Mia Goth will win an Oscar one day. I mean, surely, she has to! Even though award institutions don't traditionally appear to celebrate the type of independent, horror-based films that the 29-year-old is known for displaying her best work.
2023, in particular, has been especially epic for the British actress, as two of her critically-acclaimed films have reached her native shores after receiving colossal praise from movie-goers and critics in the States. The first is the slasher horror movie Pearl in which Mia plays the titular character who feels trapped while caring for her paralysed father on a Texas ranch in 1912 while being chaperoned by her strict and super-religious mother. Dreaming of stardom, she soon heads to Hollywood, but her life's early repressions are soon drawn out in the sadistic side of her personality.
They've goth to play sisters!
The Ti-west directed project, which was a prequel to the 2022 movie X, earned Mia rave reviews, with the New Statesman writing: "Pearl wants so badly to be a star. Part of the film's pleasure lies in realising that Goth already is." The Observer UK added: "Goth is riotously entertaining throughout, but two specific scenes, in both of which the camera rests solely on her face for an extended shot, capture the full force of her unnerving talent."
That alone is a spectacular reception for an actress during one year, but Mia has had the opportunity to show off her talents in another recent movie called Infinity Pool. In the flick, seductively mysterious Gabi (Mia) guides a holidaying couple (Alexander Skarsgård and Cleopatra Coleman) to a world of violence and hedonism, which unfolds into tremendous horror for the pair. Once again, Mia's praises were sung, with Film Inquiry writing: "Gloriously unhinged, Infinity Pool is a visceral and chaotic dive into depravity cementing Mia Goth as our newest horror queen."
So, while it seems like Mia has popped out of nowhere to be Hollywood's new independent horror queen, she's actually been working her socks off for a long time. The actress, who is the granddaughter of Brazilian actress Maria Gladys and American artist Lee Jaffe, first entered the entertainment world as a model before bagging her first acting gig in the 2013 erotic film Nymphomaniac. She followed that up with the survival film Everest, and in 2019 starred alongside Dakota Johnson and Tilda Swinton in the supernatural horror film Suspiria.
It's safe to say that Mia has always been enticed by movies that are a far cry from the usual big-budget Hollywood blockbuster, and she indeed chooses her projects well and has a natural knack for acting. However, she has always had an on/off relationship with the business. Speaking to W Magazine earlier this year, she said: "I grew up with my grandma for a while in Brazil, and she's an actress there. And I saw firsthand the highs are really high, but then also the lows can be really, really low. And I saw her struggle, and I think that really stuck with me, you know, for life really." Mia added: "With everything I try to do in my life, I'm just trying to feel safe at all times, and being an actor, it always feels like such a fluke. You just feel like it's always just going to be taken from you at any minute. Whenever I finish a job, I'm certain I'm never gonna work again."
Despite her concerns, we know that Mia is a talent Hollywood should be lucky to have, and with the tide turning in her favour, we're sure it's soon that her mantlepiece will start filling up with trophies.
