‘Strange Darling’ Star Willa Fitzgerald on the Shocking End of Her Thriller

[This story contains major spoilers for Strange Darling.]

Willa Fitzgerald’s former Reacher co-star Alan Ritchson once called her the best actor he’s ever worked with, and that was before he’d seen her critically acclaimed performance as The Lady in JT Mollner’s Strange Darling. Fitzgerald’s bold turn is being hailed by many critics and viewers as the finest work of her career. The opportunity arose because her tenure on Reacher was limited to just one season.

The popular Amazon Prime series takes its cues from Lee Child’s Jack Reacher book series and changes its cast and setting with each passing season. Fitzgerald’s exit opened the door to Strange Darling and Mike Flanagan’s The Fall of the House of Usher. She hasn’t been fazed or frustrated over the fact that she left a series that became a smash hit. Instead, she’s driven by the experience.

“As an actor, you never know what’s going to hit and what’s not going to hit. As far as my decision-making process goes for the jobs that I want to take and don’t want to take, factoring in its success is never something that I really think about because it doesn’t affect my experience as an artist on the job,” Fitzgerald tells The Hollywood Reporter.

Eventually, Fitzgerald received word about a must-read script involving a one-night stand that goes terribly awry, and she moved quickly to secure the role of “The Lady” in Strange Darling.

“[Strange Darling is] probably the best script I’ve ever read. It’s really exciting as an actor to see a project that is so clear in its vision. That’s not usually what you get handed,” Fitzgerald says. “So I immediately had a conversation with JT, and we just hit it off. We both really got each other and understood what the other person wanted to bring to the table.”

In Mollner’s nonlinear, six-chapter thriller, Kyle Gallner’s “The Demon” picks up Fitzgerald’s The Lady at a bar before heading straight to a nearby motel. Before heading inside, they have a long conversation where The Lady expresses her fears of Gallner’s character potentially being a serial killer, something he dismisses. However, one thing leads to another, and The Demon soon finds himself hunting The Lady by car and on foot.

Not everything is as it seems as Fitzgerald’s The Lady is actually short for the “Electric Lady serial killer.” Unbeknownst to her, Galler’s character turns out to be a cop who narrowly avoids becoming her latest victim during their motel room rendezvous. Naturally, Fitzgerald also did not see her character’s reveal coming as she read the script.

“I was totally caught off guard. I knew that there was something that we were leading to, but I definitely didn’t know it was that,” Fitzgerald shares. “From that point on, the really fun work began to understand why. As an actor, my favorite part of what I do is seeing the puzzle and figuring out how to put it together and how somebody gets to that point.”

In the end, Fitzgerald’s character is the last person standing (until she isn’t), subverting the final girl trope. Along the way, she explains that her pattern of killing mostly involves briefly seeing the devil in place of whomever she’s interacting with at the time. Yes, she has to kill at times as a means of survival and self-preservation, but the pattern remains intact until she sees the devil in her own reflection while inside the pickup truck of a Good Samaritan who tries to help her.

The Electric Lady then grabs her weapon, and not taking any chances, the Good Samaritan immediately draws her own weapon and guns her down in the passenger seat. However, after she’s offered a theory, Fitzgerald all but agrees that the Electric Lady was actually going to end her own life, not the life of the Good Samaritan, who, understandably, jumped the gun.

“I hesitate to give a definitive reading of the character, but what I can say about the Lady is that, fundamentally, she is someone who’s seeking out human connection and is thwarted by herself. And that final moment in the mirror and that recognition of self is deeply heartbreaking and deeply freeing. So I don’t think you’re wrong,” Fitzgerald says.

During a recent spoiler conversation with THR, Fitzgerald also discusses why she’s grateful that Mollner didn’t play any psychological mind games with her and Gallner in order to create the ever-changing dynamics of the film.

When Strange Darling came her way, Fitzgerald was able to read the script without being spoiled ahead of time. Her agent called and said, “I have an amazing movie that I just got sent and you have to be in it.” After reading the script, she immediately knew she had to be part of the film. “It’s probably the best script I’ve ever read. It speaks for itself, and it is entirely clear in what it is, what it’s doing and how JT wanted to shoot it,” Fitzgerald shares.

The marketing for the film follows the movie’s lead, serving as a prologue of sorts to the actual viewing experience. Did Fitzgerald expect the campaign to be what it is? “Yeah, I think the trailer is a perfect trailer for the movie. It captures the kinetic energy of what the movie is and the characters in it, without giving anything away,” she says. Fitzgerald commends the smart and specific editing of the trailer, noting that almost every trailer these days gives away the good parts of the movie, which is why she doesn’t watch trailers.

Fitzgerald’s character undergoes significant transformation, and the bandage around her head along with makeup and prosthetics for injuries help in achieving that transformation. “The character is very specific, and when you have that specific of a character who requires that much, it kind of changes you,” she notes.

While the word fearless gets thrown around a lot, it’s absolutely valid in the case of Fitzgerald’s performance. Despite the complicated motel room sequence and the scenes where she has to escape Kyle’s despicable serial killer character, Fitzgerald wasn’t fazed. “I loved shooting the whole movie, and all of the stuff in the motel. There’s so much between me and Kyle in those moments, and we had a lot of fun in all of those sequences. It was a very fun and gratifying set of scenes to shoot,” she explains.

At a certain point, her character takes refuge at a hippie couple’s house and has a bite of their monstrous concoction known as “Sunday breakfast.” Despite the intimidating appearance of the dish, Fitzgerald confirms they all ate it. “Ed Begley Jr. is vegan, so his [dish] didn’t have egg on it or something. Maybe it was vegan butter, but we all ate the same thing. That was real,” she laughs.

Discovering her character’s true identity as the Electric Lady serial killer caught Fitzgerald off guard while reading the script. “There’s a double exposure moment too. You see her kill the first person, and it doesn’t necessarily track right away what you’re seeing. Then, from that point on, the really fun work began to understand why,” she elaborates.

Fitzgerald has watched the film twice with an audience, noting their nervous laughter and reactions to her character. “There’s a lot of laughter that comes from nerves and uncertainty of how to interpret something they’re seeing. But she’s definitely not a psychopath,” she states.

The ending, where she sees the devil in her own reflection, is interpreted by Fitzgerald as a moment of both heartbreak and freedom. “There is something poetic and beautiful and heartbreaking about being seen by another person for who you are and for what you carry. That is certainly happening for the Lady in her final moments.”

Unlike other directors, Mollner didn’t employ psychological tactics to manipulate the actors. Fitzgerald appreciated the honesty and open communication on set. “If people were playing weird side games, things would’ve just gotten real weird real fast. You have to feel total trust, otherwise you leave work feeling kind of gross.”

Fitzgerald approached the character with total authenticity, understanding the chronological emotional arc before it became the nonlinear chapters seen in the film. “But if you watched the movie in chronological order, it would totally hold together because all of those things do lead to the next thing. It’s a movie that has a lot of heart and emotional truth. That’s why it works,” she concludes.

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Strange Darling is now playing in movie theaters.