Juliette Lewis and Mamoudou Athie starring in By Design

Juliette Lewis and Mamoudou Athie head the cast of the body swap movie ‘By Design’.

Juliette Lewis and Mamoudou Athie will lead the cast of the body swap film ‘By Design’.

The pair are on board to play the central roles in the indie flick that has been written and directed by Amanda Kramer.

Other cast members in the movie – which has wrapped production in Los Angeles – including Samantha Mathis, Robin Tunney, Clifton Collins Jr., Udo Kier and Betty Buckley.

Plot details haven’t been disclosed but the picture is described as a twist on the body swap genre.

Miranda Bailey and Natalie Whalen are producing for Cold Iron Pictures along with Sarah Winshall, Jacob Agger and Kramer.

Juliette began her film career in the late 1980s and feels lucky to have worked together with some of the most talented figures in the industry.

The 51-year-old star told Entertainment Tonight: “I really got fortunate early on. And I didn’t know this at the time because people would say after ‘Cape Fear’ and I don’t know, ‘Natural Born Killers’, they’re like, ‘You’re gonna be so spoiled.’ Because I worked with these really phenomenal directors. I was like, ‘What? It’s not just always like this?’

“And they treated me like my ideas were valid, so I was always welcome to create and create strongly. That developed a real, if we’re talking about creative, survival. It developed a big muscle of adventure and trying things creatively that I use to this day.”

Lewis is also starring opposite Peter Dinklage in the Western film ‘The Thicket’ and says her childhood horse riding came in useful for her role as gang leader Cut Throat Bill.

She told ‘Just for Variety’: “I’m a third-place ribbon barrel racer.

“I was an equestrian. I grew up riding horses before I was 12. So the first thing we did in Calgary (where the movie was shot in the dead of winter) was get on a horse.

“They wanted to check us out, how you rode. I got a very good rating with my horse riding.”