Why Alex From Netflix's Maid Looks So Familiar
Netflix's "Maid" is by no means an easy watch. It follows a young, single mother, Alex Russell (Margaret Qualley), who takes her daughter and leaves her abusive partner in the middle of the night. To make ends meet, she takes on a job as a maid while navigating governmental assistance programs, many of which she's hesitant to pursue. Qualley embodies the character wonderfully, and you can often glimpse into her psyche with a simple look of her eyes. It's a brilliant showcase for the young actress, but it's by no means her first role.
Margaret Qualley was born into Hollywood royalty. She's the daughter of "Groundhog Day" star Andie MacDowell, who plays Alex's mother in "Maid." She's acted from an immensely young age, with her first role being in 2013's "Palo Alto." She's gone on to act in many high-profile projects, and with the way her star has risen over the last few years, you should expect to find her in plenty more in the years to come.
Qualley broke out with The Nice Guys
Most audiences were probably first introduced to Margaret Qualley in the highly underrated action-mystery flick "The Nice Guys." She plays Amelia Kuttner, a woman with numerous secrets who essentially functions as the movie's MacGuffin. The lead duo of Jackson Healy (Russell Crowe) and Holland March (Ryan Gosling) track her down, searching for answers regarding the death of a porn star, seeing how she's a known associate.
Amelia appears when you least expect her, and Qualley excels in playing the beauty. Of course, filming the movie wasn't all Hollywood glitz and glamor. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, she discusses how it was freezing cold when they shot one scene where she had to wear a yellow dress. Still, she managed to power through it with words of encouragement from Ryan Gosling: "It was all okay because then Ryan said that I was like a superhero. So I was like, 'Well, all right. This makes up for basically dying.'"
As it turns out, Gosling's a nice guy in real life, too.
She showed off a sociopathic side in Death Note
Hollywood adaptations of anime are only growing increasingly more prominent, and back in 2017, Netflix delivered a live-action remake of one of the most beloved of the genre — "Death Note." The broad strokes of the series are there, with Light (Nat Wolff) receiving a book that allows him to kill anyone by simply writing their name within its pages. He wants to use it for primarily good, but those in his life have other plans in mind, such as Mia (Margaret Qualley), who believes the book could be used for more sinister purposes.
Mia's vastly different from the Netflix movie compared with the manga or original anime. Qualley spoke on those differences and how that excited her about pursuing the role, "I think what's interesting about her is that obviously she's Light's girlfriend and they bond over using the Death Note and have a romance. I think they do properly love each other, and it is that young love and first love, but at the end of the day, what's most important to Mia is doing what she believes is right" (via Collider).
Qualley would eventually return to Netflix original territory with her latest miniseries, "Maid."
She acted alongside Brad Pitt in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
Arguably, Margaret Qualley's most prominent role to date involved playing Pussycat in Quentin Tarantino's 2019 film "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood." She enjoys a somewhat flirtatious relationship with Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt), and eventually, she takes him to Charles Manson's compound at Spahn Ranch. It's at this point Cliff realizes she's not just part of some free-loving hippies, and he begins to worry about the well-being of his old friend George Spahn.
Filming "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" proved to be a positive experience for Qualley, as she recounted to IndieWire, "One of the coolest things about working with Quentin is that he's so excited about what he's doing. He's like a little kid on Christmas every time that he shows up to set."
2019 was a busy year for the actress. In addition to "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood," she also appeared in "Fosse/Verdon," "Strange But True," and "Seberg." She isn't wasting any time showing what she can do as an actress, and there will be plenty more to see of her in the future.