Luckily, it’s been all sunny for the young actress in this, her breakthrough year. She was listed as one of the 31 ‘Rising Stars of Tomorrow’ by Screen International (which previously picked Robert Pattinson and Carey Mulligan for the top), played alongside Chloë Sevigny in the hugely successful Sky Atlantic mini-series Hit and Miss and appeared in the one-off BBC2 drama Murder, from The Killing director Birger Larsen. Rather sweetly, she still lives at home in Borehamwood with her mum and dad. There’s clearly something of the little girl about her, as she is currently filming spooky ITV drama Lightfields, where she plays a 15-year-old in 1975. In an interview in today's Independent, she talks to Neela Debnath about joining the cast Misfits and filming those sex scenes...
What was it like working on the new series of Misfits?
It was great, I had such a good time and I absolutely cannot wait to go back. It’s the most fun that I’ve had on a job that I’ve done. So, it was great, I really enjoyed it.
What was your favourite episode or most memorable moment?
It was really good fun. I probably couldn’t remember particular moments but I definitely did laugh every day. But in terms of episodes, for me, visually the fourth episode – I thought it was really well done and I think that it looked great. In terms of development for my own character, I liked the third episode with the three Rudys because it was probably one of the few times where Jess has a bit of emotional depth, something to dig into which was nice to do. Overall I really liked the sixth episode with the rabbit.
Your co-star Joe Gilgun likes to expose himself on set, was there any of that this year?
Yeah but I like the challenge and get mine out as well. There’s a bit of that.
How daunting was coming to work on such a well-known show, given the departure of such loved character?
I was a massive fan, especially of the first and second series of Misfts and I love watching it. […] At the time it felt really new and it was exciting and everything like that. I auditioned for the part of Nikki in second series and missed out on that and I was gutted about that. So to have come back later and be offered this regular part I was delighted, I was really happy about it. Also, daunted by the big shoes I have to fill because it is such an iconic show, iconic characters and everything. You’re bound to be compared, there’s not really anything you can do about that.
On a personal level, what you try and do is serve the script and come in, play out the character how it’s written and just try and enjoy that and work with that. Work with the director and try to create the characters that they and Howard [Overman] had written and serve that and not get caught up in reputation and popularity because you are never really going to win.
So, we’re just enjoying it for what it is and enjoying it because I like acting and seeing it like that. It’s a great part to play, you don’t often get to do those and work with so many people around your own age. So it’s been enjoyable but I don’t think you can spend too much time dwelling on what other people have done before – otherwise you end up getting into a bizarre psychosis.
Do you share any personality traits with Jess?
I like to think I’m a lot more optimistic than she is and a bit more smiley, certainly I think I admire her honesty and don’t like skirting around the issue, I suppose that’s quite true to me.
But I think there’s a lot more fun to be had with Jess. Really, you don’t know a lot about her. I think there’s more fun to be had and I look forward to finding out more about her really because other than the outside elements of her being a bit tough or whatever, I share some of that. But I guess I don’t really know what’s behind that so I can’t say.
Do you know what’s coming up in the next series?
I haven’t got a clue. But a lot of the challenge of this series was introducing a whole bunch of new characters whilst [continuing with] the characters of Curtis and Seth, establishing a new dynamic, new personalities and everything. What I hope for series 5 is that now these characters have been introduced and established we don’t have to work through that anymore. It will be about finding out about them and I certainly think that something interesting going to happen with Alex and his transplant. I can’t’ be sure but I would say that that is going to make itself the story arch for series 5.
Misfits is known for its steamy sex scenes, did you find it challenging filming those parts?
Not particularly, I’ve done that a little bit before really in other jobs and me and Matt [Stokoe] are very good friends. We get on very well, we’re just friends really. We can have a laugh about it really, laugh about our bodies, the situation and everything. No one takes it too seriously and by the time we’ve done it about 15 times in every different camera angle, you don’t give a shit really, to be frank. I just want to eat my lunch so it doesn’t really feel like an issue for me. I hope it’s not a problem for him either!
What superpower do you wish you could have in real life?
I would like to be able to switch off my negative emotions as soon as I start to feel a bit angry or upset or jealous or bitter or anything like that, just switch it off and felt just fine. I think that would work on a practical level but I was thinking the other day – which related back to Simon’s character – I was watching The Hobbit yesterday and that bit with the ring, thinking it would be awesome to be invisible, I would love that.
Are you a fan of the science fiction and fantasy genre?
Yeah, I’m a huge fan. The guys got to go and do Comic-Con and I was so gutted that I couldn’t go. I’m an absolute fan of X-Men and Marvel, Spider-man, Spider-Woman. My idea of a perfect evening is getting a Chinese putting on something like Marvel and chilling out, I love it.
What would be your dream project?
I would like to play Storm in an X-Men Origins film. I’d like to do as many varied things as possible, I’d love to do a bit of theatre and film, a bit of social realism or do a bit of period drama. I’d really like to do that but that kind of journey I would like to take. Just varied and interesting work as possible really, with as many different characters as I can get my hands on really.
What other projects are you working on?
Straight after Misfits I went onto an ITV drama called Lightfields, it’s a ghost story set in three different time periods and I’m playing the daughter of the family in the Seventies which is great for me. I tend to end up playing these kind of sour, teenage, miserable people. It was really nice to play her because she is a bit lighter and she’s a bit like a twee Harriet the Spy kind of character which is nice and different.
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