FILM · 2022 · NEW ZEALAND
Pearl
18 archived facts 3 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
All facts (18)
- #001
Pearl's continuously unsteady smile during the film's end title sequence was unplanned, because Ti West refused to call "Cut!" and let the emotions surface. Mia Goth's smile grows more strained, a single tear runs down her face, and she even nods impatiently as she waits for him to call "Cut!"
- #002
Pearl's climactic monologue runs seven minutes and 57 seconds, consists of 17 takes, and its final take lasts five minutes and 36 seconds.
- #003
Pearl's iconic smile at the end lasts one minute and 51 seconds.
- #004
Before shooting X (2022), Ti West and Mia Goth collaborated on the script over FaceTime during the mandatory two-week quarantine in New Zealand (due to the COVID-19 pandemic). They were only hoping A24 would agree to make the film; fortunately, the project was greenlit before filming began on X.
- #005
To prepare for this film's tone, director/co-writer Ti West suggested that Mia Goth (Pearl) watch What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962) and The Wizard of Oz (1939).
- #006
Pearl's crocodile is named Theda, after American silent film actress Theda Bara, one of cinema's earliest sex symbols. Viewers can spot a poster of Theda Bara displayed on the exterior of the movie theater Pearl regularly visits.
- #007
Tandi Wright, who plays Pearl's mother, was the intimacy coordinator on X (2022) and was offered the role of Ruth as the first film's shoot was wrapping. According to Ti West, she learned German in a hurry for the role and was so convincing with her accent that she fooled two German members of the crew.
- #008
The pornographic film shown to Pearl is A Free Ride (1915), a genuine vintage "stag" film. The film's production has been the subject of some debate: it surfaced in the 1970s and was at one point sold by a dubious distributor as a hardcore D. W. Griffith film from 1915, while silent film historian Kevin Brownlow suggested it was made in the early 1920s.
- #009
It was shot secretly and simultaneously with X (2022). Pearl serves as the film's prequel, showing the title character's early life in 1918, decades before the events of X.
- #010
Pearl's dress and bicycle resemble the dress worn by Miss Almira Gulch (The Wizard of Oz (1939)) when she first secretly appears on screen.
- #011
It is lead actress Mia Goth's first time writing a screenplay and producing.
- #012
The script came about when Mia Goth and Ti West did character preparation for an older version of Pearl seen in X (2022), which grew into a full-length screenplay.
- #013
Pearl is drawn to the "hush" of those she kills, as she does with Mitsy and the scarecrow. This is reflected in X (2022), when Pearl touches Maxine and tells her it will be their secret.
- #014
To get the barn's bright color exactly right, the production team had roughly 50 red color samples.
- #015
There are several callbacks to the first film, X (2022). In the audition scene there were two people. First, Pearl stands on an X marking her place on the stage to begin her dance routine. Later, one of the panel members states that she is looking for someone with the X factor; Wayne described Maxine this way more than once in X. Finally, while the projectionist explains the stag film industry to Pearl, he says he plans to capitalize on it early, a theme debated several times between Wayne and RJ in X.
- #016
A trailer was shown at the end of screenings of X (2022) in certain regions.
- #017
In X (2022), Pearl says she hates blondes. This is almost certainly because Mitsy got the role after the auditions. It also explains why she feels sympathy for Maxine in X.
- #018
Ti West described Pearl as a Douglas Sirk melodrama made in the Technicolor style of Mary Poppins and The Wizard of Oz (1939), calling it a "demented Disney movie," and said it would explore how Hollywood filmmaking affects people.
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