Nathalie Emmanuel doesn’t follow trends

If one thing’s for sure when it comes to Nathalie Emmanuel, it’s that she has more strings to her bow than most. Perhaps best known for her role as Missandei in Game of Thrones — or Ramsey in the Fast and Furious franchise, for that matter — the actor can add dancer, boxer and trained yoga instructor to her list of accolades. Now, taking a short break from acting while finding a new film to be “intentional” about, her next venture could well come from behind the camera. “I’m looking to get into producing my own projects,” she says. “But it’s been a busy few years — I haven’t been able to give it as much energy as I’d have liked.” In the present, however, Emmanuel’s latest enterprise is that of the new face of Armani Beauty. “To be honest, I don’t know how this opportunity came along,” she admits. “But I was like, oh, this is exciting. It was a really happy coincidence that it came into my path.” It’s clear that Emmanuel has a genuine penchant for the industry (she even likens makeup to a “superhero mask”), but it’s impossible to have a conversation with the Empire-Award-winning actor without delving into her career. “The last quarter of this year has been, like, running around and celebrating the things I’ve done previously that have now come out,” she says.

The ‘things’ Emmanuel is referring to are Francis Ford Coppola’s sci-fi-cum-drama Megalopolis and John Woo’s The Killer (a recreation of the 1989 original). “There’s a few legacies at play here,” she says of the latter. “Obviously stepping into that role — which was historically played by one of the greats, Chow Yun Fat — of course you feel the pressure of that.” More poignant than that, however, was the fact that she would be superseding the much-adored titular role as a woman. “So many people love that film,” Emmanuel explains. “So, in an attempt to reimagine it — especially with a woman — a lot of people will just have immediately decided they’re not going to like it because of their own world view — which isn’t up to me to change, or care about, to be honest.” Something Emmanuel did care about, though, was doing the role justice for the sake of other women. “There’s a lot of people that may not have seen themselves represented in this way,” she continues. “And so, if I felt any kind of pressure, it was that one. I felt that legacy much more — being like, I have to show up and do my very best because this is never just about me. It’s about the people that I represent in the world, or the people that feel seen by me.”

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