Kaya Scodelario: ‘I grew up around Camden – Kate Moss was my idol'

Telegraph

05-04-2025

It may not have been a lazy Sunday afternoon, but it's been a fun one for Kaya Scodelario, now back in her Ivy Park hoodie and sweatpants after a day of shooting in a bougie house in London's Queen's Park. 'We had some feathers, some leather and some leopard-print heels that appealed to the Spice Girl in me,' she says with a smile. 'Definitely not my usual Sunday look.'
We settle at the kitchen table to talk. 'The light in this house is beautiful. And it's insanely clean. My house never looks this clean. I was looking at the floor, thinking, 'That grout would be ruined at mine.' It's been nice to slip out of theatreland, have some fun and enjoy some fashion. I'm very grateful that everyone turned up on a Sunday. I was worried they'd be pissed off with me, but they've been great.'
Rare is the star who'd fret about inconveniencing people on a Sunday, but Scodelario isn't that kind of star. She'd probably grimace at the very description. You could attribute her humility to her working-class north London roots, but that would be lazy. That some people remain unchanged by fame is less about where they came from than who they are. Those with a strong sense of self tend to be largely unaltered.
Having shot to fame at 14 after being cast as Effy Stonem in Skins, the cult Channel 4 show garlanded with awards for its unflinching, unpatronising depiction of British teens, Scodelario comes over as one of those rare people who manage to find themselves young and never lose themselves. Now just turned 33 (since our meeting), she has a fierce work ethic that has generated a CV spanning Hollywood blockbusters (Pirates of the Caribbean), action thrillers (The Maze Runner) and Netflix smashes (Senna, The Gentlemen). What she didn't have on her résumé was a play – that is, unless you count her primary-school production of Oliver Twist, a role that sounds as though it was the hardest fought of her career. 'They wouldn't let any of the girls audition, only the boys,' she recalls. 'The girls were only given one little line here or there, and when it came for me to do mine – I think I had three words – I gave them all I could. And the teacher said, 'OK, you can be Oliver.'' She grins at the memory. 'Down with the patriarchy!'
Silk top, £485, Philosophy di Lorenzo Serafini.. Pink gold, tanzanite, topaz, amethyst and diamond earrings, Bulgari High Jewellery
Twenty-two years later, when we meet in February, she's starring alongside Luke Treadaway in East Is South, a new play by House of Cards writer Beau Willimon that deals with the ethics and advancement of AI. She plays Elena, a gifted coder working for a shadowy organisation. 'It's very wordy, very technical, lots of lines to learn. But that's why I wanted to do a play – to dedicate time to researching it, and finding all the layers that you don't have time to find on a film set.'
It was her castmates on her forthcoming film The Woman in Cabin 10, filmed last summer, who encouraged her to make the leap. 'I was working with Keira Knightley, Guy Pearce and Art Malik – all these great theatre actors – when I got sent the script. They all told me I had to do it for the experience; that it would make me a better actor.' Not that their encouragement prevented her first-night nerves. 'I had the father of my kids there, Ben, who's a theatre actor as well. He helped me with technical things. His big note afterwards was, 'Kaya, you had your back to us the whole time.' Yes, because I was terrified! I'm still managing my fear and anxiety. It's such a vulnerable position to put yourself in. I was discussing it with one of the other actors, and they explained to me that theatre audiences are generous. They pay to be there because they want to be. They want it to go well for you. But putting myself directly in front of 300 people feels scary. I'm more used to 15 years of keyboard warriors, trolls and negative feedback.'
She has mixed feelings about AI itself: 'There's so much that we don't understand. Even the greatest minds in the world that are developing it don't quite understand how it's working. I'm a '90s kid. I grew up watching The Terminator, so I'm absolutely terrified of it. But at the same time, there's a lot of creativity coming through. I'm hoping it's just a tool that we'll learn to live with. What the play has taught me is that there's something so fundamental about being human – how we love, how we care, the choices that we make, our morals and our ethics – that I hope is not replaceable.'
As soon as the play wraps, she starts filming season two of The Gentlemen, reprising her role as the fiendish (and fiendishly fashionable) crime boss Susie Glass. 'Honestly, the most exciting part is meeting up with [costume designer] Loulou Bontemps,' she says. 'She's a genius. Creating Susie, she could so easily have gone down that typical mob wife route, but we tried to elevate it into something androgynous, but also sexy and high fashion. I'm excited about getting to evolve Susie's wardrobe. It'll be different this time, because it's set in spring and summer – last time it was autumn and winter. We'll get to see her summer wardrobe. I've no idea what it's going to be – maybe some huge hats.'
Mesh dress, £6,380, Versace. Platinum and diamond earrings, and pink gold, kunzite, peridot, rubellite and diamond ring, both Bulgari High Jewellery
Off screen, Scodelario is 'a Zara girl through and through', although she appreciates fine jewels whenever she's given the chance to wear them. 'I was trying to be friendly with him, but he didn't really want to speak,' she says of the security guard who accompanied the Bulgari jewels that she has just worn. 'I'm definitely more of a jeans and T-shirt girl, but if I want to feel special, I can put on a pair of earrings and feel completely different. Exploring my sense of style is really enjoyable for me now. It used to be quite intimidating when I was younger, but something clicked when I turned 30. I enjoy finding interesting pieces and not just wearing what everyone else is wearing. I like expressing myself through that, because being a mum and travelling a lot for work, most of the time I have to wear practical clothes.'
She has likewise relaxed her view of dressing for the red carpet. 'Again, it was something that used to terrify me when I was first starting out. When you're in your early 20s, you don't yet understand your style, or it's very easy to go along with what people tell you to wear. Whereas now, I'm very comfortable collaborating with my stylist, Jenny Kennedy. She understands me and knows what I'm comfortable in, but is also comfortable pushing me. For the red carpet, I tend to take inspiration from where I am in the world. If I'm in Paris, I love dark colours and couture. If we're doing a junket in Los Angeles, I love finding bold prints, or working with Latino or Brazilian designers and embracing the sun and shininess of it. In London, I will look for every leather jacket I can find, because I'm obsessed with them. I mean, I grew up in the early 2000s around Camden – Kate Moss was my idol.'
Draped dress with scarf detail, £1,645, Ferragamo. Leather sandals, £720, Etro. Gold, white gold, diamond and ruby earrings, and pink gold, mother-of-pearl and diamond bracelet, both Bulgari High Jewellery, as before. All jewellery prices on request
Brought up in Islington, north London, by her Brazilian mother, Katia Scodelario (her English father, Roger Humphrey, died in 2010), Scodelario's Brazilian heritage means a lot to her. 'It's something I'm trying to pass on to my kids,' she says. 'They're half American, a quarter British and a quarter Brazilian, and I think it's really cool that they're aware of that. I was lucky enough to be raised with a lot of my culture. The food I eat is predominantly Brazilian, as is the music I listen to, and the passion that I have. But then I'm also quite stereotypically British.'
Her role as journalist Laura Harrison in the 2024 Netflix hit Senna afforded her a chance to reconnect with her Brazilian roots, as well as a chance to speak Portuguese on camera for the first time ('Terrifying!' she recalls). 'I was so excited to film in Brazil and work with a Brazilian production team. It's a country with outstanding filmmaking. A lot of times, we only hear about the favela stories, or the crime stories. But it's an incredibly diverse country, so the stories are equally diverse.
'It means so much to me, in my heart, to be Brazilian, that I wanted an opportunity to do something out there. I took my kids out, and we lived there for two months while I was filming. They loved it. My son has come home feeling really connected to his culture.'
Having acted professionally since she was 14, she's well placed to say whether script quality is improving for women. 'It is getting better,' she says carefully. 'I'm hesitant to say it's great, but there is definitely a surge of interesting female roles out there. I've never been able to accept a role that isn't a complicated, interesting woman, because I've never met a woman who isn't complicated and interesting.'
Is she herself interested in writing? 'No. I'm severely dyslexic. I admire what writers do, but it's a thing I don't have, and I'm OK with that. But I like the idea of finding young female writers who might not have had the same opportunities as their peers. Since The Gentlemen, I feel as though my screen career feels quite strong. If I want to do movies, I can, but I also want to take the opportunity to work on my producing. I understand how sets are run, as well as the creative and business sides. I'm 32, and have been on set since I was 14. If I was in any other industry, I'd have an office with my name on it by now.'
She's particularly keen to improve work standards within the industry. 'I like the thought of being able to make production safe, as well as creative. Unfortunately, that's something we still have to push for.' Can she elaborate? 'There's no downtime. We also need more openness about pay gaps between male and female actors, and actors of colour or with disabilities. There's still a huge disparity there. We need more care with production staff – a lot of crew are underpaid and overworked. The hours that our industry still pushes people to work are extreme. It's really hard for people to have families and lives outside of a production schedule.'
Leather blazer, £5,550, and knitted top, £745, both Tod's. Appliqué suede skirt, £1,255, Magda Butrym. White gold and diamond necklace, price on request, Bulgari High Jewellery
Scodelario likes to keep her own family life largely private, but her son and daughter are 'around school age'. Shall we act as though she's a man, and not ask her anything about her children? 'Yes!' she says, laughing, before turning serious. 'It's scary,' is how she describes any potential loss of their privacy. 'I never know what could happen. And I'd like them to make their own choices, when they're ready, [about whether] to be out in the world or not.'
Scodelario is separated from her husband, the actor Benjamin Walker, who she married in 2015, although they remain on good terms (clearly, if he's critiquing her first theatre role). After a stint living in New York, she's now back in her beloved north London. 'Culturally, I feel more like a Londoner than anything else. I love that you can get on the bus and sit next to every kind of person in the world. I'm proud to raise my kids here. I think it's important that they're not in some Hollywood bubble.'
It's perhaps a testament to her robust mental health that, despite finding fame at 14, she's only recently started seeing a therapist: 'It's been the greatest thing I've ever done. It's really helped me process.' She also credits her friends with keeping her well balanced. 'They're all school friends from when I was 14, with that same shared history. My job involves being around lots of new people, which I love since I'm quite sociable. But there's also a thing that happens where I begin to mask who I am. I think women do it a lot. I project the version of myself that I know people want to receive. When I'm with my girlfriends around the kitchen table, I don't have to do that.'
After years of nonchalance, she's become better at taking care of herself, and that includes her skin ('I used to sleep with eyeliner on'). She also joined a gym. 'My friend George has a gorgeous gym called the Lighthouse Club, set up for actors and people in the industry who need a bit of privacy. He's very well trained in how to get our bodies into shape for specific roles. It's more about feeling strong than about what my body looks like, because I'm very comfortable with my body the way it is,' she says. 'I do not stop myself from eating what I want to eat. I do not punish myself in any way. I enjoy life and I enjoy food. I look back now and feel so glad that when I was 21, I wasn't terrified of having a nice dinner, because I would have missed out on so many experiences. There's a responsibility when you have a daughter, as well. I never want her to hear me saying that I don't feel good about myself.'
Not least when there's so much to feel good about. It's only February, and she's already wrapped Adulthood, an independent British film shot on a shoestring budget in Canada ('proper old-school filmmaking'). There are other projects, which she can't talk about yet, and you wouldn't bet against one being a new production company of her own. 'I love storytelling. In the UK, we are uniquely great at independent storytelling, and finding those weird, non-perfect stories.'
But first, there's dinner to make. 'I can go and see my kids now,' she says happily, pulling on her coat. 'Thank you – I really enjoyed this,' she adds. Spoken like a true gentlewoman.