Natalia Dyer will be returning to American Netflix on 22 October. Not as preppy-yet-plucky, monster-slaying big sister Nancy Wheeler in Stranger Things, but as Alice, a wide-eyed Catholic school girl ready to explore her burgeoning teenage sexuality in Yes, God, Yes (written and directed by Karen Maine). Or not, if Father Murphy and his morality class has anything to do with it.
Dyer’s latest feature-length film is billed as a playful, tongue-in-cheek drama set in the early 2000s, following a young woman’s struggle to understand why sexual pleasure is ‘wrong’. When [email protected] sends Alice unsolicited graphic images in an internet chatroom, she discovers masturbation for the first time and another use for vibrate mode on her Nokia.
So far, so coming-of-age comedy, but Dyer’s sensitive performance elevates Maine’s story to refract some bigger, societal issues, pointing the finger at (or giving the finger to) the hypocrisy of those casting shame on others’—particularly women’s—desire. Today, speaking from Atlanta, Georgia, Dyer is upbeat, fun and thoughtful. As these themes crop up, almost on cue, her cat Mona starts howling, padding along her owner’s recently purchased vintage sofa.
Usually based in New York, Atlanta has now come to feel like home for Dyer, where Stranger Things is filmed. Back in March, she was a few weeks into reprising her role for season four, when the pandemic abruptly brought production grinding to a halt. Since then, she’s chosen to hunker down in situ, waiting for news—for so long, in fact, that she even bought said furniture and relocated her cat.
Dyer spent her six months in lockdown FaceTiming with her parents and purchasing plays off the internet, including Nick Payne’s Constellations and Bernard Slade’s Same Time, Next Year, hoping to convince her housemates—plus her boyfriend and Stranger Things co-star Charlie Heaton—to hold impromptu performances. Now, production has finally called her back to set. Before the clapperboard snapped though, here’s what she had to say.
On Stranger Things season four…
“Honestly, the scripts are great. I’m very excited. I’m excited for Nancy. Everytime we end a season, we all think, where is this going to go? Where can this possibly go? Then we get the scripts for the next season and we’re, like, ‘Oh my god, wow, like, wow!’ So, while I can’t say a lot, except that it’s going to be a while before it comes out, it will definitely be worth it. It’s going to be really big. It’s going to be big!”
On her new film, Yes, God, Yes…
“The whole power behind Yes, God, Yes is that it’s a woman’s story. It’s honest, it’s funny, there’s a lot of light-heartedness to it, but there’s a real seriousness, too. It’s rare to have a story on female sexuality told by a woman, portrayed by a woman and not in a performative sense of sexuality. An innocent girl finds pleasure and discovers herself. The fact that that is still rare is sad.”
On owning female pleasure…
“I understand my own hesitations talking about female pleasure and masturbation, but since talking [to the press] about [the themes of the film], it’s renewed my vigour. I’m still like, [whispers] ‘Masturbation…’ We’ve been conditioned [to feel like that] by society, so it’s about recognising that and asking ourselves, ‘Why can’t I talk about this?’
“It’s deeply rooted in a lot of historical, societal and cultural hang-ups; ideas that feel outdated, especially in 2020. Verbalising it is so important in normalising it. I’m not pretending to be a huge [guru] on the female orgasm, but at the same time, I do recognise that, ‘Yeah, this is where it starts.’”
On how Hollywood is changing…
“We’ve had a lot of male gaze and male-first storytelling, certainly behind the camera, when it comes to portrayals of females and their bodies. We need to see more of the female side. If we’re talking about females, let’s have females say how they feel? Let’s make that space, there’s so much room. Relative to how much content is out there, the diversity within that content is surprisingly still not there.”
On making films that matter…
“2020 has been an eye-opening year. Sometimes you feel powerless entering into projects as an actor. I see a lot of scripts and films that are just, like, whatever. So I’ve started looking at projects and asking myself: does this matter? Do I care? What is this? What you digest and take in, even if it seems silly or light or distracting, is important: everything has a purpose.”
On what’s next for Hollywood…
“Stories that matter, that say something new and interesting, that come from a different perspective. Stories that I’ve never seen before that make me think about things differently. I expect that in the industry, especially after this year. I hope there will be an influx of new people, new voices, new creations, new ways of doing and looking at things.”
On inclusion riders…
“Frances McDormand’s 2018 Oscar speech [where she mentioned an inclusion rider, a clause in an actor’s or filmmaker’s contract asking for casting and production staff to meet a certain level of diversity] has been on my mind. As an actor, the business, legal, contractual side of things usually gets delegated, but this is the time [as actors] to step up and use what power we have. Sometimes actors are so happy to just have a job and work, doing the thing that we like to do… but whenever we have that space to say, ‘I need this to happen,’ it’s a start. An inclusion rider is not everything, but it is a step in the right direction.”
On her personal sense of style…
“The fashion world is something I’ve never felt very ‘in’ in. I’ve always felt on the fringes and observational. Of course, I’m a fan of a lot of designers and I’ve worn dresses that should probably be in a museum because they’re so precious and beautiful. I like clothes, I respect fashion, but I’m confused by it.
“Charlie [Heaton, Dyer’s boyfriend and Stranger Things co-star] and I like dressing up, it’s fun. While our styles are different, there’s crossover in our taste. It’s like a Venn diagram. There’s a lot of space that I like to delve into that he doesn’t. It’s not about what’s new, what’s now, what’s trendy—it’s more about putting colours, patterns and textures together; what I feel good in. I love a good peacock moment on the red carpet, where you have to be so different from your normal self—it’s like trying on a different persona.”
‘Yes, God, Yes’ is still to be confirmed for Netflix Singapore.
