‘Femme’ Actors Nathan Stewart-Jarrett and George Mackay On Their Complex New Queer Erotic Thriller

Sam H. Freeman and Ng Choon Ping’s film Femme is a harrowing experience, to say the least. But it’s also an important, tender, and erotic story about what it means to be queer in the world today. And bringing that story to life are its two stars Nathan Stewart-Jarrett and George Mackay. While both have already proven their acting chops, such as Stewart-Jarrett in The Misfits and Angels In America and MacKay in 1917 and Wolf, Femme features career-defining performances from both actors.

In Femme:

Jules’ (Nathan Stewart-Jarrett) life and career as a drag queen are destroyed by a homophobic attack. But after a chance encounter with his attacker, the deeply closeted Preston (George MacKay), he is presented with the opportunity to exact revenge. Unrecognizable out of his wig and make-up, Jules infiltrates Preston’s life and in doing so discovers the lines of seduction, revenge, and power are blurred.

We spoke with Femme stars about their layered performances, MacKay’s story about Preston’s tattoos, and their appreciation for drag.

Dread Central: Nathan, I want to start with you. What attracted you to playing Jules and being in Femme?

Nathan Stewart-Jarrett: It was the script. I mean the revenge part of it, but the script I just thought was amazingly powerful. It was really, really economic, really classical, these two people just going towards tragedy basically. Within that economy, you have these really complex characters within a very simple story. So Sam and Ping just wrote this script and when I read it, I was like, wow, I really must be in it. And I honestly didn’t know how I was going to play Jules.

It’s weird because I think that, for me anyway, when I read something I’m like, I know exactly how I’m going to do this, that’s the time that I will not end up playing that role. Whereas when I either am avoiding something or really don’t know how I’m going to approach something, it’s usually the point that it comes to me and that I also need to work it out. Maybe that’s what it is, that acting is a way of exploring something.

DC: Oh yeah. I talked to Sam and Ng about how your character is an actor playing an actor who is an actor and there are so many layers to your performance. You’re acting when you are in drag, but you’re also acting with George’s character, and that must have been interesting for you to navigate these different kinds of mental spaces that Jules is in depending on who he’s with throughout Femme.

NSJ: Apart from [when he’s] Aphrodite, Jules is not very truthful. I think Jules actually as Aphrodite is at his most truthful in the film. But apart from that, he’s not actually very truthful. He doesn’t really show the cards. It was a very difficult thing to do in terms of you’re just worried that the camera’s not going to pick up on what you are thinking. You just pray that everyone’s getting it because if they’re not getting it, I’m just going to look like a real piece of wood over here.

But it’s hard to then sometimes discover the truth. And I think part of my job at home and just before prepping for scenes is like, well, what does Jules actually think and feel here? What is the kernel of truth here? So many layers you have to put on above that. And then I just watched George the whole time and listened as much as I could.

DC: George, Preston obviously is another complicated character. In a lot of the movies I’ve seen you in, you’re a nice boy and now you get to play a more complicated boy. I’m not going to say Preston is evil, but he’s got a lot going on to put it lightly. So what was it like for you to take on this role and go into that headspace of Preston?

George MacKay: Yeah, I mean, it sounds sort of disingenuous to the sort of seriousness of his actions and the damage that he causes within the story, but as an actor, it was actually amazing. It’s such a rich piece of material almost because he does do some pretty bad things and is not the nicest of men. I feel bad saying it was a pleasure, but there’s so much to him. There’s so much of this kind of internal conflict, which has then been hidden. Something Nathan and I have both talked about is how the armor that he uses is still an extension of him. He’s that type of man who has been turned all the more into that type of man because he can’t quite level with his sexuality. He’s spun himself around himself. And that complexity was just so much fun.

Again, it’s an amazing role because he is performing a version of himself all the time. His whole protection is not that he’s going to be subtle and out of notice. [Instead, it’s] ‘I’m going to be so big that no one questions it.” That’s his whole sort of attitude, which is of course a little bit scary, especially because he’s being so unkind so much of the time to begin with and so aggressive. But there is also, I guess, a sort of playfulness to be had in terms of a large performance. It’s almost like performing on stage. You just go that little bit bigger because the part requires it.

DC: Yeah. Well, I mean, you’re covered in tattoos in this movie, which I feel works as a kind of armor in a way. But I was also curious for you about that process and if there was meaning that you as an actor put behind any of the tattoos. As someone with a lot of tattoos, I’m always curious!

GM: Oh, no, no, totally. So there’s actually a word which I’ll keep to myself, but this kind of collar is a sort of bird and written inside of the bird is a Latin word. It’s Preston telling exactly who he is in terms of the story. All of this sleeve here Marie [Deehan, hair and makeup designer for Femme] and I designed. You’ve got subtle more feminine elements that [nod to the fact that] my mom was a costume designer in the ballet. I think from a working-class family, Preston’s mom would’ve meant a lot to him. So I have a ballerina hidden in here. I’ve got lots of other things that speak to my own femininity, which I used for Preston.

And then coupled that with more obvious symbols of toughness and aggression. Something very British with the lion made me think of football supporters. And then you’ve got the warriors, you’ve got the barbed wire. You’ve also got things that I imagined were different points in his past as just bad choices, like drunk tattoos on his legs and on his back. Yeah. So it was a map that was very true to me. Marie and I looked at a lot of references. Then a tattoo designer came up with a bunch of the [tattoos]. [We als] accepted the offers that this designer came with and went, yeah, this works for [Preston]. I’ve actually got the symbol for the Queen playing card behind my ear. Just little secrets like that.

DC: That’s so cool. Well, and then also Nathan, you have your own armor that you’re putting on in Femme when you are going into the drag persona and you’ve played drag queens before. What’s your relationship with drag outside of work?

NSJ: I don’t have a relationship with drag actually. I played drag queen in a play called Wig Out by Tarell Alvin McCraney in London ages ago. Her name’s Nina and I think now she would be considered trans, but in the language at that time, she was a drag queen. And so my relationship is doing research for those characters.

For Belize especially, I watched Drag Race. But that is my relationship of doing research and I have a great respect for the artistry. I think it’s incredibly hard and also I think it’s a really wonderful expression. I think there’s something about when you see a drag queen, when you see someone either on stage or on TV, whatever, it’s really an amalgamation of their taste and all of their references. It’s really amazing. You’re like, okay, well, they’ve drawn on that Horror movie, they’ve drawn that John Waters thing, and people drawing on current affairs. So it really is about someone’s taste and sensibility that I think is really kind of amazing that comes out in someone’s drag. So I have great respect for it. But no, I don’t do it outside of those three performances.

DC: Playing Aphrodite, was that freeing in a way? Does it feel cool to embody that persona or is it just another character you’re playing as an actor?

NSJ: I mean, any character like that on stage or anything like that, you get to play. There was an element of, especially with Jules, there were two performances. I don’t want to talk too much about the second one, but Jules at that moment was meant to control the room. That is Jules’ domain, a kingdom in that sense. Therefore, as an actor at that moment, I got to control the room. That was amazing.

DC: Hell yeah. Very Shakespearean, controlling the room like that with a performance.

NSJ: You have that as an actor, you have that on stage a lot. If you’re in a bit of a monologue and you pause, everyone’s waiting for you to say the word. But actually, there is a sense that you hold the room. And I really loved embodying that moment.

Some days were hard, my feet were killing, there was a lot going on. But we really tried to enjoy it. And I remember thinking to myself, you’re probably never going to do this again. I’ve got to take every second of this. And I felt like I did. I really, really enjoyed it. I almost broke my neck a couple of times. [Laughs]

It was also a whole bit that I did on the floor. I remember riding around on the floor and that isn’t in the movie. I should totally ask for those cuts. But yeah, it was something about embodying something I probably wouldn’t be able to do again and really being in the element of joy and power of the character. I’m sure that Remi Malick had this when he was doing Freddy Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody. Where you’re like, wow, this is the moment and this is the moment that the character feels this powerful, this joyous. And I was meant to feel that at the beginning of the film. So I was like, yeah, you’ve got to feel this rapture.

Femme is out now on digital and VOD.

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