Stacy Martin – Parallel Lives

A chorus of doorbell rings and dog barks punctuates my zoom call with Stacy Martin. The anglo-french actress is joining from Los Angeles, where, between awards-season appearances, she’s juggling press for Mona Fastvold’s movie musical The Testament of Ann Lee and Jan Ole Gerster’s Noir Mystery Islands. The noise could derail anyone else’s focus, but she remains unfazed. “You have to include all this in the interview. It’s like a choir!” she laughs, holding up one of the culprits – a lap dog patiently awaiting his turn in the spotlight. “This is Arlo. Crazy boy!”

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That cool composure carries over to her on-screen work as well. From her breakout in Lars von Trier’s erotic epic Nymphomaniac (2013) to her turn in Brady Corbet’s spiralling psychodrama Vox Lux (2018), Stacy gravitates toward enigmatic characters, bringing them to life with quiet intensity. She never overplays; instead, she lets mystery live in the spaces between words and gestures. “I like playing women who aren’t always clear-cut,” she says. “Sometimes a reaction seems disconnected or inappropriate, but it can also be a coping mechanism. I love watching people navigate situations they don’t fully understand.” 

Her attraction to nuance may very well trace back to her formative years abroad. From the ages of seven to thirteen, she lived in Japan – a formative stretch she recalls as a kind of puzzle. “I was always drawn to difference and figuring out how to fit in or not,” she reflects. “In Japan, I was never going to blend in, but I found ways to communicate. The language was so different, the writing so different. It pushed me beyond who I thought I was at that point.” That sense of displacement, and the curiosity it fostered, continues to guide her choices, drawing her to roles that explore the unexpected ways people navigate the world.

In Islands, that fascination with the in-between takes on a darker hue. She plays Anne, a former television actress whose husband mysteriously disappears while the family is on holiday in Fuerteventura. As Anne embarks on a clandestine affair with her son’s tennis coach, Tom (Sam Riley), tension builds, from the watchful island police to the ever-questioning audience. She infuses the role with subtle layers, allowing the viewer to oscillate between empathy and suspicion. Every glance feels deliberately measured, keeping us unsure of how much Anne knows – or how far she might go to protect her secrets.

When she first read the script, Stacy was struck by its echo of classic Hitchcockian thrillers, where a central figure’s instability drives the story. The challenge of sustaining that mystery without losing her own sense of the character proved thrilling. “I wanted Anne to feel confusing and sometimes misleading to the audience, but never to me,” she explains. On set, that meant exploring scenes through multiple intentions, allowing uncertainty to emerge naturally in the edit. “We did different takes, so we could play with that ambiguity,” she says. “It creates a strange sense of confusion for the audience, which felt exactly right.”

Islands also allowed her to explore desire in its many shades. Her portrayal captures Anne’s sexuality in flux – dangerous, vulnerable, desperate – without ever settling into a single register. “It’s part of how we communicate as human beings,” Stacy reflects. “Sometimes there’s connection, sometimes there isn’t. Sometimes it’s platonic, sometimes it’s sexual. What’s interesting with female characters is that tension is usually imposed on them, when really it exists between people. I’m more interested in what happens between people – what makes them connect, and how that can be shaped – rather than the idea of being a ‘sexual woman.’”

Her sensitivity to these dynamics carries into The Testament of Ann Lee as well. In Mona Fastvold’s 18th-century-set musical, Stacy plays Jane “Mother” Wardley, leader of the Shaking Quakers, a radical religious sect known for ecstatic worship and unconventional social codes. Jane becomes a spiritual guide to Ann Lee (Amanda Seyfried), shaping her religious awakening and eventual break from England. Though Jane is a historical figure, the archival record offers only fragments, leaving her ample room for interpretation. “There isn’t much to go on,” she says, “but the rhythm and the way scenes were written all gave me a foundation to build her character.”

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Working with director Mona Fastvold deepened that sense of security. She had previously appeared in projects Mona cowrote with Brady Corbet, but this marked their first collaboration with Mona at the helm. “She’s incredibly generous,” Stacy says. “Very open, almost maternal in the way she creates a space.” Their shared creative history fostered an easy shorthand. At one point, Stacy likened Jane’s charisma to that of Céline Dion – “someone who walks into a room and immediately envelops you with warmth and power.” Mona laughed but encouraged the instinct. “She said, ‘I didn’t expect Céline Dion, but go for it,’” she recalls. “That kind of trust is freeing.”

That sense of ease, she suggests, is never accidental. For Stacy, choosing a project often begins with the director. “Directors, for me, are such a strong indicator of things,” she says. “They dictate so much of the script and inform every creative decision, from costumes to cinematography to sound.” Long before she steps on set, she is already picturing the world they intend to build and the tone that will shape it. “If I don’t know what they’re going to do, that freaks me out,” she admits. As an actor, she needs a vision clear enough to believe in and enter fully, even in moments of uncertainty or risk. Without that framework, she would rather step back.

Beyond acting and choosing projects, Stacy has gained a rare perspective from serving on juries at international film festivals. “I love doing it,” she says. “I was part of the Cannes Short Film Festival and the Venice main competition, and then this year, the Lisbon Film Festival. They’re all very different, so you get to see a wide variety of films.” The experience has given her an inside look at how movies are celebrated. “People look at a film that won the Palme d’Or, for example, and think, ‘Well, that’s the best film,’” she explains. “But it won with this specific jury. Had it been another jury, it could have been a completely different film. That was really eye-opening.”

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That same discernment and close attention to how creative decisions are made has nudged her toward a new role, this time behind the camera. Last year, she directed her first short film, now in post-production. “I never felt confident enough before,” she admits. “But it finally felt like the right time, and I loved the process.” Starring Diana Quick and Emily Beecham, the film begins with a son’s arrest and follows his mother’s walk home from the police station, where shock slowly curdles into betrayal. She comes to realise he manipulated her into believing she had Alzheimer’s in order to gain control of her assets – a revelation that reframes everything she thought she knew about her own mind.

If the experience felt daunting, it was also clarifying. Rather than a reinvention, she sees directing as another way of examining character and power from a wider vantage point. Watching her vision take shape proved unexpectedly energising. “When I act, I can get self-conscious watching myself,” she says. “But directing allowed me to focus on everyone else – the actors, the DP, the costume designer.” She smiles. “It’s like throwing a dinner party, but better. You bring people together, set the tone and watch it all come together. That feeling was deeply invigorating.”

After such a prolific stretch, she jokes, it might be time for “retirement.” Yet as Arlo resumes barking and another doorbell chime interrupts our call, the idea feels improbable. The commotion barely fazes her. For Stacy, it’s all part of the charm – a reminder that curiosity and a little unpredictability will always shape what comes next.