Daily Mail - Daily Mail Weekend Magazine
HOW CARA HAS FOUND HER HAPPILY EVER AFTER
The setting is winter in the 19th century: the colour tones are muted, the atmosphere brooding. In a city known as The Burgue, an influx of other-worldly immigrants – mythical creatures with fairy wings fleeing the ravages of their war-torn homeland – struggle to fit in with the humans who make no secret of their distaste for them. Such fragile peace as they have been able to make is threatened when a series of brutal murders signifies the presence of a serial killer. Tensions rise as each side begins to point to the other, demanding to know if the culprit is a human, fairy or, chillingly, maybe something else entirely…
Against this background, fairy Vignette Stonemoss (Cara Delevingne) and human detective Rycroft Philostrate (Orlando Bloom) rekindle a nowforbidden romance that began in happier times.
In other words, says Cara ruefully when we meet, Carnival Row, the neo-noir fantasy TV series that premiered on Amazon Prime Video yesterday, is a story that, with a few alterations, could all too easily be taking place today. ‘What’s not to worry about?’ she shrugs. ‘Every day you hear of something happening. War, religious differences, political differences, racism... I think we created Carnival Row because we need the fantasy to forget about the world, but it’s also the fantasy that makes us remember what is going on.
‘We should all learn to celebrate our differences. We should just be allowed to be who we are.’
A fashion model turned
actress, Cara, 27, knows about standing up for who she is. Outspokenly bisexual, she has for the last year been involved with actress Ashley Benson. She says it is only recently she has acknowledged the force of homophobia in society. ‘I’ve been ignorant about the fact there are so many people who don’t agree with my life choices... Lately I’ve been feeling attacked about it.
‘If there’s freedom to hate, why isn’t there freedom to love?’
Carnival Row is the latest of Cara’s clutch of film and TV roles: her first TV part was in a 2014 episode of Playhouse Presents. Nevertheless, she says when she first met Carnival Row director Jon Amiel, she had to prove her worth to him. ‘He was tough with me,’ she recalls. ‘He’s quite hardcore and we have this great, fiery relationship and pushed each other. I stood up to him, which was why he respected me in the end!’ She also enjoyed working with Orlando, who is no stranger to fantasy beings, having played an elf in Lord Of The Rings. ‘Orlando’s dreamy to work with as he’s a great actor. We’ve been close for a while – we’d seen each other around a lot in London.’
And how were the stunts? ‘In terms of flying, I’ve done a lot of wirework, but this is the funnest time I’ve had. We wanted to make it look as real as possible. I wanted to do my own stunts, be the female Tom Cruise, do it all!’
That sort of bravery marks a big change for Cara. ‘Self-doubt eats you alive. I used to be terrified of flying, I hated heights, I was scared of animals. I used to hate performing, hated attention. But you can conquer these things.’ A lot of it, she concludes, comes down to maturity.
‘By getting older you discover what you are. Strength comes from being honest with myself, saying, “OK, maybe I’m not as good at this as I thought.” Because you realise there’s no point wasting time on certain things or running around with certain people. That’s where the strength comes from – just saying no.’
Amazon Prime Video, now
‘I wanted to do my own stunts, be the female Tom Cruise’