This holiday season, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett has ample reason to celebrate. The British actor is fresh off his Best Joint Lead Performance win at the British Independent Film Awards, and is marking the release of two exciting new projects: the BIFA-winning indie psychodrama “Femme” and the Disney+ heist series “Culprits.”
“What I loved about ‘Culprits’ and ‘Femme’ was they were [filmed] very close together, but they were so different. ‘Culprits’ was this big series; it was a thriller, and it was so much action,” the British actor says of the stunts-laden studio project. He leads the ensemble cast as Joe, a former bodyguard turned family man, thrust back into his past life of crime.
Three weeks after wrapping “Culprits,” Stewart-Jarrett was back on set for “Femme,” an intimate drag queen revenge thriller set in East London that costars George MacKay. The independent film premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival earlier this year and was released theatrically in the U.K. this month, ahead of its U.S. release next spring. In addition to the joint acting award, “Femme” also won the BIFA for best costume design.
Stewart-Jarrett stars in the film as Jules, a gay man who performs drag as his effervescent alter-ego Aphrodite. A brutal homophobic attack after one performance causes Jules to step back from his life, and he soon after runs into one of his attackers, a closeted drug dealer, at a gay sauna. The pair strike up a secret relationship, and Jules begins plotting his revenge.
“These two characters literally clash together and then are entwined to the end where they pull each other apart,” says Stewart-Jarrett, who was drawn to the intensity of the relationship in the script, likening it to “classical Greek, classical Shakespeare…doomed people meeting,” he says. “If they met under different circumstances, what would their future be like? What would they be like with each other? I thought that through line was really beautiful. It was a very recognizable story.”
The film’s subject matter is ripe for social commentary, but Stewart-Jarrett emphasizes its cinematic merit. “I want people to watch it as a film, to be thrilled, to be entertained,” he says. “But I know that it’s confronting, and I know that it started many conversations. Some of the Q&As we’ve had have been testament to that, and that’s good also. I think with indie film you want to have those conversations.”
Stewart-Jarrett and MacKay worked closely with an intimacy coordinator to choreograph the film’s numerous intimate scenes, and the rehearsal process established a well of trust between the two established actors before getting on set.
He also credits the costume design for playing a crucial role in fleshing out the characters’ psyche onscreen. “We talk about drag artists as an expression of something and Jules’ power as Aphrodite,” Stewart-Jarrett says. “And for Preston [portrayed by MacKay] to strip that away, what that does to Jules,” he adds, emphasizing how clothing reveals and conceals aspects of the characters’ personalities.
Asked about his favorite costume in the film, Stewart-Jarrett nods to the re-emergence outfit Jules wears to the sauna after his attack. “That outfit was really hotly debated,” Stewart-Jarrett says of the “whale tail” look, which consisted of a thong visible above the waistline of a tracksuit, paired with a crop top. Worn as a bold reclamation of his identity, the character becomes self conscious while en route to his destination. “I thought it was a really powerful move, and I was really nervous to wear it. So I thought that that’s probably the best: when you’re kind of nervous to wear something.”
With the end of the year approaching and both projects finding their audience, Stewart-Jarrett remains focused on the future.
“The strike is now over so I think everyone is just getting their ducks in a row,” says the actor, whose past projects include the 2018 Broadway revival of “Angels in America” and 2021 film “Candyman.”
“The industry is moving and bubbling,” he continues, adding that he’s excited about the unknown possibilities. He eagerly awaits the script that will challenge him, one that feels daunting yet irresistible. “I hope I can [find] the script that I don’t think I can do — and then go and do it.”
