Georgie Henley on Partygate, Innate Creativity and Navigating the Industry

intervieweditorial

2 Nov

Was it nerve wracking to be on a project about COVID? It felt like the first big piece that the UK has produced focusing on how it felt to many people.

I think COVID art is really hard. Some people might argue that we don't have enough distance yet. But for this, it was all there. It was all there already. It needs to be now because there’s an election coming up. People need to know more about what happened. I just don't think a lot of people actually sat down and read the Gray report and the media just obviously cherry picks elements.

I think it works because it doesn't pertain to a particular structure and it does its own thing, it has an element of documentary which I think is really important. PARTYGATE makes you time travel, almost like that first 10 minutes of it you're just instantly plunged back into where we all were at that time and what we were doing, and we've all worked very hard to then look forward all the time. But we have to be able to look back, even though it's really painful, because that's the only way that we then make decisions and hold people accountable.

The pressure was really high: Telling this story means so much to a lot of people and I didn't want to fuck it up. But then it has been great to put into the world and the reaction to it has been amazing.

Do you think this will shift peoples views on the situation ahead of the election?

I hope so. One of the things that I was researching, because my characters from the North and we decided that she would be from Darlington, was the Red Wall and about how there were seats that were taken for granted by Labour and then ended up going to the Tories in 2019. I read this great book called Beyond the Red Wall by Deborah Marxism, which is basically like describing how people who had voted Labour their whole lives ended up voting Tory and why that happened. It was a combination of Brexit and Boris. That almost gives me hope with this next election, that there are people who have voted Tory their whole lives who decide they can't vote for them again. I hope the programme might play a small part in that, like, that's all you can really hope for.

What was it like playing a Tory? How did you get into character?

I went to uni in Cambridge and I was in my final year the day that the Brexit vote went through. There was a party happening at the student union, people celebrating it and there was me and my friends who were just heartbroken and shell shocked. There was such an intense divide between this old money Tory gang and then, I guess people like me and my friends, who you could argue we're also living in a bit of a liberal bubble.

But it was a really chilling thing for me. The biggest aspect in terms of getting into the Tory character mindset was that she has a lot of hero worship of Boris. It was really interesting to read about people who honestly think that Boris is this incredible figure.

That is the part that I had to really get my head around. Because to me, he's a clown, a clever clown, because he knows what he's doing. My YouTube algorithm is completely messed up now too after watching all the videos about young Tory speakers, or like the Tories who are kind of considered a bit ‘cooler’. I also had to get an exceptionally Tory haircut, which helps.

Parts of the party scenes were funny for how ridiculous and realistic it was, like when you’re drunk talking about how Boris is just like a grandad you can have a drink with. But then it would cut to a real interview with a person who was deeply affected by the lockdowns. The shift in tones made it a difficult watch at times.

How casually they were talking about it was pretty intense. Half of that scene we would do as written and then the director wanted to do a take where we’re improvising, so that scene ended up being improv. It was toe curling, and I think people don’t want to admit that these types of people exist and are running the country.

Those nuances are important. I can imagine the dialogue would rile people up a bit, but it needs to.

I was surprised. I thought there would be more backlash from individuals, but I think people are realising that it's kind of indefensible. Which is kind of mad because we now live in the time of social media where everything can be argued.

How has it been carving out your own identity after having so much success as a child in Narnia? You’ve done film, theatre, TV and poetry - are you enjoying doing a bit of everything or is there a specific direction you want to follow?

When I was younger I did feel like I was put in a box. So it's really nice to be in a stage now where it's like, I want to do it, I'll just try doing it. I think I always used to be really scared of failure.

It’s really lucky that I loved everything I did when I was little. Whereas I think sometimes people are part of stuff when they're little and then they don't feel good about it and they want to forget it and so when people bring it up to them they’re uncomfortable. Whereas for me, I love people talking to me about it. It makes me happy that Narnia is still something that makes other people happy and I feel like people have given me space to be my own person. Especially more in the last couple of years, where it's like, I'm not going anywhere, I really care about acting and I want to do this for the rest of my life. I think if you show that you really care about something and you're committed to it, people do respond to that.

Some people do have these narratives about child actors from when I was younger that were quite difficult to have on my shoulders because people almost expect you to fail. Then it becomes a self fulfilling prophecy. I guess the biggest thing is, I don't feel jaded. I almost still feel like a kid in terms of the level of joy that acting still gives me, which is really nice. I'm not saying there's no problems with the industry, there’s so many. I did my first audition when I was seven and I'm now 28, so I've seen a lot in my time. But you do see things change and evolve. Obviously, there's so much good that's happening but I really thought that we would be so much further along than we are, especially how we see and talk about women.

You said you wanted to write and direct. What type of things would you like to make?

Everything I do has to relate with the queer experience, because I feel like it's my need to write it, but it's also recognising that there just isn't enough of it, especially on screen. That's the gap that I'm trying to fill. I’m working on a romance, a ghost story, a comedy, I don’t want to pigeonhole myself too early. Branding yourself and selling your work has become such a big thing on social media.

I made a short at uni and I’m in the process of developing my next short hopefully to shoot next year. It's taken me so long to do that because the fear set in. And then I was just like, No, you just have to do it. The only way to learn is by doing. I’ve had no training and everything I know is just from doing it. But it's funny negotiating that with a fear of failure.

It's hard to get over failure and accept that it may happen and to go ahead and make it anyway with your whole heart.

I mean, again, I'm really lucky. I've completely loved every job I've done. I've always been like, I was right to be cast in this role - there's nothing worse than being miscast - and that doesn't mean I've never not had impostor syndrome, I definitely have. But there's always been a time where it's kind of clicked and I've been like, this was right. It's funny with acting because it's all these different things: You have to be very porous and be able to conjure all these emotions but you also have to have total rhinoceros skin because there's so much rejection. You also have to take it really seriously but not take yourself very seriously.

I remember my dad saying to me at one point, because I didn't really have a good time at secondary school, it's because everyone's trying to be cool about everything and you're keen about everything. But it's better to be keen because then you actually go for stuff and take risks and you enjoy all of it.

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Lauren O'Neill