“I felt a huge responsibility for this character – the silence of Julie is the silence of many”: Leonardo van Dijl on Julie Keeps Quiet at London Film Festival 2024

Set in an elite tennis academy in the Belgian countryside, the debut feature of Belgian director Leonardo van Dijl follows 15-year-old star pupil Julie (Tessa Van den Broeck) as she quietly grapples with the fallout from her long-time coach’s suspension after allegations of misconduct and the suicide of a fellow student. Rather than confronting the situation, Julie retreats into the sport, using tennis as both an escape and a defence mechanism.

Julie Keeps Quiet is marked by its nuanced interpretation of silence and restraint, embracing a “show, don’t tell” approach to the pressures that weigh on young athletes. Van Djil avoids overt drama, instead exploring the quiet psychological strain of elite competition that real-life tennis player Van den Broeck brings to life with her realistic portrayal of the physical intensity of tennis and the inner isolation of her character. The presence of tennis star Naomi Osaka, who serves as executive producer, underscores the film’s sensitivity and significance. Coupled with the support from heavyweight producers including the Dardenne brothers and Florian Zeller, Julie Keeps Quiet seamlessly blends fresh talent with established expertise, creating an intimate character study that resonates with authenticity and depth.

Ahead of its release at the London Film Festival, Leonardo van Dijl joins The Upcoming for a wide-ranging conversation about his passion for tennis and its cinematic representations, Julie’s stylistic evolution, and how Naomi Osaka helped his efforts in protecting Julie from being punished for her silence.

Would you like to start by sharing what Julie Keeps Quiet is about and what people can expect when they watch it?

Julie Keeps Quiet — it’s a movie about a young tennis girl, 15 years old that has a passion, a love for the sport and aims to go high. Then her coach gets suspended because there is suspicion of transgressive behaviour in the way he coaches his athletes. And then, the club starts an inquiry and they invite all players to go and speak. But Julie decides to not do that and keep quiet. It’s hard to say what the audience can expect because… Julie keeps quiet that nothing is being said. When I think about it, I was very much inspired by, let’s say, British movies like The Remains of the Day (1993), Sense and Sensibility (1995). So it’s about restraint. I tried, by allowing her to keep quiet, that other emotions and other feelings would be projected on the screen. Hopefully, the audience has 90 minutes to sit in with Julie and learn something about the silence they carry themselves.

Tennis has had a long-standing presence in film, and with King Richard (2021) and Challengers (2024) and now Julie Keeps Quiet, it seems like tennis is having its moment in the 2020s. How do you think Julie Keeps Quiet fits into, and adds to, the broader portrayal of tennis in film?

That’s hard for me to answer. Because in a way – let me say it like this: I’m a huge Luca (Guadagnino) fan. Probably the biggest. And he’s a huge inspiration for me. So when I heard that he was doing Challengers, I was, in one way, very scared because, since he’s that much of an influence, I was like: “Oh, no, like, how is it going to look?”. Luckily, he changes with every movie and reinvents himself in a fantastic way. But at the same time, this is fantastic because sometimes the relationship people have with sports movies is ambiguous. It’s like, a sports movie cannot be arthouse. And I was like, this is so good because Zendaya just opened the door for Julie, and Julie could walk straight in. So I guess in that way, I am just very grateful for all the other tennis movies for opening the door. And that’s where Julie stands now, and hopefully the film can be an inspiration for the next great tennis film.

On the topic of Julie, the actress who plays her, Tessa Vandenbroucke, has a background in tennis herself. During the casting process for Julie, were you looking for an actor who plays tennis or a tennis player who could also act?

We were definitely looking for real tennis players. I mean, they’re also all 15, 16, 17-year-olds. And what does it mean to be, for example, a professional actor if you’re only a teenager? Especially in a little country like Belgium. So I felt like it’s easier to just look for tennis players who know how to act, because they can learn how we make a movie in six months. But I cannot teach any kind of actor to how to play tennis in six months. And quickly in the process, I realised that it was going to be much easier than I thought because of their experience with tennis. That background also made them the perfect actor. Because they have experience with coaching and getting feedback. I approach acting more as a technique, and tennis is an extremely technical sport. And I think most of all, the biggest advantage of working with real tennis players is that they have discipline, they are sharp. But at the same time, when they play a game, they’re alone on the court and they need to improvise. The coach cannot be there to work it out with them, they have to, in that way, figure out how to win the game. And that’s great because the moment I say “action”, what’s between action and cut is up to them. And it’s about them scoring a point. We even used a lot of tennis terms to almost explain how scenes were written and how they needed to approach it. Like, “You’re in the defense” and then, “You are running to the net and you do the volley and attack.” And it was really, really handy in a way to do it with tennis players. So I would say to all directors, if you work with children: go to the tennis clubs and start scouting them there.

How did you know Tessa was the right actor to play Julie?

Because she’s just a fantastic, incredibly smart kid. I never had somebody in mind when writing Julie because I know anyone can fall prey to the silence that Julie has to endure. Boys, girls – there is not one type. There is not one kind of victim there we should target. So it’s very open and I knew in that way, almost like the universe will send me somebody and I will see that she has a little halo and it’s up to me to protect that. And then it’s my responsibility to prepare that girl in those six months so that she is ready to play that role. And that’s not just like she had that. You saw that she was just like the perfect actress, that she has that sensibility – but also she’s strong, she’s determined. She’s just a very interesting, complex, layered teenager. And we needed that because, in a way, I wanted Julie to be a very chatty girl, and it’s just because she’s put into a situation where she decides to keep quiet. But take her out of that context and just put her in class with your friends and she’s just, again, this normal teenager – that was so good about Tessa in that way that she could bring all these layers into the character and also help me shape the character that Julie was because we really wanted to create a character. It was not like: “Okay, Tessa, now you just do you and you are Julie.” It was really about, what would Julie do in this situation? What would she do? I really believe that making movies is a collaboration, and it was so fantastic to collaborate with Tessa. I’m so grateful for all the fantastic work that she has done for us.

Your 2020 short Stephanie focuses on an 11-year-old gymnast also at the cusp of being a star athlete. And gymnastics is kind of like singles tennis in that it also involves a lot of individual performance instead of teamwork that’s associated with more popular sports like football or basketball. Would you like to share your thoughts on these solo sports, and what makes them such an interesting subject for you?

So there’s not really a substantial answer I can give because it’s all more kind of a gut feeling. Stephanie I made because I was living together with a girl called Stephanie, who was a former gymnast, and I just was very inspired by the stories that she told that she experienced, as a young gymnast. And so there’s that. And then for this sport, I felt like it would be good that it was an individual sport. But again, there is also that team, like in a way you train with the generation around you. So I wanted to show it as not as individual as it seems. But I’m just a great tennis fan. And to make this long feature and, in which world I want to be in for four or five years, I was like, why not do it with a sport that I actually like? Because for me it’s very important. Julie has a love for tennis and in that way, I can connect with her. And hopefully, that love for the sport transcends to the audience because the silence that Julie overcomes can happen anywhere, at all ages. So I didn’t want to attack the tennis world, paint it as the world where it’s all happening. It’s the opposite. I was more like – let’s set it in a world that is perhaps a bit more progressive, and in a way proactive where these things can be discussed. And I found great support and response from the tennis world, the coaches and other players to do this, to use that world of tennis to tell the story. And I’m so grateful for all those people who trusted me so we could deliver this very sensitive movie.

And on the topic of silence, aside from the aural silence, the costuming of the film also stood out a lot in that even in the poster, Julie is wearing training gear and not typical tennis whites. Could you speak a bit more about the costuming?

So it’s funny that you ask because nobody does. In the beginning, Julie’s outfits aren’t quite as comfortable. Then, she goes through more and it’s red tights, white or grey, or something kind of harsh. And then, she goes through a Brat phase where it’s all about comfort because she has so much stress and pressure and she’s just wearing things that are easy to put on. And towards the end, actually – she becomes more chic. And she is feeling more confident and better with herself. And she goes through, let’s say her Phoebe Philo phase – where it’s comfortable, but extremely chic.

Lastly, how did you feel when Naomi Osaka joined your project?

I think it’s probably one of the weirdest things that will ever happen in my life. And I’m still processing it in a way every time people ask me the question because I’m so, so happy. The thing is that, I felt a huge responsibility for this character – the silence of Julie is the silence of many. And I was afraid in that way, because of the fact that I don’t punish her in the movie, and often these stories are being told where, like the protagonist is being punished. Look at, for example, Antigone or Jeanne d’Arc, or a contemporary movie like The Black Swan (2010). This is the narrative we always see when we’re talking about girls. So it was really ready in that way, because I didn’t punish her in my movie, the audience would do so. And when Naomi Osaka – because we reached out more as in like: “Perhaps you would like to see the movie?” – she came back and said, “I’m so impressed and I want to be part of it.” It was at that moment, like right before the premiere, I was like: “I’m not alone anymore in this responsibility to take care of her – I have Naomi Osaka with me.” And the fact that, you know, she is spreading her wings and saying, “This is an important story.” The silence of Julie needs to be heard, not only on the court, but also off the court. For me, that was as if my prayers had been answered and that it would truly be okay, that Julie would be safe. And at the same time, what is so deeply emotional as well is that for young tennis players such as Tessa and Grace, Osaka is a game changer. She has educated that generation that saying no is also okay, and perhaps sometimes the better choice. In that way, it’s also super meaningful. It’s almost like I would write a story about a young girl who writes her own songs and wants to be a singer. And then Taylor Swift sees that movie and says, “I’m going to be there, co-producing it because everybody is at one time in their life, a girl who wants to sing but doesn’t know how.” I’m so grateful for that.

Christina Yang

Read more reviews from our London Film Festival coverage here.

For further information about the event visit the London Film Festival website here.

Watch the trailer for Julie Keeps Quiet here: