Alex Garland has a type and Cailee Spaeny fulfills it in Civil War

Alex Garland’s new movie Civil War is fantastic, it truly depicts a realistic scenario for another US civil war should politics and elections become even more divisive. It is a relatively short movie without big budget special effects, at least not until the end. As such Civil War is quite a palate cleanser, as many Alex Garland productions are. However, while watching Civil War something did suddenly adorn to me, Alex Garland has a type – meaning more often than not his movies depict one group of women more than any other thus revealing is personal preference. Alex Garland’s type is that of a petite brunette and in Civil War that has become actress Cailee Spaeny, an up-and-coming actress whose roles have been in last year’s Priscilla and Alex Garland’s first miniseries Devs, in which she played Lyndon.

Before I attempt to reveal all of Cailee Spaeny I want to delve into my theory, or at least mention the proof. While Alex Garland did not direct the 2012 movie Dredd he did write the script and produce it. The movie starring Karl Urban as Judge Dredd also starred Olivia Thirlby as Judge Anderson. While the actress is blonde in the movie she is definitely brunette in real life. Garland’s directorial debut Ex Machina is full of petite brunettes. Part of it is understandable, a movie about A.I. depicting an alluring robot is going to feature idealized women. However in Ex Machina all the female characters are of the type, from Alicia Vikander’s Ava, Sonoya Mizuno’s Kyoko to Gana Bayarsaikhan’s Jade. There is already a post about a nude Alicia Vikander in Ex Machina to read. Then there is Annihilation which features Natalie Portman’s character as part of an all-female team of researcher’s / soldiers investigation an alien anomaly. In 2022’s Men there is Jessie Buckley while Alex Garland’s miniseries Devs would again feature Sonoya Mizuno. Like some other directors Alex Garland recasts the same actors time-and-again but I suspect some of the female actors to be muses.

So what can I reveal about Cailee Spaeny. She has so far not had a nude role like Alicia Vikander and Sonoya Mizuno so this post features shots from a diverse number of productions, though mostly from Priscilla. Meanwhile Cailee is continuing her movie career and at the end of the year we will see her in Alien: Romulus, though I hope Alex Garland will continue to chose her for future roles as well.