Last Night in Soho’s Thomasin McKenzie Is Just Getting Started

It was inevitable that Thomasin McKenzie would join the film industry. Well, almost. The Kiwi star of such films as Taika Waititi’s Jojo Rabbit, M. Night Shyamalan’s Old, and Edgar Wright’s latest Last Night in Soho is a third-generation actress; both her mother Miranda Harcourt and maternal grandmother Kate Harcourt are performers, while her father Stuart McKenzie is a writer and director. “My parents were pretty pleased when I followed in their footsteps,” McKenzie tells ELLE.com. “But it wasn’t expected.”

McKenzie, 21, who was raised with her four siblings in Wellington, New Zealand, loved biology at school and had early dreams of working with animals. “I definitely didn’t want to be an actress at first,” she explains. “I was more interested in being a vet or working at an animal rescue.” She did, however, enjoy the time away from school she was able to get while starring in local TV and film projects like Consent: The Louise Nicholas Story and the soap opera Shortland Street. “In the beginning, I would do it just so I could get pocket money so I could buy myself Bratz Dolls and Sylvanian Families,” McKenzie smiles. “That was my main incentive—and also to get time off school was a bonus. But the more I did it, the more I fell in love with it.”

While her older siblings pursued careers in journalism and teaching, McKenzie continued to rack up acting credits in New Zealand including a featured extra role in The Hobbit: The Battle of The Five Armies. Although, appearing in the Lord of the Rings franchise was less of a Kiwi rite of passage than being cast in a small role in Jane Campion’s The Power of the Dog, the New Zealand filmmaker’s celebrated return to cinema releasing on Netflix this year. “I’ve known Jane my entire life,” McKenzie says. “She’s my little sister’s godmother, and she’s always been someone that I’ve looked up to. She’s been such a magical figure in my life with her silver hair and her wonderful presence.”

The young actress certainly proved her acting chops in Debra Granik’s critically-acclaimed 2018 drama Leave No Trace as the daughter of a troubled war veteran (Ben Foster) who lives in a public forest with her dad. Her sensitive performance earned significant attention; not only was she nominated for several awards, but she also impressed the Last Night in Soho filmmakers. “I think it was a Nira Park, a producer who was like, ‘Have you seen Leave No Trace?’ to Edgar [Wright, the director] who said, ‘Yeah, it’s incredible, but isn’t Thomasin McKenzie just, like, someone who lives in the forest?’” recalls co-writer Krysty Wilson-Cairns. “She’s so convincing that you don’t think that it’s a performance.”

Part of what makes McKenzie so believable is her brilliant command of accents; she’s nailed German, Australian, as well as various American and British voices including Cornish for her role as Eloise, a socially awkward fashion student who finds herself transported to the 1960s through her dreams in Wright’s London-set psychological horror. “I love accents,” she enthuses. “What I do on set is use it in between takes so that it feels very natural. Cornish is one of my favorite accents I’ve ever done, with all the ‘ayes’ and the great sounds!”

“I couldn’t believe she wasn’t from Cornwall because it’s perfect,” adds Wilson-Cairns, who incorporated much of her own experience of living, studying, and working in Soho as a film student into the script she co-wrote with Wright. “The idea behind Ellie was capturing what it’s like to be, not even just a young woman, but a young person moving to the big city. Building a world in which the frightening elements are there from the minute she gets to London and only grows.”

When Anya Taylor-Joy was recast in the expanded role of Sandy, a wannabe singer in the ‘60s with whom Eloise has a seemingly supernatural connection, the filmmakers were looking for an actress who could deliver “a sense of vulnerability, optimism, and hopefulness” opposite her. Then-18-year-old McKenzie checked all those boxes. “Thomasin brought a journey of her own to it—coming from New Zealand to live in the middle of London to make a film with a bunch of people she doesn’t know… that vulnerability is the key to why the audience goes with Eloise,” Wilson-Cairns says. “She’s so likable, but likable isn’t quite enough. It’s this idea of ‘I want her to do well and I want to protect her, and I was her.’”

McKenzie threw herself into the role; she’d read every book, watched every film, and listened to every bit of music Wright recommended to get her into the cinematic zones of both his contemporary and retro worlds. Wilson-Cairns even taught her how to pull pints at the Toucan, the Soho pub where Eloise gets a part-time job, and where the Scottish screenwriter once served as a bartender as a student. “She was so interested in soaking everything up and being a sponge, but it wasn’t an easy thing to shoot,” Wilson-Cairns said. “She’s constantly like a raw nerve and in every single scene. To be 18, to just take that on your shoulders and be like, ‘That’s fine; I’ve got that,’ is really impressive. I absolutely love the girl.”

Last Night in Soho puts a spotlight on the toxic nature of showbiz and how easily women are manipulated into doing things they don’t want to in the hope of success. Considering the continued abuse and harassment of women today, it certainly shows just how little things have changed since the ‘60s, but McKenzie is grateful that she’s been somewhat shielded from the worst the entertainment industry throws at actresses. “I’ve been very lucky because there have been cases in this industry of young women being taken advantage of, and up until recently, I’ve always had at least one family member traveling with me as a support system to make sure that I’m being treated with respect,” she says. “It’s important for young women coming into this industry to realize they should be respected, be able to assert themselves, share their ideas and opinions, because they’re valid.”

McKenzie has already done just that with earlier projects. She previously dropped out of her role in Top Gun: Maverick so she could appear in Liz Garbus’ 2020 biographical drama Lost Girls. In it, she portrays Sherre Gilbert, the sister of 24-year-old Shannan Gilbert who was among the murdered young women on the South Shore barrier islands of Long Island in 2010. “I was incredibly honored to be cast in Top Gun but I decided, in the end, to do Lost Girls, because I just felt more motivated to tell that story,” she explains.

McKenzie is still only at the beginning of her career, even with an eclectic mix of films and roles to her name, but Last Night in Soho cements her leading-lady status, and she’s sure to follow it up with even more intriguing characters. If anyone’s working on a Peter Pan adaptation, she’s ready and raring to go. “I want to play a fairy,” she muses. “I can play Tinkerbell, or do a live-action version of the Rainbow Fairies books. Let me know.”

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