Current:Home > StocksHow a 'hungry' Mia Goth revamped the horror final girl in 'MaXXXine'-LoTradeCoin
How a 'hungry' Mia Goth revamped the horror final girl in 'MaXXXine'
View Date:2024-12-23 20:23:59
Mia Goth has not yet put a body part in wet cement at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood – a place her starlet in the 1980s-set meta slasher movie “MaXXXine” would kill to be included. What Goth is an old pro at is weathering goop being put on her head to make a life cast.
She’s had it done for a few movies, including one rather stressful session for Marvel’s upcoming “Blade.” “I remember being very tired and a little hungry. I went in and we did the cast and I actually had to rip it off because I needed to take a breather and have a cup of tea,” Goth says of the incident, which ended up being good practice for a similar scene in “MaXXXine” (in theaters now).
Being covered in gunk is honestly one of Maxine Minx's lesser worries in director Ti West's ambitious, blood-soaked horror trilogy. In 2022's “X," Maxine is the lone survivor of a porn-film crew after a 1979 massacre perpetrated by an elderly Texas couple, including vicious wife Pearl, also played by Goth. (The actress played a younger version of her as a murderous, fame-starved farm girl circa 1918 in the prequel “Pearl.”)
Join our Watch Party!Sign up to receive USA TODAY's movie and TV recommendations right in your inbox
“MaXXXine” catches up with Maxine in 1985, as the now-successful adult-film star has the chance to break mainstream in Hollywood when she’s cast in a high-profile horror sequel. Unfortunately, she’s also targeted by a mystery killer at the same time the Night Stalker haunts the streets of LA.
Need a break? Play the USA TODAY Daily Crossword Puzzle.
From first filming "X" to now headlining "MaXXXine," Goth's own star has grown – even going viral on TikTok – and the 30-year-old actress sees parallels between herself and the equally "determined" Maxine: “We knew what we wanted and we were going after it.” Adds West: “She was very much ready to prove herself that she could carry a movie.”
Ever been affected by a movie? 'MaXXXine' is for you
West tackles a bunch of themes over the course of his trilogy, from stardom and celebrity to the Moral Majority and Satanic panic of the ‘80s. But he also wanted to explore how characters are affected by different eras of cinema for a movie-loving audience, even those who aren't horror fiends.
With “X,” which sported a tone akin to “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre,” West wanted to show the “entrepreneurial DIY nature of trying to make a tiny movie outside of the system and carve your own niche,” he says. Then “Pearl,” a Technicolor nightmare influenced by “The Wizard of Oz” and old Disney films, centered on “someone who's unhappy with their state in life and looks to the glitz and glamour of the movies as the grass is greener: If I had a life like that, it would be better."
And with “MaXXXine,” inspired by the “gritty, sleazy” likes of “Vice Squad” and “Angel,” the 43-year-old filmmaker set out to recapture his own experiences of going to an '80s video store: "There's this endless amount of movies that look salacious and subversive and interesting.”
'MaXXXine' puts a dangerous spin on the horror final girl
In the trilogy, Goth portrays two very different characters: Pearl, the jealous woman with a violent backstory, and Maxine, the preacher’s daughter who lives by the mantra “I will not accept a life I do not deserve.” “She's got a chip on her shoulder. She's hungry to prove herself to the world and even more importantly to herself,” Goth says of Maxine.
And with her in particular, West wanted to reinvent a well-tread trope: “A big part of it was to try to have the final girl not act like one.” In “X,” Maxine escapes and gruesomely runs over Pearl’s head at the end, and in “MaXXXine,” she’s not to be trifled with either, pulling a gun on a creepy dude in Buster Keaton cosplay and driving her heel into a rather sensitive spot on his body.
“She's fully aware that she has little to no control over people around her and the situations that might take place around her, but she is in full command of her decisions and her actions and she has the fearlessness and the courage to act on those,” Goth says. “It's fun to be the one that's holding the gun, taking matters into her own hands.”
veryGood! (14547)
Related
- Japan to resume V-22 flights after inquiry finds pilot error caused accident
- New York judge fired for pointing gun at a Black man in court
- Russian foreign minister thanks North Korea for 'unwavering' support in Ukraine war
- Workers at Mexico’s federal courts kick off 4-day strike over president’s planned budget cuts
- Powell says Fed will likely cut rates cautiously given persistent inflation pressures
- Abreu, Alvarez and Altuve help Astros pull even in ALCS with 10-3 win over Rangers in Game 4
- Biden to deliver Oval Office address on Israel and Ukraine on Thursday
- Mortgage rates touch 8% for the first time since August 2000
- Eva Longoria Shares She and Her Family Have Moved Out of the United States
- Phoenix Mercury hire head coach with no WNBA experience. But hey, he's a 'Girl Dad'
Ranking
- Taylor Swift gifts 7-year-old '22' hat after promising to meet her when she was a baby
- Hurricane Norma weakens slightly on a path toward Los Cabos in Mexico
- Former nurse sentenced to 30 years for sexually assaulting inmates at women's prison
- Communities can’t recycle or trash disposable e-cigarettes. So what happens to them?
- Armie Hammer Says His Mom Gifted Him a Vasectomy for His 38th Birthday
- Family of an American held hostage by Hamas urges leaders to do everything, and we mean everything, to bring them back
- Alex Ovechkin, Connor Hellebuyck, Seattle Kraken among NHL's slow starters this season
- Spurs coach Gregg Popovich 'thought about getting booted' so he could watch WNBA finals
Recommendation
-
Medical King recalls 222,000 adult bed assistance rails after one reported death
-
Major US Muslim group cancels Virginia banquet over bomb and death threats
-
Mary Lou Retton's Daughter Details Scary Setback Amid Olympian’s Hospitalization
-
Burt Young, the Oscar-nominated actor who played Paulie in 'Rocky' films, dies at 83
-
'Treacherous conditions' in NYC: Firefighters battling record number of brush fires
-
Stranded on the Eiffel Tower, a couple decide to wed, with an AP reporter there to tell the story
-
14 cows killed, others survive truck rollover crash in Connecticut
-
Republicans are facing death threats as the election for speaker gets mired in personal feuds