Maddie Hasson on the "Crazy Weird" Things She Did for the Psychological Thriller 'Fixation' (2024)

The start of Oscar season has a habit of eclipsing the independent features looking for distribution at the Toronto International Film Festival. Yes, there were a number of Academy Award nomination-worthy performances seen on screen at the event that will deservedly go on to earn those nods, but one of the very best performances of the bunch comes not from a feature directed by an industry icon or in a film with an ensemble full of past nominees, but rather from Mercedes Bryce Morgan’s feature directorial debut. It’s Maddie Hasson’s performance in Fixation.

She leads as Dora, a young woman who’s locked away in an institution for a crime she can’t remember committing. While there, she’s subjected to one intense evaluation after the next, which includes reenactment therapy. Throughout it all, Dora struggles to figure out, did she really commit this crime? Can these doctors be trusted? Or, is it her own memory and mind that’s failing her?

In celebration of Fixation’s world premiere at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival, Morgan, Hasson, and co-star Atticus Mitchell all visited the Collider Supper Suite and Media Studio at Marbl to discuss the making of their twisty psychological thriller.

Every role can be demanding in one way, shape or form, but playing Dora seems like an especially taxing challenge, and without a lead actor who can go to an 11 and stay there throughout an entire production, Fixation just plain old doesn’t work. But fortunately, Morgan didn’t have to worry about that because she had Hasson in that lead role.

Hasson gives every single ounce of herself to a character who’s essentially being pummeled non-stop with traumatic treatment, warped memories, and the crushing weight of confusion and self-doubt. Not only must Hasson convey how that must feel, but she also needs to weave in Dora’s efforts to fight for clarity and belief in herself. Honestly? It seems like it could have been one of the most emotionally draining performances of the entire festival. Hasson excels in the role and proves to be the powerhouse anchor this story needs, but it’s hard not to wonder, what is it that compels one to commit to a project that requires them to be in such a headspace for an extended period of time? Hasson laughed and explained, “I think there's something wrong with me and I am talking to my therapist Leslie about it, but I do like sadness. In a hot way. In like a fresh, flirty way, you know what I mean?” She continued:

“You know what’s also nice that I realized? In my daily life, I intellectualize my feelings. I don't dive into them. And when I work, it feels like a really safe, contained environment to just be really angry and really sad and have them all out there, and it doesn't feel as safe to me in my personal life to feel those, not negative emotions, but emotions that just can feel consuming.”

Hasson also discussed some things she opted to do to get into character, things she had never done before:

“I don't really remember that much from shooting this because I did this crazy weird thing that I have never done and I lost 30 pounds and I wasn't eating and I ran like 10 miles a day and I was just in this wild, wild headspace. So I was just kind of like going. I wasn't thinking about, how's this gonna land or where does this fall in the script, whereas I was just trusting Mercedes, I was trusting Atticus, I was trusting Genesis [Rodriguez] and just trying to be present, and also not pass out.”

Another element of Fixation that proves vital to the film’s success? The location and production design. Fixation is a stunning film. (It’s stunning from top to bottom, but do keep an eye out for an especially impressive oner in the tail end that highlights how exceptional this set design really is.) The story unfolds in a six-story abandoned hospital, but the actual location wasn’t a hospital, but rather a gutted building. Morgan explained:

“We built our own hospital and it was just this gutted building. There was a morgue in the basem*nt that we had to walk through every single day to get to set … And at the beginning, actually, some of our crew members thought it was haunted. So we had to have a Native American chieftain come before we started shooting to do a four-hour cleansing ritual to make everyone feel okay. What was also wild is our whole movie is custom built sets that even open off into the space because we wanted to be able to flow through them within our building. We have shots where the camera drops down three floors because we're like, Great! There's a hole in this building that we can just drop our camera down.’”

Not only did they build a hospital with a slew of elaborate, haunting spaces, but they also installed manmade lakes in the building. Morgan continued:

“I think everything we did was kind of intense. I feel like every day we were like, ‘Here we go!’ But I think one of the most physically taxing things is we [had] manmade lakes inside of our building. The whole second floor we flooded and converted into a lake, and so it was really intense because [Maddie and Atticus] had to be running around in it all day long along with our crew so we all had boots on and it's near freezing weather. It's like two degrees above so you can even see our actors' breath sometimes on screen, which we couldn't help because our building’s huge, but it kind of gives it this surreal feeling.”

Yet another unforgettable component of Fixation? A certain song featured throughout the film that is the ultimate earworm — a welcomed earworm. It’s a cover of Cults’ single, “Always Forever.” Morgan noted:

“It’s a song that I've always loved because it has this very odd hauntingness to it that's also emotional. And so before we started, we picked it out and we're like, ‘Can we get the rights to the song to play literally 12 times in the movie?’”

They did and since seeing Fixation, I think I’ve listened to the song at least two dozen more times.

Looking for more from Morgan, Hasson, and Mitchell on the making of Fixation? You can catch our full TIFF 2022 conversation in the video at the top of this article!

Special thanks to our TIFF 2022 partners A-list Communications, Belvedere Vodka, Marbl Toronto, COVERGIRL Canada, Tres Amici Wines, Toronto Star, and Blue Moon Belgian White beer.