Infinity Pool’s Mia Goth & Alexander Skarsgard Talk Dynamic About ‘Male Insecurity’ Says Brandon Cronenberg: ‘She’s Going To Give Birth’

Right now we live in the age of Mia Goth. As well as breaking the screen x AND pearl (and soon he’ll be starting all over again in Ti West’s next trio MaXXXine), also gives a characteristically fearless performance in Brandon Cronenberg’s film overflowing pool. As expected by the director of incumbent (and, yes, David Cronenberg’s son), it’s a wild, boundless, messy ride, and Goth leans into madness as Gabi, an actor playing a lead role in a conversing relationship with Alexander. James, the whimsical author of Skarsgård, in a tropical resort.

The story that unfolds from their unexpected entanglement is both twisted and twisted, and for Cronenberg, the unique dynamic between the Goth and Skarsgård characters was to pull the veneer off the latter. “It makes fun of a certain form of male insecurity; Ultimately, that’s a big part of this character,” Cronenberg says of James. “But also, for her, I think the process that she enjoys, and then he enjoys her, and the wickedness of their dynamic, is part of this idea of ​​tearing her apart to the point of being reborn and being a child. She’s almost giving birth to him, or she’s giving birth to this new me.”

For Cronenberg, overflowing pool it provided the opportunity to work closely with two actors who are in their prime right now. “I sincerely wanted to work with [Goth] for years, because he sees through the screen,” he enthuses. “She always steals the show, she never makes boring decisions. My completely simplistic and somewhat silly casting process is you find an actor who has this brilliant thing that is difficult to articulate, you cast him in a role and you allow him to redefine that role for you. What about Skarsgard?” He has that look and charisma to be a studio actor, but he’s actually so much more interesting than that,” says the director. ‘He loves to go to extremes. And so to have these two actors who like to go so far and not have so scary, it was absolutely adorable. The phrase “bad romance” has rarely been more apt.

Light EmpireIs full overflowing pool feature film, dive into the heart of cinematic obscurity with Brandon Cronenberg himself, in the upcoming worldwide exclusive the Mandalorian Season number 3, on sale Thursday 16 February. become a Empire member now to access the full issue on release day, or pre-order the issue online now here. overflowing pool will be released in UK cinemas on 24 March.