X Interview: Ti West Breaks Down the Pearl and Maxine Dynamic

[Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers for X.] There’s lots to love about Ti West’s new movie X, but one of the best of the best is his choice to have Mia Goth play both Maxine and Pearl. Maxine is part of a group of filmmakers who head out to an isolated farm in rural Texas to make an adult movie. That farm belongs to Pearl and her husband Howard (Stephen Ure). When they find out what their guests are really up to on their property, they’re not happy about it and things get violent. Pearl’s youth has come and gone, and she never got the opportunity to live the life of her dreams. Driven by regret and jealousy, Pearl and Howard pick off the filmmakers one by one. X functions as a highly effective slasher movie, but the experience burrows its way into your brain to such an extreme extent courtesy of its thematic heft, something that is significantly bolstered by having Goth play both roles. Check out what West told us about his choice to have Goth pull double duty, why he deci