Summary
JT Mollner is back in the director’s chair for one of the twistiest thrillers of the year withStrange Darling. The filmmaker previously made his directorial debut with the 2016 Western home invasion thrillerOutlaws and Angels, for which he assembled a star-studded cast including Chad Michael Murray, Francesca Eastwood, and Luke Wilson. This year also brought word that Mollner penned the script for theupcoming Stephen King adaptation,The Long Walk, which is expected to wrap filming and is being helmed byHunger Gamesfranchise director Francis Lawrence.
ForStrange Darling, Mollner once again dons the hat of writer and director to tell the complex story of a one-night stand that becomes increasingly dangerous. Focused on The Lady and The Demon, the psychological thriller is told through a non-chronological structure, following the two as they meet at a bar and elect to head to a motel with one another, attracted to each other’s mysteries and openness to certain sexual interests. The movie also cuts to the morning after, in which a scared Lady is on the run from The Demon, though exactly why is left a mystery until near the end.
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Reacheralum Willa Fitzgerald andSmile 2’s Kyle Gallnerlead the ensembleStrange Darlingcast as The Lady and The Demon alongside Barbara Hershey, Ed Begley Jr., Madisen Beaty, Bianca Santos, and Steven Michael Quezada. The movie also sees Mollner teaming with Emmy-nominated actor Giovanni Ribisi (Avatar, Horizon: An American Saga) as a producer and the director of photography, with Ribisi also making a cameo in the film.
In anticipation of the movie’s release,Screen Rantinterviewed writer/director JT Mollner and producer/director of photography Giovanni Ribisi to discussStrange Darling, how the former sought to flip the final girl trope with his story, how the script inspired the unique color palette the latter brought to his visual approach, and the unique way Mollner landed on casting Fitzgerald.
Strange DarlingCame To Mollner “Spontaneously” & In Non-Chronological Order
“I realized that [maybe] this is a different way to approach the final girl.”
Screen Rant: I’m very excited to chat with you both about this film. I watched it the other night and was just absolutely floored from start to finish. So kudos to you both on that. JT, I will start with you first, how did this weird journey first begin for you, as far as crafting the story and then developing the script?
JT Mollner: I always have a lot of ideas, some are good, some aren’t. Some, maybe, luckily, have some commercial value, some don’t. But this came to me very spontaneously as an image of a woman running through the woods in hospital scrubs. I saw her in slow motion, I heard the song “Love Hurts” playing. It was very detailed, and I didn’t know why, and I didn’t know why this could be a compelling story, because it seemed very archetypal. You know, the final girl, Laurie strode and Halloween.
As it continued to inspire and develop, I realized that, “Oh, maybe this is a different way to approach the final girl.” So, the story came to me in the order you’ve seen it, and by the time I got to the end and realized where it was going to go, it was very exciting to me. I wanted to write it, and the writing process was fast with this one, because it’s fairly simple, narratively. It’s hopefully complex from a character standpoint, but narratively, it’s fairly simple, and I knew I just had to get it onto the page.
Ribisi Sought To Make EachStrange DarlingChapter “Feel Like Its Own Universe”
Giovanni, I will turn to you next. You’ve obviously directed before, you’ve done the cinematography before on the music videos that you’ve directed, as well. But how did you go about finding the look for this film, in particular? Because I love how it jumps between color palettes, between a grindhouse feel and a modern feel.
Giovanni Ribisi: It was based on several months of discussions with JT. It always comes back to the story, and really, for me, I’m an actor, but I think that most filmmakers will agree that it comes down to the characters and what their journey is. At some point, we had discussed wanting to have each chapter feel like its own universe, but in a sort of evolutionary way, and to heighten and feel like, visually, you’re ratcheting up the tension. So, I think that was basically that. And then, ultimately, Priscilla Elliott, who is the production designer, came on and was having conversations with JT and myself, and I think we arrived at sort of a primary color palette, which was reds and blues. We just wanted to lean into that.
JT Mollner: Yeah, we’ve been talking about primary colors for a while, and movies from the past, like The Red Shoes, and The Devils, and Dead Ringers. From all different eras, all different genres — Blue Velvet — were really inspiring at the time for me, and still are. Just the use of color and how much it could evoke emotions.
And then, during the process, too, there was this idea of The Pixies. In their songs, they do this thing — loud, quiet, loud — where there’s like a punk rock verse and then a refrain that’s very sweet and quiet and romantic, and that inspired the writing process a lot, because we wanted loud, and then quiet, and then loud and then quiet. It’s kind of like when you’re shifting a standard vehicle, and there’s this refrain, but then you ratchet it even higher up. So, we were using the blues and the reds in certain moments to change gears, in a sense. I think color was a really effective way to do that.
Fitzgerald & Gallner Wowed Mollner With Their “Compassion And Love” For Their Characters
“It’s really important to find actors who can find a connection with those characters.”
JT, I’ll turn back to you. We’ve talked about how it’s very important to be gripped by the characters to go on this journey. I would love to hear about the search for Willa and Kyle, because they deliver, I think, some of their best performances yet.
JT Mollner: Yeah, they’re both incredible actors, and I’ve said it many times, they’re the pillars of the movie. And if we cast the movie wrong, it just wouldn’t work. Wouldn’t matter how well it was shot, or how well it was written, or any of that stuff, so we had to cast people who could perform those roles. An interesting thing was meeting with a lot of people, and I remember calling an agent, who I really admire as a friend, named Christy Hall over at Paradigm, and I had a few actors of hers in mind.
We were going to cast The Lady first before we cast The Demon, and I was asking about some of her actors, and she was checking in on them, and then she said, “I have one who I think is definitely the person for this.” I started watching footage of Willa Fitzgerald, and she was great, and I really liked her, but there was a missing piece of the puzzle. I wasn’t sure, because if somebody has a lot of footage, I don’t like to audition if you don’t need to. I like to take a meeting and see what they do on the screen, and how they look on the screen in their footage. If they don’t have a lot of footage, then, of course, we’ll do a read.
But I wanted to find what I needed, somehow, in her performances, and I hadn’t quite found that yet. So, I thought maybe she was going to read, and then my editor, Chris Bell, who lives four houses down from me in the Santa Monica Mountains, called me up and said, “I’m editing this movie, and there’s scenes with this actor in it named Willa Fitzgerald, and you got to see her.” I said, “Wow, it’s really weird. I’ve been looking at her for this role,” and he said, “Come over to my house.”
I ran over to his house, and he showed me these raw scenes. This movie he was cutting hasn’t even been released yet, but she absolutely lit the screen on fire in this movie. I’m not sure how the movie is overall, but I know she was amazing in it, and it was the last piece of the puzzle I needed. So, I called Christy, and I said, “Okay, I think she’s the one. Let’s take a meeting.” When I took a meeting with her, she had so much compassion and love for her character, which was very important, and it was different than any of the other meetings I’d taken. People didn’t necessarily love and adore the character, and relate as much as she did, and that’s what I wanted.
Kyle was the same way. When we had our meeting, Kyle and I just talked about all the things he appreciated about his character, who’s chasing this woman with a gun. It’s really important to find actors who can find a connection with those characters. We cast them, and I can’t imagine there being any better choices. Some people will love the movie, some people won’t, but I think those two performances are undeniable.
Darling
In Strange Darling, nothing is what it seems when a twisted one-night stand spirals into a serial killer’s vicious murder spree. Written and directed by JT Mollner (Outlaws & Angels), Strange Darling stars Willa Fitzgerald (The Goldfinch, Reacher), Kyle Gallner (Smile, Dinner in America), Ed Begley Jr. (Better Call Saul, A Mighty Wind), and Barbara Hershey (Black Swan, Insidious). Distributed by Magenta Light Studios, Strange Darling is a Miramax and Spooky Pictures Production. The film is produced by Bill Block, Roy Lee, Steven Schneider, Giovanni Ribisi and Chris Ivan Cevic, with Giovanni Ribisi also serving as the Director of Photography.
Strange Darling
Cast
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.
