The Big Picture

Welcome to a new episode of Collider Ladies Night with
Strange Darling
star Willa Fitzgerald.
Fitzgerald runs through some of her biggest burning questions for writer-director JT Mollner about tackling this wildly complex story and character.
She also gets emotional discussing the core of the movie, her collaboration with Kyle Gallner.

I walked away from Fantastic Fest 2023 calling Strange Darling my favorite film of the festival. Had it received a 2023 release date, it would have been one of my top films of the year. Now it’s August 2024 and nothing has changed. I’d be utterly shocked if Strange Darling didn’t land in my Top 10 of 2024, and I’d also be shocked if I didn’t close out the year calling Willa Fitzgerald’s work in the film one of my favorite performances of, not just 2024, but of recent years.

Fitzgerald and Kyle Gallner headline the movie as The Lady and The Demon. It’s a story loaded with brilliantly crafted twists and turns from writer-director JT Mollner and the team, so we’ll keep the plot synopsis simple; the two have a one-night-stand and it kicks off a murder spree.

I’ve been itching to get Fitzgerald on Collider Ladies Night since Strange Darling’s world premiere screening in September 2023, and now the time has finally come. With Strange Darling now playing in theaters, she joined me for a Ladies Night chat which, yes, included some Scream TV Series talk, but also heavily focused on her exquisite work in Strange Darling.

Willa Fitzgerald’s First Big Burning Questions About ‘Strange Darling’
“An essential part of the story is the humanity that’s taking place.”

Strange Darling is an ambitious film in multiple respects. Not only is the narrative told in a nonlinear fashion, but it’s also centered on two wildly complex characters — characters who, yes, do some bad things, but still need to come across as three-dimensional human beings. That right there was a top priority for Fitzgerald from the moment she first read the screenplay and sat down with writer-director JT Mollner. She recalled:

“I remember our first conversation, the thing that I was most interested in talking about and that I wanted to make sure that we were most on the same page about was my feelings for the character and
the love and sympathy and empathy I have for the character
. I wanted to make sure that he was on the same page with that, and that we were telling the same story. I thought we were based on reading the script, but to me, an essential part of the story is the humanity that’s taking place, because it’s the only thing that allows you access to have some sort of emotional connection to these characters.”

Strange Darling is being dubbed a “relentless thrill ride,” and it very much is, but Fitzgerald also found it quite important to embrace the fact that it’s very much a love story. “After the first read, I really felt that this was a love story in a fundamental way.” She continued, “I wanted to know more about how [JT] saw that, and I wanted to talk to him about what I was thinking about that. It was a great first conversation.”

In fact, that first conversation was so great, Fitzgerald walked away from the meeting determined to play this character.

“Director’s meetings are tricky. Sometimes it doesn’t really give you a clear sense of whether you want to do the job, and it doesn’t maybe give them a clear sense. They’re sometimes a tricky thing, but I definitely walked away from that director’s meeting just being like, ‘I love him. I have to do this job.’”

The Key to Nailing the Film’s Non-Linear Story Structure
“I wanted to tell this story from a really authentic place in terms of what the character is going through.”

Related ‘Strange Darling’ Review: Willa Fitzgerald and Kyle Gallner Romance Becomes a Spectacular Survival Horror J.T. Mollner’s sensual serial killer film plays with genre and expectations in the most delicious ways.

Once the collaboration was official, Fitzgerald got to work on mapping out her character’s arc in the film, an arc that needs to work as written, in that non-linear format, but would also need to make sense if the story were viewed linearly. She explained:

“I obviously spent some time with the script reading it in the order that it’s seen on the screen, and how it’s written as well, and then as soon as I was really starting to dive into my part of the process, I put everything in order and just started looking at the script in chronological order. Because
I wanted to tell this story from a really authentic place in terms of what the character is going through
and what she’s experiencing, what she’s feeling. I knew that I had to just make sure that I had the arc and the scaffolding of what’s happening to her emotionally, physically, and psychologically in order so that then it could be out of order and it would make sense back in order.”

That approach to the work served what Fitzgerald dubbed one of the most important aspects of bringing this character to screen — that she came across as a human being. Here’s how she put it:

“It was just the most important thing to me that this is a human being because, obviously, she’s called The Lady, he’s called The Demon, and there is an allegory being told, there are archetypes being used, they’re all used in this perfect way, but also, in order to go along for that ride,
you
have
to buy that these are real people
. That was my task in playing this character, was to make her as three-dimensional as I possibly could so that the audience would go along for the whole ride.”

Willa Fitzgerald Gets Emotional Talking About Working With Kyle Gallner
“There is such a freedom when the other person is actually with you.”
Image via Magenta Light Studios

Bolstering the personal work Fitzgerald put into making The Lady a three-dimensional character was a top-tier actor and scene partner, Kyle Gallner. “What I love about working with Kyle is that he’s just so present.” Fitzgerald continued:

“While that may seem like an obvious part of being an actor, there’s a lot of people who kind of come in with a thing that they’re gonna do and they’re gonna do it no matter what you do, and it looks great in the final cut and they’ve succeeded at doing the thing that they came in to do. But, I think both Kyle and I,
our interests lie in what is happening in this particular moment between you and me in this room
, and how are we affecting each other in this room, in this moment, and how is that gonna be different the next time we do it? We were both so on that same page from the first scene that we shot together, and I feel like, probably both of us, I know I did, were just like, ‘Oh yeah.’ It’s just a relief when you’re like, ‘Oh, we’re just playing.’
There is such a freedom when the other person is
actually
with you.
”

That quality of Gallner’s was so important to the success of the film, Fitzgerald admits, “It makes me almost a little emotional talking about it.” She continued:

“I think especially for this movie,
that
is what the story is.
It’s a story about these two people and this connection that they have, and then this betrayal.
That’s where the movie lives, and it was so easy to go all those places with Kyle because he is so open, he’s so receptive, he’s listening, living, breathing, and then it’s just fun.”

Willa Fitzgerald’s Inner Critic Is No Match for the Quality of ‘Strange Darling’
Image via Magenta Light Studios

Related One of the Best Movies of 2023 You Don’t Know About — Yet J.T. Mollner’s second feature is a riveting thriller with two killer lead performances from Willa Fitzgerald and Kyle Gallner.

Another thing about Strange Darling that moves Fitzgerald to the max? The end product.

“
I think that the biggest gift that this movie has given me is that I am unequivocally proud of this movie.
I am 100% my own worst critic, and I always will be, and I always have been. That’s just an essential part of my personality. And, for some reason, when I watch this movie, I’m able to watch it and actually appreciate it as a movie, and I’m just so grateful. I’ve been working for a while, and I’m really grateful at this point to have something where even my inner critic can’t tear it apart. It’s something that I’ve said to a lot of people, but it really is, for me, something that I’m just so glad gets to be in the world, and
it does make me feel like I’ve left behind something that adds something to this genre
, and I’m so grateful for that.”

Eager to hear even more from Fitzgerald about her journey in film and television thus far, and her experience making Strange Darling? You can find just that in the video at the top of this article, or you can listen to our full hour-long conversation in podcast form below:

Strange Darling (2024) A twisted one-night stand spirals into a deadly game of cat and mouse when a relentless predator chases an injured woman through the Oregon wilderness.Release Date August 23, 2024 Director JT Mollner Cast Willa Fitzgerald , Kyle Gallner , Jason Patric , Giovanni Ribisi , Ed Begley Jr. , Barbara Hershey , Steven Michael Quezada , Madisen Beaty , Denise Grayson , Eugenia Kuzmina , Bianca A. Santos , Sheri Foster , Duke Mollner , Andrew John Segal , Robert Craighead , Evan Peterson Runtime 96 Minutes Expand

Strange Darling is now playing in theaters. Find showtimes near you below:

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