DRESSED TO KILL
Marianne Jean-Baptiste on horror and lonely hearts…
Had you followed Peter Strickland’s work before you came onboard In Fabric?
No. I was sent the script and my agent was like, “Here’s the script. Don’t read it yet. We’re going to send you some of the stuff that he’s done, to put it in context.” But I ignored him and just read the script! I thought it was really interesting. I didn’t foresee what you see on screen now but you got a sense of the world that he was going to paint when you read it. So I read it and then he sent me Berberian Sound Studio and Duke Of Burgundy and I said, “Okay, this is an adventure I’d like to go on.”
Do you see it as a horror movie? The moment with the washing machine is really unsettling...
It is unsettling. What’s interesting is that it’s a washing machine and it’s very domestic. Even though it becomes a demonic washing machine! Maybe I just feel that way because you’re so invested in those moments as being real… which is why I refuse to see it as horror. But it actually may well be. Personally, I grew up on Armchair Thriller, Tales Of The Unexpected and Hammer House Of Horror. I called them “chillers”; they were creepy and atmospheric and something wicked was going on…
It also feels very nostalgic. The way Sheila scans the Lonely Hearts column, for example…
Oh certainly, very nostalgic. I think with Sheila, it was very important for Peter to have the whole Lonely Hearts thing. This is pre-Match. com. Looking through the papers. That whole thing of writing letters, posting letters, waiting for a response. It’s not that thing where you can pick up your phone and go, “He likes me!” You’d have to literally wait!
What was it like shooting scenes in a derelict department store in Croydon?
Oh, it was awful! That one floor we took over… it was filthy, it was scary. Myself, the costume designer, the make-up artist and the dressers… somebody would want to go to the toilet and it’d be, “Do you want to go? Yeah, let’s all go…” We wouldn’t go on our own! It was so creepy!