By starring in director Andrea Arnold’s adaptation of “Wuthering Heights,” Kaya Scodelario is the latest in a long line of British ingénues to earn her spurs in a period drama.

But the 19-year-old Londoner doesn’t channel the delicate turns of phrase and genteel manners that the genre is known for. Instead, Scodelario gives an emotionally raw performance as Catherine Earnshaw in Arnold’s earthy, rough-hewn adaptation of Emily Bronte’s classic novel. The film, which gets its U.S. premiere this weekend at the Sundance Film Festival, earned much buzz when it premiered in Europe at the Venice Film Festival late last year, with Britain’s Daily Telegraph noting that Scodelario “crackles with flirtatious petulance” in the role.

“For me the whole point of this story is that [Catherine] loves [Heathcliff] so much that it almost kills her — well it does eventually kill her,” says Scodelario, in her soft London accent. “I think a lot of people assume that ‘Wuthering Heights’ is this great love story, but I think the first thing [Arnold] said to me that it wasn’t, it’s very dark, deep and conflicting. It’s very kind of Gothic and a bit f—ed up to be honest.”

Arnold, who is known for gritty films such as “Red Road,” set on a tough Glasgow housing project, places her “Wuthering Heights” on northern England’s punishingly windswept, rainy Yorkshire Moors. While much of the action centers on Catherine and Heathcliff as children, Scodelario and first-time actor James Howson play the older Catherine and Heathcliff, when they reunite after she’s unhappily married to another.

Scodelario, whose mother is Brazilian, says that Arnold’s unconventional approach is what attracted her to the role. Filming in the remote Yorkshire town of Hawes helped Scodelario tap into the visceral qualities of the film.

“People find it hard to understand how one emotion can effect someone so much,” says the actress, who’s speaking over the phone ahead of traveling to Los Angeles, where her services are in increasing demand. “[But] I think at that age, as a teenager in a place like that, where there is nothing, once you fall in love with someone that is everything to you, that is your world, that is all-consuming.”

The film’s rural isolation is a world away from Scodelario’s best-known role as a rebellious, aloof teenager in “Skins,” the long-running teen drama from the U.K.’s Channel 4 network. The show is notorious in Britain for depicting a group of fictional teens’ hard-drinking, drug-taking shenanigans. Scodelario played the role of the emotionally fragile Queen Bee Effy Stonem from the ages of 14 through 17, which she won after she got talking to the show’s director at an open audition held near her north London school.

Following her turn as Catherine, Scodelario now has a slew of film roles calling her across the pond. She’s shot “Now Is Good,” a romantic comedy, alongside Dakota Fanning and Jeremy Irvine, that’s due for release this year, and is now shooting the title role in “Emanuel and the Truth About Fishes,” alongside Jessica Biel and Alfred Molina. She’s been working with a dialogue coach to nail the American accent

It’s likely that Scodelario’s red-carpet profile will also be on the rise, given that she’s blessed with a model-esque combination of long chestnut hair, piercing blue eyes and a willowy frame. She’s already worn Burberry for her appearance in Venice, but notes that feeling “comfortable” on the red carpet is a priority — and she’s not above shopping the high street. The actress sported a Topshop minidress for another Venice photo call, but not without a bit of angst beforehand.

“I phoned my mum in like floods of tears, [saying] ‘I don’t know what to wear, I’ve only got Topshop, everyone’s going to take the piss out of me because I’m in Topshop,’” recalls Scodelario. “And she was like, ‘No, wear what you feel comfortable in.’ So I did and I did feel comfortable and happy in my little Topshop dress.”

iFashion Magazine:

Kaya Scodelario

She might not be a newbie to our TV sets but Kaya Scodelario has certainly been making her mark as an actress, fashion muse and all-round cool girl since her stint as Effy in cult TV hit Skins. Making her film debut in 2011 as Cathy in a modern version of Wuthering Heights, the starlet looked amazing at the premiere in a vintage inspired lace gown. Definitely forging her way forward as one of the UKs brightest young fashionistas; Kaya has four new projects lined up in 2012. Watch this space.

MSN Style UK:

You may remember her as Effy in Channel 4′s Skins but emerging star Kaya is enjoying quite a bit of success right now, starring alongside Dakota Fanning in the upcoming Now is Good adaptation and Billie Piper in controversial BBC drama Love Life.

Signature style: As her career has grown, the former Skins star has developed some serious fashion nous. Kaya has graduated from Topshop and Asos to Gucci and Burberry, but she’s still retained her mix of urban hip and ladylike finesse.

Stylist:

FASHION ONES TO WATCH: KAYA SCODELARIO
Best known for her role as Effy on Channel 4 drama Skins, Kaya Scodelario has metamorphosised into quite the girl-about-town. From her haunting turn as Cathy in the new film adaptation of Wuthering Heights to rubbing shoulders with the fashion elite at Burberry’s Spring/Summer 2012 show, Kaya is the one of the hottest rising stars around right now.

Grazia:

Kaya Scodelario
It’s Effy from Skins! Only she’s all grown up. Kaya was the only member of the Skins cast to stay in the show from seasons 1-4 and since then has starred as Cathy in Wuthering Heights as well as working on four new projects for release in 2012. Kaya grew up in London and says that ‘clothes are my drug’, proved by her appearance at theBurberry Spring / Summer 2012 show, where she sat behind Kanye West. Next season, expect to see her on the FROW.

British Vogue’s Fashions Favourite Films

KAYA SCODELARIO: “Either Titanic or anything with Arnold Schwarzenegger in it – I grew up watching his films.”

Costume drama is a long way from Skins — which tends more to uncostumed drama — but Kaya Scodelario made a brave leap from teenage television into the dark when she took the part last year of Cathy in Wuthering Heights.

This was no ordinary Brontë remake: it was directed by Andrea Arnold, who has a reputation for concrete high-rise social realism after Red Road and Fish Tank, and Scodelario was thrown in at the muddy deep end in Yorkshire.

“There were no rain machines,” she shudders. “It was all real.” The script was stripped of most dialogue; Scodelario was stripped of any make-up, and told to say lines “in my head”. Plus she had to work with three untrained actors, including James Howson as the first black Heathcliff.

Scodelario says: “I’ve never met anyone like Andrea before. There was no real audition – she just draws you in. There’s no clapperboard, no marks, but you just fall into her rhythm. In the end the silent takes were my favourite thing. You relax. It’s like meditation.”

There were rave, rather surprised, reviews of her performance in Wuthering Heights. The film won best cinematography at the Venice Film Festival, where Scodelario walked the red carpet for the first time.

At 19, she has had some minor roles in Duncan Jones’s Moon and as a maid in the 3-D blockbuster Clash of the Titans, but her appearances in the British gang movie Shank and in Wuthering Heights show a growing confidence on camera.

This year Scodelario filmed the new British thriller Twenty8k, but her favourite project so far is Now Is Good, which comes out in May. Scodelario plays Zoey, the street-smart best friend of Tessa, played by Dakota Fanning, who has had leukaemia diagnosed and wants to lose her virginity immediately. The terrific cast includes Paddy Considine, Olivia Williams and Jeremy Irvine, of War Horse. “It’s a great tween movie about a beautiful friendship — plus we got to run around on Brighton beach.”

Scodelario says: “My heart is in independent films like that. It’s a very different atmosphere from a big blockbuster; being on a small film teaches you so much more.” But obviously if Hollywood came calling again . . .

We meet in her London agent’s office, where she is, indeed, awaiting news of an American film deal. A slip of a thing in tight jeans, a hoodie, glitter socks and sneakers, Scodelario also has an expressive, angelic face, with curls pulled up in a ponytail. But she wants to eschew the merely decorative for the gritty. In that mode, Scodelario appears next spring in an improvised series for BBC One, Love Life, where she is the love interest of her teacher, played by Billie Piper. Since her recruitment at the age of 14 by the creators of Skins, Scodelario has displayed a solid work ethic. She played Effy Stonem over three series, and each year her part grew in stature until the story of her depression and first love anchored the series.

“I am such a self-conscious person,” she says. “And acting is the only thing I feel I can do. When I’m in character, I feel better.” Asked about her character, Effy, she says: “I’d much rather play a f***ed up character than a good one. I want to push myself to the edge.”

Brazilian Brit Kaya Scodelario has experience playing troubled youths. She is undoubtedly most famous for her role as Effy Stonem on the UK version (really, the only version) of Skins. Enigmatic Effy didn’t say much, though she was the show’s longest running character: appearing in the first four seasons, Effy didn’t have any lines until the show’s eighth episode. But Effy didn’t need to speak. Somehow, with a raised eyebrow, a roll of the eye and a sideways smile, Kaya clearly conveyed her character: an alarmingly precocious and disillusioned teenager. More recently, Kaya has taken on the role of Cathy Earnshaw in indie director Andrea Arnold’s much-lauded adaptation of Wuthering Heights and filmed Now is Good opposite Marc Jacobs’ darling, Dakota Fanning. We caught Kaya before she runs off to LA to shoot her next film with Jessica Biel and Alfred Molina, to chat about teenage romance, Antonio Banderas, and how she’s brushing up on her American accent.

AGE: 19

HOMETOWN: London, UK

ON STARRING IN YET ANOTHER ADAPTATION OF WUTHERING HEIGHTS: My biggest worry was that I couldn’t relate because it was set such a long time ago. I thought, “Ooh, I have no idea what they felt like. That was a hundred years ago.” [laughs] [But] once I heard that Andrea was directing it, I knew her vision would be completely different to anything that’s been done before. I’ve never read the book before; I was told not to at the first audition. I think Andrea wanted us to go into it very open-minded, without trying to copy someone’s performance or do something that we’d seen before. I’d always obviously known about it, and my mum was a huge fan—but I always assumed it was this great love story, I think a lot of people do. The image you get from that, you think it’s a happy-go-lucky love film, and it’s not at all. It’s a very cruel, violent, depressing, Gothic story, much more about the psyche of the characters than the actual love. I found that very interesting, and I wanted to shine a new light on this film so that people get a new vision of it, a new understanding of it.

ON DYSFUNCTIONAL RELATIONSHIPS: I really do enjoy playing love storylines; it’s something I’m quite fascinated with at the moment, the sort of psychological side of it, falling in love, what it feels like at that age. I think it was very important for Andrea to play Cathy at that age, because when you’re a teenager, falling in love for the first time or the second time, it’s very different to the love that you have later on in life. As a teenager, you’re still discovering who you are, what your life is about, and who you want to be as a person. It’s very intense. [laughs] It’s a very sort of crazy love, and I can understand Cathy’s craziness for [Heathcliff]. Filming in Yorkshire on location, there’s just nothing there, it’s a very wild landscape, and you can see how one small emotion can feel like a huge thing in your life because there is nothing else there . . . that is everything.

ON THE POLITICS OF PERIOD FILMS: I was very hesitant about doing a period film. It was very much out of my comfort zone; I’d never done anything like that before. I’ve not been to drama school, so I wasn’t trained in the technicalities. I would have loved the opportunity to have gone to drama school, but it just didn’t work out for me; there are always several paths, and there’s a reason why I’ve been down this path. I am quite proud that I managed to prove that you don’t have to be able to afford drama school or have the right connections to do well. When I was very young, I didn’t think I’d ever get this opportunity [to act]. I was very sad about it, I thought you had to be very rich or have connected parents. That feeling of not being allowed to do something that’s your passion is horrible. I like the idea of up-and-coming actors nowadays being a little different and not necessarily the drama-school stereotype, being a bit more edgy.

WORKING WITH FIRST-TIME ACTORS: With Wuthering Heights, everyone asked, “Oh, [all of your co-stars] are new [to acting], what was it like working with them?” But I don’t feel like an established actor, I feel like I’m in the same boat as them. [Wuthering Heights] was my first big film, and every new job feels like the first time, you never leave that feeling of the first day of school, so I could easily relate. I [also] didn’t want to be the person telling [my costars] what to do, or giving them advice. I wanted them to find their own journey and they did, and I respected that. I knew they would, much like I did with [my first acting job] Skins. There was always watching Nick Holt and how he conducted himself, learning from all the older actors who would come in to play parents. I learnt a lot more that way than being told what to do.

WORKING WITH DAKOTA FANNING: It was really cool to work with Dakota Fanning. I’ve watched her grow up and I’ve always loved her films, loved her. It was amazing working with someone who was American as well, because obviously it’s going to be a different energy straightaway. We got on really well; she’s so professional and hardworking.

HOW TO ACQUIRE AN AMERICAN ACCENT: You can get a voice coach, and they are very helpful, but I think the most important thing is to train yourself; [when] you hear your voice in an accent, and it doesn’t really sound like you, you think about it too much. I’ve been watching TV and repeating what people say in an American accent, phoning up taxis and ordering them in an American accent, stuff like that, just to get used to hearing my voice in a different way. I’ll try my best to do it justice!

FANTASY CO-STAR: I’d like to work with . . . everyone. Am I allowed to say that? My dream [actor] to work with is actually a British actor, Tom Hardy. My mum has told me that I have to work with Antonio Banderas just so that she can meet him and try and marry him. [laughs] He’s married? Oh no! Well, she can hug him then. [laughs]

BRAZIL!: My mum is Brazilian and very proud. I’d love to do a Brazilian film. I’ve been brought up in the Brazilian culture. My mum brought me up on my own, I cook Brazilian food, I’ve never spoken a word of English to my mother. It would mean a lot to me, but it would have to be the right project.

Source

Kaya Scodelario is a woman in transition.

At 19, she is on the cusp of both adulthood and international fame and was recently plucked from teen drama Skins to appear in Andrea Arnold’s big-screen adaptation of Wuthering Heights.

Not only that, she took on the lead role of Heathcliff’s Cathy, with no formal drama training and having never read the book (“our school didn’t do that,” she explains).

Not that any of this phases Kaya. In fact the up-and-coming talent of British cinema seems remarkably composed when we meet in central London to discuss her latest film.

“Obviously leaving Skins was terrifying – it’s like leaving school or home for the first time,” she says. “And you worry, you think is everyone going to be horrible, is everyone going to be bitchy – what’s it going to be like? (But) I was really lucky. Everyone on Wuthering Heights was amazing. It was a really nice crew and a really nice cast.”

Kaya is of course best known for playing the popular and enigmatic Effie in Skins, a role she all but fell into after bumping into the director having a cigarette outside auditions. Her lead in Wuthering Heights was almost as accidental, by the way she describes it – and she was “honestly shocked” to land it.

“The script had been going around for about two years before it went into production. Gemma Arterton was attached to it, Natalie Portman… and then something fell through and it came back round again,” she says. “And I was like, no I’m no Gemma Arterton or Natalie Portman, I can’t do that – I thought you’d have to have been to drama school and be a bit older and be very posh and put together and I was like, that’s not me at all. How am I going to do this? especially coming from Skins. I was really nervous about it.”

But, she says, writer and director Andrea Arnold won her round.

“With Andrea, I just wanted to open up to her straight away. She just had this energy where I wanted to tell her everything about me. I knew she wouldn’t judge me. I knew I could be honest with her and she would know where I was coming from. It was the weirdest audition, it was like a therapy session.”

Wuthering Heights has been widely applauded for its fresh, non-conformist perspective that blows apart cliches associated with conventional period drama – and it’s that very concept that drew Kaya to the project to begin with.

“Someone once told me that they couldn’t watch period dramas because everyone walks so slowly. And Andrea just threw that all out the window and went completely her own way about it and I really respected that,” she says. “It felt like the start of something new for British cinema and I really wanted to be a part of that. Skins was part of a new generation of actors who hadn’t been to drama school, weren’t trained, who were very honest about who they were as people.

“And I see Andrea as this new generation of director who will pick someone because they like them not because they’ve got all these amazing films on their CVs and people will go and see the film if they’re in it. She’s not about that at all, she’s about getting people she believes in and she really likes. And that’s what I like… she takes risks and I wanted to be a part of that.”

Kaya’s lack of formal training is somehow intrinsic to her appeal; she often references it (whether through pride or uncertainty) and sees herself and her Skins co-stars as “a new generation of actors.”

“People assume you have to have a lot of money to get into film or you have to have parents who are in the industry already,” she explains. “And I didn’t have any of that so I like the fact I took a different path. I quite like that it’s a different way.”

It is undoubtedly this raw element that stood Kaya out from her competitors in the running for Wuthering Heights; as one reviewer put it, “considering her cast’s near-comprehensive lack of experience, Arnold has coaxed terrific performances from all of them.”

In fact, Andrea was so determined to keep the adaptation fresh and new, she told the cast not to read the book or watch any adaptations (“so relieved,” relates Kaya).

“She (Andrea) was like, I don’t want you to read it, I don’t want you to watch any adaptations of it, I want you to go into it completely open. I never read the full script – we got the lines the day before. I had no idea what was going on in the rest of the film. The first time I watched the film is the first time I saw it all.”

With a string of glowing reviews to her name, Kaya now has the world at her feet and is keen to try out stage acting at some point in the future.

“I’d love to do stage – it terrifies me but I want to do it,” she says. “I think I have to get to the point where I’m confident enough to do it and I’m not sure I’m at that stage yet. I’d have like a huge panic attack every night, I don’t think I’d be able to yet.”

Watch this space, we say.

New Style Icons: Kaya Scodelario

Best known for her role in the cult Skins, the gorgeous Kaya has gone on to star in a whole host of films and music videos, as well as managing to squeeze in a few appearances at fashion week. As she gets older her style as developed – as has our style crush!

Lastly, here’s another clip from Film 2011 with Claudia Winkleman:

IF YOU THINK those Jane Austen fans are hardcore, doubtless you missed last year’s tweet storm – that’s a flame war in old-world net speak – down by Kaya Scodelario’s official Twitter feed. Emily Brontë fans were forced to reach for the smelling salts as the Skins star shared her good news: “I’m gonna be in the new Wuthering Heights film!” wrote Scodelario. “As Cathy! Should probs read the book…” She never did. Director Andrea Arnold forbade the young actor from reading the source novel and from watching any older adaptations. Hours before the film’s London premiere, Scodelario has yet to crack the spine on the third Brontë sister’s only surviving tome.

“I read a lot, but never came across it,” says the 19-year-old. “And I’m quite a technical person. I like to research. It was hard to stay away. But I understood. She wanted us to be very raw. Actually, I never read a whole script. The first time I found out what happened to the characters was when I saw the film.”

Bright, opinionated and wise beyond her years, Scodelario made it through the casting process where other more recognisable stars, notably Natalie Portman and Abbie Cornish, failed to stay the course. Her achievement is all the more impressive when you consider she failed to show up for her audition. Believing she was wrong for the part, Scodelario stayed away, turned off her phone and hid.

“The script had been going round for about two years before it went into production,” she says. “And a lot of people were attached to it like Gemma Arterton and Natalie Portman. I was intimidated by that. They’re both very beautiful, both very talented. And I felt too young.” It took Arnold to convince her otherwise.

“I watched her film Fish Tank . And I realised it was going to be very cool, not a drama-school thing. Then I met Andrea and she wanted to learn more about me. I immediately felt very comfortable about that. She doesn’t care about having a big name to help the film make more money. It’s all about the film with her. And I loved this notion of period drama where it wasn’t about people all talking pretty. She threw all that on its head. That’s very brave.”

If Brontë diehards were unnerved by the prospect of Wuthering Heights featuring Effy, Skins’ baddest bad girl, as directed by the filmmaker behind gritty kitchen sink dramas Red Road and Fish Tank , it turns out they had nothing to fear. Arnold’s innovations – her use of a “dark-skinned” Heathcliff (played by Solomon Glave then James Howson) and demotic regional dialogue – adhere carefully to the original text. Brontë may not have used the C-word as frequently as Howson does in the movie, but she does record outbreaks of swearing. Equally, the director’s merciless, unsentimental moors are entirely in keeping with a book where one can practically hear a squelch with the turn of every page.

“It was really cold,” says Scodelario of the north Yorkshire shoot. “But to be honest I can’t complain. The crew were there every day. They turned up every day and did their jobs without complaining. So it would be unfair of me to complain. The best part about doing Wuthering Heights was you were completely in that world. It could not have been done with CGI. You had to be there.”

In preparation Scodelario was required to dispense with certain 21st century grooming conveniences: “That was about the only things I missed: plucked eyebrows and shaved armpits. I did have to have hair extensions. I hated that. I’m not a girly girl. I don’t brush my hair. They were falling out all over the place. I just don’t get how girls can do that.” It’s hard to imagine one of the Hollyoaks girls surrendering their tweezers.

“Oh yeah,” says Scodelario. “I do have a lot of respect for the girls in Hollyoaks. It takes a lot of effort to look like that constantly. I couldn’t do it.” Being natural has long been part of the Scodelario appeal. Like many of her Channel 4 colleagues from Skins and Shameless , she had no prior acting experience when, aged 14, she landed the soon-to-be iconic role of Effy Stonem. A Real Live Teenager, she cheekily asked the casting director for a light during the audition and tweeted about “getting drunk on Channel 4’s money” from the wrap party.

“During the first year we’d walk around Bristol between shoots,” she recalls. “By the second year we suddenly found we couldn’t do that easily. We knew if a group of teenagers came along they’d know who we were. We couldn’t go to a bar because we knew somebody would want to pick a fight with the guys because they were on TV. Girls would want to sleep with them for the same reason. It was scary. It showed you a new side to people. When someone shouts Skins at you its funny the first time. But after a hundred times you think ‘I do have a name’.”

Born in Camden Town to an English dad and a Brazilian mum – Kaya took mother’s surname after her parents’ divorce and speaks fluent Portuguese – Scodelario is no RADA princess. Drama came into her life by accident not design; a place she could go to escape bullies and struggles with dyslexia.

“School is a difficult time for everyone,” she notes. “Kids are mean and I was at a tough school. I was quite quiet, having been brought up with just my mum. I wasn’t able to fight. It’s a confidence thing. That sort of bullying really lowers your confidence. But I was lucky. I had a mum who understood when I told her. She put me in another school and it was because of that school that I fell into acting and Skins. Drama was the only thing that I ever felt confident in. It was the only time I ever put my hand up in class. I fell in love with it when I was nine. I suddenly didn’t feel scared to say the wrong thing. I remember feeling a buzz off it and wanting to feel that buzz every day.”

Post Skins, she’s found work on Clash of the Titans and Moon , and has just finished shooting Now is Good with Dakota Fanning. Still, Wuthering Heights ’ Cathy is a big step up for any budding starlet.

“I didn’t think I was qualified but once I got there I really enjoyed it,” says Scodelario. “I am quite an emotional person anyway. So I found it emotional just doing the work. The scene where Heathcliff and Edgar are fighting, that really freaked me out because my boyfriend had been in a fight. I wanted to open up every feeling inside me. I didn’t have that much screen time to show her losing it. I had James stand behind the camera and shout abuse at me. That took me back to the playground at school. All those things you bury came floating up.”

Her boyfriend is Elliott Tittensor who plays Shameless ’s Carl Gallagher. In August 2010, Tittensor was arrested following an altercation with a “fan” who threatened Scodelario. The subsequent trial and tabloid furore was, she says, a terrifying experience. Do some people still confuse her with the partying, boozing, nymphomaniac Effy and act accordingly?

“I thought they would think that more than they do. But they don’t. I think guys on TV get a lot of girls and attention. But around girls from TV, guys feel more intimidated. They don’t really speak to you. Girls don’t either.”

She describes herself as a feminist and hasn’t quite mastered the red carpet wave (“So scary; like I’ve gone back to the nervous 14-year-old at school”). But that’s precisely what sets her apart from her peers.

“A lot has changed over the last few years. It’s not as taboo as it used to be to have not gone to drama school. Skins and This is England helped change that. Those projects like people who have lived life. The whole notion of 26-year-olds playing 16-year-olds is over, I hope. Those are two completely different stages of life. Why pretend you’re 16 when you’re 26. Casting directors need to respect younger people. That’s why Andrea had a lot of balls for expecting us to carry this film.”

Arnold’s gamble has paid off with one of the most powerful films of the year. Her Wuthering Heights is a landmark literary adaptation, one that fits neatly with the new grimy kitchen sink revival in British cinema.

“Wuthering Heights has taught me not to judge a genre,” says Scodelario. “And not to think only certain people can do certain things. Maybe if Andrea Arnold directed a rom-com I might do it.”

So will she ever get around to Emily Brontë? “I’m waiting for all the fuss to die down so I can come to it fresh. I want to wait until I can read it without thinking about the film. I liked Cathy. My mum hates her. She thinks she’s a horrible character. I like her honesty. If you feel something then say it. Ultimately she knew Heathcliff would kill her. He was like a disease. But she couldn’t resist. She could run or settle for the nice guy. I can’t judge her for that.”

Since finding her acting feet in British teen soap Skins, Kaya Scodelario has notched up roles in a low-budget British sci-fi (Moon), a mega-bucks Hollywood blockbuster (Clash of the Titans) and now an art-house period drama. LWLies sat down with Scodelario recently to discuss the gravity of taking on the female lead in Andrea Arnold’s atmospheric Wuthering Heights.

LWLies: Have you seen the film yet? What did you think?

Scodelario: I really liked it! It was weird because I never received a full script, we were given the lines the day before shooting. So watching the film was the first time I knew what was going on in the rest of the film! So it was really cool to watch. I took some friends as well, who I know would never have gone to see it if I wasn’t in it. They’d think, ‘That’s not my thing,’ and they really enjoyed it. It was nice to know that a younger generation enjoyed it.

It’s not your average period romp is it?

No, not at all. I like to think that Andrea’s kind of created this new genre, where it feels very modern, it’s not stuck to the rules. Everyone thought period drama had to be done a certain way and that’s the only way it can be done, people have to walk very slowly and speak properly, there has to be lots of sunshine and flowers. Andrea’s just turned that on its head completely and I love that she’s done that. It was wicked.

It felt like it could almost be modern day…

Yeah, exactly, that’s what was cool – it was kind of timeless.

Why did you only get your lines the day before filming?

It was a lot to do with helping the younger kids, obviously this was their first job so Andrea didn’t want to overwhelm them with a whole script. And I think she just likes things to be very fresh, and you to go into it very open. She asked me not to read the book or see any of the adaptations, so I think she just likes people to not know what they’re doing, go into it completely open-minded. Which is what I want people to do with the film, to go into it completely fresh not thinking about anyone else in it. It was a good way of working, it was different. It’s nice to push yourself and do thinks in a different way.

Was it difficult to learn your lines that quickly?

No, there’s not a lot of dialogue in the film which helps! Surprisingly, I thought I would, but it kind of worked out okay in the end, thank god.

You have quite an emotional role to play, did you get lots of direction there?

I think Andrea wanted me to do it how I wanted to do it. It was never, ‘You have to cry in this scene.’ It was more, if you feel like crying, cry, if you don’t, don’t. it was one of the lines that Heathcliff said to me that really affected me on a personal level, that brought the emotion out quite naturally. I feel quite upset and we cut, and I said to Andrea, ‘I really feel like this should be quite an intense moment for her.’ She kind of slips into this mental illness, she goes a bit crazy, and I wanted to show that in the scene in the kitchen when Heathcliff and Edgar are fighting. I got James, who played Heathcliff, to sit behind the camera and just scream abuse at me for 10 minutes. On a personal level as me, not as Cathy, cos I just wanted to go a bit crazy for a while.

Did he know you well enough to throw some good things at you?

No, I think it’s easy, it was better than he didn’t know me. It kind of takes you back to the playground, that kind of little things that people say can really affect you. ‘Oh, you’re so skinny’, all of these things that you have personal issues with just come out quite naturally. It was strange, it took me two days to get back to normal. But I was glad I did it. It felt right to be in that scene.

It’s James’ first film as well. How was that?

At first it was difficult, I’m not going to pretend it was all great. There were certain days that he didn’t want to be there, he didn’t want to act, but it was really beautiful to watch him grow into it, to grow into wanting to do well. Every day he’d come in and be a bit more on the ball, more focussed. It was nice to watch him develop as an actor. It was wicked to see. I can’t imagine what it was like for him, although I was 14 when I started on Skins and I felt completely out of place, I felt like I didn’t deserve to be there, everyone was a lot older than me, I felt very insecure about it. So I knew what he was going through. But I didn’t want to be too sensitive with him, I knew I had to push him. There was a scene where I had to slap him, and he didn’t want me to actually slap him, he wanted me to pretend. I said, ‘I ‘m not going to pretend! Cos I’m screaming at you, I’m not going to be able to go from screaming at you to pretending to slap you, so I’m going to hit you.’

He was like, ‘No, no, don’t fucking do that,’ and we got into a bit of an argument over it. I said to him, ‘Trust me, I’m going to hit you harder than I’ve ever hit anyone in my life, and you’re going to like it because you’re going to prefer your performance! It’ll be a natural performance.’ He was like ‘Arrrgh’ being a proper man about it, and Andrea was like, ‘Hit him hard!’ I slapped him, and honestly I’ve never heard a sound like it in my life. It was so hard to keep a straight face. I thought, ‘Oh God, he’s going to punch me now!’ He came up to me afterwards in typical manly style and was like, ‘Yeah that was good, you were right.’

So you didn’t give him too many tips?

Andrea cast him for who was, and that’s all he needed to be. He’s quite wild. It’s a really intimidating thing, my background is very similar to his. You grow up on an estate and you’re in this bubble. Being on a film set, you don’t learn about that at school, you don’t know those jobs are available. It’s a strange industry, quite hidden I think. To be pushed into it must’ve been terrifying for him. He did so well to do it. Especially the little kids as well. The kids were beautiful cos they had this sort of the way kids are, they don’t feel any pressure. Just like, yeah this is fun, they don’t stress themselves, which you tend to do when you get older. They had that complete natural go for it vibe that really rippled through the set and made everyone relax a lot more.

Were you on set with the kids a lot, then, even though you don’t share scenes?

I was around them a lot for pre-production, I love them. I loved Shannon [Beer] to pieces, I wish she was my little sister. She’s what I wish I could’ve been like. She’s gobby, she’s confident, she’s a naughty little kid, but she knows who she is as a person, and she’s comfortable with that. I really like that about her.

It must’ve been weird sharing a character with another actress. Did you work together creating the character?

No, Andrea didn’t want us to. Very strangely. She didn’t want us to get technical with it, or sit down and have little things that we both do. She’s a big believer of just letting things happen, and doing the edit and finding those moments. Natural looks that you give without noticing. She just let us go with the flow.

You don’t look massively similar…

No. Well, it was funny, Shannon was like, ‘You don’t look like me!’ I don’t, but I don’t think that matters.

How was shooting Wuthering Heights different from shooting Skins?

It’s hard. Obviously it was different, but it wasn’t so much so that I particularly noticed it. With Skins, it wasn’t a job at all. It was me growing up, it was my university, the crew knew me since I was 14, they were like family to me. I think Effy helped me personally gain confidence. I enjoyed playing her because it took me out of my depression that I had myself, my subconscious and all that. It gave me a bit more confidence and a bit more fun. Leaving her behind was quite hard, quite scary. She was like this cloak that I’d wear, I would feel cool, even though deep down I’m not at all. It was very scary to leave, but Skins as a whole was this very, very strange thing that happened that wasn’t work. Leaving that, any job would’ve been different. You realise, ‘This is work, I have to behave, be professional.’

You mentioned feeling depressed when you were younger. Was Cathy a slight exorcism where those feelings are concerned?

Yeah, I guess so. Filming the whole Effy mental illness stuff took me to a place. My mum suffers from depression, she has her whole life, and doing that storyline with Effy helped me understand it a lot more. With Cathy again, I always tend to get the crazy roles! I like interesting parts, I couldn’t ever be one of those actresses where they look pretty and their hair looks great all the time, I hate that. What’s the point of being an actor if you just want to look nice all the time? I love the fact that I’m not wearing any make-up at all in Wuthering Heights, my cheeks are pink and my nose looks like Rudolph. I love it! I’d rather throw myself into someone and completely lose me as a person for a while, I love the psychology behind it all. I find it really fascinating.

Secondly, I have a brand new still of Cathy, and I have found a interview of Kaya, and both of which you can see below: