After having its premiere at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), Steal Away is set to hit theatres this Friday.
Directed by Clement Virgo, the film follows as lust and jealousy blossom when Cécile (Mallori Johnson), a young African traveller, arrives at the home of Fanny (Angourie Rice), an awkward girl sequestered in a bubble of wealth. In a lush, ruthless environment evoking a troubled historical landscape, Steal Away is a psychological thriller about two teenage girls who learn their world is not as it appears and must band together to fight the powers that be.
The movie boasts impactful performances from its leads, with Mallori Johnson and Angourie Rice commanding the screen. I had the wonderful opportunity to interview Johnson and Rice about their roles in the film, and they broke everything down for me, including what drew them to the project, the intricacies of the characters, the exploration of the semi-fictional world, and, of course, the dance sequence (which featured live drums).
Watch the full interview with Mallori Johnson and Angourie Rice below:
With a film like Steal Away that explores many themes, I wanted to know what, in particular, drew Johnson and Rice to the project.
Johnson shared, “I mean, whenever I read a script, I’m always looking for a very, very specific feeling, and I think this story really touched me. And like, whenever something is like piercing the veil between me as the actor and me as the human, I know it’s like, okay, like this is something I want to do and want to be a part of. But I think it’s just so bold and so brave, and it touches on so many different radical talking points – about exploitation of black bodies and cultural appropriation, and also the angst of teenage girlhood and like coming of age. And so I just was like, so blown away by it, and yeah, I think it really came off the page, and I had to do it.”
Rice said, “Yeah, I mean I felt similarly reading it. This script is so brilliant, and to me, there were so many interesting things about it. The character that I was reading, Fanny, she’s so complex. She’s nuanced. She changes. There’s an interesting relationship between two women. I’m always interested in that. It also read to me like a fable. Like it was clear it was set in this sort of undefined time, which was so interesting to me. Exploring themes that feel so relevant, and placing them in their own world, so you can really like look at them in a different way. I was interested in all of that, and I was overjoyed to get the call.”
Regarding working together so closely on the film and sharing so many scenes with each other, the duo built a bond that extended beyond just making the movie.
Johnson said, “Once again, like not difficult at all. Like I just like love Angourie. I mean, I can’t not gush about her because truly, what I think of her is someone I look up to and respect. And I think she’s really, really smart, and she’s got a great head on her shoulders, and she knows what she’s doing when she comes into a room. And so, I was really, one: watching her and like learning a lot from her, but two: when I first met her, I felt like I knew her already, and so it wasn’t difficult at all, like having a bond period, but also to like feeling like we were in a sisterhood, feeling like we had each other in a very intense and like real way.”
Rice shared, “Thank you for saying that. I feel exactly the same way about Mallori, by the way. And I think I also learned so much from you. Truly, one of the things that I really learned from you was your focus. Like Mallori is someone who is so focused on the work and the character, and you just get this look in your eyes that I could see that you were going somewhere and really thinking about what you were doing. And to me, like I really aspire to do that more, truly. Because I can be a bit like, ‘Okay…’ [looks around in faux panic], so I really admired that. And it also makes it so easy to work with someone who is so focused and intentional. So, and we also got to we got to play in those scenes.”
Johnson added, “Clement made it easy because he like totally trusted us and like let us fly and like let us discover all of these colours in the scene freely. So yeah, he was also a huge part of that as well.”
One of the most memorable scenes in the film is a dance sequence. I wanted to know what it was like for both of them to shoot that scene.
Johnson said, “Wow, that’s a good question! I was like really nervous. Let me, like, let me drop this info. No, I was just like, I remember, because I’m not, like, a dancer. You know what I mean? So I don’t know how you felt?”
Rice jumped in, “You were fantastic, though! Like, what do you mean you’re not a dancer?!”
Johnson replied, “My God, it just sends the fear of God through me. I was like so nervous that day, but also it was also beautiful.”
Rice shared, “It was really hot. Do you remember that? It was like 35 degrees Celsius, whatever that is in Fahrenheit. It was like 100 degrees. It made everything – like it added this extra energy to the scene.”
Johnson added, “I remember, like, once we got the moves and like we were in the groove of it, it was super freeing.”
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