The Big Picture

Welcome to a new episode of Collider Ladies Night with
MaXXXine
star Elizabeth Debicki.
During her chat with Perri Nemiroff, Debicki highlights the directors who believed in her along the way, including Baz Luhrmann and Steve McQueen.
She also discusses playing director Elizabeth Bender in Ti West’s
MaXXXine
, and reveals how she personally relates to the character.

MaXXXine may be the third film in a downright wild and blood-soaked horror series, but given the fact that the trilogy heavily pays homage to the evolution of cinema, there’s an abundance of very real connections one can make between the state of the industry depicted in these films and where things truly are at present. In fact, there’s one especially prominent one for Primetime Emmy nominee Elizabeth Debicki. In MaXXXine, she plays the only film director willing to take a chance on Mia Goth’s title character. As Debicki explained during our Collider Ladies Night conversation, finding filmmakers who believe in you is of the utmost importance to making it in Hollywood.

After the events of X, MaXXXine follows Maxine Minx to Hollywood in the 80s where she plans to become a star. Maxine is convinced she’s got the talent and determination to make it in the movies, but given her notoriety in the adult film realm, getting her big break has been impossible — until she meets Debicki’s character, Elizabeth Bender. Even though the producers of Elizabeth’s new movie would rather not have Maxine headlining the film, Elizabeth believes in her and insists on giving her the opportunity.

While many might be quick to highlight Baz Luhrmann as the person who took a chance on Debicki and sent her star soaring with The Great Gatsby, Debicki herself insists he’s not the only one. Yes, Luhrmann did give her her first lead role in a feature film, but Debicki insists directors taking a chance on actors never ends. “Yeah, you need to be good at your job, but it’s also a real combination of timing and people believing in you enough to give you the job.”

Lessons Learned from Leonardo DiCaprio & More on the Set of ‘The Great Gatsby’

Luhrmann’s belief in Debicki paved the way to a dream-like opportunity to learn. Debicki was a Hollywood newcomer suddenly surrounded by some of the very best in the business. “I didn’t do any film or TV training when I was in drama school, so I was extremely unprepared to be on a film set.” Debicki added, “All the technique I’ve learned, I’ve learned through watching other people better than me and through trial and error, actually.”

In the case of Gatsby, Debicki had a wealth of pros to learn from, including Leonardo DiCaprio, Carey Mulligan, Joel Edgerton, and Tobey Maguire. She explained:

“They all work so differently, too, so that was really enlightening to me. The way Carey works is so different to Leo, and Leo is so different to Joel. So that was great for me to see, too, that you can make choices.
Leo is an actor who can really self-analyze in the moment
and improve and mold in the moment. Other actors want to be more naive of what they’re doing or less conscious of it.”

“I Was Really Proud That I Was Brave Enough to So Openly Fail on a Set”
Image via BBC

Related Elizabeth Debicki Stole This Show From Tom Hiddleston and Hugh Laurie Elizabeth Debicki was always a star, and this early role proves it.

For an example of “trial and error,” Debicki veered toward her experience making the Emmy-nominated John le Carré adaptation, The Night Manager.

“The times I’m proudest of myself are not the times when I nail the thing. It’s when, like you said, I take a swing and sometimes it doesn’t work.
I have these memories of pushing things in one direction. I remember specifically in
The Night Manager
, there was a scene that was really difficult for me to get at. It was a scene with Hugh [Laurie’s] character and me, and we were sort of in this army tent, and I’m in this nightgown. It’s this really high-stakes moment in the story. I’ve become unwillingly a sort of informer and my threat level as a character is — and so I wasn’t sure how to play this moment. Do I put a mask back on? Do I really go there? Is it very emotional? Is it not? And I remember I thought, ‘I don’t know, I’m just gonna let the pendulum swing in one direction.’ I did this take, and it was terrible. I mean, it was terrible. I’m sure for me it felt appalling, and I’m sure everyone else was just like, ‘I don’t think it’s that.’ But in my heart of hearts, I was like, ‘Oh, I’m finished. That was terrible.’ But
I was really proud of myself because then what happened was in the next take, I knew what it
wasn’t

.”

That experience on The Night Manager continues to influence Debicki’s approach to the work. She explained:

“In a funny way,
I was really proud that I was brave enough to so openly fail on a set in front of these actors
. That was a great lesson for me, and I think I’ve sort of been trying to do that since. In a funny way, it sounds really small, but it’s hard to do that. I think it’s just how you have to evolve and grow all the time as an actor. I never feel like I’ve figured out how to do it. One of the ways you do get better at it is by giving yourself looser rope all the time, which is hard to do, and not coming in with preconceived ideas about how something should be and trying to match that. Again, that’s hard to do because your margin for error is massively increased, but it’s not error, it’s just finding, it’s just searching.”

Who Is ‘MaXXXine’s Elizabeth Bender?
Image via A24

As Debicki emphasized throughout our conversation, yes, talent is important, but so is surrounding yourself with the right people — in particular, directors willing to take a chance on you. “Every time someone says, ‘Yes, I choose you to be in my film …’ Directors sit with those films, it’s two years of their life, or more. It’s their baby. It’s their whole expression.” She added, “Yeah, you need to be good at your job, but it’s also a real combination of timing and people believing in you enough to give you the job.”

For Maxine, that ideal combination of timing and people is when she walks in for her Puritan II audition and Debicki’s Elizabeth Bender is the one sitting across the room. For Bender, Puritan II isn’t just any old gig. It’s an opportunity to earn respect and have a voice in Hollywood. It’s a chance to deliver something meaningful via what many expect to be any old horror movie sequel. In fact, Liz’s approach to making Puritan II in MaXXXine aligns quite well with what West has been doing with the X saga. Here’s how Debicki put it:

“He’ll probably hate me saying this, but
there’s a little bit of Ti in Liz
, I think. Ti is a very smart director who understands that horror is an excellent Trojan horse for messaging and for performance, for giving people opportunities for truly juicy acting work.”

Debicki went on to emphasize that Liz is also a “creature of her time.”

“I think to try and be a director in the 1980s, a female director — and there are a handful of incredible women who were directing films — they would have been fighting tooth and nail for every podium and whatever they got to stand on to make decisions, and I think that she is a product of that.
She’s sort of an accumulation of a toughness that’s come out of having to fight
really
, really hard to be where you are, and I think I identify with that.
Most people in the business, it’s like, people’s careers can look like a linear ascent, but they’re not. They’re always an up and down, full of vulnerability. So, I found it quite cathartic.”

Related ‘MaXXXine’s Premiere Was a Star-Studded, Meta, and Bloody Good Time Mia Goth, Ti West, and a slew of fake protestors came to celebrate the horror trilogy’s grand finale.

In addition to finding catharsis via her work in MaXXXine, Debicki also found something else. It’s something many don’t expect to find on a horror movie set, and it’s also something many overlook in general. It’s joy.

“I shot
MaXXXine
about a week or so after wrapping
The Crown
, and I let myself work from a very open place making that film. I also had a really good time.
Sometimes I think we can work really hard but without joy.
And I had the best time making that film. I was like, ‘This is the best job! We’re driving around Universal, I have amazing shoulder pads, the dialogue is fabulous, Mia is amazing.’ I was like, ‘This is so much fun!’
I really let myself enjoy my days on that movie. I think I’m gonna do that more
. I think it’s important for acting. It should be playful. So, I guess I’m proud of that. When I think back on making that film, I just had a lovely time. When they wrapped me at, like, two in the morning on my last day, I was like, ‘Aw, I wanna come back and do more.’ It was great.”

Looking for even more on Debicki’s experience making MaXXXine and her journey in Hollywood thus far? You can watch our full 45-minute conversation in the video at the top of this article, or you can listen to the interview in podcast form below:

MaXXXine In 1980s Hollywood, adult film star and aspiring actress Maxine Minx finally secures her big break. As she navigates her path to stardom, a mysterious killer begins targeting Hollywood starlets, leaving a trail of blood that threatens to expose her sinister past.Release Date July 5, 2024 Director Ti West Runtime 103 Minutes

MaXXXine arrives in theaters nationwide on July 5. Click below for showtimes.

Get Tickets