Fighter, killer, star, superhero? Maxine Minx is one hell of a character but describing her as a "superhero" may at first seem a little strange. However, that's exactly how star Mia Goth and writer/director Ti West approached their returning lead for their new film MaXXXine.
Closing the trilogy following on from X and Pearl, we pick up with Goth's Maxine as she pursues her dreams of becoming an actor in Hollywood following a successful career in the porn industry. However, the past isn't quite finished with her yet and further complicating matters is the fact that serial killer the Night Stalker is on the loose too.
Not that Maxine 'fucking' Minx can't handle that as she is one resourceful and bold woman. In fact, it's her "fearlessness" in this story that led to Goth approaching her character as if she's a "superhero", as the actor explained in conversation with GamesRadar+ and the Inside Total Film podcast.
She revealed: "There’s such a fearlessness to Maxine, she’s just larger than life. She has a fearlessness to her that I’ve never come across in another character before and the way I was able to make sense of it was to give her these superhero like qualities."
Goth is right as Maxine holds her own, as one particularly brutal scene in an alleyway which sees her encounter a man dressed as Buster Keaton easily proves. And that's before we get into the meat of the story.
Writer/director Ti West agrees that in MaXXXine she is a superhero, which for the filmmaker fits in with his bigger vision for this chapter. As he explains: "The first movie is very contained and this is meant to be a big swan song for the series in a way. We take her off these isolated, more personal stories and bring her into a broad ensemble. I think we just approach this movie stylistically too very differently."
He continues: "So it's meant to be, I wouldn't call it a victory lap per se, but it was meant to be a fun conclusion to this trilogy that we never anticipated making. And I think in that regard, I think she plays a confident, larger than life, able to handle herself kind of person. And so, while she faces a lot of threats in this movie, she's a threat herself."
MaXXXine releases in theaters worldwide on July 5. For more from our interviews, here's the team discussing shooting at locations from Hitchcock's Psycho and Goth teasing Guillermo del Toro’s upcoming Frankenstein movie.
And to stay up to date with what is coming soon to the big screen, check out our guide to the upcoming movies to watch out for.
