Mia Goth channeled her Stanley Kubrick fandom to prepare for “MaXXXine.”
Goth told Ireland’s Entertainment.ie journalist Brian Lloyd in the below video that she shadowed a sex worker before starring in Ti West‘s conclusion to his trilogy love letter to classic Hollywood.
“I was living in New York at that time and I was introduced to a stripper and I spent quite a lot of time with that stripper and I would get to know her and I would ask questions and that was really helpful,” Goth said. “She would then take me to these events. One in particular, it was a crazy party in New York. It felt very much like ‘Eyes Wide Shut.’ I don’t know how I got in but I was like kind of in the corner witnessing everything. Once I felt like I got enough information, I went away because it was quite intense.”
Goth continued, “With the stripper, I got a lot of information. She was very helpful. I always try and do something like that with my roles, just to know that I’ve done everything I can to honor what’s on the page as much as possible.”
In “MaXXXine,” Goth reprises her role as the titular adult film actress turned wannabe Hollywood starlet for the ’80s-set installment. One of IndieWire’s most anticipated films of 2024, West’s “MaXXXine” picks up after the events of “X,” and expands on prequel “Pearl.” Goth’s Maxine survived the bloodbath during an adult film shoot in “X,” and brings her final girl status to the starry city of Los Angeles a decade later.
While Maxine is obsessed with stardom, a mysterious serial killer stalks actresses, with her sinister past threatening to come to light during her big break. “MaXXXine” co-stars Halsey, Elizabeth Debicki, Moses Sumney, Michelle Monaghan, Bobby Cannavale, Lily Collins, Giancarlo Esposito, and Kevin Bacon, with critics applauding Bacon’s particular campiness for the would-be “Drop Dead Gorgeous”-esque plot.
And while critics have already deemed the feature a modern take on Brian De Palma’s meta horror-comedy films, writer/director West told Total Film that he was channeling a different auteur: Paul Schrader.
“It’s poppy, but still grounded in more of a grittier ’80s than a shopping-mall ’80s,” West said of the film. “You’re seeing the glamorous side of the movie business and the seedy side of Hollywood.”
He added that “MaXXXine” ranges from “a ‘Terminator’-like aesthetic to a Paul Schrader hardcore thing to ‘Vice Squad’ to giallo,” all mixed together.
The IndieWire review deemed the film a “psychosexual crime thriller” that “turns from a fame-chasing fantasy to frenetic whodunnit when a mysterious figure in leather gloves sets out to get our final girl.”
The review continued, “If nothing else, the dazzling finale feels like a hyperviolent ‘80s period piece tailor-made For the Girls. It delivers some of the series’ most extreme kills as well as its best uses of glittery costumes, bloody testicles, and feminist subversion for a whirlwind joy ride that doubles as a societal lambasting.”
