SUKI WATERHOUSE

IS BAD TO THE BONE…

With roles in Pusher and Insurgent, Suki Waterhouse, 25, is fast shaking off that ‘model who dated Bradley Cooper’ image. Now the British-born star is the lead in The Bad Batch, a dystopian cannibal yarn co-starring Keanu Reeves and Jason Momoa. Tough girl? “I love the action stuff,” she smiles, “because it gets you out of your head.”

What early talks did you have with writer‑director Ana Lily Amirpour about

The Bad Batch?

She looked at me when I was cast and said, “This is going to be the hardest thing you’ve ever done.” And weirdly in my personal life, everything went to shit at the same time as I was shooting it. When I watched the film, I was like, “I’m so glad that I was going through all that shit because I think it helped me.”

Was it tough to film those early desert scenes, in which your character Arlen loses her arm and leg?

Yeah, it was brutal. I was also covered in [fake] excrement! I was like, “Oh my God, what are people going to think I’ve eaten? This is horrible!” It was such a weird colour! That was the first day of filming.

Have you met a lot of prejudice crossing over from modelling to acting?

I think it changes a lot when I get in the room with people and I meet them. Lily didn’t know anything about me, and that meant a lot to me. You’re always valued on these weird standards and beliefs in the fashion industry.

Your dad was a plastic surgeon. Was that strange?

It’s such a weird one. I have grown up around it all my life. I grew up with Botox in my fridge and these weird silicon things in my dad’s office, which I’d prod and try and burst. I did burst one once!

ETA | 22 SEPTEMBER / THE BAD BATCH IS ON NETFLIX FROM THIS MONTH.