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Miller’s Girl, released in movie theaters earlier this year and starring Wednesday starlet Jenna Ortega and Fargo/Black Panther star Martin Freeman, is now streaming on Netflix. At the time of this writing, it’s the #2 in Netflix’s Top 10 movies in the United States behind only Sydney Sweeney’s Anyone But You.
Given how massive Netflix is — 83 million subscribers in the United States, around 270 million globally — a movie occupying the #2 slot on its Top 10 list means the movie has become massive. In other words, a lot of people have now seen Miller’s Girl and therefore have opinions on it.
“His next project, too, is firmly un-cuddly: Miller’s Girl, a film in which he plays a teacher who has an affair with his 18-year-old student, played by Jenna Ortega from Wednesday,” The Times of London explained in a recent interview with the prolific film and TV actor.
“The movie has caused controversy, partly due to the 31-year age gap between Freeman and Ortega, but he insists it is ‘grown-up and nuanced’ and that it’s not saying ‘Isn’t this great.’” Stories about difficult subjects can be tainted by association, he thinks. ‘And that’s a shame. Are we gonna have a go at Liam Neeson for being in a film about the Holocaust?’”
While Freeman’s example may not be the best — among the many reasons why is that the Holocaust is a real, horrific genocide while Miller’s Girl is a multimillion-dollar fictional film — his point still stands: just because you make art about something doesn’t mean you endorse it.
The movie exists in the genre of erotic thriller, which has existed for decades and includes films such as Basic Instinct, The Voyeurs (a Sydney Sweeney movie), Gone Girl, Eyes Wide Shut, Fatal Attraction, and so on. The film was also written and directed by a woman, Jade Halley Bartlett.
Despite its middling reviews for Miller’s Girl, Ortega remains one of the fastest-rising actresses in Hollywood. Not only is the second season of the massive hit series Wednesday on the way, but she’ll also be starring in Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice Beetlejuice later this year.
Ortega has also been cast as the lead in Taika Waititi’s adaptation of Klara and the Sun, and has roles in upcoming films such as Winter Spring Summer or Fall, Death of a Unicorn, and an untitled film directed by Trey Edward Shults.