It feels like a million years ago, but last December, FKA Twigs sued Shia LaBeouf for sexual battery, emotional distress and assault. In January of this year, Twigs began detailing in the media how Shia love-bombed her, groomed her and began abusing her and terrorizing her. During the same period of Twigs’ lawsuit, Shia was dating Margaret Qualley. They were still seen out together for weeks after Twigs sued him. In early January, Shia and Margaret did break up and there were reports that she was “aware” of the backlash for how it looked for her to be so loved up with Shia while his ex was detailing the horrific abuse she suffered at his hand. Well, Qualley is currently promoting Maid, a Netflix series, and she was asked about all of this and more by Harper’s Bazaar.
She worked with her mom on ‘Maid’: “When you walk into a room and your mom is there, that does something to you. Not only do you have permission to touch her like family, but rolling your eyes is a built-in response in the same way that tearing up from a well-timed hug is.”
She wants kids: “Despite the fact that I dress like this,” she says, gesturing to the cavernous tee that someone earnestly wore in the 1990s, “I’ve always dreamt of getting married. There’s a girly-girl part of me that’s thought about what my wedding would be like.” (Big, drunken, with a dress that’s not too long, so she can dance, she adds.) “And I’ve dreamt of having kids. I’m a real romantic in that way.”
How she prepared to play a character who is victimized by emotional abuse: “Unfortunately, it’s so common… And it’s true that more than half of people experience some level of psychological threat within a relationship in their lifetime. I just did my best to read the script and experience Alex’s reality as much as possible within the scenes.”
When Qualley & LaBeouf split: By early January, Qualley and LaBeouf had split. In February, when Twigs detailed her story to Elle magazine, Qualley posted the cover on her Instagram account with the caption “Thank you.” “It was important to me for her to know that I believe her—and it’s as simple as that,” Qualley says, her face open but unreadable, before politely saying that she doesn’t want to talk about her personal life. She’s not surprised, though, that this latest role may prompt questions about that time period. “Yeah,” she says, acknowledging the inquiries that are bound to come her way. “I’m like”—and then, with her elegant ballerina arms, she does an exaggerated pantomime of buckling a seatbelt over herself and settling into Drive—“all right.”
If she doesn’t want to talk about it, so be it. She doesn’t have to detail what happened, if anything happened. My feeling is that the relationship with Shia was so new, he was probably in the love-bombing stage and had only started to become controlling or jealous, which probably freaked her out (as it should). Plus, I still get the feeling that Margaret’s parents saw her at Christmas and they were like “how do we get you out of this.” I’m glad she decided to listen to what Twigs had to say, because that’s who Twigs was trying to reach: women and girls who find themselves in these kinds of abusive relationships.
Photos courtesy of Harper’s Bazaar.
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