Mia Goth used Ikea magazines as a form of childhood escape.

Mia Goth was always dreaming of the future

Mia Goth was always dreaming of the future

The 29-year-old star - who was discovered aged 14 by fashion photographer Gemma Booth - dreamed of another life and found herself "trying to plan out my escape".

She told Total Film magazine: "I was in a constant state of escapism as a child. I would even flick through Ikea magazines and envision living in different homes and what it would be like to have a car.

"It was me and my mum, and I grew up in a single..."

She added: "Ikea magazines, watching movies, reading books... I was always trying to plan out my escape exit of the situation I was in."

The idea of dreaming and escape is a big part of new slasher movie 'Pearl' - a prequel to 'X' - and director Ti West pointed her in the direction of 'The Wizard of Oz' and 'Mary Poppins' as inspiration for the film as a whole.

He explained: "I definitely have a real reverence for the craft of filmmaking. I certainly approach movies visually, first and foremost.

"So, camera, direction and the aesthetics of the movie are very important to me. I do come to it from a classical approach.

"It just happens to be that the movies I make are, you know, kind of weird. It's a strange thing to see someone beheaded in a Disney movie."

Although Mia did watch 'The Wizard of Oz' and 'Mary Poppins' "during the beginning" of her preparation to "get a sense of the world we're in" and what the filmmaker wanted, she didn't take inspiration from them for her own acting.

She said: "Those films are quite magical and surreal; they're not very grounding. So I didn't refer to those films when I was building my character and trying to ground her in truth.

"I was actually looking at movies like Lars von Trier's 'Dancer in the Dark', with Bjork. That, for me, was far more useful, because I think that film is more honest. I had to root it in truth."


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