she’s had. As well as the upcoming Les Misérables, she
appeared in Disney fantasyThe Nutcracker And The Four
Realms, alongside an all-star line-up including Keira Knightley,
Helen Mirren and Morgan Freeman. “Getting to work with
[director] Lasse Hallström was so incredible,” says Bamber,
who plays the sister to Mackenzie Foy’s Clara, “And that cast,
I mean...” she catches her breath. “Mackenzie is amazing.
Matthew Macfadyen is so brilliant – it was a really cool cast
and being able to help bring that magical tale to life,” she takes
a moment, “well, it was really, really special.”
This year, she’ll follow up her stint of big studio adaptations with
something altogether different, playing the lead inThe Seven
Sorrows Of Mary. Based on real events, it’s a harrowing story of
a 21-year-old American exchange student spending a year
abroad in Brazil. Bamber’s character is kidnapped, raped and
beaten before eventually being forced to choose between
abandoning her boyfriend (played by Australian James
Frecheville, whose breakout role was in Animal Kingdom
alongside Jacki Weaver and Ben Mendelsohn) and seizing
a chance at escape, or returning to her attackers. “It was very
intense,” says Bamber of the six-week shoot in Brazil. “I think it
might have been my toughest role to date.” To recover from
lengthy days of filming, she would throw herself into books (she
read Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist while on location) and
embraced the surroundings of Rio de Janeiro. “We did lots of
night shoots, so I’d come home to see the sunrise,” she says. “There
was something really special about a beautiful end to the day.”
It’s not the first time she’s found herself taking on difficult parts.
Bamber got her break starring in Tom Ford’s
Nocturnal Animals, a dark thriller in which her
character experiences a similar fate. “On set,
the three of us [meaning Jake Gyllenhaal and
Isla Fisher, who play Bamber’s parents] formed
a really strong relationship together. We all got
on really well and we’d hang out a lot outside of
filming,” she says. “I think that was really
important because we had this bond with each
other where we felt safe together no matter
what space we were put in.”
These roles couldn’t be further from the reality
of Bamber’s own life. Her rural upbringing in Berkshire, a little
more than an hour west of London, was, she says, incredibly
idyllic. Part of a close-knit family (her mother is her manager), she
attended a small all-girls school where she met the friends she’s still
closest to today. She was obsessed with horses (“Growing up,
I just loved them! I was that kid”), then acting came later when
a drama teacher noticed her talent and encouraged her to start
auditioning for plays at a local theatre. By 12, she became the
youngest member of the Players’ Theatre Club in London and, as
a teenager, she began to land small TV roles before making her
film debut in Carol Morley’s The Falling alongside MaisieWilliams and Florence Pugh in 2014. She’s been working ever
since but isn’t complacent about it. “I still get that actor insecurity
thing. I remember the first time I auditioned for a role and it went
really well, but then I found out on my birthday I didn’t get it and
I cried and cried,” she says. “It gets easier after that first time, but it’s
still hard – you fall in love with a character and
then have them taken away.”
There’s not much time for her to worry about
rejection. Like the directors she has worked with,
designers, too, are falling for the burgeoning star- during September’s London Fashion Week,
she sat front row at Emilia Wickstead’s spring/
summer 18-19 show before flying to Milan for
Ferragamo and Paris for Chanel. Bamber’s been
a Chanel ambassador since 2016, and the next
year she wore a pre-fall 2017 gown to theVanity
FairOscars party. “It’s such a gorgeous dress. It’s
at home in my closet and I keep joking that I’m going to put it on
and just walk around town in it with my trainers on,” she says,
laughing. “I love how classic Chanel is, but it also keeps reinventing
itself. Karl [Lagerfeld]’s always picking up on what’s happening in
culture and you can see how that feeds into the collection. It’s so
cool but always timeless, too... I just really love wearing Chanel.”
She’s speaking with her characteristic enthusiasm, clearly
buzzing with elation and, with the waves she’s making in both
fashion and Hollywood, well, why shouldn’t she be excited?E
Les Misérables is coming early March to BBC First on Foxtel
and Fetch
69
CULTURE
Words: Shannon Mahanty. Photography: Clay Stephen Gardner. Styling: Felicity Kay. Photographer’s assistants:Michael Rudd; Stefano Venturi. Hair: Ken O’Rourke at Streeters. Hair colour: Nicola Clarke at John Frieda. Makeup:Liz Pugh at Premier using Apothesis, Le Mat de Chanel and Chanel Le Lift. Nails: Sophia Stylianou at Frank Agency using Chanel Le Vernis in Ultime and Chanel La Crème Main
Jacket, $8,300,CHANEL,
1300 242 635; shirt,
approx $177,BOSS,
hugoboss.com; shorts,
approx $39,CAPEZIO,
capezioaustralia.com“It’s hard.
You fall in
love with
a character
and then
have them
taken away”