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George MacKay and Nathan Stewart-Jarrett join Kyle Meredith to discuss Femme, a revenge thriller about Jules, who under the name Aphrodite Banks has a place among London’s celebrated drag artists. Listen to the new episode above, or wherever you get your podcasts.
One night after a show, Jules steps out to get some cigarettes and is brutally attacked by a man out with a gang of his friends. Although Jules is able to recover physically, he withdraws from the outside world, traumatized. Months later, he recognizes his attacker by chance in a gay sauna. Without make-up and wrapped only in a towel, Jules is able to approach the other man incognito and find out who he is and begins an affair with the closeted Preston, with a plan to take his revenge.
Both characters have a conflicting duality, and required an adjustment for the actors playing them. MacKay turns to big roles he’s loved for inspiration, such as John Leguizamo as Tybalt in Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet, while Stewart-Jarrett turned inward to tune himself after his last role in the show Culprits. The roles demand internal acting and self-hatred, which was challenging.
MacKay says, “The initial attack that happens, there’s this sort of spark of this relationship. I remember when we filmed it, there was a day that [directors] Sam [H. Freeman] and [Ng Choon] Ping said, ‘We need some extra stuff from Preston,’ and we kicked up a shot, from Jules’ point of view, and the direction I got on the day was basically just say everything to yourself… It’s all self-hatred.”
Listen to MacKay and Stewart-Jarrett talk about Femme above, or watch the interview below. To keep up to date with all the latest from Kyle Meredith With… follow on your favorite podcast platform; and stay up on all our series by following the Consequence Podcast Network.