{"id":285662,"date":"2026-02-15T19:18:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-15T19:18:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/285662\/"},"modified":"2026-02-15T19:18:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T19:18:13","slug":"i-want-to-play-a-fish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/285662\/","title":{"rendered":"I Want to Play a Fish"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tEmma Laird<\/a> recalls a moment \u2014 not all that long ago \u2014 when she was stood on the rooftop of her apartment in Los Angeles, looking out across a postcard-worthy sunset skyline and smoking a cigarette.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt was so cinematic,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd I was crying my eyes out.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Brit had been on the phone to her agent, who had informed her that, despite making it to the screen test stage for HBO\u2019s \u201cGossip Girl\u201d reboot \u2014 the closest to any role she\u2019d got after months of grinding daily auditions \u2014 the part was going elsewhere.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAnd I just thought, that\u2019s it, I tried, my visa\u2019s running out and I\u2019m broke,\u201d she says. \u201cSo I went back to London.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSkip forward a little over half a decade and Laird is still in London. But she\u2019s now one of the U.K.\u2019s fastest rising young names, boasting an enviable and eclectic array of high-profile projects (\u201cMayor of Kingstown,\u201d \u201cThe Brutalist<\/a>,\u201d \u201c28 Years Later: The Bone Temple<\/a>\u201d) already under her belt and with many more (\u201cBlood on Snow,\u201d \u201cWar,\u201d \u201cNeuromancer\u201d) incoming. At the Berlinale, she\u2019s attending with the buzzy new series \u201cMint,\u201d her first lead role.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut almost comically down-to-earth, the 27-year-old \u2014 part of a decreasing array of working-class British actors rising up call sheets \u2014 isn\u2019t one to revel in her recent achievements.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI\u2019m constantly working from a place of self-deprecation,\u201d she says between gulps of matcha latte in a west London caf\u00e9 near her recently bought home. \u201cIt does feel like a nice trajectory, but I\u2019m too insecure to feel like I\u2019m amazing. But I do take pride \u2014 I know when shit\u2019s good.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd shit has been very good.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn stark contrast to the L.A. rooftop scene, Laird experienced something of a career epiphany in a semi-freezing field in Yorkshire. The moment occurred while shooting Nia DaCosta\u2019s wild and gory franchise sequel \u201cThe Bone Temple\u201d and a delightfully unhinged performance as Jimmima, the most sadistic member of the murderous, wig-wearing cult led by Jack O\u2019Connell.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI just looked around and was like, I am living the dream,\u201d she says. \u201cI was just looking at this derelict set of a zombie apocalypse and thinking \u2018This is fucking amazing \u2014 this is I want to do!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBlood-splattered screen star was not on the cards when Laird first started out.<\/p>\n

\n\tSpotted at a music festival by a model scout, at the age of 17 she packed her bags, quit her studies and moved from her hometown in Chesterfield in the north of England to London. \u201cI was so focused on being successful,\u201d she says. And she was, fronting numerous fashion campaigns (including for Vivienne Westwood, who she wore at \u201cThe Bone Temple\u201d premiere) and magazine shoots.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut after six years of modelling she had become disillusioned with the industry, not helped by calls from her agency to \u201close some weight.\u201d Having spent so long hanging around enthusiastic, creative people, she was urged to give acting a go.<\/p>\n

\n\tIt was Taylor Sheridan\u2019s bleak Michigan-set prison drama \u201cMayor of Kingstown\u201d \u2014 in typical style booked just months after her tearful return from L.A. \u2014 that was Laird\u2019s major breakout several years later. Her debut turn alongside Jeremy Renner as a seductive escort got industry tongues wagging. Variety named her a Brit to Watch in 2021. She was off.<\/p>\n

\n\tApple TV series \u201cThe Crowded Room\u201d and Kenneth Branagh\u2019s all-star Agatha Christie whodunnit \u201cA Haunting in Venice\u201d soon followed, and later, \u201cThe Brutalist,\u201d playing the standoffish \u2014 and possibly antisemitic \u2014 wife of Adrien Brody\u2019s cousin (and a role Laird says she only got because Brady Corbet accidentally trapped her finger in a door when filming \u201cThe Crowded Room\u201d). Although she couldn\u2019t enjoy its awards season success due to being \u201cso back-to-back,\u201d she claims that the \u201cThe Brutalist\u201d was the \u201cfirst thing I watched that I\u2019ve been proud of.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe Bone Temple\u201d was the second. But this film also helped ignite a craving for the wild and the weird, for daring roles where the prep could involve, for example, digging into the twisted childlike mind of someone who had been \u201craised in an apocalypse.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn short, from here on Laird wants to be bold, bonkers and loud.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThat\u2019s not to say to shout,\u201d she asserts. \u201cBut subtlety is easier to do, because you can hide behind it. Whereas in making brave choices, you run the risk of making mistakes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tFor the actress, while prestige, awards and acclaim are all well and good, that\u2019s not her focus at this point in her career. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI get that you can give a beautiful performance like Jessie Buckley in \u2018Hamnet,\u2019 which was fucking amazing,\u201d she says. \u201cBut what inspires me is watching people do mad stuff. So I want to make films about fairies or wizards or weird shit. I don\u2019t want to do Shakespeare, I want to play a fish.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tEmma Laird in \u2018Mint\u2019. Courtesy of BBC Studios<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tHouse\/Fearless Minds\/BBC<\/p>\n

\n\tHollywood certainly serves up more literary than fishy roles, but Laird does have her eye on joining HBO\u2019s \u201cHarry Potter\u201d series, potentially as one of the underwater Merpeople. (She claims to be such a fan of the original films that she regularly puts one on each night before she goes to sleep).<\/p>\n

\n\tBut before any potential future enrolment in Hogwarts (the Merpeople don\u2019t actually show up until the fourth book, \u201cThe Goblet of Fire,\u201d so there\u2019s a few years to wait), Laird has another TV series incoming.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cMint,\u201d premiering in Berlin and from fellow rising Brit Charlotte Regan \u2014 who made a splash with her feature debut \u201cScrapper\u201d \u2014 is a distinctly stylized and exquisitely shot drama in which she portrays the love-struck daughter of a crime family. This time, she\u2019s not to the sidelines wearing blood-splattered tracksuits and fairy wings, but front and center of the action, and it\u2019s a debut lead role she\u2019s feeling quite anxious about.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI\u2019ve been doing all this work, but it\u2019s been with these smaller, cool characters,\u201d Laird notes. \u201cAnd it feels like now people are starting to watch me in stuff, and that\u2019s quite scary \u2014 I have the fear of what people will think when they watch me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWith her \u201cnice trajectory\u201d only appearing to point upwards, Laird acknowledges that she\u2019ll have to get over this fear, especially as she goes for noisier roles. Ironically, just a day after we meet, it\u2019s announced that she\u2019s cast, not in a film about Shakespeare, but as Daphne du Maurier in \u201cThe Housekeeper\u201d alongside Helena Bonham Carter and Anthony Hopkins. However, she notes that her research into the famed author of \u201cRebecca\u201d has revealed that she was \u201cloud and rich\u201d and aims to bring that presence to the set when filming kicks off later this month.<\/p>\n

\n\tLaird is also very much aware that her rising in-demand, booked-and-busy status might very different had the call about \u201cGossip Girl\u201d (mixed reviews, scrapped after two seasons) gone the other way on that cinematic evening on the rooftop in L.A.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI think it\u2019s a nice thing to remember \u2014 that maybe the thing you think you want is not the thing you need,\u201d she says. \u201cWho knows what would have happened, but it all worked out so well. And now it\u2019s just a beautiful memory to look back on and think, how poetic!\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tShe laughs. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cBut I do remember that that was probably the best cigarette I\u2019ve ever smoked in my life.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Emma Laird recalls a moment \u2014 not all that long ago \u2014 when she was stood on the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":285663,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[91331,33699,430,77529,156,111,139,69,98688],"class_list":{"0":"post-285662","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-28-years-later-the-bone-temple","9":"tag-berlin-film-festival","10":"tag-celebrities","11":"tag-emma-laird","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-new-zealand","14":"tag-newzealand","15":"tag-nz","16":"tag-the-brutalist"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285662","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=285662"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285662\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/285663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=285662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=285662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=285662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}