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When Hannah Einbinder and Gillian Anderson were announced as the stars of Teenage Sex And Death At Camp Miasma—filmmaker Jane Schoenbrun’s follow-up to the acclaimed I Saw The TV Glow—everyone made the same joke:
“Gee, Hannah sure has a type!”
The idea being that, after five seasons opposite Jean Smart on Hacks, Einbinder was once again starring in a project where she shared an intimate bond with an iconic actress many years her senior.
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But there are several more meta layers to the pair’s casting that make Camp Miasma an especially intoxicating affair. In the genre-bending film, Einbinder plays Kris, a young director hired to revitalize a slasher franchise who connects with the original movie’s elusive “Final Girl” Billy (Anderson), only to realize her adult sexual hang-ups are tied up in her lifelong obsession with the star’s character—someone she both wanted to be and be with.
In that sense, it’s no coincidence that the two women are—as Anderson recently put it—the “same vibe different font.” Especially back in the ’90s, when she was rocking red hair for The X-Files, you can definitely see some similarities between the two, which Shoenbrun admits they intentionally wanted to lean into to further intensify the psychosexual queer yearning at the heart of their film.
With Teenage Sex And Death At Camp Miasma now opening in theaters across the country, Queerty sat down with the director & Einbinder to discuss the leading ladies’ physical—and emotional—connection and how it helped fuel one of the best & most unexpectedly cathartic movies of the year.
You can watch our conversation with Jane Schoenbrun & Hannah Einbinder above, or read our brief interview with the director & star of Teenage Sex & Death At Camp Miasma below.
QUEERTY: The fabulous Gillian Anderson just posted some throwback photos of herself side-by-side with pictures of Hannah and said, “same vibe different font”—first of all, Hannah, how did that make you feel?
HANNAH EINBINDER: I would never be so audacious as to compare myself to the hot legend, frankly. But I was shocked at how many photos were at least similar in some some ways. She’s unreal! I can’t believe that. And this is—I’ve been saying it a lot, but—my last life for sure. I’m not gonna come back; I’m not gonna be a leaf next time. Like, I’ve done all I need to do here. My soul can move on. So, yeah, I’m good!
It’s amazing! But it did have me wondering, Jane, how did the casting of these two come about? Who joined first? And was it intentional then to have two actresses who share “the same vibe,” as Gillian said?
JANE SCHOENBRUN: Yeah, no, I remember thinking about it and being like, “Oh, this that makes it like extra freaky,” you know? [Laughs.] Like, the movie is a little psychosexual, of course—
EINBINDER: A little? Girl!
SCHOENBRUN: A wee bit psychosexual! But, yeah, there’s the Persona thing, the fact that like you can kind of imagine Hannah playing young Gillian—I was like, “That’s so good! No one’s made anything freaky like this with some redheads!” So when I saw [that post,] I felt vindicated because that was always part of the scheme.
It totally adds another layer of “psychosexual.” And, oftentimes, as young queer people, there are these people we maybe see our future selves in, and it’s the eternal question of “Do I want to be them, or be with them?”
SCHOENBRUN: Oh yeah, very intentional!
So then, Hannah, if your character Kris becomes liberated by Gillian’s, so to speak, then lets blur the lines of fiction & reality even further: How did working with Gillian liberate you?
EINBINDER: It was incredible! I mean, I found that like her process was really interesting. I feel like she was incredibly diligent and detail oriented, while also having a real spontaneity. We had a lot of conversations about the scene work, why we were doing what we were doing, how to make sense of our physicality and what it should be and why it should be that way—I felt like there was a lot of process that she was bringing that I kind of absorbed, and it affected the way that I was approaching the work, too
Beautiful performances from the both of you! And I know I have to wrap there, but before I go I have to shout out the Donna Lewis [“I Love You Always Forever”] needle drop, because that’s a queer anthem and I’m glad it’s getting the spotlight it deserves!
EINBINDER: [Squeals.]
SCHOENBRUN: That’s the best song!
EINBINDER: That’s the best song ever.
SCHOENBRUN: [Laughs.] That might be the best song ever.
Teenage Sex & Death At Camp Miasma is now playing in select theaters.
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