Sophie Thatcher knows what you think about her. She’s seen the headlines and social media posts. She’s dark. Maybe it’s the acting choices, like Natalie, her tortured teen on “Yellowjackets,” or an abducted missionary in “Heretic,” or the enslaved robot girlfriend in “Companion.” Perhaps it’s her Mormon upbringing, which she believes has fostered “a feeling of repression that has leaked into all of my characters.” (Thatcher left the LDS Church when she was 12.) Or is it her penchant for punk rock music and gothic fashion? Whatever it is, in conversation, the 25-year-old Chicago native comes off warm and witty, a far cry from her icy cool onscreen persona.
The occasion for our talk is a fun one: “Her Private Hell,” a hypnotic and seductive future-horror film from Nicolas Winding Refn (“Drive”), his first movie in a decade. Thatcher plays Elle, a glamorous movie star in a neo-Tokyo high-rise navigating cringy co-stars (Kristine Froseth) and an absentee father (Dougray Scott) married to her ex (Havana Rose Liu), all while a supernatural serial killer known as the Leather Man — who may have abducted the young daughter of Private K (Charles Melton) — closes in on her. With nods to Argento and De Palma, Refn’s latest is one bold, bloody mindfuck, held together by Thatcher’s magnetism and restraint.
