Stella Marcus is a beautiful gifted sweet, smart, shimmering star on the rise. Her sci-fi action film REDUX REDUX recently premiered at Austin’s SXSW to rave reviews. She can currently be seen in the Off-Broadway revival of the humorous Sam Shepard’s Obie award-winning piece of work Curse of the Starving Class playing Emma Tate alongside Christian Slater, Calista Flockhart and Cooper Hoffman. She popped by our Brooklyn studio before her show recently with some vintage gems and her guitar. She is stunning with her raven hair (usually streaming down her back but chopped shorter for the play) contrasting with her luminous porcelain skin and the most luscious set of eyebrows we’ve seen. Scroll on down as we document this blossoming talent in her own style and chat about her show day routine, REDUX REDUX experience, music, staying grounded, Lucille Ball and Joni Mitchell as solid inspirations and of course her bare essentials. Get out and see Stella on stage now till April 6th!

the bare magazine: your film REDUX REDUX premiered at SXSW. you were performing on stage in Curse of the Starving Class so you couldn’t attend. but please share how the making of it was, a bit about the cast, and how it helped you evolve as an actor?

Stella Marcus: That movie—and making that movie—was and really will always be so precious to me. I think it’ll always hold this special nostalgic charm of being my first, but I also find the experience offers me fresh and further lessons every time I look back on it. In the nine months since shooting, my out-of-this-world joy in booking that role, and just the awareness of how great that experience and opportunity was has only been reborn for me and gotten stronger. So I think it’s one of those gifts that keeps on giving. Not to mention I was absolutely in love with the script and my character Mia, and I absolutely fell in love with Michaela Mcmanus!

bare: give us some background on getting the role in Curse? is this your first experience on stage? are you enjoying it?

SM: It definitely feels like a first. I’ve been on stage in high school, doing friends’ short plays, and I was in an off-Broadway production of Lanford Wilson’s The Mound Builders, directed by my family member Bruce McCarty, where I had a small role as the ever-curious and ever-rebelling daughter Kirsten—not entirely dissimilar to Emma in Curse! But my life has never been dedicated to the theater like this before. I’ve never been so impassioned, so rapt and so exhausted as I was those 3 1/2 weeks of rehearsals. It was great! And then it just got more and more so as we started performing every night, really sinking our teeth into it.

bare: how is the chemistry with your castmates? have you become a pretty tight group? do you get melancholy at the thought of it ending soon?

SM: I think we’ve all loved becoming the Tate family together, I mean everyone is so talented and serious about the work. And for weeks on end we’ve spent practically every day together, so there’s an inevitable bond. I feel so honored to be on stage with (and learn from) such experienced artists—who also happen to be really wonderful people. Sharing a dressing room with Calista Flockhart, too, has been the most fun. I really revere her; her grace and kindness and artistry. I’ve learned a lot.

And it’s always a bittersweet goodbye, but it’s also something I love about theater: it’s ephemeral. Just how a moment on stage is never quite the same twice, an entire production is something that can never be replicated. Which is special. But…I will miss it dearly!

bare: what is your typical show day regime or routine? take us through it...and your off day as well!?

SM: Well even though I’ve got the whole day before work begins, I tend to lay low and usually don’t even leave my house before I’ve got to head to the theater. Maybe I’ll go for a walk. But really, being in a show, your life is revolving around that one thing you get to do every day, so my free time in a way is still devoted towards the play and whatever it is I have to do to feel ready for the evening.

I sleep in late so that I’m not totally exhausted by ten o’clock after the show when I’ve got to get home; then I really just spend the day reading, exercising, preparing for or taping auditions, distracting my boyfriend from his work…then I go to the theater. I like to be early. I don’t have a step-by-step routine for pre-show, I really just try to relax into the moment so that by the time my first entrance rolls around I’m completely centered and ready to live through the play. That’s the goal anyway.

bare: you're an amazing musician. can you share any recent musical endeavors or goals? do you see yourself pursuing both acting and music down the road?

SM: I’m not so focused on music at the moment; it’s shifted in and out of the limelight for me for as long as I can remember, and I haven’t felt such a strong pull towards it recently. But it’s one of those things for me that I know to let go of when other things call for attention, and it’ll always worm its way back into my life at the right time. But that isn’t to say I don’t go around the house singing show tunes all day long…

bare: who and what grounds you and helps you keep mentally and physically healthy and happy?

SM: I have somewhat of a routine in the morning—not something I follow to a T because I find the “perfection” aspect of it a bit counter productive—but just being slow as a sloth and having that time for myself, I think it centers me. And of course occasionally I’ll make my brother sit down with me for a whole day and talk about whatever it is I’m losing my mind over. He’s a super-freak-genius, and the first person I call if I’m in dire straits. I guess another way to look at it is to surround yourself with people who love and support you; as cliche as it sounds, I’d say it’s pretty solid advice!

bare: please share your biggest inspirations and influences in style, acting and music? can be anyone past or present.

SM: My very first idol and influence was Lucille Ball—I grew up on I Love Lucy and tried to adopt some of her mischief and wit from a young age. I think all the actresses I’ve really admired have had a strong back bone and an even stronger sense of humor.

With style, no matter how eclectic my closet gets I definitely gravitate back to a classic 40s, 50s even early 60s things….wool slacks, swing dresses, fisherman sweaters. My parents are to blame for that obsession.

Also, Joni Mitchell, in every influential regard.