Sophie Thatcher has spent much of her career caught inside genre nightmares, from the wilderness savagery of “Yellowjackets” to the more straightforward horror of “The Boogeyman” and “Heretic.” But as “Yellowjackets” comes to an end, Thatcher isn’t trying to escape genre. She wants to push further into the strange, work with filmmakers who can show her something new, and finally shed the traces of Natalie that she still recognizes in her performances.
Few filmmakers offer stranger terrain than Nicolas Winding Refn, whose “Her Private Hell”—his first feature since 2016’s “The Neon Demon,” following two full television series—is a surreal, nightmarish, and deliberately abstract plunge into grief, violence, and fractured family bonds (read our review). Thatcher plays Elle, a troubled young woman searching for her father as a mysterious mist engulfs a futuristic metropolis, and a serial killer is let loose, but the film operates more like an operatic fever dream than a conventional narrative. The cast also includes Charles Melton, Havana Rose Liu, Kristine Froseth, Dougray Scott, Diego Calva, Shioli Kutsuna, Aoi Yamada, and Hidetoshi Nishijima.
Ahead of the film’s July 24 theatrical release through NEON, Thatcher spoke to The Playlist about deciphering Refn’s elusive screenplay, the importance of Pino Donaggio’s score, her upcoming collaboration with Jennifer Kent, and why she remains open to something as commercial as Marvel’s “X-Men”—provided the filmmaker and material are right.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
The film has been polarizing for some viewers. What do you think that’s about, and what unlocked it for you when you first read the script?
The first time I read it, it was a very visceral experience, but there was still a lot of confusion. I’ve never felt so confused reading a script, and that itself was really enticing. I already had so much trust in him. Just to see his arc as a filmmaker, going from pretty realism to something otherworldly, magical, and really slow. I think this one is the most operatic, but even “The Neon Demon,” the stakes are here, and everything is larger than life. To see that arc, I was like, “Oh, this man has range and knows everything. He knows what he’s doing.”
I’d met with him twice before reading the script, and he told me about his death experience. Within that, I had trust immediately because he was sharing something so vulnerable and intimate. I was like, “OK, this is his story.” It’s incredibly abstract, but it also stands as a kind of fairy tale. It feels larger than life. It feels like a Hans Christian Andersen story. It was also the craziest script work I’ve ever done. Trying to dissect it, I learned a lot because there were so many interpretations, and within watching it, there are so many interpretations.
When you say it’s polarizing, I think that’s because there are so many interpretations, but also because you don’t get answers—ever. People are very used to being spoon-fed movies and instant gratification and serotonin through action. It’s not that at all. It’s about being there and being immersed in the experience. It’s like an installation art piece, which I know people will think is pretentious, but you just have to be open to it. I know he’s the only one who could make that, and I don’t think a lot of people are making movies like this right now.
“If it hadn’t been Refn, would you have had reservations about taking on something this abstract?
Yeah. I watched the “Pusher” films first, actually, and then I watched “Drive.” I’d heard about “The Neon Demon” because I was on Tumblr. I was such a Tumblr girl [laughs]. I knew that he had such an eye and was so stylized and specific within his vision. He’s created a style. To have that power, I was like, “Of course I’m going to follow that.”
I want to work with people who have their vision. He was very referential, but he very much believed in the vision and that it would come to you. Even if you don’t know in the moment, it will come. That’s what was so beautiful about seeing this process. Seeing the final cut and then seeing it together with the score, I was like, “Everything tied together because of the score.” I think the soundtrack is my favorite part of the movie.
The music helped unlock the melodrama for me. There’s also something mischievous and dark beneath Pino Donaggio’s score.
We would play Brian De Palma’s “Dressed to Kill,” Pino Donaggio, on set every day for all the bedroom stuff, for all of our stuff. Then I would play the “Don’t Look Now” soundtrack, which felt to me like a tragedy—leaning into the tragedy of it all. Because Elle is so incredibly sad and has so much emptiness, listening to that felt really informative. The soundtrack is, I think, my favorite part of the movie.
Were the cast members comparing their different interpretations of the film while making it?
Yeah. Even when I was doing interviews with Kristine [Froseth] and Havana [Rose Liu], I was like, “Oh, we all have very different interpretations of the movie.” But you’re learning from each person. I also think it will change each time you watch it, depending on what point you’re at in your life.
You don’t always find films like that nowadays because of clickbait and focusing on algorithms. People don’t have the patience to interpret. It’s very much about putting yourself into it rather than focusing on what other people are thinking, which I think a lot of people lean on nowadays.
Music seems important to you; you’ve released one EP, and you also appear to be moving further toward filmmaker-driven work.
Yeah. I’m making music—or trying to. Music is very free. Music, for me, is about having control because you lack so much control. This experience was interesting because he’s so collaborative. We were able to rewrite scenes together, and he would ask me for opinions. Everything mattered. Going forward, it’s all about collaboration. I want as much collaboration as possible because then it’s more gratifying.
Nic made me feel like an artist. I don’t always feel like an artist when I’m acting. Of course, it’s an art, but because I’ve been doing it forever, sometimes I’m like, “I know how to do this. I know how to do that,” and you go home feeling a little bit empty. He made me feel like we were doing something important. It was also because he shared all this really personal information about his story and his death experience. We were telling a story, so it felt like it was more than just something for me.
You’re also preparing to work with Jennifer Kent. What excites you about that project?
The film just got moved, but I think she is the coolest human being. Amazing taste, so empathetic, so in tune, and so smart. She’s the exact kind of collaborator. She is the ideal, and I can’t wait for this movie. I’m terrified because it’s a very strange story, and I’d be playing two characters. I don’t know how to describe it yet.
It’s science fiction, correct?
Yeah. I keep being like, “I’m not going to do any genre,” but I don’t want to do spoon-fed horror—that’s mainly what I meant. I’ve already done that character arc so many times, where it’s exactly the same. I don’t need to do that anymore. This is entirely different, and it’s Jennifer Kent. She has such a fresh outlook that I’m excited for that.
How do you envision the next five or ten years of your career? Between Refn, Kent, and your music, you seem ready to try something radically different.
I only want to work with people I can collaborate with. People I have similar visions with—or, no, I take that back. I want them to give me a new vision. I want to take in new things and experiences. With music, it’s about my taste. It’s about me making what I like. With movies, I just want to take in new experiences and learn from people I trust. That’s a very vulnerable thing. It’s not just about doing something to do it or for a paycheck.
I want to do movies that I would want to see, and I’m incredibly picky. Because “Yellowjackets” is ending now, I’m reaching a new chapter where I’m free. I want to lean as strange as possible and do things that are unexpected. I want to do things that surprise me and surprise others.
Have you finished shooting the final season of “Yellowjackets”?
Almost. We were at a night shoot until about 6 am last night, screaming and howling. We have two days left, and then I am free. I’m so grateful for that experience. It has taught me so much, and it’s made me so comfortable as an actor.
I feel like I’ve learned a lot from the character, but I’m very ready to strip away that character because I see her in every performance that I’ve done so far. That character, Natalie, is still kind of in there, and I’m ready to shed skin. Even though it started everything, I’m so grateful for everyone on that show, and I look up to everyone on that show.
Is there anything you can tease about the final season?
It keeps getting more and more wild. You thought it couldn’t go higher, but then it keeps getting higher. There will be answers, and there will be more questions. I feel like I say that every season. I don’t know what I can say.
There have been rumors connecting you to Marvel’s “X-Men.” Have you heard anything about that?
I haven’t heard that. I’m open. I’m open to anything. I don’t really know that universe. But if I connect with the script and if it’s something—because it’s on such a large scale—if it’s a story that can help us and help an audience, inform an audience, if there’s empathy there, then I’m open. It’s just about the collaborator and the script. I’m not ridding myself of, “Well, I can’t do commercial. I can’t do this. I can’t do that.” I’m incredibly open.
Are there filmmakers at the top of your list right now? I assume you would work with Refn again.
Yeah, Nic. I was just thinking about Gregg Araki, like him in the ’90s. I love “Mysterious Skin.” Todd Solondz, Kelly Reichardt—I always say those—Claire Denis. There are so many. Jim Jarmusch. Those are the people who come to the top of my head and whom I always reference.
I feel like we have similar media libraries. I also read that you’re a big Blonde Redhead fan; they’re one of my favorite bands.
Yeah, they were the first band—or the first live concert—that I went to. And they’re my favorite. They’re still my biggest inspiration, I think.
“Her Private Hell” opens in theaters on July 24 through NEON.
