Leila George makes her feature film debut as Katherine Valentine alongside Hugo Weaving in Christian Rivers’s Mortal Engines. We caught up with her below during her time in Australia.
I thought it was interesting, the way that your character developed. She starts off very privileged, in the upper tier of London. Do you have to get into a naive, closeted mindset?
Leila: Um, well she doesn’t think that she’s closeted, so I didn’t have to go there [with that]. She’s, she’s unaware of the bubble that she’s in, which makes it so much more interesting when she’s woken up to reality, and that was actually what drew me to it in the first place.You’re catching her at this point in life where every young person goes through, where they’re coming out of that bubble in childhood, and witnessing what goes on in the real world. So, it was less of what you described as constricting, and more of an awakening, which is a really fun thing to play.
What drew you to this film? Did you hear about the project being in production and think “I have to be on this?”
Leila: I happened to be in London in October 2016, and I went to audition randomly because I was there for a week, and I didn’t think anything of it, and then a month later I was called back again, and then it suddenly became a real thing, and I read the book and everything to prepare for the callback. And no, it was totally…I wasn’t aware of the film or anything untl they were interested in me , and then once I read it, and read Katherine’s character, I related to her [journey] so much and to her and to what she goes through and there’s so much that I related to [that] I really really wanted to play her, and that happened, miraculously (laughs).
That would’ve been exciting, from attending London to getting your first Peter Jackson movie:
Leila: It was crazy, uh- it’s still a dream…it [will] all hit me at some point again, but it was such an awesome opportunity. Yeah, it was incredible.
You’re from Australia, but you also spend a lot of time in London and Los Angeles. Do you have any further projects coming up in the pipeline?
Leila: I have a Western, a little independent Western coming out early next year that I’m really excited about, called ‘The Kid.’ So there’s that…
That’s all you can say?
Leila. Yeah. I can talk more about it if you want?
Of course.
Leila: It’s a story about Billy the Kid and Pat Garrett, and it stars Chris Pratt, Ethan Hawke and Dane DeHaan, and it follows the story of this young boy played by Jake Schur and it’s directed by my father Vincent D’Onofrio. We were all very close, Chris and Ethan are some of my Dad’s best friends, so it was a really lovely family shoot, and I think it’s gonna be a really cool thing.
Both your parents [Vincent D’Onofrio and Greta Scacchi] are already in the arts. Were you drawn to that as a kid or was it something they fostered?
Leila: They didn’t at all. I wish they fostered it a little bit more, or maybe I’m grateful that they didn’t because I got there on my own, completely. It was-I always knew I wanted to do something in the industry, but people always asked me if I wanted to act, and I was like “nope!” Laughs. So the reason I first moved back to Australia when I was 18 was to go to Sydney Film School here, and I did the diploma course there for a year, and that made me realise that I needed to admit that I wanted to act, because I was acting more in my fellow students’ thesis films than I was focusing on the work myself! Um, so that place really helped me realise what I wanted to do…and it’s a great school, I learnt a lot of stuff about being behind the camera which has been really useful to me.
That would definitely help, seeing all aspects of film production…
Leila: For sure.
When you get attached to a character, do you get in the psyche of a character or do you prefer a blank canvas approach?
Leila: I think it’s different every time. Sometimes you read lines off a page and they come so easily to you, and there’s very little work that you have to do. Sometimes you have to do a lot of work to get there. I’m still really new at this and I’m crafting out my way of doing things, but what I’ve learnt so far is that there are no set rules.
Does that give you freedom to play?
Leila: I think freedom to play is one of the most important things.
If you could be in a film with any director, who would it be?
Leila: My dream used to be (but this is an older dream-not that it’s still not a dream) was that I always wanted to work for Darren Aronofsky. Because when I was studying film, he was my favourite, my absolute [favourite]. Requiem for A Dream is one of my absolute favourite films ever.
That’s intense, I was thinking more along Black Swan, Mother…
Leila: I find that films have an effect on you depending on what time you watch them. I watched that when I was about 14, and I’d never seen anything like it before, and it was the first film of that type that I’d ever seen, because I had never watched a film before that made me feel so…terrible. I loved it…but I couldn’t believe watching something that someone had made could make my skin crawl. It was a change from action movies and romantic comedies! To this day, I love that film, I think it’s great.
Would you watch it again?
Leila: I would, I haven’t seen it for a while.
So Darren Aronofsky would be your director?
Leila: I’ll say that right now. There’s a lot, but that would be my one today.
Your next film saw you working with Chris Pratt. What was that like?
Leila: He’s awesome. He and Ethan are both lovely human beings. He’s always got so much energy, he’s always ready to have a laugh.
Is it a natural process bonding with people on set?
Leila: I think it depends, everyone’s different depending on what scenes you’re doing that day. Some people don’t like to make friends, socialise, and some people do, and it depends if you’re somewhere away from home, and that’s [important]. You don’t want to be alone for 3 months [of filming]. In New Zealand I made one of the best friends of my life now, and we always had weekends and we’d go down to Queenstown or go and do different activities and stuff..and in Mexico we became really close as well. I guess it depends on how full on people’s schedules are versus others, you know? Whether you have time to hang out, whether you’re exhausted, working weekends…I think usually during the week, I don’t really hang out. Monday to Friday if I’m shooting, I’m going to sleep or waking up…or going to the gym.
You don’t have a typical schedule, then?
Leila: No. Laughs.
Describe Mortal Engines in a sentence?
Leila: Oh my gosh…Action, adventure, coming of age…people coming together and fighting for what they believe in, what they believe is right…I think that sums it up!
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