Current:Home > reviewsIn ‘The Crow,’ FKA Twigs had to confront herself. What she learned was 'beautiful.’ -Elevate Money Guide
In ‘The Crow,’ FKA Twigs had to confront herself. What she learned was 'beautiful.’
View
Date:2025-04-17 11:43:31
FKA Twigs is ready to exhale.
On Monday night, the Grammy-nominated artist unveiled her upcoming album, “Eusexua,” at an intimate listening party in New York. “It was honestly incredible,” Twigs says over Zoom the next day. “I woke up and I feel like a massive weight is off my shoulders.”
She’s grateful, too, that she gets to share her new movie this same week: “The Crow” (in theaters Friday), a reboot of the 1994 gothic superhero film starring Brandon Lee. The supernatural romance follows a brooding young man named Eric (Bill Skarsgård), who quite literally travels to hell and back to save his girlfriend, Shelly (Twigs), after she’s murdered by a gang.
Join our Watch Party!Sign up to receive USA TODAY's movie and TV recommendations right in your inbox
Although extremely violent at times, the R-rated movie is unexpectedly swoony and delicate as the couple bond over past trauma and their insatiable thirst to live. “It’s quite beautifully broken,” Twigs says, “but it’s real and it’s deep and it’s instant.”
Need a break? Play the USA TODAY Daily Crossword Puzzle.
FKA Twigs learned 'to face myself' while making 'The Crow' movie
“The Crow” proved cathartic for Twigs, 36, whose real name is Tahliah Barnett. She made her big-screen debut in 2019’s “Honey Boy” alongside Shia LaBeouf. They dated for less than a year, and in late 2020, she sued LaBeouf, accusing him of sexual battery, assault and infliction of emotional distress. He denied her allegations, and the lawsuit will head to trial in October.
Twigs wasn’t actively seeking acting roles when she first met with “Crow” director Rupert Sanders in early 2022. Rather, “I was searching for change,” she says. “It offered such an amazing opportunity to break out of the loop I was in and the patterns in my life. Shelly was going through that as well, so I was able to act out a lot of my fantasies through the character.”
Sanders was struck by Twigs in her heart-wrenching "Cellophane" music video and didn't even ask her to audition. "She's got a beguiling power to her; she felt otherworldly and magical," he says. "It was very important to me that we fell in love with Shelly, and when she died, we grieved alongside Eric."
If Twigs learned one thing from the character, it’s that “I really deserve to be loved in a beautiful, tender and respectful way,” says the star, who revealed last year that she was dating photographer Jordan Hemingway. “It sounds like an obvious thing, but through playing Shelly, I realized that everybody deserves to experience a pure relationship,” whether romantic or platonic.
“I don’t want to put all of my healing journey onto ‘The Crow,’ ” Twigs adds. “But it definitely initiated something inside me: a belief in myself.” Periodically throughout shooting in Prague, Sanders would assemble the cast and crew to screen footage at a movie theater. The experience was strangely therapeutic, getting to watch herself play someone as raw and vulnerable as Shelly.
“I think I needed to face myself,” Twigs says. “It’s a bizarre life experience of not knowing exactly who I was in that moment, and then being confronted with myself on a huge screen and being able to learn through that. It's very, very weird, but I found it helpful.”
In her downtime, she also immersed herself in the city’s vibrant techno music scene, which went on to inspire her first studio album since 2019’s “Magdalene.” The new music “wouldn’t be what it was if I hadn’t experienced my off-‘Crow’ time,” Twigs says. “It’s been a really revolutionary project for me. I feel like the universe knew that I needed it.”
Along with FKA Twigs' new album, she has a Nicolas Cage movie and FX show
After "The Crow," Twigs is continuing to make inroads into film and TV. As someone who needs to collaborate face to face, “COVID, for me, was creatively a bit of a wipeout," she says. But in the past few months, the actress says she has been "diving into" development on a martial arts series for FX, which is based on her cinematic "Sad Day" music video.
The British singer is now shooting “The Carpenter’s Son” with Nicolas Cage, a horror movie about the childhood of Jesus Christ. “What we’re creating is so new. I’ve never seen anything like it before,” she teases. “It’s amazing to go from this biblical-focused desert land (filming in Greece), and now I’m in a beautiful hotel in New York. I'm just thinking, ‘Wow, my life is insane.’ ”
With all her experience creating music videos, Twigs would one day like to write and direct a full-length movie. “It’s something I think about a lot,” she says, “but I want to have something really important to say.”
She would love to collaborate with filmmakers Darren Aronofsky ("Black Swan"), Claire Denis ("High Life") and Céline Sciamma ("Portrait of a Lady on Fire") – people who are “daring” and “work from the gut.”
“I’ve always said, ‘When the world’s doing one thing, I just want to go in the opposite direction,’ ” says Twigs, who broke out with her avant-garde “LP1” in 2014. “For me to do what I do, I have to be relentless. I want my vision to be so singular and so direct, like a laser needs to pierce through.”
She would never dare to give her younger self advice. Simply put, “that young woman wouldn’t listen to anything,” Twigs adds with a smile. “She would’ve been like, ‘You know what? I’m good. I’m on my path.’ ”
veryGood! (4)
Related
- US appeals court rejects Nasdaq’s diversity rules for company boards
- Overworked and understaffed: Kaiser workers are on the brink of a nationwide strike
- Pregnant Jessie James Decker and Eric Decker Share How Their Kids Reacted to Baby No. 4
- Heidi Klum Reveals the Relatable Lesson Her Kids Have Taught Her
- Costco membership growth 'robust,' even amid fee increase: What to know about earnings release
- Tesla sued by EEOC for allegedly allowing a racist and hostile work environment
- Immediately stop using '5in1' baby rocker due to suffocation, strangulation risk, regulators say
- 3-year-old boy shot dead while in car with his mom
- Sonya Massey's father decries possible release of former deputy charged with her death
- British Museum asks public to help recover stolen gems and jewelry
Ranking
- Mets have visions of grandeur, and a dynasty, with Juan Soto as major catalyst
- Kelsea Ballerini Reveals If She'd Do Outer Banks Cameo With Boyfriend Chase Stokes
- Mexico’s president slams US aid for Ukraine and sanctions on Venezuela and Cuba
- Man shot and wounded at New Mexico protest over installation of Spanish conquistador statue
- US appeals court rejects Nasdaq’s diversity rules for company boards
- What to know as fall vaccinations against COVID, flu and RSV get underway
- Soldier dad disguised as school mascot surprises son in class
- The tiny worm at the heart of regeneration science
Recommendation
Small twin
Polish democracy champion Lech Walesa turns 80 and comments on his country’s upcoming election
Orioles announce new 30-year deal to stay at Camden Yards
McCarthy launches last-ditch plan to keep government open but with steep 30% cuts to many agencies
Where will Elmo go? HBO moves away from 'Sesame Street'
Arrest warrants issued for Baton Rouge police officers in the BRPD Street Crimes Unit
What happens to the stock market if the government shuts down? The dollars and cents of it
Jawlene, Jawlene! Florida alligator missing top jaw gets punny Dolly Parton name