The Big Picture

Welcome to a new episode of Collider Ladies Night with
The Gentlemen
star Kaya Scodelario.
During her chat with Perri Nemiroff, Scodelario revisits how she approached choosing projects after the success of
Skins
.
She also discusses the time she voiced a concern about
The Gentlemen
‘s Susie Glass, and why the change she wanted to make was vital for the character.

Getting a breakout role in film and television is the dream for many aspiring actors, but just as important are the projects one chooses to take after that breakout gig. Given the business’ habit of boxing artists into the first thing the world sees them do well, it can be a great challenge to amass a diverse body of work. How does one steer clear of those limitations and carve a path forward with volume and diversity? Perhaps by taking a cue from Kaya Scodelario.

Scodelario’s star began to soar via her work as Effy Stonem in the hit British teen series, Skins. After doing four seasons of the show, Scodelario began to pick up other television and film credits, credits ranging from Hollywood blockbusters like 2010’s Clash of the Titans to Andrea Arnold’s Wuthering Heights, which celebrated its big debut at the 2011 Venice Film Festival before going on to other top tier fests like the Toronto International Film Festival and Sundance.

Over a decade later, Scodelario still enjoys a vast range of work. She headlined the 2019 horror gem Crawl, jumped into a popular game franchise with Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City, and then did the Christmas romantic comedy, This Is Christmas. Yet another vastly different standout credit on her resume? The new Guy Ritchie Netflix series, The Gentlemen, a kinetic crime comedy that’s enjoying a good deal of Emmy buzz this season.

Inspired by Ritchie’s 2019 film, The Gentlemen series stars Theo James as Edward Horniman. After his father passes, Eddie inherits the family estate and becomes Duke of Halstead. As if all that isn’t enough to process, Eddie is soon made aware that his father secretly made an arrangement with Bobby Glass’ (Ray Winstone) weed empire. If Eddie continues to let them grow their product below ground on his property, he’ll get large sums of money in return, money Eddie needs given the state of the family farm and his brother’s (Daniel Ings) habit of accumulating massive debts with dangerous figures. The person in charge of this weed empire while Bobby is in prison? His daughter, Scodelario’s Susie Glass.

In celebration of The Gentlemen’s successful Season 1 run, Scodelario joined me for an episode of Collider Ladies Night to retrace her steps from breaking out via Skins to starring in an acclaimed Guy Ritchie production.

Kaya Scodelario Never Wants to Feel Like She’s “Made It”

While discussing discovering the dream to become a professional actor and figuring out the first steps to making that dream a reality, Scodelario admitted, “I never thought it could be a career, especially for someone from my background.” She continued, “I grew up very working class, I had an immigrant parent and a single-parent family household. I didn’t think it was a possibility in my world.”

Much to Scodelario’s surprise, it was possible. Skins proved to be the major game-changer she needed, and she hasn’t slowed down since. But, even with a lengthy and very impressive filmography, she still doesn’t feel like she’s “made it” in the industry — and that’s a good thing.

“I don’t know if it’s an immigrant-parent mentality, but I still want to work all the time, and I’m still terrified of it disappearing.
I don’t think that I’ll ever have a moment where I sit there and go, ‘Okay, I’ve made it.’ And I like that.
I don’t think you should as an actor. I think that makes you lazy. I love that I still learn on every single set that I go on. I’m still surprised by the industry, disappointed in the industry, and excited by the industry. There’s still so much to experience, and any time I get to experience even a tiny part of it, it still excites me. So I don’t ever want to get to a point where I feel as though I’ve made it.”

How Kaya Scodelario Chose Projects After ‘Skins’

One of many reasons Scodelario continues to learn every step of the way? She keeps her film and television credits diverse. While discussing how she picked projects after Skins, Scodelario noted, “I knew that I was at an age where it would be very easy for people to want me to slip into high school roles, or play the girlfriend or the love interest.” However, that’s not what Scodelario wanted for herself. She continued:

“I’ve never been interested in being
just
the love interest. Ever. I just don’t know any women that I have ever met who are just one thing.
I have never met a female who is just a love interest or just the wife.
Every single woman I know is complicated and nuanced and beautiful and everything that comes with that, so I’ve only ever been attracted to characters that reflect that, because that’s my experience of women in the world.”

While Scodelario has worked on a number of U.K. productions, she noted that finding variety in her work was a bit easier to do on U.S. sets. Here’s why:

“I love working on American projects.
I think you guys have this incredible way of not seeing class, and in the U.K., we still do
, and I was very much considered a working-class actor in the U.K., so a lot of the roles that would come my way would be for the maid or the cockney geezer! Even though I’ve kind of gone full circle by playing Susie [laughs], I really actively wanted to be in the room with all the other actors that had been to drama schools or came from families with money and were established within the industry already.”

Scodelario wanted a career path with no limitations, and that’s certainly what she’s created for herself. “I love movies. I love genres. I love that it’s all crazy and weird and different and nostalgic.” She continued, “So yeah, give me a horror film! Yeah, give me sci-fi! Give me aliens, give me mermaids, give me ice-skating.’ Anything.”

Susie Glass is a Force Thanks to Kaya Scodelario
Image via Netflix

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It only takes Scodelario a matter of seconds to make an impression as Susie Glass in The Gentlemen. Her style is incredibly striking, she carries herself with maximum confidence, and rocks an unwavering authority that suggests she’s a total ace at running the business, and that she shouldn’t be crossed. Cracks in the facade do come, but they are expertly placed and executed, and Scodelario is largely responsible for that.

While chatting about the importance of speaking up on set, Scodelario offered up an example of a time when she did just that on The Gentlemen, and there is no doubt that her choice to protect Susie in such a way is a big reason why she wound up being such a captivating character.

“At the beginning of the shoot, there were certain days where
they wanted to push the character in a direction that I was uncomfortable with
. They wanted to make her the butt of jokes, and I knew that Susie was never gonna be the butt of a joke, because she would never allow herself to be the butt of a joke. I felt very fiercely protective of her, so I discussed it with the relevant parties and said, ‘She will not be the joke of this series. If anything, she’s the one who knows exactly what’s going on at all times.’ And they got that. They understood that, they listened to me.”

While it all worked out quite well in the end, Scodelario did admit, “I remember it being scary.” She continued:

“I’ve been on sets for 17 years;
I’m still afraid to be seen as difficult or a troublemaker or too opinionated
, and it’s ridiculous because most of the time I actually have more experience than the white dude that’s talking to me. But I still feel that fear that I will be classed as difficult. But I’m learning to not. I’ve worked with so many men who, when they do speak up, they’re seen as brave and they’re seen as in charge and authoritative, and that’s a real positive. So why can’t that be a positive for me, too? I do know what I’m talking about, I do know how a set should be run, and I do know my characters, and I work hard, and I deserve to be in that space as much as anyone else.”

Scodelario hopes to continue to take a cue from Susie Glass in terms of how she carries herself in the film and television industry. “[Susie] knows exactly who she is, and she knows that she’s good at what she does. I wanted to bring that out in myself as well.”

The Day Scodelario Found Susie Glass
Image via Netflix

Ever since Ella Purnell’s Ladies Night interview for Fallout, I frequently ask about an actor’s experience finding their character. As Purnell put it, she struggles with the first few days of a new production when “you just don’t feel like you’ve really found your feet, you haven’t found the character.” But then that moment comes, and you do that scene that gives you confidence you’ve got a firm grasp on who you’re playing.

When did that happen for Scodelario on The Gentlemen? It came via a conversation with Theo James’ Eddie:

“There was a day when Theo and I had a scene in the boxing office, in Susie Glass’s office. It’s basically her laying down the law with him for the first time, where she explains the structure of the business and, in a very polite Susie Glass way, tells him that she is the one in charge and that he’s gonna have to fall in line.
When I shot that scene, I felt her wake up.
I felt her start to breathe within me. I found the shoes that I needed to put on to be her. It’s the idea that there’s all this kind of stuff going on in the Guy Ritchie universe around her that is a little bit mental and a little bit crazy and a little bit over-the-top, and sometimes comedic and sometimes quite dark, but there’s a steadiness that she has to have, that she needs

to be in control at all times. Even when the world is imploding around her, she still has her nails perfectly done, her high-heeled shoes on, and her outfits picked out. That’s her control. That is her power, and I felt that in that first scene.”

Key to everything Susie does and everything she hopes to do with the business moving forward is that unshakable control. But, of course, she is human and all humans are fallible. Cracks in that composure are inevitable, and there’s only one character Susie is willing to let see them.

“I was really looking forward to finding those moments, and we had to be quite patient with that because the train ride that they’re on from the beginning is quite specific. So, she does hide behind the outfits and the cool, calm exterior for quite a long time. Then, once we progress into Episodes 6, 7, and 8, we do start to see those vulnerabilities and those cracks. For me, the scenes where she’s with her dad, when I was working with Ray Winstone, were when I really felt like I could show the little girl in her, the child in her. I think even as adults, no matter what age we are, there’s always a moment when we’re talking to our parents where we revert back to being a child. We’re just not as patient with them, or something happens where we’ll sort of make a sound that is a sound we haven’t used since our childhood. [Laughs] I think Susie has that moment only with her dad. That’s the one time. Even with her brother, she’s quite in control because she’s very protective of him.
Her father is the only man I think she lets see her cry.
Ever. That, to me, was the important moment in showing her vulnerabilities with him.”

Here’s What Scodelario Wants to See for Susie in ‘The Gentlemen’ Season 2
Image via Netflix

Scodelario finds great success crafting those beats between Susie and Bobby in Season 1, but, should a second season get green lit, she’s a big believer there’s a lot more to mine there.

“The relationship with the dad is very interesting. On one hand, she can be extremely vulnerable around him. On the other, he’s holding her back and there is a little bit of animosity there, and I’d like to explore that a little bit more. Because I think that’s quite an honest reflection of parental relationships. They aren’t storybook perfect. They are always complicated, if not more so. The person who has known you your entire life is usually the one that infuriates you the most. [Laughs]
I would be interested to see her gaining his respect, but on her terms as opposed to on his
, what that looks like, and what she battles with him.”

Looking for even more on Scodelario’s time making The Gentlemen, including her collaboration with Theo James, her golf lesson, adapting to Guy Ritchie’s creative process, and more? You can watch our full conversation in the video at the top of this article, or you can listen to the interview in podcast form below:

The Gentlemen (2024) Eddie Horniman, Duke of Halstead, inherits large estate from father, unaware it fronts Pearson’s drug empire. With no crime experience, he must take over the operation or lose the estate.Release Date March 7, 2024 Creator Guy Ritchie Seasons 1 Streaming Service(s) Netflix

The Gentlemen is available to stream on Netflix.

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