Margaret Qualley has tended a rising career by listening to her inner voice.
Take Friday’s two-character “Sanctuary” opposite Christopher Abbott (Marvel’s upcoming “Kraven the Hunter”). Qualley, 28, is Rebecca, a dominatrix with Abbott’s Hal her client.
While undoubtedly a sexual situation, sex has very little to do with what happens.
For Qualley, a Manson follower in Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood,” a nun in “The Novitiate” and the mistress of a legendary Broadway Lothario in “Fosse/Verdon,” Rebecca was easy to embrace.
“I’m not going to sound very articulate when I say this,” she began in a Zoom interview, “but essentially, I just have the feeling of ‘I really want to do this.’ Or I don’t.”
Along with the role, “I’ve been wanting to work with Chris and this seemed like the perfect thing to do with him. But also, I always think inherently one thing is a reaction to whatever I have just done. That certainly influences how I’m feeling in that moment and what to do next.”
Before “Sanctuary,” “I had just done ‘Maid,’ a series that was really heavy and sad and very much a character piece. To go from that and have this opportunity to do something where I was talking a lot, having very specific dialogue and, it just seemed like an opportunity to have a lot of fun. So that was what was on my mind.”
The movie itself, she views as “A romantic comedy. I find it very romantic. At its heart it’s a love story, just about two people, negotiating their relationship and ultimately falling in love.”
Rebecca doesn’t conform to any dominatrix cliches of spike heels, black leather and whips. But who is she anyway?
“It is interesting. I probably did like the least amount of character work ever on this movie,” Qualley said. “All I really did was just learn the script, front to back. Word perfect. Knew it inside and out before we started shooting. And that was the only thing I focused on.
“So then on the day, I was just paying attention to Chris and getting to be able to be present, have fun and a silly time.”
With a gritty story about a mother barely supporting her kid cleaning, “Maid” was a triumph for Qualley, with Emmy and Golden Globe Best Actress nominations.
“I was completely shocked — and absolutely thrilled — by its success. It meant the world to me that people responded because you really never know. But it’s certainly exciting when people show up.”