Jessica Henwick talks making it, diversity, and Nicolas Cage
Just before Jessica Henwick was cast in “Game of Thrones” and “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” the then-aspiring actor had already left Los Angeles for her hometown in England.
“I ran out of money, so I went back and moved back in with my parents,” she recalled.
Although she hadn’t quite given up on acting, Henwick was struggling to find jobs in front of the camera. Before leaving LA, she did work as a crew member on sets — an experience she drew from for her role in Rian Johnson’s “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery,” which debuts Friday on Netflix.
In the whodunit film boasting a starstudded ensemble cast, Henwick plays Peg, the assistant and handler to model and sweatpants line founder Birdie (Kate Hudson). But her experience as a crew member was more than just a source of inspiration for her character — it was “hugely educational” for her as an actor, Henwick said.
“To be on a set and listen to how the director communicated with the cast and with the crew and how it worked, it was hugely insightful,” she said.
Although her performance as Bugs in “The Matrix Resurrections” garnered critical praise, she still considers herself a “jobbing actor.”
“I’m not just getting things handed to me,” she said, though she admits working with Keanu Reeves felt like a turning point in her career as well as a personal triumph.
“I mean, what an icon. They just don’t make ‘em like that anymore. It’s kind of sad,” she said.
Reflecting on her experience with Reeves, Henwick lamented the ways in which the Hollywood landscape has shifted.
“He’s from an era where it meant something to be a star or an A-lister,” she said. “There are so many actors nowadays. I don’t know if it’s just diluted or maybe we’re overexposed with social media.”
Henwick had always known the chances of her making it in Hollywood were slim, which she says informed her decision to drop out of acting school after being cast as the lead in the BBC series “Spirit Warriors” in 2009.
“Maybe I got too big for my boots. I don’t know. I just think that I realized you don’t have to do that,” she said when asked why she quit. “If I had continued going to that school, I would have been in debt.”