‘I want to be an open representative of my community’

There are plenty of reasons to be excited about Quintessa Swindell. Since the actor’s scene-stealing 2019 turn as Anna in the HBO television series Euphoria, they have worked – and impressed – alongside Colin Farrell, Lily-Rose Depp and Joel Edgerton.

Last month, at the Venice Film Festival, the 25-year-old rightly won rave notices for going toe to toe with Sigourney Weaver’s dowager in Paul Schrader’s The Master Gardener, a robust and wild drama about a horticulturist (Edgerton) with a dark past.

“When you’re right in front of someone like Sigourney you realise: oh, you’re like human being, you know?” laughs Swindell. “But then there was a moment – I’m not going to lie – I was having dinner with Sigourney, and halfway through she started talking about Avatar. And then I was thinking: ‘Oh, wait a second. This is Sigourney Weaver. From Avatar and Aliens. This is probably the reason I got into acting in the first place. Seeing women like her on film’.”

Their photography – they and them are Swindell’s preferred pronouns – provides one of the great delights of Instagram. But there’s one thing the Virginia-born actor would like you to know upfront.

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“I just love talking about this subject,” they laugh. “It’s so close to my heart.”

It’s a topic that came up on the first occasion that Swindell sat down with an agent, and it’s the reason that, as the young actor has it, their personal is political.

“One of the most special things for me personally was that first conversation with my agent,” recalls Swindell. “He asked straight out: ‘So, are you trans?’ And in that moment I was thinking: ‘All right. cool. I can either say no and then just coast, or I can say yes and take the bullet. But I care about this so much. So I’m going to have to be honest.’ And from then on, it was the most welcoming, accepting, open conversation and space to be in. So to be in this industry, and to be open as a trans person and, specifically, a trans person leaning towards the male and masculine side, has been really special.”

In Black Adam, Swindell’s role as Maxine Hunkel, aka Cyclone, makes them the first nonbinary actor – who identifies as gender-nonconforming – to play a superhero in the DC Extended Universe.

“Last night, I had like a little cry because I knew I was going to be on a morning show to promote Black Adam,” says Swindell. “And I just thought about myself when I was younger. What would I have felt if saw someone like myself on a morning show? If I had seen someone like me aged 10 or 11, I would have said: ‘We need to go to Hollywood right now.’ Visibility is so important, especially for trans people of colour. I want to be an open representative of my community, to make people who don’t know about us curious to learn more and to see the beauty of our community. If anybody can have an easier time coming into themselves, that’s so important..”

Swindell is a much-needed breath of fresh air in the increasingly monotonous world of comic book adaptations, and a current bright spot for a franchise blighted by the controversies of Batgirl and The Flash.

Black Adam, which is headlined by box-office dependable Dwayne Johnson, sees the titular character granted godlike powers in ancient Egypt, only to be imprisoned for the next five millennia. His release in the 21st century puts him in the crosshairs of the Justice Society of America, a crew comprised of Swindell’s Cyclone, Noah Centineo’s Atom Smasher, and Pierce Brosnan’s Doctor Fate. In common with Watchmen, Jaume Collet-Serra’s film questions the very nature of superheroism as Johnston’s antihero trades blows with the Justice Society’s largely self-appointed do-gooders.

“It’s very cool,” says Swindell. “It’s like the first time the Justice Society is reforming onscreen. Something comes up and we all come together and get recruited. So it’s pretty much the first time that we get to utilise our powers on grand scale. But the whole storyline for us poses questions: are we in the right, or the wrong? How exactly do we want to utilise our powers? We’re working for freedom and liberation, but what does those things really mean? And those ideas and those issues become more and more complex. I think it’s really special to have like a superhero film that does that.

Being trans and having this innate discomfort with my body, I feel that a lot of movement and dance, and physical theatre allowed me to just rest in my body and to get comfortable with it

“All superheroes by definition are vigilantes. So why is it good for some and not good for others? That was the thing about DC that like I’ve always identified and loved. I was obsessed with Zack Snyder’s Watchmen when I was younger. And I was really obsessed with Rorschach. Rorschach’s character wasn’t perfect. He was highly problematic and was struggling in a genre where superheroes are commonly beautified and glorified.”

In preparation for the role of the swooping Cyclone, Swindell trained in classical dance and researched ballet pioneers Isadora Duncan and Loie Fuller. It was not only a way for Swindell to incorporate movement into their performance, but to yoke their own journey to their character’s arc.

“For me, physicality has always been such an interesting like journey,” Swindell says. “Being trans and having this innate discomfort with my body, I feel that a lot of movement and dance, and physical theatre allowed me to just rest in my body and to get comfortable with it. I wanted to make Cyclone really interesting and also with the recommendation of Jaime, I started to make her movements semi-dance. I looked at Alvin Ailey and that was beautiful, but it wasn’t flowy enough. So then I went to Isadora. But Loie Fuller is the true inspiration for Cyclone.”

Swindell was raised by a single dad in Virginia, a place they characterise as “very country”. A lifelong movie buff, they excitedly recount the actors and films that inspired them to take up the profession.

“I love it all,” says Swindell. “I love watching people like Daniel Day-Lewis and his total commitment and the craftsmanship that goes into his character work. And then the elegance and beautiful work of Cate Blanchett or Angela Bassett. But I’m really into old film too. Recently, I’ve got completely obsessed with Marcello Mastroianni and Sophia Lauren. I just love the elegance of old Hollywood and European cinema.”

Swindell made their acting debut in 2019 and appeared as Laila in season four of the HBO series In Treatment. In the same year, they landed a lead role for two seasons of Netflix’s teenage shoplifting drama Trinkets. Swindell attributes this overnight success to a great education.

Recently, I’ve got completely obsessed with Marcello Mastroianni and Sophia Lauren. I just love the elegance of old Hollywood and European cinema

“I went to a four-year theatre programme when I was in high school in Virginia, and the training that I received there unlike any other,” they recall. “I had high school in the day, and then I would travel to this completely different school which was all about script analysis and character. We’d go over Shakespeare and different forms of art that really allowed us to breathe and get out of ourselves. It was a release every single day for four years. I loved it. And then Trinkets came along and I thought: ‘What? I get paid for this, too?’”

Euphoria, says Swindell, was not only groundbreaking in terms of its content. It was equally pioneering behind the scenes. We won’t spoil the scene but The Master Gardener, too, offers an entirely new visual grammar for trans performers.

“What was so unique about Euphoria is that the whole set had an energy to it,” says Swindell. “You could tell watching the show. Everyone was so precious about it. And that’s before you consider that there was a trans coordinator on that set, who was incredible. That whole experience reshaped what I thought was possible for me.”

Black Adam opens in cinemas on October 21st