ACTING UP
TOM FORD CAST HER IN NOCTURNAL ANIMALS, DISNEY HAD HER PIROUETTING FOR ITS TAKE ON THE NUTCRACKER AND CHANEL HAS TAPPED HER AS AN AMBASSADOR. NOW, ELLIE BAMBER IS SET TO RULE YOUR TV SCREEN IN A NEW ADAPTATION OF LES MISÉRABLES
Ellie Bamber, fashion darling and Hollywood favourite.
IN THE CORNER of a central London cafe, Ellie Bamber is making impressive headway on a comically large slice of carrot cake. As she hacks away at it with her fork, she’s telling me stories about how she bonded with her co-star Dominic West while filming the upcoming BBC adaptation of Les Misérables (airing on Foxtel). It didn’t involve a discussion of their “craft” or small talk about the weather – instead they connected over a mutual appreciation of a hip-hop sub-genre. “Dominic is really into trap music,” says Bamber, in between mouthfuls of icing. “The makeup lady on set would always play me new songs, and one time I said to Dominic, ‘I know it’s early in the morning, but I’d like to play some trap – is that okay with you?’ and he said, ‘I love trap, let’s go!’”
The thought of Bamber dressed in her 19th-century peasant costume – she plays Cosette, an abused orphan who is adopted by West’s character – rapping along to expletiveladen tracks like Migos’ “Bad And Boujee” with her on-screen father is both funny and surreal, but also totally fitting for a 22-year-old actress who approaches every new scenario with unfathomable levels of excitement.
When Bamber talks, she frequently drifts into a state of wideeyed gushing at a thousand words a minute. And West, Chanel couture and UK hip-hop are all topics that set off her unbridled enthusiasm. She’s animated and excited, like a teenager disseminating important gossip. It’s remarkable she has so much energy left, considering what an incredibly full-on year
she’s had. As well as the upcoming Les Misérables, she appeared in Disney fantasy The Nutcracker And The Four
Realms, alongside an all-star line-up including Keira Knightley, Helen Mirren and Morgan Freeman. “Getting to work with [director] Lasse Hallström was so incredible,” says Bamber, who plays the sister to Mackenzie Foy’s Clara, “And that cast, I mean...” she catches her breath. “Mackenzie is amazing. Matthew Macfadyen is so brilliant – it was a really cool cast and being able to help bring that magical tale to life,” she takes a moment, “well, it was really, really special.”
This year, she’ll follow up her stint of big studio adaptations with something altogether different, playing the lead in The Seven
Sorrows Of Mary. Based on real events, it’s a harrowing story of a 21-year-old American exchange student spending a year abroad in Brazil. Bamber’s character is kidnapped, raped and beaten before eventually being forced to choose between abandoning her boyfriend (played by Australian James Frecheville, whose breakout role was in Animal Kingdom alongside Jacki Weaver and Ben Mendelsohn) and seizing a chance at escape, or returning to her attackers. “It was very intense,” says Bamber of the six-week shoot in Brazil. “I think it might have been my toughest role to date.” To recover from lengthy days of filming, she would throw herself into books (she read Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist while on location) and embraced the surroundings of Rio de Janeiro. “We did lots of night shoots, so I’d come home to see the sunrise,” she says. “There was something really special about a beautiful end to the day.”
It’s not the first time she’s found herself taking on difficult parts. Bamber got her break starring in Tom Ford’s
Nocturnal Animals, a dark thriller in which her character experiences a similar fate. “On set, the three of us [meaning Jake Gyllenhaal and Isla Fisher, who play Bamber’s parents] formed a really strong relationship together. We all got on really well and we’d hang out a lot outside of filming,” she says. “I think that was really important because we had this bond with each other where we felt safe together no matter what space we were put in.”
These roles couldn’t be further from the reality of Bamber’s own life. Her rural upbringing in Berkshire, a little more than an hour west of London, was, she says, incredibly idyllic. Part of a close-knit family (her mother is her manager), she attended a small all-girls school where she met the friends she’s still closest to today. She was obsessed with horses (“Growing up, I just loved them! I was that kid”), then acting came later when a drama teacher noticed her talent and encouraged her to start auditioning for plays at a local theatre. By 12, she became the youngest member of the Players’ Theatre Club in London and, as a teenager, she began to land small TV roles before making her film debut in Carol Morley’s The Falling alongside Maisie Williams and Florence Pugh in 2014. She’s been working ever since but isn’t complacent about it. “I still get that actor insecurity thing. I remember the first time I auditioned for a role and it went really well, but then I found out on my birthday I didn’t get it and I cried and cried,” she says. “It gets easier after that first time, but it’s still hard – you fall in love with a character and then have them taken away.”
There’s not much time for her to worry about rejection. Like the directors she has worked with, designers, too, are falling for the burgeoning star – during September’s London Fashion Week, she sat front row at Emilia Wickstead’s spring/ summer 18-19 show before flying to Milan for Ferragamo and Paris for Chanel. Bamber’s been a Chanel ambassador since 2016, and the next year she wore a pre-fall 2017 gown to the Vanity
Fair Oscars party. “It’s such a gorgeous dress. It’s at home in my closet and I keep joking that I’m going to put it on and just walk around town in it with my trainers on,” she says, laughing. “I love how classic Chanel is, but it also keeps reinventing itself. Karl [Lagerfeld]’s always picking up on what’s happening in culture and you can see how that feeds into the collection. It’s so cool but always timeless, too… I just really love wearing Chanel.”
She’s speaking with her characteristic enthusiasm, clearly buzzing with elation and, with the waves she’s making in both fashion and Hollywood, well, why shouldn’t she be excited? E Les Misérables is coming early March to BBC First on Foxtel and Fetch
“It’s hard. You fall in love with a character and then have them taken away”