Elizabeth Debicki was drawn to playing a director in horror film Maxxxine because it was “so different” from her starring turn as Diana, Princess of Wales in The Crown.
The horror film, set in 1980s Hollywood, is the final instalment in the Ti West-directed trilogy which features British actress Mia Goth as adult film star and aspiring actress Maxine Minx.
Debicki, who won an Emmy and a Golden Globe for her role as Diana in the last two seasons of The Crown, said she chose this project because it was “completely different” to the hit drama series.
“I chose to do it because it is was so different,” she told the PA news agency at the red carpet premiere of Maxxxine at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles.
“I wanted to do it because I needed to break The Crown spell a little bit as an actor.
“For me, the idea of success has always been about playing something that’s different to the last thing that you did, because it’s more interesting for my brain and you always just want to get better at what you’re doing and that’s usually about bumping up against the last thing, and so that is what this was for me.
“It was really fun, I had a really good time.”
The 33-year-old, who plays director Elizabeth Bender in the film, added that there were “not enough good things to say” about leading star Goth – who rose to fame in the first two films of the trilogy titled Pearl and X.
On working with a star-studded cast including Debicki, Kevin Bacon and Lily Collins, Goth told PA: “I loved them all before actually having the chance to work with them.
“I was so eager to see what it was that they were going to bring to the table, what they were going to bring to set and I was blown away by it and it was such an enjoyable part of filming this movie, having the opportunity to work with such a range of actors that I’ve looked up to for a long time and they did not disappoint – they really excel in this movie.”
Goth described completing the trilogy as “bittersweet”.
“I mean it’s been such a journey, I’ve known Ti now for four years which is so crazy to me,” the 30-year-old said.
“It’s been one of the most creatively fulfilling experiences I’ve ever had and it feels like the perfect way to cap this trilogy.”
Among the stars at the premiere was actress Collins, who had her hair chopped into a short bob before the premiere, singer-turned-actress Halsey and Footloose actor Bacon – alongside his wife Kyra Sedgwick and their two children Travis and Sosie.
On how he came to play a private investigator in Maxxxine, Bacon told PA: “I had a conversation with Ti West, I reached out to him because I had seen two of his films, I’d actually seen more of them, but the film X and the film Pearl, both of them, I just loved them, I thought they were fantastic.
“So I said, ‘hey, can I just meet you and talk’, not knowing that there was going to be Maxxxine, I didn’t know that it was part of a trilogy and he said ‘Yeah, I’ve got another movie and maybe there is a part’.”
The 65-year-old also explained why he is a big fan of the horror genre.
“The thing I like about horror is that a lot of times you are working with limited funds, you’re working with a limited budget, you’re trying to put something together for almost no money and that was the case with X and Pearl – they did it on a shoestring budget,” he told PA.
“People who can do horror or thriller, work in that genre, and turn it into something that’s really exciting and profitable, I love that.”
Maxxxine is released in the UK on July 5.