Andrea Riseborough is one of five young actors nominated for this year's BAFTA EE Rising Star Award, which celebrates new talent within the film industry.
Having been widely praised for her psychologically nuanced turn in IRA drama Shadow Dancer, and singled out by many critics as the only redeeming quality in Madonna's W.E., Riseborough now has a varied slew of new projects on the horizon.
Digital Spy spoke to Riseborough to discuss her current success and get the lowdown on her upcoming projects, which include British gangster drama Welcome to the Punch, and Tom Cruise sci-fi Oblivion.
What does awards recognition mean to you?
"We would all be lying to say that they don't mean a great deal! Firstly, it's a personal affirmation, which is a very human instinct. But the thing that makes me so grateful and excited about the recognition that's happened for Shadow Dancer in particular is that people have taken the time with it. It's not an easy film, it's not easy to go through those two hours. You bear the burden of the anxiety that Collette lives through every day and that everybody lives through on every side in those situations. It's a difficult experience to watch it and so that is what makes me so excited, that it's been recognised."
You've been working for a while, but have recently done a couple of bigger studio films. Has the last year or so felt significantly different for you?
"The similarity is that if you work on any project, you're always looking for the truth, and how you can protect that. Say for example you're on a studio movie set, there's a really dramatic, emotional scene, and then there are like 300 people doing different jobs around you, people going back and forth in golf carts. Within all of that, managing to retain the emotion and the moments, that's the most important thing.
"The difference is all the stuff that goes along with it, that's the different bit. The difference is the amount of bloody dresses that I've worn in the last five years of my life - I couldn't even count. I remember each one, I appreciate the beauty of each one, but [fashion] is not really my thing. It's very different for women. Apparently it's offensive if I have a spot, and I have quite a few spots, I can tell you that first hand! People genuinely find that kind of stuff offensive."
How does your upcoming film Welcome to the Punch differ from other British gangster movies?
"It's totally different, really. [Director] Eran Creevy's first movie was Shifty, and Ridley Scott, who was executive producer on Welcome to the Punch, just saw Eran's enthusiasm and energy for film. He's so high octane, he's a ball of energy, and he's so enthusiastic about gritty realism and how you can marry that with the excitement of something mundane or something quite sensational.
"The film that we made is a sensational film in the sense that it involves a mob of sorts and underground criminal activity. It's enigmatic and kind of enticing, and he's made it very fast paced but also it has a pedestrian quality where you can just identify it as real life."
What was it like to work with Tom Cruise on Oblivion?
"He is such a wonderful man, and he's so dedicated and enthusiastic about work every morning, he's so excited to get started. He's like Peter Hall in the morning - I have never seen anyone in the morning look excited about Shakespeare! And I saw a lot of similarities between [him and Cruise]. He's so dedicated, tirelessly mining for the truth, and he really wanted our relationship to ring true, for it to have a reality that we can all identify with.
"So that was fantastic, and we had an amazing director in Joe Kosinski who is such a calm and kind man. He was like the zen of the film. I can't think of a sentence or phrase that would describe him but his zen on set is quite phenomenal. He had this incredible ability to realise his artistic vision, and not many people can do that."
How does Oblivion compare to other post-apocalyptic science fiction films?
"I think it sits in more than one genre. I don't think anyone's going to have seen anything like it before - when I read the script I hadn't read anything like it before.
"[Tom and Joe] were sort of giving me the package, before I signed on to the film, my hairs were on end, it was spine chillingly exciting. I hadn't read a script for a very long time that had the elements of being, firstly, a really dramatic story, a really beautiful story, full of emotion and pain and sacrifice. And then having an incredible visual aspect that really only a few directors can create. And it has this tantalising science fiction feel where you really never know what's going to happen. It's a very unsettling piece of film, so I suppose that's the answer.
Do you know what direction you want to go in next, in terms of roles or genres?
"There are so many characters still that I would really love to play. Actually a few of them would be female versions of characters that aren't written by men, as a woman that is understandable why that is. I've just started my own production company, so I'm really excited about being behind the scenes and I'm excited about the process that we are going to use. The way we are going to work will I hope be innovative, and slightly different from anything that's been done before. It'll be a very female approach to filmmaking and it's all going to be a huge experiment. Who the f**k knows what will happen? I'm so excited and revved up about it, it's propelling me through my life at the moment, it's really driving me, and to be on either side of things is nice. It's nice to get a different perspective."
This year's British Academy Film Awards will be broadcast on Sunday, February 10 at 9pm on BBC One. Voting for the BAFTA EE Rising Star Award closes on February 8.
Emma Dibdin is a freelance writer based in Los Angeles who writes about culture, mental health, and true crime. She loves owls, hates cilantro, and can find the queer subtext in literally anything.
