In celebration of the new generation of actresses determined to leverage their fame for the greater good, Ben Toms and Robbie Spencer’s fashion story, published in AnOther Magazine S/S17, featured young women from Rowan Blanchard to India Menuez; Sophie Kennedy Clark to Maddie Ziegler. Writer Jack Sunnucks spoke to each of these women on set, for a series of interviews running over two weeks exclusively on anothermag.com.
Taissa Farmiga got her start in Higher Ground, a 2011 film directed by her sister, the actor and director Vera Farmiga. It was in American Horror Story, however, that she came to wider attention. Series one, Murder House, filmed that same year, saw her terrorised and romanced by a ghost, while Coven featured Farmiga in an array of stylish hats as a teen witch who kills men accidentally when she has sex with them. With her otherworldly looks and voice, Farmiga seems the perfect actress for the kind of curious, haunted roles she’s given. Her next act is to star in an adaptation of Shirley Jackson’s cult novel, We Have Always Lived in the Castle.
Jack Sunnucks: What do you think fashion can do to make women feel empowered?
Taissa Farmiga: I think that, before you walk out the door and into the world, you have to feel good. You have to figure out who you are, and I think fashion can help you do that. When you have more of a sense of who you are, you can take on the world.
JS: What do you hope for 2017?
TF: Ah, 2017! I hope that we all try to do a little better than we did last time. I hope everyone tries to help someone else. If we all tried to help someone else, the world would be a better place. I know it sounds… I don’t know how it sounds. But I know if we just cared about one person for a moment instead of ourselves, it would really help.
JS: If you could say one thing to the world what would it be?
TF: Oh man. I wish I could just send everyone a hug. Everyone who needs a hug. Sometimes I need a hug and there’s no one around, and that feeling really sucks.
“When you have more of a sense of who you are, you can take on the world” – Taissa Farmiga
JS: Have you ever got to play someone really evil?
TF: Never! One day I’ll have to. It’s funny, when I used to play videogames with my brother, I’d always want to be the good guy.
JS: Who’s your favourite on-screen heroine?
TF: I’ve seen a lot of Amy Adams recently and I just love her. I love the energy she puts out in person and on screen. She’s smart and she’s classy and that’s something to aspire to be. I like a woman who’s smart and doesn’t have to prove anything.
JS: Do you ever get frightened watching horror films?
TF: Absolutely. I’m an absolute baby when it comes to that stuff. Even reading the American Horror Story scripts when I was in New Orleans, which is a spooky city, and I was in my trailer all alone. Sometimes I’d freak out before we’d even shoot it because I’d be playing the movie in my head. I guess it helps, because if you’re in a horror show you’ve got to feel the fear!
Hair Marki Shkreli for Marki Hair Care; Make-up Samuel Paul at Forward Artists for Marc Jacobs Beauty; Set design Bryn Bowen at Streeters; Photographic assistants Vincent Perini, Geordy Pearson and Kaleb Marshall; Styling assistants Louise Ford, Johanna Burmester-Andersson, Bonnie Macleod and Sabrina Terlink; Hair assistant Kelly Oliphant.
These photographs originally appeared in AnOther Magazine S/S17.
