Nathan Stewart-Jarrett and George MacKay didn’t take the easy road with Femme. There’s nothing simple about this story—an intoxicating mix of revenge thriller, erotic drama, and social commentary. It starts with violence, simmers with tension, and refuses to give its audience an easy out. And for the actors, it meant stepping into roles that required just as much restraint as intensity.
“The heaviness of the piece is one thing,” Stewart-Jarrett says. “But the script was just so nuanced, so tragic—I needed to be part of this.”
The film follows Jules, played by Stewart-Jarrett, a London drag performer who is attacked by a group of men outside a club, led by MacKay’s character, Preston. Months later, Jules spots his attacker in a gay sauna and takes advantage of Preston’s oblivion, setting in motion a game of seduction and retribution. But if it sounds like a straightforward revenge story, it’s not.
“I think a lot of the performances I’ve grown up loving are big performances,” MacKay says. “There’s something operatic about Preston’s performance of himself.”
That “performance” is what makes Femme so unsettling. Preston is a man trapped in his own internal war, deeply closeted and clinging to a hyper-masculine identity that doesn’t leave room for self-acceptance. He lashes out because he can’t reconcile who he is with who he’s been told to be. MacKay doesn’t play him as a monster—he plays him as a man drowning in his own contradictions.
“The attack, that initial moment, it’s all self-hatred,” MacKay says. “That’s been directed at Jules, but it’s him. He hates himself.”
Stewart-Jarrett’s Jules is equally complex. He’s a survivor, but his trauma doesn’t turn him into a victim. Instead, he watches. Waits. Strategizes.
“I watch George so much in this film,” he says. “To the point where I can’t really remember what I was doing in scenes. I can remember the surroundings, but mostly, I remember watching him.”
That hyper-awareness plays out in the film’s most unnerving moments—when Jules studies Preston, tracking the man who nearly destroyed him. And there’s one detail that Stewart-Jarrett locked onto early: Preston’s hands.
“Those are the hands that committed the crime,” he says. “I was always aware of where George’s hands were. At any second, they could come back and hit you.”
For all its tension, Femme is visually stunning, with cinematography that turns moments of violence and intimacy into something almost painterly. The attack is horrifying, but it’s shot with precision, forcing the audience to sit with the brutality instead of looking away. Later, a bathtub scene between Jules and Preston is framed like a Caravaggio painting—soft candlelight, shadows dancing on skin, intimacy with an edge of danger.
And yet, despite the film’s intensity, the shoot itself was—somehow—enjoyable.
“It’s a really confronting film,” Stewart-Jarrett says. “But I had a great time shooting it. I felt very safe. Of course, sometimes there’s a little bit of residue, but I didn’t feel battered and alone, even though my character was.”
That safety, that trust, is likely what allowed them to dive so deep into these characters. And it shows. Femme doesn’t just ask its actors to deliver powerful performances—it asks them to navigate an emotional minefield in nearly every scene.
“There’s a point where Preston fundamentally misses Jules,” MacKay says. “And we need to see that change, to see him decide to be what he thinks Jules wants him to be.”
It’s those moments that make Femme more than just a revenge thriller. It’s a story about power, perception, and the performances we put on to survive.
And it leaves you with an ending that lingers long after the credits roll.
Watch the interview above and then check out the trailer below.
