Having made a name for herself across Australian stage and screen for her compelling performances, Saskia Archer is poised to be Australia’s next international export.
Having honed her skills at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA), where she starred in such productions as Romeo & Juliet, When the Rain Stops Falling, and An Ideal Husband, Archer soon made a star turn in the thriller The Reef: Stalked (2022), marking her breakout in feature films. Her television debut soon followed the same year in Bali 2002, and now her star is set to significantly rise as she stars alongside Mark Wahlberg, LaKeith Stanfield, Dermot Mulroney and Keegan-Michael Key in Shane Black’s forthcoming action/thriller Play Dirty.
As we eagerly anticipate the film’s release, our Peter Gray was given the incredible opportunity to chat to the rising star about her latest role (or, at least, what she can actually reveal), her unique approach to unmasking as an actor on screen, and why she has claimed herself as “the snackiest actor.”
Before I get to Play Dirty, I saw on your Instagram that you’re claiming yourself as the “snackiest actor.” I need to know where that originated from?
(Laughs) Great question. I kind of self-dubbed that after The Reef: Stalked, my first movie, because I realised that I was the only one that was doing this. There were some scenes that we had to have a life jack on. For context, it was a shark movie (laughs). And what was great about the life jacket is I could store my snacks in the little pockets. I only got caught out when the sound guys came up to me and were like, “There’s a little bit of crackling. What’s happening? Do you mind if we check your mic?” And I knew that it was the packet of crisps that I had in the side. I can’t always eat on set, and they don’t always stop for meals (laughs).
If you watched the Ocean’s movies with Brad Pitt, you’ll notice his character is eating all the time. I think that was just because Brad wanted to snack. I reckon you could just have it as a character trait.
I really like that. I’m going to start pitching that. I didn’t even think of that. I love it. If they pinpoint this conversation and this interview, they’ll see all my characters from now on are eating (laughs).
Being in a Shane Black movie, Play Dirty, is such a coup. As an Australian actress working both locally and internationally, how have you found that transition?
I was mainly based in Sydney, now we’re going back and forth quite a bit. It really depends on where the work is. I have been gravitating towards being based out of New York or L.A. for a while now, and it’s just been kind of lining up those ducks until the right moment to execute. It seemed like as good as any to jump to New York (now).
How was the audition process for yourself? I don’t know how much you can say about the film itself, but you obviously want to gravitate towards roles that test you as an actor or prove to be the best platform. What was it about this role that made you say yes?
Great question. My team, my agents and my manager, he suggested, alongside my Australian agent, that this would be a great role to do, just based off the platform and who I would be working with and the names attached to it. When it came through and the opportunity (arose), I gave it a shot. I didn’t really know what was going to happen. You don’t know. I just dove straight in and I got lucky. I booked the job. I went and did the job (laughs).
I love hearing those stories, where you think it can’t happen that easy, and sometimes everything just aligns and falls into place. And having the talent to back it up helps too.
(Laughs) Booking the job and really anything in acting is like winning the lottery, right? I remember something that my coach and mentor, Donald Woodburn, said to me when I was finishing drama school, and it really stuck in my brain. He said, “I’m not going to delude you and pretend that it’s not like winning the lottery, but you have to believe that you are in it as well. You have also bought the ticket. You’re in the running.” That was really interesting, because I come from a mentality of, “Oh, I’m going to throw my name in the ring”, but also never thinking my name is actually going to be in the ring.
It’s really that thing of the worst thing someone can say no, right? And as you were talking about The Reef before, is there a genre that you want to explore, or one that you find the easiest? Is there something you naturally gravitate towards? Something you want to challenge yourself with? I’ll just throw all the questions at you at once.
They’re great questions. I think I’m going to bring it to why I gravitated towards acting to begin with. It wasn’t part of the plan. I came out of high school and I went into paramedics before I did acting. It was never on the cards. When I did fall into (acting), and things started picking up and snowballing in a great way, I realised I have a very…I love people. I’m quite extroverted. I like relating to people, and I am quite forward leaning in that.
When the camera turns on, or when I’m doing a play, something shifts and I allow myself to let that part of my personality completely leave. And what’s left is this really raw, uncensored part of my personality that I don’t feel that I can really show in my everyday life. Acting has become this vessel to really express and explore the darker parts of human nature. And what I found is because of that, as soon as the camera turns and I switch into a different mode, the drama and the gravity definitely comes in.
It was interesting doing The Reef, because I got to learn that part of myself is quite serious and it reads quite intense. From that and the roles I’ve booked since, even the roles I was doing before, and they’ve been mainly theater, they’re all drama focused. And that wasn’t the intention. I didn’t think about it too much. But now looking back on it, and looking at the roles I’ve filmed and the way people have responded, it’s definitely drama focused. The people, or the fan base, who reach out to me the most are attached to horror (though). People seem to resonate with me playing in horror. And that’s a whole thing because I hate horror (laughs). I can’t watch it. I don’t want to watch it. I get really, really scared. And so when I am acting in horror, I’m genuinely nervous and freaking out. It reads well on camera (laughs).
Given how successful the genre tends to be, it’s probably not the worst thing to be involved in horror though. And if you’re genuinely scared, everyone will just think how well you’re selling it. But in that going into daker spaces with drama, as you mentioned before, was there anything about yourself as an actor that you learned about yourself? Anything that surprised you regarding your own capabilities?
I think I wasn’t expecting to be able to show it. I think anyone who’s gone through anything dark, and I assume because you’re a creative that you’re very aware of your complexity (too). People who are aware of their complexity usually have sat with darkness, and when you have been in a place where you’ve been real and upfront with your own experience of something like that, you know you can feel that way. I was aware I had gone through periods and bouts of depression and things like that, but I wasn’t aware that I could show it.
It’s a different thing to be by yourself in a room and just be like, “I feel crap.” Then when that camera’s around, and there’s a whole crew, there’s your castmate, there’s a new friend you’ve made, and you actually want to have a chat with them, (but) suddenly you’re in this dark space, doing a dark scene, and it’s you, but it’s not you. It’s your character. It surprised me that I was able to separate it. I think I was expecting that to be harder than it was.
Weirdly, as soon I hear “Rolling”, it’s like you have complete permission to exist in your ultra-human, flawed state. That’s the beauty of art. It’s the only place that we can fully be reflecting something so raw, versus in real life where you’re playing. You have a front. With acting, all that falls away.
That’s so incredible to hear. It gives a whole different dimension to the acting process and how people look at it. Acting be the real you. Looping back to film itself, I found that film and writing as a creative space was a massive savior for me at a time in my life when I was at my lowest. Is there an actor, or a film, that you view as something of a comfort space for you?
I mean, Juliette Binoche, absolutely. Olivia Colman. Dame Judi Dench. They are the people that spring to mind straight away. They have a colour and texture (t0 them). A nuance, a depth, a gravity that can only come with the years that they have, because they understand something that other people don’t. I can watch a movie they’ve done, and I think it’s beautiful and I understand it, and then I’ll come back to it a year later, and I definitely didn’t understand it (then) (laughs). But I’ll understand it more now because I have life experience to relate to something they’re touching on.
As for movie themselves. One of my favourites of Olivia Colman is The Favourite, ironically. Like, what a great film. It’s so much fun. The way she plays into tragedy is glorious. I admire the hell out of her. And then Juliette, just everything she does. I recently watched Both Sides of the Blade, and she did that beautifully. Also Adèle (Exarchopoulos) from Blue is the Warmest Color. That’s something I rewatch because of her. The way she navigates food. I know there’s a lot around the director that’s controversial, but the feminine energy she presents, and the way she sits in it is incredibly inspiring to me.
And then it comes back to you being a snacky actor. It’s all linked.
(Laughs) It’s why I just need more snacks. Like, please give me pasta to eat on screen.
And with Play Dirty, there’s only so much that can be revealed. Can you tell us anything?
I mean, as a general rule, you’ll have to wait for the trailer. I can tell you it’s a movie (laughs). It was a lot of fun to do. Wikipedia says it’s a crime thriller, and, you know, let’s wait for the trailer. I remember Olivia Colman once talked about this movie she made, and I don’t know the name of it because she wasn’t in it. She filmed it, but she didn’t make the final edit. It’s one of the best actors of all time and she didn’t make the cut? But her response was great. She was like, “I got paid and my performance can’t be judged.”
And, you know, it’s got nothing to do with us (actors). It’s got everything to do with everything, and nothing to do with anything.
I feel like that quote is the perfect way to wrap up. Nothing will be more poignant than that.
Play Dirty is scheduled for release in 2025. Our thanks to Nicki Price at Priceless Media Pty Ltd for facilitating the chat with Saskia.
