From his early breakthrough role in the series Misfits to becoming a sought-after talent in film & TV, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett’s latest role is powerfully captivating.
Femme is a thought-provoking film that follows Jules (Stewart-Jarrett), a drag queen named Aphrodite, navigating a transformative journey after a harrowing incident.
In our conversation, with Nathan, we explore the intricacies of portraying such a compelling character …
Please introduce yourself to us.
My name is Nathan Stewart-Jarrett. I am an actor, and I am from South London.
Can you describe your life right now in a word or a sentence?
In a word or a sentence describe my entire life?! Amazing? Sweet? Content? I don’t know! Life is good right now.
Tell us about your latest project, Femme …
Femme is the story of Jules, a drag queen whose name is Aphrodite, who gets attacked by a man but then has an opportunity to enact revenge by starting an affair with their attacker. The film in some ways is an exploration of revenge, but it’s also an exploration of identity, and to a certain degree, masculinity. I feel it highlights someone with a lack of agency regaining that agency in the world. But really, I think it’s a character study – we talk about Jules’ identity a lot and how that moves and which areas Jules feels empowered or disempowered.
What’s your role in Femme, and how did it come about?
I play Jules. The role came about in a very standard way, my agent sent through the script, I read it and you often get people saying “I was blown away by this script,” but I really was actually kind of astounded and blown away by it. There’s something about it that feels like a Classical Greek story, I mean, Jules’ name is Aphrodite. It’s kind of a Greek tragedy, and there is a simplicity which I thought was amazing. So that within all the other stuff happening and the complexity and nuance of the character, there was a real through line I thought was really powerful. I didn’t actually know if I could add to it, but I felt that I could add something with Jules’ vulnerability and shape-shifting. I was excited and also kind of terrified by the emotionality of that character.
What’s quite intriguing is your character getting revenge, which exposes a lot about the assailant and takes your character on quite a journey. Can you speak to what this role in particular means to you and how you related to the narrative in order to deliver so exquisitely?
I know that many, many people have felt disempowered or lacking a voice – while that’s not universal, I have felt like that. So there was something within Jules’ grabbing of his voice and his agency that made me feel like “I want to grab mine.” I really felt that. Jules is from London, I’m from London, so there was a familiarity with a wider world that I could settle into. I’ve done a lot of work that’s not been in London, so it’s like a homecoming. But I do often feel that I don’t have a choice in certain things, or that someone is allowed more space. And so there was a little bit of glee of playing someone who is able to take that space back. I probably use those moments, where I felt disempowered or felt smaller – you add a lot of different things as an actor so it’s not always a linear thing. It’s not always like-for-like. There’s definitely a lot of me in those moments because you have to as an actor. Like I said, while it’s not like-for-like, I’ve definitely been in that situation where I’ve felt like I haven’t had a voice.
How did you and George McKay navigate the more challenging scenes and moments between your characters, and how do you personally shake it all off when you’ve had to act a difficult scene?
Robbie Taylor Hunt, our intimacy coordinator created a great framework for us to work in some of those more difficult intimate scenes. We then took some of what he gave us, into other scenes that were difficult and that allowed us to form like a circle of trust. George is a very generous, very caring person so we really, really gelled, we just trusted each other. That was really important, I don’t think we could have done it without that level of trust and acceptance. Outside of that, I think shaking it off … there was one particular day where I kept on saying I was fine, and I wasn’t fine [Laughs]. I had been hyperventilating or something, and that kind of action does something to you. If you do something physically enough, your emotions do get affected, especially if it’s breathwork. I remember I was just jittering about. I think I remembered that at the very end, I knew that I’d be sad and knew that I would mourn Jules, the project, the people – I knew that was going to happen. So I just took time out, I literally was like, put some music on and just mourn and actively shake it off. I think maybe when I was younger, I’d be like “that day was rough, but I’m fine” and then it would follow me around. As proud as I am to be in this story, I didn’t want the story to haunt me. So I made sure to take time out and create a line.
Who is Femme for and how could it possibly contribute to the discussion about sexuality, acceptance and living our truths?
Femme is for everyone. Obviously, it shows a specific part of society, but the film is for everyone. People should see it because they’d appreciate it. It’s a great movie, I’m very proud of it. So it should be for everyone. In terms of furthering discussion, we depict a particular incident that happens to many people, and is little talked about and should be talked about more and dealt with. But I think that the film’s existence, these characters’ existence does further the conversation just implicitly by being exhibited, by being largely released. I think the film does something massive. We’ve talked about identity politics, racial politics, and sexuality. And I think we talk often about people being seen. So I think that the movie needs to be seen, people need to recognise themselves, and that becomes powerful by its sheer existence.
My first time seeing you at work was in the great series Misfits, and to see the journey you’ve been on it seems that the build to where you are has been quite slow burning … Has that been intentional on your part or was there some doubtful moments about your career path? `
Any actor would be lying if they said there weren’t any doubtful moments. I think you can say it’s been slow. I’m not going to lie, there have been times when I’ve been frustrated, of course, but at the same time, I’ve always worked so that I look back at those moments and think “Well, what was I really complaining about? I was doing something, I was about to do something.” I think you just have to have peace with your journey. I don’t feel like Femme is any bigger than Misfits was or Utopia was or Angels in America was. All of those projects make up the whole – so from outside it might appear slow, but on the whole I think I’m very lucky and I would love to continue that.
As such it’s very exciting seeing you cast in some massive projects, Candyman, Culprits, Generation … Can you speak a bit about your experience and what’s next?
Culprits is out now, I can actually talk about that now. Each and every job is completely and utterly different from one another, and that’s where I’m really lucky. Culprits and Femme could not be further apart in terms of what I have to do. It’s the same with Generation and Candyman. So having the opportunity to do each different one has been wonderful. I mean, with Candyman, everyone was making a horror movie, I was making a romantic comedy, it was like I was in a completely different film and I loved it. So there is a sense of every project is very different, a different experience, and what’s next is what’s next.
Getting to Know You
If you didn’t have this career what would you do? I wanted to be a lawyer when I was younger, and then I really wanted to be a judge when I was really young. I would love to write a novel – I don’t know, you kind of want to do something practical you can do with your hands. I had a kind of crazy fantasy of starting a sheep farm. Then I felt like being a carpenter. Then I think, when you look at the whole of that, you’re like, “I would love to be a welder or a farmer or a florist,” probably means you should just be an actor. [Laughs.]
What are you watching right now? Recently I’ve been watching Irma Vep – I’m a little behind on things. I watched the movie first and now I’m watching the TV show. So those are the two things that I’ve been like kind of alternating to, but there was a big tennis tournament on recently, so I’ve also been watching the Paris Masters as well.
What are you reading right now? I’m reading a book called Love Junkie by an author called Robert Plunket.
What are you listening to right now? I’m probably just listening to the radio right now, I’ve been listening to this Country Hits radio a lot.
What’s the last thing you saw on stage? I just saw my good friend Antonia Thomas in Shooting Hedda Gabler at the Rose Theatre.
What’s on your bucket list? I really want to see the Indian Ocean, and I really want to go.
Where’s your happy place? I really, really like a nice, quiet local restaurant with white tablecloths. Glass of champagne with a good friend, followed up by steak, red wine and good chats and laughs. Maybe a couple of spills on the table, just good times.
Who do you rate right now? So my friend Michael Bible wrote a book called The Ancient Hours. He’s had a good few novels, he’s a writer, and he’s a purist and sometimes it’s a hard life. He was on a book tour in Italy, and I happened to be there at the same time, so I went for a drink with him and his wife, and I was just so immensely proud. Because I feel like a lot of actors and musicians get a lot of celebration, but you don’t really see that when you’re a writer, and he was on his book tour and everyone’s like, “You’re great.” He was like “Oh my god”, and had this real moment of validation and I really rated his patience, his endurance, his belief in himself. I think many actors have that, and many need that but I really I love seeing those moments in real time. So Michael Bible, The Ancient Hours – that is a pure and utter shout-out.
What are you most proud of? I’m really proud of myself. I’m really, really proud of Femme. And likewise, I’m really, really proud of Culprits – I think three years ago, I feel like I knew I could do it, but I don’t think I had the capacity back then – I have different levels of knowledge now to what I did back then, so I continue or try to continue to challenge myself, I think I’ve got that resilience now.
Where can we find you? Culprits is on Disney+ now in the UK on 8th December in the US, and Femme is exclusively in cinemas on the 1st of December in the UK and then I believe March in the US so there’s you can find me right now.
Femme is exclusively in UK cinemas Friday 1st December.
Main image Credit: The Other Richard