Kaya Scodelario is no English rose

Kaya Scodelario has never shied away from complex characters. From her television debut as Effy Stonem in the nation’s beloved teen drama Skins to, more recently, the felonious Susie Glass on Netflix’s The Gentleman, the actress has consistently gravitated towards roles that explore the various facets of human nature. “I’ve always been fascinated by the human condition and the human brain, and why we are the way we are,” Scodelario explains. It’s for this reason that the actor has refused to be confined to her natural typecast. “At the beginning of my career,” she says, “everyone wanted me to be this English rose and play all these period drama characters, and be very nice and good. But I never felt like an English rose because I’m not one.” As a result, the 32-year-old has seamlessly navigated genres, from the gritty realism of Skins to the high-stakes action of The Maze Runner franchise and chilling horror flick Crawl. “I never want to be the sort of character that is putting it on a plate for everyone,” she says. “I want you to question [the character’s] intentions — I want to question their intentions myself.”

Scodelario acknowledges that one-dimensional casting is somewhat of a gendered issue. “As women, we’re expected to be a representation of our entire gender,” she says. “But there’s something much more interesting than [our characters] just making the right decisions all the time.” The (more positive) flip side of being a woman in the industry, however, manifests in the female friendships the actor has forged throughout the years. In fact, Scodelario’s career could be described as an amalgamation of the women who have nurtured her along the way. From directors and producers to her The Woman in Cabin 10 co-star Hannah Waddingham, Scodelario has found herself inheriting a network of powerful women who’ve helped her bolster her own character. “I was nice for years,” she says. “And then I realised that I have to be assertive sometimes. It doesn’t make me a diva — it just means I know what I’m talking about.” And with fifteen years of professional acting experience under her belt, Scodelario does, indeed, know what’s what. “I started young, but that means that I know how a set should be run,” she says.

This excerpt was taken from HUNGER Issue 33: Good People. Stay tuned for the full story.