How Mia Goth tackled the killer monologue and unique acting challenge of ‘X’ prequel ‘Pearl’
After wrapping Ti West‘s slyly subversive slasher film “X” — starring as both Maxine Minx, an aspiring starlet in a troupe of young pornographers and, under prosthetics, the deadly biddy Pearl, whose farmhouse plays host to their ill-fated, X-rated shoot — most actors might have taken a break. A long vacation. Time to recharge. But Mia Goth is not most actors. Plus, she had a monologue for the ages to prepare for.
So instead, days later, she and West and their crew launched right into work on their prequel, “Pearl,” a darkly comedic gambit that turns back the clock six decades from “X"s 1970s-set Texas massacre to a World War I-era Technicolor fantasia — and proves, in her third and most virtuosic performance in these films thus far, that the singular Goth was long overdue for a leading star turn. (The question is: Will audiences, the industry and awards voters take note?)
Released by A24 this past weekend to critical raves after a debut at the Venice Film Festival, the period psycho-thriller lands just six months after “X” hit theaters. The prequel zeroes in on Pearl, a naïve young woman aching to escape her isolated rural life, who sours from starry-eyed farm girl into something
