Ellie Bamber swaps her bashed-up old Beemer for... another old Beemer!
CLASSIC convertibles have proved a smash hit with actress Ellie Bamber.
Ellie, 26, acclaimed for playing showgirl Mandy Rice-Davies in BBC TV’s The Trial Of Christine Keeler, wrote off her much-loved vintage red BMW soft-top – but she has replaced it with a grey Beemer 325i E30 convertible.
The star’s fondness for preloved cars has boosted her career as she has bonded with supermodel Kate Moss over their shared affection for old motors – and she has now been cast as the young Kate in the biopic Moss & Freud.
As executive producer of the film, Kate – whose car collection includes vintage Porsches, Mercedes-Benzes, Rolls-Royces and a 1968 MG Midget – has been closely involved in casting and script development.
The movie is based on the reallife story of Kate being painted by Lucian Freud, played by Derek Jacobi, while she was pregnant with daughter Lila in 2002.
Kate, then at the height of her fame, sat for Freud in his Kensington, West London, studio three nights a week, each time from 7pm to 2am.
She revealed that Freud, who died aged 88 in 2011, was a stern taskmaster, saying: ‘If I was just five minutes late, he would kick off.’ The resulting nude painting – which neither artist nor model thought was particularly successful – was eventually sold to an anonymous buyer for £3.5 million at Christie’s in 2005.
‘He didn’t really like the picture, and I didn’t really,’ Kate confessed. ‘I mean, I had a great time. [But] it’s not, like, my favourite Lucian painting.’
Freud, who rarely painted celebrities and turned down opportunities to depict Princess Diana and Pope John Paul II, approached Kate to sit for him after reading in a magazine interview with the model that it was an ambition for him to do her portrait.
Though she did not buy his portrait of her, Kate came away with an original Freud: during the sessions, he tattooed two birds on her lower back.
Ellie has also starred in BBC series Les Miserables, with Olivia Colman, and The Serpent.