ComingSoon Editor-in-Chief Tyler Treese spoke to Strange Darling star Willa Fitzgerald about starring in the serial killer movie opposite Kyle Gallner. The talented actress discussed filming the horror movie, working with Gallner, and more. Magenta Light Studios’ film debuts in theaters on August 23.
“In Strange Darling, nothing is what it seems when a twisted one-night stand spirals into a serial killer’s vicious murder spree,” says the film’s logline.
Tyler Treese: We see this kind of madcap energy to your character that you capture so well, and you really build off Kyle Gallner’s intensity throughout. Since so much of the film is you two, how was it kind of figuring out that interplay based on each other? It really feels like you’re both building off each other’s performances.
Willa Fitzgerald: I think that is well said. I think that we both got very lucky in the fact that we liked each other a lot [and] had a good dynamic both on screen and off screen. I think it’s always just really helpful and a real joy when you kind of have a natural chemistry with someone who you’re working with. I think it just gave us a pretty easy foundation from which to spring into the crazier stuff that happens in the movie. I’m very grateful that I got to go on this ride with Kyle because I think he’s a fabulous actor and a really great person. What more can you ask for?
Strange Darling is presented out of order. Films are normally shot out of order too, so, but I was just curious if you had to kind of think about exactly where you were a bit more than normal, just because so much of the fun watching it is figuring out where each part fits. Does that impact your performance?
In some ways, I actually think that shooting this film, the order was kind of less confusing than sometimes because it’s quite a tight amount of time that the story takes place in. There is a chronological version, like you can make it in order, and I certainly spent a lot of time with the script in order to understand the emotional arc and the physical arc of the character. I think that in some ways because there’s such distinct moments — there are clothes that change, etcetera — it was a little bit kind of easier in some ways to keep track of where we were in the story than it is other times.
The color red is all throughout this film. You’re wearing this lovely red wig early on. Did you find some of the character through the costuming, or how did that kind of impact you?
I always find costume to be a really helpful piece of the puzzle when you’re kind of figuring out a character. Before I even got to Portland, JT told me that he really wanted me to bleach my hair and cut it off, and so I did. I had never done that before and I was very scared to do that. It was an immediate way of accessing a certain part of the character that was really helpful. I’d never changed my personal appearance in a way that wasn’t able to be taken on or off in that way before.
That was a really interesting thing that JT really wanted me to do, that I did do. I think it gave me a foundation for then having specific feelings and opinions that, obviously, I talked to JT about and our costume designer about certain [aspects]. Like the underwear that I wear, I had a really specific idea in my head of what I wanted that underwear to be and that I wanted to kind of like be mismatched in this way.
JT had a very distinct vision for what one of the other costumes was. So I did some internet trolling to try and find it. So it was a very collaborative effort with everyone having specific ideas that coalesced into this final amazing collaboration that we had.
Thanks to Willa Fitzgerald for discussing discussing the movie.
