In Jan-Ole Gerster’s Islands, Sam Riley plays Tom, a former tennis prodigy who now spends his days teaching kids the perfect backhand at a luxury hotel resort on Fuerteventura. His routine is disrupted by the arrival of Anne (Stacy Martin), a young mother holidaying with her son and her partner Dave (Jack Farthing). Tom feels an immediate, strange connection to Anne, but after an unplanned wild night out, Dave vanishes. The ensuing police investigation casts suspicion directly on both Anne and Tom.

Having started her acting career working with Lars Von Trier on his two-part erotic epic Nymphomaniac, Stacy Martin has spent the last twelve years curating a filmography that most actors could only dream of. A frequent collaborator of Brady Corbet – appearing in every one of his directorial efforts to date – Martin has also worked with filmmakers such as Ben Wheatley, Ridley Scott, and Matteo Garrone. Islands arrives at a particularly thrilling moment in her career, just months after The Brutalist claimed three Oscars, with The Testament of Ann Lee earning rave reviews following its Venice premiere, and her upcoming turn as London fashion icon Daphne Guinness in the Isabella Blow biopic The Queen of Fashion on the horizon.

Barry Pierce: I’m excited to talk about Islands because this is a film that exists in one of my favourite genres, which is – let’s put British people in a Mediterranean climate and just see what happens. But I want to go back to the very beginning, what was your initial reaction to first reading the script?
Stacy Martin: I was really curious, because I think, like you said, it’s sort of about taking people and putting them in a certain situation. It’s like a little petri dish of circumstances, and you’re seeing human behaviours emerge from it. I was really curious about the location of it all. I didn’t know much about the Canary Islands, and I now know a bit more about Fuerteventura, having filmed there. I haven’t really done a lot of films where the location is so much its own character.

BP: What was it like filming on Fuerteventura? Was it blisteringly hot? 
SM: It was really hot. It’s also, you know, a very touristy, sort of low-end resort holiday destination. But it’s also on a very arid island that has no fresh water. So you’re battling the elements because it’s so dry, but then you’re also in a setting that is very specific and very peculiar. It’s always such a gift to be given the opportunity to travel to places that I never thought I’d go. I was amazed by how windy it is. We barely swam because the currents are so strong – that’s something I didn’t anticipate at all. It was a good reminder that we are only small human beings in a very big world.

“It’s not a film about having a problem and a solution, it’s all of the grey matter that lives in between those two things.”

BP: Could you tell me about Anne? When you first read the script, how did you perceive her?
SM: She’s someone who’s desperate for change. She’s someone who’s at a turning point in her life but isn’t sure where she’s turning to. For me, as an actor, it’s always the most interesting to play people who make the wrong decisions and have to then be beholden to them.

BP: What was your approach to forming her character? Taking her from the page into real life?
SM: In the film, we didn’t want to give too many answers early on. I think the beauty of it is that it’s not a film about having a problem and a solution, it’s all of the grey matter that lives in between those two things. So when we did takes, we would do different versions, all within her character, of course, but just to have a bit more room in the edit. 

“For me, as an actor, it’s always the most interesting to play people who make the wrong decisions who have to then be beholden to them.”

BP: This is the first time that the director, Jan-Ole Gerster, has been on my radar. What was it about him, and maybe some of his previous works, that led you to want to work with him?
SM: I watched Oh Boy and I watched Lara, and I think there’s something about European cinema that’s always so exciting. I was curious about this film because it’s English-speaking, but it’s a German director inscribing himself in a very European style of filmmaking. It’s like a melting pot.

BP: The film is about this bizarre love triangle between yourself, Sam Riley and Jack Farthing. What was it like to work with that tight, central unit of actors?
SM: Oh, it was fantastic. I mean, they’re both wonderful actors, but also wonderful human beings. They both really cared so much for their characters. For example, if you look at Dave, played by Jack Farthing, on paper he could appear as a very classic douchebag. I think the wonder of having an actor like Jack is that he brings humility to someone who’s so lost. I had so much empathy for him. It makes the triangle three-dimensional. 

BP: The last film that we saw you in was The Brutalist, which was this huge, epic thing. Islands is very much the opposite of that. This is something that stands out throughout your career, you love returning to these more intimate projects. Why is that?
SM: To be honest, I think it’s the directors. I’m always drawn to collaboration, and I’m always drawn to someone’s vision. I think that is more prominent, maybe, in independent filmmaking. I love watching films and being on set, but I also now, to a certain degree, choose who I work with, so why not work with people that you want to work with?

BP: You’ve done a lot of press over the years and I noticed, looking over older interviews, that one phrase repeatedly comes up in pieces about you. That is “indie darling.” What are your thoughts on that description? 
SM: I mean, listen, I think it’s a bit of both, right? I think there’s a reality to it, but it’s definitely not something that I ever aimed to become. Of course, I would love to do a big superhero movie. I don’t define my work only through independent filmmaking, but I am extremely proud of defending independent filmmaking by working with certain filmmakers, and by refusing to do certain things or by wanting to do other things. And, you know, darling makes me seem young, so great!

BP: It would be remiss of me to sit here and not acknowledge that I’m technically sitting across from Daphne Guinness. I know that filming has wrapped on The Queen of Fashion, what can you tell me about it?
SM: It was one of the scariest things I’ve done in a while. A lot of people care so much for Isabella Blow, for what she did, and that she’s finally getting her story told. People like Daphne Guinness or Philip Treacy or Detmar [Blow] have been so generous. Daphne lent us most of the Isabella Blow archive so we got to wear original pieces, and there was a lot of love in making it, not only from the people who made it, but from the people who helped get it done. I bumped into Marc Jacobs in Venice, and in the film I wore one of his dresses that he designed when he was at Louis Vuitton. I was like, “When will I ever get to say this to Marc Jacobs? This is the time.” And he was so moved and excited about the movie. I think it’s so important that we remember the people who have paved the way for many of us today. Especially in fashion, especially in England, it was such a time. I think it’s going to be a really special film.

Islands is out in UK and Irish cinemas now