MaXXXine star Elizabeth Debicki admits she had to watch new film “covering” her eyes in fear

Elizabeth Debicki, who plays the role of an established female director in new slasher film Maxxxine, revealed in an interview she couldn’t bear to watch some parts of the film.

The Crown star shared that “there are bits of MaXXXine that I watched [covering my eyes.] I still don’t know what happened”.

The 33-year-old actor blamed the “gore” in the film as the main reason for being unable to watch it: “I don’t like gory things, I can’t watch gore. I cannot do it.”

MaXXXine marks Debicki’s first role in a horror film, after she admitted she cannot stand to watch any films in the genre: “it does what it says on the tin and it scares me.”

“I’m a wuss so if I were to watch a really scary movie, then when I have to go and pee, I have to get someone to come with me because I’m scared, so that’s a hazard, which is why I avoid them.” she added

Despite her intolerance to horror films, in her interview with Film Updates, Debicki proceeded to praise the genre for its opportunity to birth a star: “What I’ve always been able to see in horror is that it creates amazing performance opportunities for actors.

“Sometimes, people’s work that really puts them on a map as an actor is within this genre ... I know that [the horror genre] can do that for people.

“I really respect people’s work in horror because as an actor, you’re working so hard to create that performance, and so even though I don’t seek it out, I have watched quite a few [horror films] and scared myself.”

This interview comes before the release of MaXXXine, starring Mia Goth, Halsey, Kevin Bacon, and Giancarlo Esposito, and is the third and final installment in Ti West’s slasher-horror trilogy.

The previous two instalments, X and Pearl, have been met with critical acclaim, as The Independent gave the latter a five star review.

Ti West shared in an interview with The Independent that he believed Mia Goth, the lead star of the trilogy, “deserved an Oscar for Pearl”.

However, Debicki has not been the only person struggling to watch Ti West’s trilogy, as in a 2022 review published by Slash Film, Martin Scorsese, renowned director of Taxi Driver and Raging Bull, admitted he was troubled by the film: “I was enthralled, then disturbed, then so unsettled that I had trouble getting to sleep. But I couldn't stop watching.”

MaXXXine is set to release Friday 5 July in the UK.