You may knowLily Rabefrom her many roles in the anthology seriesAmerican Horror Story, the limited seriesThe Undoing, or more recently,as Betty Gore inLove and Death.Rabe’s performances so far display a wide variety of characters, working well in both horror and drama. However, her most personal performance yet lies in an indie film.
In 2016, Lily Rabe played the titular role in the dramedy filmMiss StevensalongsideTimothėe Chalamet,Lili Reinhart,Anthony Quintal, andOscar Nunez. The 90-minute feature is about English teacher Miss Stevens as she chaperones three of her high school students on a field trip to a drama competition. It follows Rabe’s character as she tries to provide support for her students while also dealing with a difficult time in her life.
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‘Miss Stevens’ Is Lily Rabe’s Best Performance to Date
There are many special characteristics aboutMiss Stevensthat are missing from most other films. The story tackles loneliness, grief, and finding connections where we least expect them while emulating a coming-of-age feel. It has the striking, rare ability to speak loudly about its themes without saying them outright. Despite this, its strongest quality is Lily Rabe, who gives her best performance yet. The character of Miss Stevens is deep and complex in a soft-spoken way, and Rabe breathes intricate life into a character that could have easily fallen flat in lesser hands. Between glimpses of the character talking to no one in her hotel room to memorable moments with student Billy, played by Chalamet, Lily Rabe is at her best and most vulnerable in this unique role.
Lily Rabe Gives Us a Layered Character We Can Connect With
One of the biggest achievements Rabe makes in this role of Rachel Stevens is her ability to express a painful level of loneliness. This is displayed both in the literal and metaphorical sense. First, Miss Stevens is with high school-age kids throughout the majority of the film. Stereotypical teenager Margot (Reinhart) asks Rachel her age because she “seems older,” and calls her musical playing in the car “dad music.” The 29-year-old still has a lot of learning and growing up to do, made clear by Rabe’s performance. After calling a towing company for her broken-down car, Rachel laughs uncomfortably and does not know what to do with the form that the worker gives her. She seeks company from a married teacher (Rob Huebel) and ends up sleeping with him, without seeming to mind too much. Afterward, he rejects her when she approaches him a second time.
Viewers also see Rachel spend time alone in her hotel room. She paces, drinks, and curls up in bed while reading old text conversations with her late mother, and practices what she says in class in front of her bathroom mirror. Even in her imagined classroom scenario, her students are asleep and not listening while she is trying to talk to them aboutPride and Prejudice.Throughout many scenes in the film, we learn more about what is going on in Rachel’s head when she is alone than when she is with other people. Initially, she is more comfortable being alone. After sleeping with the teacher, Rachel, clad in nothing but a bed sheet, laughs hysterically while he watches. He is confused and asks her what is so funny, but she stops and says, “Nothing.” Viewers never get an answer about what made her laugh, whether it was her being amused or astonished by what she just did or if she just simply thought of something funny. This is one example of the wide range of emotions that Rabe gives as Miss Stevens, laughing uncontrollably and ultimately sobbing in one rollercoaster of a weekend. Throughout the film, moments like these are reversed which allows the attentive audience to slowly piece together what is going on with the English teacher, and Rabe is an expert at giving just enough of the truth away.
Lily Rabe and Timothėe Chalamet’s Scenes Together Are the Heart of the Movie
The most memorable part of the film is the dynamic between Lily Rabe’s Miss Stevens and Timothée Chalamet’s Billy. While viewers eventually learn that Rachel is grieving the loss of her mother after confiding in Billy, he is struggling with his own mental health. Billy initially gravitates towards Rachel and wants to spend more time with her, as he can sense that she is struggling as well. Rabe portrays Rachel as being more private and closed off, while also dropping clues that she is indeed having a difficult time. Rabe and Chalamet work so well in their scenes together that it is easy to forget that this is a film, not real life. Both characters admit to each other that they do not have many friends, and it can be assumed that both often like fish out of water. But with Billy’s more outspoken personality, the two bond and become just what the other needs.
After multiple instances of rebuffing Billy’s attempts to connect, Rachel finds him at her hotel door trying to make her laugh. This leads into the best scene in the film, as he works his way into her room and begins jumping on the bed saying, “Don’t be sad!” in an emotional moment. At first, Rachel is hesitant. Eventually, she jumps on the bed with him and they both run around the room, laughing and enjoying each other’s company. After this, Rachel confides in Billy about why being at the drama competition is so hard for her, as her late mother was an actress herself. After briefly crying into his shoulder, she tells him to leave, which upsets and offends him. Rabe understands that Rachel is lonely and needs someone to talk to, and has found a confidant in someone she did not expect. The range of emotions, from innocent joy to embarrassment, that Rabe displays gives the character and the film as a whole a much deeper meaning. Even while playing a character who is more on the shy side, Rabe and her vulnerability are in control throughout the film’s entirety and shape it into an emotional masterpiece.
While Rabe has given depth to all of her characters throughout her career, she proves her extraordinary talent through her understanding of a character like Rachel Stevens. Not many people come to mind when thinking of who else could have pulled off the complex character in the way that Lily Rabe does. While it is exciting to think ofwhere Rabe will work her magic next, no one will be forgetting her Rachel Stevens anytime soon.
