising TV star with a single credit score to her title: “Presumed Harmless.” She had but to look in a movie, however obsessive cinephiles had been studying her title after information broke that she’d be showing in a still-untitled movie with a mysterious plot from Paul Thomas Anderson.
To say that so much has modified since then can be an understatement. “One Battle After One other,” Infiniti’s characteristic debut, is among the many best-reviewed movies of 2025 and a broadly accepted Oscar frontrunner. As Willa, the kidnapped daughter of revolutionaries, the newcomer greater than holds her personal among the many movie’s forged of A-list stars. With your complete movie resting on the familial relationship between her character and Leonardo DiCaprio’s Bob Ferguson, Infiniti offers the proper Gen Z foil to the ageing revolutionary in Anderson’s father-daughter epic. She traveled the world selling the movie with the likes of Anderson, DiCaprio, and Regina Corridor, and now finds herself squarely positioned in the course of the Greatest Actress race.
Infiniti, who will obtain the Breakthrough Award on the 2025 IndieWire Honors, isn’t taking any of it with no consideration. Throughout a career-spanning dialog with IndieWire forward of the ceremony on December 4, the actress was all smiles. Reflecting on her whirlwind yr, Infiniti defined that she virtually didn’t pursue movie performing in any respect: It took a pandemic that interrupted her research of reside theater at Columbia School Chicago to persuade her that Hollywood is likely to be in her future.
“I all the time say it was the very best glad accident potential, as a result of I don’t suppose I’d’ve even thought-about a shift from theater if COVID hadn’t occurred,” she mentioned. “Every little thing was placed on Zoom, and I had taken two on-camera performing courses. I used to be like, ‘Nicely, it’s excellent. I’m working with the confines of the field, so let me learn to movie a terrific self-tape and the foundations of that, and to storytell in a extra delicate manner.’”
After touchdown her first position within the Apple TV sequence “Presumed Harmless,” Infiniti knew she wanted a crash course in filmmaking. She took the chance to speak to each division to learn the way the parts of a TV set all come collectively.
“That was my introduction to a set, as a result of I’d by no means been on set earlier than,” she mentioned. “I keep in mind my first day capturing was really the opening of the present itself, and I needed to ask Ruth Negga when to say my line as a result of I didn’t know when to do it.”
Infiniti mentioned that Anne Sewitsky, who directs the primary two episodes of the sequence and finale, inspired her to spend time on set after noticing the actor finding out the displays and asking a number of questions early on.
“That changed into me exhibiting as much as set each single day, and following totally different departments round,” Infiniti mentioned, explaining she would tail everybody from the costume and lighting individuals to the present’s DP, asking no matter questions got here to thoughts. “I’d observe them round and be like, ‘What does this do?’ and ‘Why do you do that?’ after which ‘How does this join with this?’ I used to be a pupil. I needed to be sure that I used to be understanding my office and the way each job matches in inside [it], as a result of we’re all working towards the identical objective.”
Amid all the joy, Infiniti acquired a life-changing e-mail. She was requested to audition for a personality recognized solely as “Lady” within the film that will finally change her profession.
“I bought my first audition by way of self-tape whereas I used to be capturing ‘Presumed Harmless,’” she recalled of her “One Battle After One other” audition. “I used to be a few month into manufacturing, and I bought an e-mail in my inbox that mentioned ‘PTA/CK manufacturing,’ and didn’t suppose something of it. I used to be like, ‘OK, effectively, we’ll see if there’s any curiosity. But when not, it’s OK. I’m doing it; I’m going to place my all in it, after which simply ship it off.’”
That self-tape led to 6 months of callbacks, culminating in a karate class noticed by Anderson, earlier than Infiniti was introduced in to learn with DiCaprio and Corridor — a frightening prospect for any performer, not to mention one making an attempt to land their first movie position. “[My agent] informed me that Leonardo DiCaprio and Regina Corridor had been going to be there, outdoors of Paul Thomas Anderson,” she mentioned. “I used to be like, ‘OK, nice. Cool. So chill. Utterly chill.’”
The chemistry learn was a hit — and the remaining is historical past. Infiniti immersed herself in a rigorous martial arts coaching program earlier than embarking on the sprawling shoot, which noticed the forged and crew cowl a large quantity of floor in California and Texas (with VistaVision cameras in tow, in fact) over the course of six months.
Infiniti mentioned she might inform early on that she was engaged on a terrific film, however no person might have ready her for the movie’s rapturous reception. “I knew it was going to be one thing particular, as a result of I might really feel the quantity of affection that Paul had for the movie, and for Willa, and for Bob and Willa, and this father-daughter dynamic,” she mentioned. “You would really feel the love from all people that was engaged on it.”
She added, “However the scale of every little thing, I couldn’t even … My thoughts couldn’t compute how [people would react to] it and the love that it’s receiving, as a result of I’ve by no means accomplished this earlier than. I’ve by no means been by this earlier than.”
Infiniti’s efficiency in “One Battle After One other” is a triumph of self-discipline as a lot as artistry. Few actors her age might have stepped into such a high-stakes challenge with a lot poise and carried a whole movie on their shoulders. However when requested how she dealt with the stress, she mentioned she simply put her religion in Anderson’s materials and confirmed up able to work as exhausting as everybody else she had noticed on units.
“I really feel like my willpower to do justice by Paul’s writing was so robust that, even on these days the place it was troublesome, it didn’t really feel prefer it was exhausting,” she mentioned. “It felt like, ‘I’m right here to do my job. I’m right here to point out up and do my work, and do justice by Willa and by Paul’s writing, and be sure that I’m exhibiting up for everyone throughout the scene and behind the digicam.’”
The place do you go after “One Battle After One other?” Infiniti’s future in Hollywood is as brilliant as anybody’s, however the actress isn’t considering too exhausting about what comes subsequent. She’s greater than earned the prospect to take a breath and mirror again on a yr that modified her life endlessly.
“I really feel like I’m actually going to complete this yr utterly full of gratitude greater than something,” she mentioned. “I’ve gotten the chance to expertise issues that I’ve been dreaming about since I used to be a child. I’ve bought to fulfill those who I’ve been followers of since I used to be a child. And I’m simply going to look again with a lot love and a lot gratitude towards every little thing.”
