Tina Kakadelis
Writer/director Anu Valia’s We Strangers is an exploration of suburban secrets and the things we hide beneath our white-picket-fence exteriors. The audience is placed in the shoes of a cleaner, Ray (Kirby Howell-Baptiste), who takes any available job to make some extra cash. When one of her professional clients asks her to clean his personal home, Ray jumps at the chance. Little does she know, though, that by accepting this job she’s immersing herself in a world of gossip where the lines of professionalism become blurred.
In 2024, We Strangers premiered at SXSW and it’s now playing in select theaters across the country. Kirby Howell-Baptiste sat down with Film Obsessive News Editor Tina Kakadelis to talk about the personal connection she had with her character, how kindness masks real feelings, and the cleaning tips she picked up along the way.
We Strangers was partially inspired by Valia’s childhood in the suburbs of the Midwest. While Howell-Baptiste grew up in London, she explains that the reason she was excited to take on the role of Ray was because of how much this character felt like a part of herself.
“I don’t think I’ve ever had the chance to play a character who is so deeply real. What feels refreshing about this film is that I think it feels very honest,” says Howell-Baptiste. “This can be anywhere in America. It’s a very simple film with a character who is perceived from the outside to be quiet and small, but that’s absolutely not who she is. That’s true for everyone. It was just really nice to play someone who lives in this world physically, but mentally, emotionally, and artistically, she lives in this whole other world.”
Howell-Baptiste is most known for her roles in Killing Eve, the many-years-after-the-fact fourth season of Veronica Mars, and The Good Place. She has the comedy chops that have been utilized in these shows and more, but We Strangers is an introduction of sorts to the more dramatic side of her abilities. What Howell-Baptiste does so well is move freely between the worlds of comedy and drama, and We Strangers is a stunning showcase of that.
“I’ve been fortunate in terms of my career thus far in that I have really bobbed around, whether that be network, cable, comedy, drama. I think I’ve had a chance to explore a lot of different worlds,” explains Howell-Baptiste. “We Strangers will probably be the most stripped-back version of myself that an audience member will see. I don’t know if I’ve played a character where I have sort of fused so much of myself with the character. That’s interesting, because it will be exciting to see how it’s received.”
“It’s liberating, because when I talk about being fused, I think that observational side is very much who I am,” continues Howell-Baptiste. “I can be loud and party-ish, but I think my resting state is being observational and taking people in. Despite what people are saying to me, I’m responding more to what I’m feeling and what I’m seeing rather than what I’m told.”
So much of Howell-Baptiste’s performance in We Strangers is quietly observational. Ray is in an environment that is not her own, that she is not inherently welcome in, but is being paid to play a role in. She’s a fly on the wall of this suburban world, often saying very little.
“Less lines to learn, so that’s great,” jokes Howell-Baptiste.
Prior to Howell-Baptiste joining the project, Valia had been deep in research mode. In order for We Strangers to work, both Valia and Howell-Baptiste needed to have an understanding of what it’s like to be a professional cleaner. It’s more than your average Sunday dusting. Valia got in touch with a woman named Roberta who owns a commercial cleaning company in Indiana. When Howell-Baptiste joined We Strangers, she asked if she could speak with Roberta to grasp what Ray’s life would really be like.
“Roberta was so accommodating. What was maybe meant to be just sort of be us chatting, getting to know each other, and me learning about the job literally became me working for her company for like two weeks.”
“We cleaned all over Indiana and part of Illinois,” recounts Howell-Baptiste. “We came to clean the Lego store in Chicago. It wasn’t the height of Covid, but it was a few years ago, so we were still wearing masks. What’s so interesting is that I was in multiple environments, some that were very public. I was cleaning and no one paid attention to me. No one knew who I was. No one paid attention to me.”
“It’s this very, very interesting dynamic where you are treated like you’re invisible. It’s almost like a secret power because you’re seeing and hearing absolutely everything. You’re moving in the shadows. I think that’s this silent power that a person, particularly domestic workers, have. I was able to extract and put some of that into my performance. It wasn’t even something I could take credit for. It was just a lived experience that made it real.”
After two weeks on the job, Howell-Baptiste came out with some cleaning tips she happily passed on.
“I am fantastic at cleaning,” boasts Howell-Baptiste with a smile. “You got to put your headphones in. You got to get into it. You know the saying cleanliness is next to godliness? It is so true because you have to clean top to bottom, get those gloves on. I literally mean top to the bottom. It’s really cathartic.”
Most people are familiar with the concept of Midwestern kindness. It’s the “aw shucks” mentality that defines a region, but has the ability to hide something darker. Is the outward portrayal of kindness the same as actually being kind? Is it worse to experience outright rudeness instead, or kindness masquerading as meanness?
“From spending time out in the Midwest, which I think was absolutely crucial, I further understood these characters. I understood that this kindness is part of a culture. Dealing with the perception of, we’re so nice, we’re so friendly, but people are people. People have their feelings.”
“I don’t know if it’s better or worse. The brash New Yorker or the nice Midwest mom,” goes on Howell-Baptiste. “I personally find it harder to deal with the cloak of niceness because I think it can be really, really disarming. You cannot know where you stand because you’re being told one thing, but you feel something very, very different. That’s really what Ray feels. Not when she’s with her family. They say it how it is. They tell you if you align, if you piss them off, and all that. When Ray’s with the other families, in order to sort of navigate it, she has to seize power in any way that she can.”
