NELL WILLIAMS

T-shirt by Aries. Skirt by Stouls

British actress Nell Williams stars in John Patton Ford’s new film How to Make a Killing for A24 and Studio Canal, releasing this March. She plays Mary Redfellow alongside co-stars Ed Harris, Margaret Qualley and Glen Powell. Nell’s screen work includes Game of Thrones, the atmospheric indie feature Inland, opposite Mark Rylance, Gurinder Chadha’s acclaimed Blinded by the Light, and Bill Condon’s thriller The Good Liar with Ian McKellen and Helen Mirren. How to Make a Killing marks a defining moment in her career as one of the most compelling young actors working today. 5’ELEVEN had the pleasure of speaking to her all about her experience on set, working on the film, and how her acting career has blossomed since her roots in theatre.

Words by Bridget Devine

Photographed by Lewis Robinson. Styled by Alton Hetariki. Hair by Stefan Bertin at A-Frame. Make-up by India Excell at A-Frame. Nell Williams appears courtesy of Public Eye

Left: Blazer by Fendi. Skirt by Ahluwalia Right: Necklace Nell's own

Tell us about yourself. Where did you grow up? When and why did you decide to pursue acting as a career?

I’m a Londoner, I was born within the sound of the Bow bells. Though I lived in Manchester for a bit because all my family are from up North. Death has always absolutely terrified me. I remember having an existential crisis when I was 4 and being so confronted with mortality that I had to hold onto something. I suppose acting is an antidote to that. You get to escape yourself and your own mortality for a bit.  I grew up obsessed with films. We didn’t have any of the kids’ channels on our telly, and my parents raised me on weird DVDs that we would watch over and over until we knew every word. My upbringing was a combination of The Clangers, Bagpuss, Victoria Wood, Judy Garland, Gene Kelly, East German trippy kids’ films like The Singing Ringing Tree, and Bowfinger.

Ballet was a huge part of my life as a child, so that was really the start of performing, and when I was 11, my secondary school put me up for this local theatre audition at the Rose Theatre, which is a great theatre in Kingston. An agent came to see it and picked me up, so I began auditioning and then got my first professional job in a CBBC TV series, with Dean Charles Chapman, who became a lifelong friend. I was then lucky enough to be cast in the brilliant Caryl Churchill’s Love and Informationat the Royal Court, which led to playing the young Queen Elizabeth in The Audience in the West End, directed by Stephen Daldry and written by Peter Morgan, which is actually being broadcast in cinemas this week! That’s what gave me my education. My career continued from there; the theatre is really where I began.

Faux fur coat by Ashish

So, you mentioned Game of Thrones. You have starred in many shows and films, including Two Neighbours, Game of Thrones, and The Good Liar. Can you tell me a bit about each of your previous roles and how they influenced your experience in acting?

Hugely. I can't separate myself from those experiences at all. Growing up is trying out different versions of yourself. The people that I worked with and the roles I took on have shaped who I am. I've worked with so many directors who nurtured me from child to adult actor. One in particular, a director called Aisling Walsh, transformed how I relate to working on films. We were filming Elizabeth Is Missing with Glenda Jackson, and I was young, living away from home in Glasgow, shooting. She ran the most collaborative set I’ve ever been on. We all discussed everything together, and we were taken around the locations to feel them before we shot. We were all living in the same apartment block together during filming, and Aisling would ask for our opinions on everything, so we all felt involved and responsible for what we were making. It was mainly a female-led project, cast and crew-wise, and there was a real, tangible camaraderie. I have no doubt that the feeling Aisling cultivated on set elevated the work we all produced. Aisling and Glenda were entirely focused, dedicated, and thoughtful. Being able to watch them was extremely formative to me and is something I’ll never forget.

There’s also been theatre directors I've worked with, like James McDonald at the Royal Court. We were doing a Caryl Churchill play, called Love and Information, which has no characters or context. We literally built up these characters from nothing, all of us together. That was extremely formative for me. The play felt entirely led by imagination. It felt liberating. I also worked with Helen Mirren a couple of times, and she is just… magnificent to be close to. I've been blessed with the people I’ve learned from. 

Tell me a bit about your character in How to Make a Killing?

 Mary Redfellow is a billionaire heiress. She's a teenager at the start of the film, and grows up in this very patriarchal household, where Ed Harris's character is this domineering force as the head of the family. She is this very free-willed, independent, fierce young woman who falls very passionately in love with a man that her father doesn't approve of. She gets pregnant and is expelled from the family because she wants to keep her love child. Her life transforms from being one of absolute luxury and privilege to one of hardship, raising a child on her own because her lover dies very suddenly. She’s a fighter and a force of nature. She’s a wild child, but also, she does the maths. She's very calculating; she knows what she wants and how to get it.

Left and right: Full look by Louis Vuitton Centre: Necklace Nell's own

Do you have any routines or rituals for the process of becoming a character? How was this process for becoming Mary Redfellow?

 It changes for every film. When she's lost everything, Mary teaches Beckett archery and reads him books like Great Expectations. Although they’re so skint, she raises him to be the heir to the Redfellow fortune. I remember reading an interview where Ruth Wilson said Ivo Van Hove had told her to “act like a fish”. I thought that was cool. Mary’s quite cat-like. Predatorial, instinctive and sharp. In a cat-like way, she locks onto things. So, I felt my way around how I could physically weave that in.

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What was it like working on set? Do you have any favourite memories from working with the other cast members? Maybe specifically with Ed Harris?

Ed Harris, absolutely. I grew up watching his films. Walker was an incredible film, and he always plays these horrible, evil characters. So, I walked on set pretty terrified of him. But they put us together in these little green rooms, separated from everyone in this very fancy building in South Africa. I was planning on letting him do his thing, but he came up to me, we spoke and ended up hanging out all of our shoot days. He actually became my first close relationship on set.

He ended up letting me stay on and watch all of his scenes when he was filming without me. I would come to the set just to watch him act. He's got this stillness, which changes the air of the scene. On screen, he has his own gravitational pull. Suddenly, the rules change, and the tiniest movement he makes becomes tidal. Then he’d come off set and tell me about tap dancing.

Dress by Diesel

Costume design plays a strong role in How to Make a Killing. What did you think of Jo Katsaras’ costume design? How did the fashion in the film influence your character?

 Costume design in films is one of the main things for an actor. You become so aware of when it's right or wrong. Jo based each costume on chakras. She came up with all these theories of what our character's chakras were like. She thought that Mary's spirit and soul were red. So, all of my costumes had these red undertones or red features.

I loved that because even when she’s younger and girly, there’s a dramatic edge to her clothes. I loved it.

Do you know which designer the garments were by?

 I know that Margaret Qualley’s outfits were all Chanel. Mine was [designed by] a range of designers, but I loved them so much. I kept on wanting to take them home, but Jo said they all had to go straight back to the designers, of course!

Dress by Diesel

What was the biggest challenge or learning curve you had working on this film?

 I had to give birth and die. I hate death. I am absolutely disgusted and terrified of it. And birthing- pretty much the same deal. Production made me go to meet a birth doula, Lana Peterson. Lana had overseen 600 births and got me to watch a fair few. It’s quite shocking. There are a lot of animal-like poses women giving birth naturally move themselves into, and the sounds they makeshift from sounding like pain to orgasmic. Existentially, this film was a big one for me.

Also, I was trying to make sure I served John's film. His movie Emily the Criminal was so impressive, and I think everyone on set looked up to him and trusted him. We were all there because of him. He’s brilliant, and his vision is so clear. I think everyone just wanted to serve what he wanted the film to be.

Left: Jacket by Goodwood. Skirt by Stouls Right: Full look by Louis Vuitton

Is there a style or genre of cinema you’ve always been drawn to? Or perhaps a specific director or screenwriter you’d love to work with in the future?

How long have you got?

As long as you need.

I love physicality in films. I trained as a dancer when I was younger, and so I'm always

drawn to these films that have an element of physicality. Whether it’s full-blown dance like Gaspar Noé’s Climax or choreographed movement like in Beau Travail.

I have to say right now that I pick Lars Von Trier. But I love Lynne Ramsay because she's so textural. And I love the sensual instinctiveness of Claire Denis. But also, Haneke films are on the opposite end of the spectrum, because they are a scalpel. But I’ve loved everything Danny Boyle’s done since I saw his NHS moon at the Olympic opening ceremony. Julia Locktev is a brilliant, undiscovered gem who I can't believe isn’t world famous. If anyone hasn't seen Day Night Day Night, they should. Nathan Silver, because the spirit of his films is what I believe cinema should be. Eugene Kotlyarenko for the same reason. Myroslav Slaboshpytskyi, because The Tribe is my favourite film. Mike Leigh, because Secrets and Lies moves me like nothing else. Kantemir Balagov and Kira Kovalenko’s films take my breath away. Masha Schilinski because Sound of Falling is what time and death feels like to me. Julia Ducournau, because Alpha is the most underrated film of the year. Mic drop.

Finally, what was your favourite thing about the film?

My favourite thing… I got to grow up, give birth, fall in love, run off, elope and then die. I got to live a woman's entire life condensed in one film. It's the richest and biggest gift that you can be given as an actor. That’s the pinnacle of what acting is all about.

'How to Make a Killing' is in cinemas now.

Top by Stouls. Necklace Nell's own