Bob Muldoon (Casey Affleck) and Ruth Guthrie (Rooney Mara), an impassioned young outlaw couple on an extended crime spree, are finally apprehended by lawmen after a shootout in the Texas hills. Although Ruth wounds a local officer, Bob takes the blame. But four years later, Bob escapes from prison and sets out to find Ruth and their daughter, born during his incarceration.

Set against the backdrop of 1970′s Texas Hill Country, first time director David Lowery paints a poetic picture, evoking the mythology of westerns and saturating the dramatic space with an aching sense of loss. Featuring powerful performances by Affleck and Mara as well as Ben Foster and Keith Carradine, AIN’T THEM BODIES SAINTS is a story of love, motherhood and searching for peace while faced with an unrelenting past.

Produced by Toby Halbrooks, James M. Johnston, Jay Van Hoy, Lars Knudsen, Amy Kaufman and Cassian Elwes, “Ain’t Them Bodies Saints” will arrive in theaters via IFC Films on August 16th. It will play as part of the Critics’ Week section at Cannes and also hits BAMcinemaFest in New York City in June.

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Dane DeHaan (The Place Beyond the Pines), Ben Foster (Ain’t Them Bodies Saints), Michael C. Hall (TV’s Dexter), Elizabeth Olsen (Martha Marcy May Marlene) and Jack Huston (Wilde Salome) also star in the movie based on the true story of a murder in 1944 that drew beat generation writers Ginsberg (Radcliffe),Lucien Carr (DeHaan), Jack Kerouac (Huston) and William Burroughs (Foster).

The Benaroya Pictures and Killer Films picture premiered in Sundance.

Sony Pictures Classics has acquired US rights.

The Works will release the film in the fall.

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“@OrphansonBway will play its final performance on May 19th. That leaves only 16 more chances to see this incredible production.”

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In Orphans, Ben Foster and Tom Sturridge each make their Broadway debut as a pair of orphaned brothers. Living in a decrepit North Philadelphia row house, the pair survives by petty thievery and a diet of tuna fish and daytime television. But when one of the brothers decides to kidnap the notorious Chicago gangster Harold, played by Tony Award nominee Alec Baldwin, he sets in motion events that change the brothers’ lives forever. Daniel Sullivan (Glengarry Glen Ross) directs.

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The evening’s guests included Winona Ryder, Sienna Miller, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Jane Krakowski, Dakota Fanning, Anna Chlumsky, Bridget Moynahan, Debbie Harry, Gregory Jbara, Jon Foster, Melissa Errico, Patrick McEnroe, Richard Schiff, Sarah Wayne Callies, and Baldwin’s wife, Hilaria Thomas.

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VF Daily: So how has it all been? This is your big Broadway debut.

Ben Foster: It’s extraordinary. It’s like being an astronaut. It’s way out there.

Is this always something you wanted to do?

It’s definitely its own mountain. The last time I was on a stage, it was when I was 12 in Fairfield, Iowa.

Oh, wow.

It’s kind of difficult to talk about. It’s so different from film, and it feels so exposed. It costs something different, and it feeds something different. There’s a different kind of nutrition, and there’s a different kind of cost after a day’s work.

So we have to discuss your road to this project, because the story definitely made its rounds in the news. Shia LaBeouf was scheduled to play the part. Then things happened as they did, and now here you are. How did it all come to be?

I had read for it with Dan Sullivan, our wonderful director, and with Alec around a table. It wasn’t even under the structure of an audition. As far as I was concerned, I was just going in to read. So I got the play, looked at it for a couple days, and we sat around a table and played with words. They said it went to another actor, and I was sad about that. I felt in my bones that this was the right time to get on a stage. But months later I was sitting in Los Angeles with my mother. We were having lunch, and she says, “You know, Benjamin, honey, it’s a good thing the play didn’t work out.” And I said, “Why?” She said, “I think it would have been too hard on your heart.” I said, “Well, I see what you mean.” And not 24 hours later I got the phone call saying, “You got to get to New York. Do you want to come to New York tomorrow and start rehearsing for the play?” I said, “I’m on a plane.”

Did you take into account at all what your mother had said, or was it just a no-brainer?

When one gets a phone call—and those phone calls aren’t often; from my experience, they’re not often—you hold your breath for a moment. But it felt right initially, and taking into account what she’s saying, again there’s a different kind of cost and this play has certain demands. Rather than trying to do it, each night it’s about serving it.

So the show is really funny. For as heavy as it is, I was cracking up. You do this night after night and some days, afternoons, too. What is it like to be in that headspace?

It has some wear and tear. It’s lending an opportunity to ask questions that frighten me. In that way, there’s a rigor of it, it’s therapeutic. And all things must pass, right?

Right. Tom Sturridge is just incredible as your brother. I was so taken by how much he jumps around—the physicality of it. He is like a monkey! Are you ever worried that he’s going to trip?

I don’t want to say anything other than he’s an exceptional performer. It’s been such a gift to be able to work alongside him. He has so much more theatrical experience than I do. Both he and Alec have been really generous.

And how has it been working alongside Alec?

I adore Alec. I have a world of respect for him. He’s so bright. He’s such a bright intellect, and he has such a ferocious and generous heart. He’s got a mouth on him that I love and I admire. He’s a true-blue fella. He’s of a different time and a different generation, even within his generation. And it is a privilege getting to work alongside him.

Have you developed any pre-show rituals for yourself?

Oh yeah, well, yeah. I’m going to keep those close for now. But throwing up is one of them.

Well, that’s unpleasant!

Hey, you’ve got to purge to make room.

Well, it is very obvious that the performance is very physically demanding. Just watching you, your face turns a different shade of red at some points. You can just tell you’re so in it.

I’m really happy to hear it. We’re on the inside.

And what’s up next for you?

Aiming to direct. I’ve got three films coming out this year, which I’m excited about.

Lone Survivor, which was great spending time with the SEALs. And playing William Burroughs in Kill Your Darlings. And Ain’t Them Bodies Saints, where we went to Midland, Texas, and hung out with the Texas sheriffs. Rooney [Mara] and Casey [Affleck] are just such wonderful, wonderful actors. It’s a good year. You can’t not be grateful every minute. I refuse to complain about being tired.

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TimesTalks have been entertaining and inspiring audiences in New York, across the country and around the world since 1998. These compelling conversations — live on stage, on the Web and on video — feature New York Times journalists in conversation with today’s leaders in culture and the arts, politics and world affairs, and ideas and media. Watch TimesTalks online and on demand at YouTube.com/TimesTalks and NYTimes.com/Video, where the conversation begins.

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Stars increasingly call the shots on Broadway. Did you make this play happen, Alec?

Alec Baldwin I knew Al Pacino was circling it. He did it once at a 75-seat theater in L.A. in 2005. I thought, “I have to see that,” and flew out. Then when Al said he’d do “Glengarry Glen Ross” on Broadway this season, I knew “Orphans” was available. So I went to producers and said, “Let’s do it.” You spend years tracking plays until you’re right for them and then try to make the other factors happen — getting the right theater, the producers, the money, the rights, the director, the cast. I’m at the age where, in the Tennessee Williams canon, all that’s available is Shannon [in “The Night of the Iguana”]. After that it’s Big Daddy.

How much is Pacino’s performance in your head?

Baldwin Not at all. In L.A. it was just a workshop. They had a ways to go.

What did “Orphans” have going for it?

Baldwin Having knocked around New York pitching shows to producers with 20 people in the cast I realized that was a problem. “Orphans” is a three hander. Things happen quicker if it’s a small cast. Also I like shows with a language that I never get tired of. And the last thing is the director. I’ve always wanted to work with Sullivan.

Ben Foster I hadn’t been pursuing theater actively. This was really the first play that I’d read to be considered before. Reading it was like holding something electric in your hands. The language is deceptively simple and aggressive. There was this feeling of seizure: “I don’t know if I can do this.”

Is there anything about performing onstage that still intimidates you?

Baldwin Rehearsal is painful. Not knowing the lines, not having a mastery of the text is painful, because until you have it you can’t play the scenes. When we’re up onstage now I kind of dig it. It’s fun. Though I know half the audience is going to like it for the wrong reason, half of them are not going to like it for the wrong reason. You just do the show.

Foster I’m not accustomed to rehearsing with anyone. Quite frankly I don’t do rehearsals. The way I’ve been working for years, I go out and research — a recon mission — and bring it back to my director. We discuss notes, we approach the script, we integrate into the script, and then we show up and block out a scene and turn cameras on. That’s all I know. So this feels like complete nudity.

Alec, you and Dan Sullivan and the producers originally signed off on Shia LaBeouf to play Treat. In the rehearsal room what did you do to try to make things work with Shia?

Baldwin I didn’t look at it as my job. The only thing I have to say about that is: We ended up with exactly the people we were meant to end up with. The problem with what happened was, there is a definite rhythm to a play. In Week 1 of rehearsals you should be here, Week 2 you should be there, and so on. I tend to panic at the onset of rehearsal — and then take a deep breath and tell yourself at the end of the Week 3 you will be O.K. I didn’t really care about whether the person was gone or what his own personal issues were. It was kind of a jug-handle turn, but we got here.

Did the breaking point come, Alec, when Shia dressed you down for not memorizing your lines as quickly as he had?

Tom Sturridge Can I say something? I think what is so beautiful about the rehearsal process is that it’s a safe place for an actor. It’s a place where you can take risks, screw up, explore, and it’s safe because it’s private. I think it’s not fair to make public or investigate what happened in the rehearsal room because that sets a precedent for people to talk about what goes on in rehearsal rooms.

Baldwin I respect what you’re saying, but someone in the rehearsal room did go public with that information.

Sturridge Completely, completely, but that person isn’t here.

So, Alec, when Shia went after you about not knowing your lines, what went through your head?

Baldwin Right ——

Sturridge But that’s what I’m talking about. I feel like rehearsal was a safe place. We’ve had arguments in the rehearsal process. I feel like you trying to ask questions on that means you can go into any rehearsal room and ask questions — like on “Golden Boy,” did you guys have a fight about the shoe color?

Baldwin My greatest regret is that the rehearsal process got exposed by the person himself.

Tom, how did you feel about Shia tweeting your private e-mail?

Baldwin [adopting a theatrical British accent] His feelings about it are private.

Sturridge I have no particularly strong feelings either way. What I do have strong feelings about is: The e-mail shouldn’t have been read. Have you read them?

Yes. I was reporting on Shia’s firing, and he suddenly released these e-mails.

Sturridge It’s not your job to read them. I think that’s extraordinarily ethically questionable. It was a private e-mail, and you read it.

Baldwin I just want to say: The worst cases you never hear about. Hollywood studios bury that stuff — actors who punch directors in the face and try to run producers over with cars — insanity, criminal behavior. But the studios are invested in that star, they can’t have that person’s name dirtied up. The problem here is it became public.

Did it faze you that Shia was in the front row of your first performance?

Baldwin Didn’t make a bit of difference. Our first preview was a pretty good show.

Ben, after you were passed over and then Shia was fired, how wary were you about joining the production?

Foster I was crestfallen that it didn’t work out originally. Then I got a phone call saying, “Are you still interested?” And ——

Baldwin No, what happened was: We had the other situation happen. They went to Ben, and Ben sent me an e-mail and said: “[expletive deleted] you. I’d rather drop dead than work with you.” And I said, “I’m going to tweet this e-mail if you don’t get your ass over here to do this play.”

Your characters have sharply drawn eccentricities. How did you prepare to play them?

Sturridge The first thing I thought about was the fact that Phillip hasn’t left the house in 15 years. So I tried to think about how that would manifest itself in him psychologically, physically. I wanted a way to articulate that for the audience quickly. I can’t say, “Hello, everyone, I’ve been here for 15 years.” So I thought, what was the most creative way to get across the room? I decided I didn’t want to touch the floor. That’s what I was like — when I was 4. And I also visited Dr. Glenn Saxe, who is head of child psychiatry at N.Y.U. and essentially broke down Phillip’s history and some of the ways he expresses himself, and got him to assess this character.

Baldwin Lyle basically was Phillip. He was this sickly child, had asthma, smothered by his mother.

Foster It took Lyle six years to write the play, and the birth of his child to write the second act. For me, I have a younger brother, and there were times that I was taking care of him. And there are times that bleed into this. I’ll leave it at that.

“Orphans” is known as a very dark play. What do you make of audiences laughing?

Baldwin I had gauged in my mind that a third of it was funny and two-thirds of it was odd and tragic and dramatic. We go out for the first preview, and it flips. It’s suddenly two-thirds funny and one-third dramatic. Which I was very unprepared for.

Foster It’s still being massaged. What we all agree on is: The performances have to come from the heart. If the laughs happen, the laughs happen. But we’re not catering to that. It’s easy for me to ride the wave of laughter, hook the audience and ride the laugh, but I’m not doing that here. The spearhead will become sharper.

Baldwin Part of the challenge is the era of the play. In “Orphans” you have me saying to a young guy: “Come on over here, son, you’re a good boy, let me encourage you. You want some encouragement? Let me give you some encouragement.” Back then this was straightforward dialogue, received by the audience without much irony. Today it’s a gay and sitcomy world, where innuendo is seen in everything. We asked ourselves, “How do we say those lines and stay with it,” because there’s no gay subtext to what Harold is doing. But at the first preview people snickered at that.

Foster [mutters to himself] Why are they laughing at that?

Is there anything you can do to deal with the audience snickering?

Baldwin You just play the lines straightforwardly. And you focus on your intention. My character grew up in an orphanage, and he’s determined to give these two other orphan boys a chance.

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