Hannah Einbinder and Gillian Anderson on ‘Embracing Desire,’ Sex and a Ton of Blood for Cannes’ Queer Horror Slasher ‘Camp Miasma’

Gillian Anderson had a “panic attack” when she watched a particular scene in “Teenage Sex & Death at Camp Miasma” in a cinema for the first time.

“That blood day,” as she calls it, “was pretty serious… just remembering the amount of liquid and how to not drown while shooting the scene… it was a lot!”

Without giving too much away, the scene in question comes towards the end of Jane Schoenbrun’s wild, hilarious and emotional psychosexual exploration of horror, fandom, identity, pleasure, trauma and awakening, the apex of a rousing crescendo of sublime, almost-magical delirium. And yes, there’s a whole lot of blood.

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But it was Anderson’s co-star, Hannah Einbinder who was really suffering that day.

“We shot a lot of very intense stuff and I had to really put myself in the fear and approach it incredibly seriously,” the “Hacks” star tells Variety. “I was having trouble just regulating my energy.”

As Anderson asserts: “Hannah literally went to that place of terror — 100% — and you can absolutely see it, it translates. As somebody who was observing, it was intense, admirable and terrifying.”

Opening Cannes’ Un Certain Regard sidebar, “Teenage Sex and Death” sees Einbinder play Kris, an rising indie director tasked with revitalising a once-popular 80s slasher franchise called “Camp Miasma,” laid to waste by endless sequels and spin-offs, not to mention transphobic tones seen as “problematic” in the modern world. As a “woke” queer filmmaker, Kris has been hired to, as she says, “paper over the ugliness.” But she’s also got ideas of her own, including casting Billy (Anderson), the original film’s “final girl,” now a weed-smoking Norma Desmond-esque recluse living on the same lakeside camp where the film shot.

Aided by one of the most erotic scenes involving fried chicken and dipping sauce put to film, the two begin to fall into a blood-soaked world of sexual longing. (“They are pleasure seekers and something like a dipping sauce becomes so ultra-sensual,” says Einbinder.) But Kris first must battle her own deep-rooted issues regarding sex before she can “completely give over to desire” (Schoenbrun has said it was her first film inspired by post-transition). It was something Einbinder says impacted her deeply.

“I felt really challenged by the material and move — I think this liberation from shame and embracing desire was something was something that, in reading the film, I had to reflect on that myself on a personal level,” she says. “It was almost therapeutic.”

For Anderson, aside from the wild amounts of gory mayhem in “Camp Miasma,” the film serves as a powerful and important tool for “reaching out across the divide” and speaking to “anyone who feels and identifies with disassociation, the out of body experience, the not feeling part of or included within a framework of societal norms.”

It’s also a film where the character Billy has certain personal crossovers with herself, as an actor beloved for her role in another cult phenomenon steeped in nostalgia.

“Having spent some time over the last year doing a few Comic Cons, I’ve been reminded of the huge swaths of different populations and their attachment their obsessive nature… in a fandom way and also in terms of the escape of it,” she says. “Because this film is the ultimate escape fodder.”

Exactly like Billy, there are now efforts to revive the franchise that made Anderson’s name. Sadly even this coincidence isn’t enough for her to confirm rumours she’s being asked to return for Ryan Coogler’s “X-Files” reboot. “That is such a good question that I refuse to answer,” she says, barely flinching.

As much as Einbinder is famed for her role in “Hacks,” she’s also become one of the most outspoken young stars in the industry when it comes to politics, frequently using her platform to call for Palestinian rights and against Israel’s invasion of Gaza. “Go birds, fuck ICE and free Palestine,” she called out on stage after winning an Emmy last September, and was among thousands of industry names who earlier that month pledged not to work with Israeli Film Institutions “implicated in genocide and apartheid against the Palestinian people.”

Coincidentally, it was just after “Camp Miasma” wrapped in Canada in spring 2025 that Mubi, the film’s production company and distributor, was caught up in controversy after taking significant funding from Sequoia Capital, which has ties to the Israeli military.

“I unfortunately think there’s a lot of dark money in Hollywood,” says Einbinder. “We, as artists, as individuals, don’t make those decisions. But what I can tell you is that I can and have and will continue to speak and advocate for a free Palestine. And Mubi knows that about me and they’ve been supportive of all us.”

The conversation about the “intersection of art and commerce” and “what leftists artists’ responsibility is” is one the actor says she “thinks about constantly.” She points to the fact that “so many streaming services in Hollywood are now controlled by some of Trump’s biggest donors.”

She adds: “We don’t get into this business because we are trying to be a part of that. We get in because we love movies and we love collaborating with one another. And with Jane on this film, which is a trans sapphic ode to marginalized communities.”

It’s obvious that “Camp Miasma” has become something very special for both of its stars, a “wild ride” of a movie, according to Anderson, that they feel intensely proud to have been a part of (despite the odd panic attack in a cinema).

“This was my first feature,” says Einbinder. “Hacks,” the comedy that propelled her into the Emmy-winning A-list, was her first TV show.

“I just feel like I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop,” she says.

Anderson chimes in: “I guess in a past life you must have done good!”