Hair by Neeko/TraceyMattingly.com; makeup by Beau Nelson/The Wall Group for Dior; manicure by Kimmie Kyees for Red Carpet Manicure84
sheÕsspeeding down the freeway as we speak, which seems
perfect for catching up with Nathalie Emmanuel,
who this month returns for her third run in the
street-racing adrenaline fest Fast & Furious. “I actu-
ally can’t legally drive,” she confesses from the back
seat en route to the L.A. airport, where she’ll head
home to London for her next project. “That makes me
laugh out loud, considering I’ve done three movies
about car racing.” (She was too broke back in the day to
pay £18 per hour for the mandatory driving lessons.)
Nathalie, 31, has made it to Hollywood’s fast lane,
but at heart, she thrives on keeping things at a more
chill pace. For starters, she’s A-OK with taking public
transportation. “I mean, Dame Helen Mirren [her
F9 costar] takes the Tube,” she says. “If she can, so can
we all.” And she cherishes her upbringing in “hum-
ble circumstances” in a small seaside town in Essex
(“with the best fish and chips in the country, and don’t
let anyone tell you otherwise!”). She and her older
sister were raised by a single mother, “Mama Debs,”
whom Nathalie credits for giving her those gorgeous
corkscrew curls. (Both of her parents have some
Caribbean roots.) At 17, she moved to Liverpool for
a four-year stretch on a soap opera and then worked
at a clothing store to pay the bills as she went on
auditions.
Despite Nathalie’s low-key sensibilities, there’s no
denying that she radiates serious star power. Which
is the reason she’s been able to convert her two break-
through characters—Missandei in Game of Thrones
and Ramsey in Fast—from minor supporting players
into recurring cult favorites. “The thing they have in
common is that they’re both brilliant women with
a very specific skill set. It seems that I’m attracted to
characters like that,” she says.And with her starring performance in the rom-
com series Four Weddings and a Funeral last year, she
has already shifted into leading-lady status.
When it all gets a bit much for the self-described
introvert, Nathalie summons the necessary survival
skills she’s honed. “For a number of years, I would
get really worked up or emotional or find myself
exhausted,” she says. “Now, instead of consuming
myself with all the things I’ve got to do, I compart-
mentalize the day into what I have to do next. OK,
I have to get showered. Done that, now what?” The
self-help is clearly working to keep her happy and
healthy. Here, Nathalie shares more on the art
of those stay-calm vibes, surprises us with some
bragging-rights moves, and reveals how she’s mas-
tered the jet-set life at her own speed.SHE’S A TRUE PRO YOGI
“I started going to yoga when I was 19 as a way to stay
active but also do something by myself if I needed
peace and quiet. In the last seven years, it’s been much
more of a necessity that I do it religiously. Wherever
I am in the world, I find a yoga studio or I travel with
my mat. I also trained to become a yoga instructor
about two years ago—and taught at a London studio
for a bit—because friends kept asking, ‘Can you show
me how?’
“Yoga is something I do to sit and breathe and bring
my attention inward, because I’m often giving so
much energy to the world. It’s important to check
in physically, mentally, and emotionally and see
what’s going on. A lot of the things you shove to the
bottom, to get through the week, come out. It’s good
to engage with those things and have a conversation.”
(Continued on page 89)SHA0520WCELEB.indd 84 FINAL CONTENT 3/13/20 12:02 PM