There are moments in life when you know exactly where you’re meant to be. For Stacy Martin, it came during an audition for Lars von Trier’s Nymphomaniac.

“There were a few other actresses auditioning,” she recalls, “and the way some of them presented themselves… it just felt unworthy of a Lars von Trier film. Something clicked in me – I suddenly wanted to defend his work. I didn’t want it to get into the wrong hands.” That instinct proved prescient: Martin won the role of young Joe, the film’s protagonist, and made her feature debut. “It’s insanely arrogant of me to have felt that way,” she laughs now, more than a decade later. “But I understood Lars’ cinema. I loved his filmmaking, and I just wanted to make sure that that was going to stay the way that it was.”

That early certainty has served the French-English actress well, guiding her toward projects that both challenge and intrigue her. Most recently, it’s a principle that led her to Mona Fastvold’s The Testament of Ann Lee. Martin had known Fastvold as a friend and collaborator for years, but the two had never worked together in a director–actor capacity. When Fastvold shared the story of Ann Lee, Martin was immediately captivated.

At its core, the film is a meditation on conviction and inspiration. Intensity is woven into every scene from the moment we meet Ann Lee, the visionary figure who pushed against every expectation of faith and gender in the 18th century to form what would later be known as the Shaker movement. And then there’s Jane Wardley – Martin’s character – a more peripheral figure, whose subtle yet catalytic presence propels Ann’s journey. Wardley doesn’t dominate the narrative, but the film allows her voice to resonate. Brought to life by Martin, she feels less like a historical figure, and more like a force of possibility.

“We spoke a lot about a few roles, but there was something about Jane Wardley that I found quite interesting. There's not much written about her, and yet she's the sort of catalyst moment for Ann Lee, and inspires her to really [be] someone who can be inspiring, and that can lead people,” Martin explains.

Martin immersed herself in historical accounts and stories of Jane Wardley, but was surprised to find that such a significant figure was largely undocumented. Still, this lack of detail proved liberating rather than limiting. “After a while, I thought, well, maybe this is actually a blessing in disguise, because Jane can be more of a symbol, and she can really represent something that was needed at a certain point in Ann’s life. And as soon as I saw it in that perspective, it became a lot easier for me to actually find who she was,” she says. “And you also have to just take a leap of faith sometimes.”

The process wasn’t purely intellectual; it required Martin to inhabit Wardley physically as well as emotionally, embodying the full-bodied worship that defined the early Shaker movement. Before filming, the cast participated in an intensive ten-day boot camp, learning choreography that would later form the backbone of some of the film’s most striking sequences.

“It's so rare as actors that we get to work as dancers. And I did a lot of dance when I was young, and so I really missed approaching something through movement,” she says. Even after days of practice, the arrival of professional dancers reminded the actors of the gap between intention and execution. “We felt pretty confident. And then the dancers, the actual proper dancers, arrived… and we were like, ‘Oh, we're not dancers at all,’” Martin laughs.

Thankfully, Martin’s not in need of a career pivot any time soon: her acting schedule is stacked for the foreseeable future. Next up, she’ll star in the 2026 adaptation of Sense and Sensibility as the snobby Fanny Dashwood – or as Martin describes her, a “mood pooper.” At first, Martin admits she was skeptical. “I initially thought, ‘Well, why do we need another Sense and Sensibility?’” But her doubts quickly faded when she learned more about the team behind it.

The film is directed by Georgia Oakley (whose first film, Blue Jeans, Martin lists as a personal favourite). And on top of that, the screenplay was written by Australian author Diana Reid, adding another layer of fresh perspective to Austen’s timeless text. “This story is such a classic story, being reinterpreted by someone like Georgia, who's incredibly intelligent and contemporary, but also has such a nuanced and sensitive way of viewing characters,” Martin says.. “It’s going to honour Jane Austen for everything that she's written that's so wonderful, but it's also going to bring a sort of modernity [to the story] without trashing it.”

This instinctive and intentional approach to choosing her next project is something Martin brings to all aspects of her work, including fashion. Her long-standing collaboration with Louis Vuitton and Nicolas Ghesquière has become a creative dialogue as much as a styling partnership. “We always talk about films,” she says. “He'll see shapes and movements and frames, whereas I'll see emotion and physicality. And so we'll sort of debrief the same film in a completely new angle, and it's so refreshing.”

For Martin, the collaboration is also somewhat serendipitous. “I moved out of Paris when I was 18. I moved to London, and I really put France on the back burner for a bit,” she recalls. But working with Louis Vuitton has allowed her to return to this part of her heritage. “Having this collaboration with Nicolas is sort of also honouring the French side of me that [has always] been there.”

It’s also encouraged her to step out of her comfort zone, stylistically speaking. Though Martin admits she tends to gravitate toward simplicity in her everyday wardrobe, collaborating with Nicolas has seen her regularly grace red carpets and campaigns in looks that are more sculptural, playful, and theatrical. “It's nice to be reminded of the creative aspect of fashion,” she says. “I'm very lazy in how I dress, and if I can just wear a T-shirt and jeans, I probably will. But I think [Nicolas] reminds me that I can also communicate my inner crazy thoughts with how I dress, which is always a nice feeling.”

Beyond fashion, Martin is already manifesting her next role: “I would love to do something that requires a sort of really intensive physical preparation, whether it be a sport or an instrument. I've not approached a role where I've had to really learn a skill, where I've had to spend every day doing it.” As for manifesting roles more generally, her track record is pretty impressive. “I wasn’t [a believer,]” she admits, “and then one year, I kept saying that I really wanted to play a robot, and I really wanted to shoot somewhere exotic. And the following year, I played a robot in a film called Archive, and I shot in Mauritius for a film called Lovers. I think there's something nice about manifesting, because it also gives you the opportunity to think about what you want. And vocalise it. And I think vocalising is such a powerful tool.”

PHOTOGRAPHY Sylve Colless

FASHION Hannah Cooper

TALENT Stacy Martin

HAIR Ian James @ The Wall Group

MAKEUP Yasuko Shapiro @ The Wall Group 

PHOTOGRAPHER’S ASSISTANTS Bono Melendrez and Austin Calvello

Feature image (left): LOUIS VUITTON top, trouseres and ring. Feature image (right): LOUIS VUITTON dress.