Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Rejected by Hollyoaks but now I’m star of a Spielberg blockbuster
BRIT ACTRESS ON SHOCK ROLE IN SCI-FI ADVENTURE
AS a struggling actress, Olivia Cooke was turned down by Hollyoaks, Emmerdale and drama school RADA.
But with a starring role in Steven Spielberg’s virtual reality blockbuster Ready Player One, the 24-year-old has taken her career to a different level.
And she has raked in bonus points by having two films released a week apart – with lead billing this weekend in dark comedy thriller Thoroughbreds.
Olivia says cheerfully of her failed soap auditions: “Thank God, thank God, thank God – I’d still be there now, five years later.”
But even she admits Hollywood was never in her game plan.
She says: “I don’t think I was ever attracted to it because I never thought it would happen.
“Being from the north of England, when you want to be an actor you only expect that you’re going to be a soap star. You’re like, ‘I wanna be an actress’ and ‘I wanna work with Spielberg’ – but you never think you really will.”
DUAL
Yet work with Spielberg she did, with the Ready Player One director handing her the dual role of Samantha and her virtual alter ego Art3mis.
Olivia grew up in Oldham, Lancs, where she went to a comprehensive school.
Her dad John, a retired policeman, and sales rep mum Lindsy, split when she was young. Olivia and younger sister Eleanor were brought up by Lindsy.
Olivia says: “My mum had to be both parents. She’s the person I call at one in the morning.”
The youngster fell in love with the stage after starting at Oldham Theatre Workshop aged eight.
Its alumni include Anna Friel, one-time Emmerdale actress Lisa Riley, and the late Anne Kirkbride – Corrie’s beloved Deirdre Barlow.
And her enthusiasm won her some early success, with a handful of “really cringey” ads, and a promo video for a One Direction tour in which she was carried piggyback by Harry Styles.
And then came her attempt to get into RADA – London’s Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.
Olivia feels it was her northern accent that cost her a place in what she has called a “horrible auditioning process”.
She once recalled: “There was a voice teacher who singled out me and this girl from Wigan because we had northern accents.
“He told me to run on the spot while I was reading a monologue, and he was thumping me on the back really hard. I knew then I hadn’t got in.”
Nonetheless, after playing Maria in West Side Story in sixth form, she abandoned her studies to appear in BBC mini-series Blackout.
That was followed by threepart thriller The Secret of Crickley Hall, also for the BBC.
But, thwarted in her soap ambitions, Olivia moved to New York City and now lives in Brooklyn. She quickly rose to fame in US TV series Bates Motel with fellow Brit Freddie Highmore, star of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. That was followed by horror movies Ouija and The Quiet Ones – in which she played opposite The Crown star Jared Harris. Next came 2015 Sundance Film Festival hit Me and Earl and the Dying Girl.
But despite a healthy portfolio, auditioning for the man who made many of Hollywood’s biggest blockbusters brought on the stage fright. “I was having a panic attack,” says Olivia. “He’s been an idol of mine since I was a child – I’ve seen
nearly all his movies. Then he comes in and he’s so lovely. You’re so disarmed by how charming and kind he is – he gives you a lot of trust, which instills a lot of confidence in you.
“The energy he has, the curiosity and the zest and thirst for life and knowledge… I feel I’ve never had that, even though I’m a third of his age. It’s inspiring.”
She found out she had got the part as she headed off on holiday to Mexico, revealing in a recent chat: “It was the best holiday.
“I was drunk the entire time, on the beach just celebrating.”
Ready Player One is set in 2045, in a world where all of daily life takes place inside a global virtual
reality known as OASIS. After the death of its eccentric creator – played by British stage heavyweight Mark Rylance – Olivia’s character Samantha joins co-star Tye Sheridan in a battle
The energy of Spielberg, his zest and thirst for life, I wish I had that… it’s inspiring OLIVIA COOKE ON WORKING WITH HOLLYWOOD HITMAKER
to keep control of it away from an evil corporation. Spielberg himself has praised Olivia’s enthusiasm, saying he fed off his “passionate and amazing cast”.
The director added: “I would come in to work and Olivia would be, ‘Okay, what do we do now? I can’t wait’.”
As well as finding a career in the US, Olivia also found love. For three years she has dated
American actor Christopher Abbott, 32, star of hit US shows Girls and The Sinner – but she keenly protects her privacy. And in keeping with some of the themes of Ready Player One, she also avoids Twitter and Instagram.
Olivia admits: “It terrifies me, the access people want. Just from a mental health point of view, I don’t think it’s very helpful. Where you probably get a lot of awful comments, I think I’d have a really hard time with all that.
“People who have social media – not just celebrities, it’s everyone – it’s a completely curated life. It’s a look into someone’s life with complete
rose-tinted glasses.” Olivia’s next role sees her step back in time – to play lead character Becky Sharp in a major ITV adaptation of classic novel Vanity Fair, by William Makepeace Thackeray, set amid the Napoleonic War.
But looking into her own future, she hopes her profile will now enable her to try her hand as a producer.
“I’m in a really fortunate position,” she says. “I’m able to option books and create a film around me. I love acting. I’m lucky to have this career.”
For someone playing two roles in one film, and showing up in two films a week apart, that is one reality which seems a virtual certainty.