WARNING: The following contains spoilers for X, in theaters now.
In Ti West’s X, Mia Goth delivered another exhilarating performance, proving she was one of the best modern scream queens around. Her Mia ended up being the final girl after a shocking twist where she had to kill the old folks, Howard and Pearl, who owned the desolate Texas farm Maxine’s crew was shooting their secret porno at in the ’70s. However, while it was demented seeing Howard and Pearl go from quiet to savage murderers, X had one more twist up its bloody sleeve — and the funny thing is, it wasn’t even included in the movie, and it actually called back to Tropic Thunder.
In the credits for X, it comes to light that Goth pulled double duty as the hero and villain of the story and became unrecognizable as the wrinkly Pearl. She admitted it was a challenge being in heavy prosthetics, especially because it took hours to get right, but thanks to WETA being nearby in New Zealand, where West shot the film, they got the job done.
Interestingly, Goth viewed both roles as sympathetic, feeling for Maxine being targeted for enjoying her sexuality, as well as for Pearl, who went berserker after growing frail, losing her sensuality and not being able to be satisfied by Howard. This allowed the actress to explore the duality of that headspace between freedom and oppression, which will be dissected more in the prequel about Pearl’s origin story.
As for the Tropic Thunder comparison, well, this bombshell about an actor going incognito under heavy makeup is similar to when Tom Cruise became studio executive, Les Grossman. Many fans didn’t realize Cruise was the profane, ill-tempered boss who had no heart for anyone in the industry. He encouraged violence on set, threatened workers, drafted impossible deadlines and even looked to capitalize on death after Ben Stiller’s Tugg got kidnapped filming Grossman’s movie, which was unlike most Cruise performances before it.
Cruise cut one of the funniest performances ever, and it was a far cry from the romance, drama and action movies fans were accustomed to seeing him in. And a similar situation presented itself to Goth, who took her villainous role in X and ran with it in the same way Cruise did in Tropic Thunder all those years ago.
See how Goth fooled folks as Pearl in X, now playing in theaters.
About The Author
