DATELINE HOLLYWOOD
STILT FISHING
December 31, 2019
CREATIVE STREAK
December 31, 2019
Is she PUTTING ON AN ACT?
Lily James’ outlook on the movie industry is refreshingly calm
Violet Wilder hears an actress who’s popular and well-grounded
Lily James is building up quite the movie CV. In the past, she had appeared alongside Cate Blanchett in Kenneth Branagh’s version of Cinderella, wowed with Jon Hamm and Jamie Foxx in Edgar Wright’s Baby Driver, and rubbed shoulders with a host of famous names in the Richard Curtis movie Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again.
Yet, many would agree that the 30-year-old actress is much more than a makeweight alongside others since she has earned the right to truly own the spot-light. In August, she returned to the box office with Rare Beasts, which is a so-called ‘anti-romcom’ written by former pop star Billie Piper who is making her direc-torial debut in the movie.
“I think it’s a film that needed to be made,” says Lily, adding: “The romcom market is saturated with so many of the same sort of movies. That’s fine and there’s a lot to be said for that feel-good vibe; but is it realistic? I don’t think so. Sometimes, the cost of being in love is the darkness that envelops us in those less certain moments – we’ve all been there.”
Lily elaborates: “I think the more I evolve as an actress, the more I want to explore genres, topics and ideas that take an alternative look at the art of drama. That’s really important to me.”
Hailing from Surrey, the British actress set out on the long road to stardom by reading for a degree at the Guildhall School of Music and Dra-ma in London, and graduating with a Bachelor of Arts with honours in acting in 2010.
“I think back to the early days and it seems such a long time ago; but I never believed I wouldn’t find a way of making a breakthrough,” she reveals. “There’s a whole heap of luck needed when making one’s way through the fog. And whenever I was given the chance to perform I always took it,” Lily says.
“In those days, I was definitely in awe of the people I found myself working with – Cate Blanchett, Maggie Smith, Gary Oldman, Kristin Scott Thomas et al. But as the projects mounted, I realised the best thing to do was to not think about it all on such a grand scale because it was too overwhelming a concept for me… for anyone, in fact,” James declares.
The actress admits her technique for coping with the daily demands of being established as a truly global star is to ignore the noise.
“What I do, what works for me is to keep looking ahead, keep going, looking to the next job, the one after that and the challenges that come with it. I then break those challenges down into smaller ones, tiny ones; and take them step by step, day by day,” she discloses.
And Lily admits: “I do wonder sometimes how I got here but try not to think of it too of---ten. I’ve been so lucky and I know it may evaporate as quickly as it appeared. It’s the reality of the job.”
“The movie Yesterday was a really interesting project for me because I know what it’s like to audition over and over again, not get anything and feel very low. After I came out of drama school, I was trying hard to establish myself and it was very difficult; it left me questioning what I was doing with my life. And then one job led to another and another,” she recalls.
Lily affirms that Michelle Williams is the actress she admires more than anyone else. Amy Adams can do no wrong either. “I come away from Amy’s films feeling genuinely empowered – not only as a woman but as an actor and a person too. She makes me want to be better all-round,” she enthuses.
Being better now means preparing for what appears to be a busy year ahead. Lily stars in The Dig, which will be out at the start of 2020. She plays Peggy Preston, an archaeologist who embarks on a historically important excavation of the famous Anglo-Saxon ship discovered at Sut-ton Hoo in the east of England before the outbreak of World War II.
She then appears in Rebecca as Mrs de Winter, a young newlywed who finds herself living in the shadow of her wealthy husband’s ex-wife.
“I think my movie choices going forward prove the fact that I want to keep mixing it up,” she admits. “That’s really what every actor should do for their own self-respect because no one wants to go through life doing the same thing all the time. If I can create some dramatic art out of that and if people take pleasure in what I’m putting on show, then that really is the perfect thing for me – and long may it continue!” Lily ex-claims.
