Being teetotal made addict role tough to crack Bond girl Naomie Harris
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He has suffered a string of setbacks including being repeatedly stopped and interrogated at British customs on suspicion of being a terrorist. He said: “Only a year ago, for various reasons, I wasn’t sure I could carry on doing this. I had a realisation through some really tough moments that we have no control in life. And it got me down. “I had to embrace this helplessness and through it, rediscover a sense of childishness and play. I stopped trying to prove myself to others and started doing things for my younger self.” Riz appears in new Star Wars film Rogue One and is being lined up for a string of Hollywood roles. But he says he never had a plan when he started out as an actor. The star, an Oxford uni graduate, says: “I was always the class clown. I never thought it was a viable career for someone like me or who looked like me. I thought I’d apply to one drama school and if I get in it’s meant to be, if I don’t it’s not. I could not afford the fees so I applied for one scholarship – and got it.” He adds: “It’s a funny story, looking back, but I wonder how many other people there may be from backgrounds like mine who have fallen at any one of those hurdles.” HOLLYWOOD’S Golden Globes are notoriously one of the most raucous events in the showbiz calender.
But Bond actress Naomie Harris will be strictly teetotal at the big bash tonight.
Naomie – nominated as best supporting actress for playing a crack addict in the movie Moonlight – told me: “I don’t drink. I don’t even like the taste of wine. At parties I just ask for water.
“And when there are celebrations, everyone else is like, ‘Let’s get champagne’ – but I can’t think of anything worse.
“I know I am the rarity. I don’t smoke either. I find the smell abhorrent. I just dislike it. I don’t even get tempted, to be honest.
“People tell me, ‘Just let your hair down’ but that isn’t my idea of letting my hair down.
Belief
“I have friends who cry when they’re drunk but don’t remember it the next morning, which is very strange to me.”
Naomie, 40, says her abstinence made it hard to get in character for Moonlight. She explained: “I’m Miss Clean Living, so to play an addict was a massive leap. I think she scared me. It’s the most research I’ve ever done on a character because she was so alien to me.”
The British actress turned to YouTube to research her portrayal of abusive US mother Paula, who wrestles with her problems while failing to raise her son Chiron.
The action takes place over t hree decades, with Naomie playing the mum at different ages. She said: “YouTube is a mine of information. You have amazing people who go around with their iPhones and go to places you would never go, like crack dens, and interview addicts.
“You also have documentaries on crack addiction, interviews and documentaries about Miami in the 1980s. It’s not similar to my background,so I had to really research and get my head around that as well.”
London- born Naomie shot to fame playing Miss Moneypenny in the Bond movies Skyfall and Spectre.
But she is still baffled about how she ended up an actress. Laughing, she admitted: “I really don’t know – but I would tell people when I was four years old, ‘I’m gonna be an actress.’
“I don’t know where that came from, because no one in my family at the time was in acting. In fact, everyone told me, ‘How are you gonna make a living out of being an actress? Nobody makes a living out of being an actress.’
“But I just had this belief and I would stand in front of the mirror as a child trying to make myself cry, imagining I was different people. My granddad at the time gave me a children’s version of The Bible and I would hold people hostage in n our sitting room and read to them from it. To this day, I still don’t know where it comes from.” But despite the early pull of the stage, Naomie never wanted to be famous. mous. She said: “I ask why people want to be famous. I never ever wanted to be. In the last two years that at has changed somewhat what because of James ames Bond. But I still don’t know why anyone wants it.” Now she is an A- lister, though, ugh, Naomi loves nothing hing more than spending ding her earnings wi with t h relatives. She said: “When When you can do nice things for your family, like take them on holiday and treat your mum, that’s a wonderful erful feeling.” Naomie won’t be the only person staying off the booze e at tonight’s Beverly Hills event, because cause a host of stars are doing Dry January. uary. Iian Canning, producer of Lion, which is nominated for best motion otion picture drama, told me: “I won’t ’t be going crazy because I’m not drinking king in January. I think a lot of people e are doing that.” Even if Naomie wins at the Golden Globes, she won’t t be holding her breath for an Oscar. scar. “It would be nice and dI I wouldn’t say no,” she said. “But But I am very happy with my Golden den Globe nomination. “There is so much insecurity rity i in this business. “One moment you’re hot t– – a and the next you’re not.” Time to celebrate... with ha a cu cup of tea perhaps? ONEtime wild child Winona Ryder, 45, has been moaning about LA’s five star Chateau Marmont. Fellow guest Claire Smight posted of the actress: “Listening to Winona Ryder complain about the pool.” One star not moaning was Justin Timberlake, 35, who had a pre-Globes bash in the penthouse suite on Thursday.