PHOTOGRAPHY BY FRANÇOIS BERTHIER/CONTOUR BY GETTY IMAGES.
WATCH IT:
The Keeper hits
cinemas on July 25.FREYA
MAVOR
GIRL OF THE MOMENT
Freya Mavor is a “massive geek”.
While it’s not unusual for actors to
throw themselves into roles – Renée
Zellweger gained 13 kilograms to play
Bridget Jones and Rooney Mara got
12 piercings for The Girl With The
Dragon Tattoo – Mavor dives deep.
“I like to create a whole universe
around the character I’m playing,”
explains the Glasgow-born, London-
based actress, who plays Margaret
in the upcoming period drama The
Keeper, based on the story of German
soldier Bert Trautmann, who became
a soccer goalkeeper in England after
a transfer to a British POW camp.
For The Keeper, Mavor, 25, read
poetry and literature from the 1940s
era, acquired a thick Manchester
accent and even assigned her
character a spirit animal. “Margaret
was a mix of a bird of paradise and a
leopard. She holds her head up high
and is always flipping about like a
bird, and is also incredibly grounded
and fierce like a leopard,” she says.
Her passion for acting ignited
at the age of 10, after watching Jack
Nicholson in the horror flick The
Shining. “It traumatised me so much,
and I remember thinking how
amazing it is that a film can have that
effect on someone,” says Mavor, who
made her acting debut on the cult
British series Skins after auditioning
at an open casting call at age 16. “I
got a bus from Edinburgh to Bristol
and queued for seven hours to do
one audition,” she recalls.
Her “teenage dream” came true
when she landed the role of Mini, the
straight-talking high school Queen B
in Skins, whose four favourite things
are “Shopping. Footwear. Sushi. Sex
(And yes, always in that order).”
Almost a decade later, Mavor is
still recognised on the street as Mini
and credits Skins for teaching her the
tricks of the trade. So what was Mini’s
spirit animal? “A lioness, for sure.”Meet the actress living
her “teenage dream”CULTURE
5DI?EB\H
EDITED BY ALLEY PASCOE