We were like 'pew, pew, pew', shooting blood cannons.
It was so great.
So, what's the film that has had the biggest impact on your life?
Wow, wow!
Warm me up, Scotty.
I'm just kidding, I'm just kidding.
The film that's had the most effect on me I think would be Pinocchio.
Oh my god.
It's my movie, it was my movie when I was a kid.
I still love it. I still draw so much from it, and it's such an old movie,
and yet I think that a lot of the things
that are talked about in the movie
are still very poignant today.
Oh, it is heartfelt, it's love.
It is, it is, and also the idea that we are all real in some sort of way.
- He's a real boy. - No one's a puppet.
No, no one can control you.
Yeah, (singing) and always let your conscience be your guide.
It's my favourite.
Film makers, who has made the biggest impact on you?
David Fincher is huge for me.
I love his story telling, in the sense that he
has a higher vibrational reason for why he's
doing things, he's very socially commentative, he drops Easter eggs.
I mean, he's so multi-faceted.
Paul Thomas Anderson, incredible again.
I mean, these are some really fantastic men.
Sofia Coppola, everything, she is just so fresh
and intelligent with the things that she does.
I have to say, probably mine is Barry Jenkins.
Oh, nice.
Nice, yeah.
- His stuff is really good. - It's really good.
What's your favourite set you've been on and why?
I feel like my favourite set that I've been on was Tragedy Girls,
just because we had this thing called a blood cannon.
Oh my god.
Yeah, and so you'll find out,
the more and more you work in front of the camera
and behind the camera, that sometimes you
wanna shoot the people you work with.
It must be long hours.
It's long hours, but it's also out of pure fun.
Like, you just wanna have fun with them.
You don't wanna kill them, you wanna shoot them with the blood cannon.
And you don't know that you're gonna feel this
until you've actually shot someone
with a blood cannon. - The power.
Yeah, it's like, 'Oh!' (hissing)
'Cause we would need the splatter, and so someone would come up
and shoot us with the blood cannon.
So on our last day we wrapped the film,
and Brianna and I just went around to all of
our ADs and we were like 'pew, pew, pew', shooting blood cannons.
It was so great.
Ah, dreams. (laughter)
Okay, so who's your best friend on the set of X-Men?
- Sophie. - Mm-hmm.
Me and Sophie get on a lot.
Actually, on Apocalypse we lived together.
Do you have, like, backstage banter?
It's not that we have backstage banter,
it's just when we were filming Apocalypse,
Sophie was also filming Game of Thrones,
so she was coming back and forth a lot,
so she'd leave town for two or three days
and I'd pitch a tent or I'd build a fort
in the living room for her, and she'd come back and she'd be like, 'Yeah!'
'The fort!', and we just loved watching
cartoons and eating Rice Krispies in the fort.
- That is so nice, I can imagine. - Yeah, we're such kids.
So what film always makes you happy and why?
Grease.
Grease, ah, a classic.
Grease always makes me happy.
Two words, John Travolta.
Ohh.
- Hand to Jesus, he is just-, - Stunning.
Uh, then was just like, ah, 'cause at that point he was what, like, twenty?
Yes, he was, like, every young girl's-,
He was really young, and I remember reading-,
I've read so much trivia about it, but he was very young at the time.
I always wanted to play Rizzo.
- I didn't wanna be Sandy. - Sandy, Rizzo.
I wanted to be Rizzo.
Thing is, her character, it had passion, but she was like-,
She had the songs, though.
I love Sandy's character and I love Olivia Newton John,
I've always been a huge fan of her music but Rizzo had the songs, honey.
She had the voice, she had the whole character arc.
Maybe that could be something, if it comes up
that you could be like, 'Here I am.'
One day. Rizzo.
I'll be the black Rizzo, I'll be Blizzo.
Oh my god, you'd be like, 'Blizzo's here.'
Come on, could you imagine a Grease, Hamilton kind of vibe?
Mix, oh.
That would be really nice.
I don't remember a lot of brown people in Grease.
Were there any brown people in Grease?
I think on the basketball team.
Well, maybe it's time.
She's funny.
Do you miss any characters when you stop playing them?
Yes, I definitely miss Sadie from Tragedy Girls.
Mm-hmm.
She was so real, and she was like, 'I like to kill people. Next.'
She was like the definition of, 'Thank you, next,' but with killing.
Like, proper full on.
- I loved you in Love, Simon as Abby. -Thank you.
- I loved it. - Yeah, I do miss Abby.
I mean, could there be a number two?
I think that would be fun, you know,
to see them grown up and maybe come back
for a high school reunion. - Yeah, we'll see.
Like a Romy and Michelle meets Love, Simon.
That could be cool.
If you could have any one X-Men power, but not Storm's,
who would it be and what would you use it for?
Okay, so I would definitely be Mystique, and I would definitely
use her powers to play tricks on people.
Oh, you could pretend to be anyone.
You could be anyone, like I could be
kissing my boo, and then they pull away
and I'm their mother.
Or, like, their best friend.
That is so dark.
So dark, but it also feels like the-, you know that new Snapchat filter?
Oh, and you can change, like, your gender, which is crazy.
Yeah, super crazy. It's like that but-,
When you did it, were you an attractive man?
I was my brother.
I looked so unattractive.
I know, it gave me spots, which I was like, 'Why would you do that?'
And you can also put yourself as a girl as well.
- Yeah, it's way prettier than me. - 'Wow, I'm a very pretty girl now.'
Yeah, like, 'Oh my God, this is what I'm supposed to
look like.' Snapchat.
Okay, so what do you enjoy most about the cinema experience?
I enjoy the community that you get sitting in
a movie theatre and watching a film with a
group of people, whether you're
watching a comedy and you're laughing,
or you're watching a scary movie and everyone's jumping back and
laughing at each other, or even when
you are being made to feel uncomfortable.
I remember seeing Shame in the movie theatre
and being like, 'God, this is great,
but this is so awkward. I am surrounded by other people and-,
And we're all witnessing it together.
And we're all witnessing this beautiful
performance by Michael of going through
a sex addiction and an addiction in general,
and I'm uncomfortable, and you're doing
your job and that's awesome, and I think-,
But you're like-,
Well, movies, they're made to make you feel some type of way.
If you're not feeling something then it's not doing its job.
He succeeded really well with that.
- That was a good one. - Yeah.
Besides acting, did you have any other professional ambitions
when you were younger, anything you wanted to be?
Oh yeah, oh yeah.
I definitely always knew that I wanted to be in entertainment.
I started singing when I was ten,
- I started playing piano-, - You got them vocal cords?
Yes, I do try.
Started playing piano when I was twelve, guitar when I was fifteen,
violin when I was thirteen.
I went to an art school, it was a performing art school.
That explains it.
I don't know how to play a single instrument.
Yeah, at my school, it was a prerequisite
that you at least play one, so I played three.
Oh my god, you topped it.
Well, I loved the idea of playing different instruments
and expressing myself in a different way.
When I get really caught up in a script
or I've gone over the script a million times,
like Anthony Hopkins reads every script out loud all the way through
a hundred times before he gets to work.
I don't do all that, but I do my own variation of it,
so after a while, the things that you're reading
can get really monotonous.
And just to step away and play my guitar or sit at my piano
and tickle the keys for 15, 20 minutes-,
Because music can just be its own self-expression, really.
I mean, like, Bills, Bills, Bills can change my day.
If I'm having a bad day and someone puts on Destiny's Child,
I'm like, 'God, you're so right.'
(laughter)
'Yeah, no, I don't want no scrubs.'
- No. (laughter)
Who is your favourite artist right now
or the last person that was on your playlist?
Oh, I'm obsessed with Lizzo.
- I'm so obsessed. - Oh my god, Truth Hurts is like-,
Jerome is so real, I mean,
- I just like bass too, you know? - Amazing.
Because she's so body positive
and it's so nice to listen to music that makes you feel good.
Yeah, she's proper like she doesn't care.
- No, I love that. - And she's just herself.
I love that, and I also love that singers can do that, you know?
It's so beautiful.
- You can express your art. - 100%.
They can express whoever they are, whenever they want,
and people just have to take it because they're an artist.
Whereas with actors, you say one thing and people are like,
'Are you sure you wanna say that?' (laughter)
- Yeah, I said it. - You're like, 'I'm sure.'
Yeah, that's why it came out of my mouth.
What advice would you give your younger self?
(singing) Be yourself.
I'm just kidding, I've been singing that all day.
I feel like I would tell myself that whatever you're doing is great
and whatever everyone else is doing is their own thing,
and if you just keep doing your own thing,
you'll actually feel that much better about yourself.
Even at my age, you end up comparing yourself
to what other people are doing at your age
and you're like,'They're doing this, they're doing that.'
'Why aren't I doing it?'
Or even not people our age, or it's people that are older than us
and you're like, man, Halle Berry was so much further along in her career
when she was my age, or whatever.
The reality is that that's her truth, that's their path,
and you kind of have to take your head out of it
and stop second-guessing yourself.
Plus I think, in today's social media day and age,
this idea that everyone has to have the Instagram brows and all of that,
once you start putting yourself into that cookie-cutter type of idea
of beauty and self-worth, you start to take away from who you are
as an individual, and that's what makes you special,
that's what makes you beautiful, that's what makes you attractive.
I'm gonna take that home, what you just said,
I'm gonna go to bed with it.
Oh yeah, you better soak in it, queen.
Okay, so dressed up for a premiere or jogging bottoms in a park,
what are you most comfortable wearing?
- Jogging bottoms, yeah. - 100%, at home.
I'm a sweats girl. I don't know if you can tell
but I'm wearing slippers with my Escada suit, okay?
Mama likes to be comfortable every now and then.
That's literally, like, a skirt and trainers.
- Yeah, exactly. - It's gotta be done.
- Comfortability first. - Sometimes, I mean,
I've been wearing heels all day,
so if we're framing them out, I'm gonna take them off
because I'm real. - You are, this is real life.
- This is real life. - Heels hurt.
Yeah, pretty hurts, like Beyoncé's song Pretty Hurts.
- It's a real thing. - Pretty really does hurt.
Two hours max.
Yeah, and also if you're going ten, eleven-hour days minimum,
heels can be uncomfortable.
They're beautiful but they hurt.
They're beautiful, and also men are in grey loafers all the time
or sneakers or jeans, and they look great.
They crawl out of bed and they look great.
I need at least two to three hours' worth of hair and makeup.
Exactly the same, you don't wake up and go.
No, but in my everyday life, I do wake up and go.
I am very downplayed, I don't like to wear a lot of makeup,
I like to let my hair air-dry, I'm in sweats.
Those days where you can do a wash and go
and just, like, breeze is so lovely.
Yeah, I don't have to look any type of way, I can just be me.
Who would you trade places with for a day, real or fiction?
Alive or dead?
Alive or dead, real or fiction, anyone.
I think I would trade places with Trump
and I would resign.
Just leave?
Yeah, I'd just be like, you know what-,
That's a really good one because I was like,
'Oh my god, where's she gonna go with this?'
Yeah, I would resign. I think I'd be Trump and I'd resign.
Go back to your Trump Tower and stay in there.
Yeah, you know what I mean?
I think that's something Mystique would do too.
That's why I love her character so much.
She's lovely.
Favourite foods, both on set and off?
Mmm, spaghetti bolognese.
- I love a spag bol. - Basically all Italian foods.
- Yeah, garlic bread. - Halloumi?
I'm not a huge halloumi fan but if it's deep fried-,
- You'll have it? - I'll eat anything deep fried.
Everything deep fried.
- Anything, okay.
What CV skills are you most proud of, like, accents?
- I can do a little Australian one. - Let me hear it! You can do it?
G'day.
- G'day mate. - G'day mate.
I'm from Australia, you know?
- I love a good barbecue, the BBQ. - Yeah, that's nice.
Aussie land, can you jump on?
I thought that I had a good Australian accent,
and then I have a few friends who are Australian
and they're like, 'No, that's New Zealand.'
- New Zealand?
It's a New Zealand accent, it's more of a Kiwi.
I thought I knew what I was doing,
but I guess there's something a little bit more bitey.
It's like the sister accent. That's really good.
Yeah, I thought I was doing an Australian accent. No, I'm a Kiwi.
That is something, that's something else.
Okay, so it's the last question.
Best advice you've been given and by who?
The best advice I've been given was from my mom,
and it was that you get to choose how you show up.
I really love that and I try and utilise that
in every aspect of my life,
whether it's with the people who bring me my food,
waiters or hotel service or otherwise,
whether it's people that I work with on set.
How you treat people and how you react to things
is completely and utterly in your control,
and when you have that self-awareness,
you're able to really redefine yourself.
And everyone is human so we all have slip-ups.
There's moments where I'll be really sassy
and my friend will be like, 'Are you hungry, are you tired?'
- Everything. - You need a Snickers?
I'm like that Snickers commercial, and it kind of sets you back
and you have to reset and you go, 'Oh yeah, okay, okay.'
Am I exhausted or am I really hungry right now?
Yes, but do I have stuff to do and I have to show up
and I have to be professional and all of that?
- Yeah... - 'Cause it's my job.
'Cause I'm an adult who pays her own bills.
I can't wait for that.
Ugh, milk what you've got going on right now
as long as you possibly can. - My month left.
Yeah, you've got a month left, milk it.
Man, I wish all I had to worry about was midterms.
- Yeah, I'm in exam season now. - Okay, so that's it.
Yeah, I wish that's all I had to worry about
was just flashcards.
How do you get through-, are we done?
I forgot the tapping, I was like, 'Wait, are we done?'
(laughter)
Love it. That's okay, let's start over.
(laughter)
Fabulous.
Thank you very much for this interview.
I've loved talking to you.
- This was so much fun. - Literally, so much fun.
- Thank you. - Thank you.