It may sound cliché, but Emma Mackey has always felt like a bit of an enigma. Despite the fact that her break-out role was in one of the most ground-breaking, genre-bending TV shows of our time, and she has starred alongside some of the greatest, influential women in the industry – Margot Robbie, Greta Gerwig, Fiona Shaw and now Jamie Lee Curtis – the Sex Education actor remains fairly private, and very rarely gives interviews.
And yet. Glamour sits down with Emma on an autumnal Sunday morning at Claridge's hotel. She's in full glam, including a gorgeous brown leather trench and her hair is cropped into an enviable bob.
We're meeting to talk about Emma's new film Ella McCay, in which she plays a female politician who encounters a public sex scandal – and the gendered double standards that come with that, especially if you work in the public eye – and is underestimated and discriminated against as a woman in a male-dominated workplace as she fights for legislation that will empower women and young children.
She tells me that the fact that the film is set in the world of politics and revolves around a woman's experience in the workplace “adds density to it”, with its poignancy only growing since it was pitched and written due to the growing political unrest in both the UK and the US. “It feels even more relevant now, the timing of it… the way that things are aligning now,” Emma says.
She delved deep into the political world to prepare for playing Ella, recalling “being privy to some meetings and meeting politicians and see how their day is fine-tuned down to the minute”. “I believe in these people and these women, and I see it,” she says. “There's so much negotiation in these jobs. People trying to pass bills and legislation, they're constantly negotiating, constantly. It's always, ‘What can I give you?’”
This year, we've seen Emma star alongside Fiona Shaw in the movie adaptation of Deborah Levy's novel Hot Milk, and now in Ella McCay co-star with Jamie Lee Curtis. “I've learned a lot,” Emma says. “They've got this incredible experience and they're still working and choosing really interesting things and trying different things. And there's a fierceness to them both, I would say.”
Emma formed quite the bond with Jamie, who plays a crucial maternal figure in Ella's life, her aunt Helen. “From the get-go, we were inseparable and it was so great to have her presence throughout," Emma recalls of working with the Freaky Friday and The Bear star. "She's super generous and loves her job, and it's just a great energy to have on set. She bolstered me throughout this whole thing.”
Some of the funniest and most gorgeous scenes in the film are down to the chemistry and comedy between Emma and Jamie. We see Ella's aunt Helen encourage her to scream her rage out, instead of “sitting on it”. Emma tells me that the actual scream itself wasn't initially scripted – Ella was meant to stifle the scream, feeling unable to express her frustration and rage at being “lambasted by life”.
“Boy was it fun," she remembers of ending up filming the screaming scene and unleashing the rage we often don't get to see women express on screen. "It was great, and I have no regrets. It made sense for the story. It was not a gratuitous thing and needed to happen.”
The relationship between the two is the true heart of the film, as Ella encounters disappointing men left, right and centre – including her husband, father and superior at work. All of them underestimate and mistreat her, but Jamie's Helen is an amazing on-screen depiction of female support and solidarity. “Those two women are each other's persons… They just adore each other,” Ella says.
In true Jamie Lee Curtis style, the duo pull off some amazing comedy moments throughout the film, the best being when Helen screams down the road to one of Ella's boyfriends about “using a jonny”. For Emma, the comedy was as important as the larger messages they were trying to convey.
“There's a lot of real-life stuff that happens and all these quite significant checkpoints in this woman's life personally and professionally. But we also had to find levity in all of that and clumsiness and messiness and to inject it with life," she explains. “So where do we get our laughs? Where do we clock our laughs? That was really important to Jim [Brooks, the director] because [the film is] an homage as well to the screwball comedies of the '40s, '50s. And so those kinds of rhythms and that wit and that sharpness were really important to get in.”
At its core, Ella McCay sees a young woman fight for political power and female-first legislation in a world that doesn't want to help her plight. Arguably, not unlike the real world. “So many of the things that she's asking for or fighting for are quite basic human rights,” Emma says. “She's not asking for the moon. That's what's nuts. It shouldn't be this much of a struggle. Healthcare for kids and a good solid education system, good affordable housing. There are things that we should all be fighting for, that everyone should have access to. And unfortunately, it's still something that people have to fight for.”
Without giving too much away, we see Emma's Ella McCay step into her power by the end of the film, navigating the sexism and institutional bias that threatens to hold her down. So what makes Emma herself feel powerful? She tells me that for her, empowerment “it comes in different forms”.
“I think I feel powerful when I show up and work hard, which sounds very goody two-shoes, but I feel powerful when I know what I'm doing and the foundation of the work or whatever the task I have to do is solid and I see the task through, whatever it may be I don't know… Having clarity makes me feel powerful, but it comes in different forms.
“I just like doing a good job and I love my job… I feel powerful when I'm around people I admire.”
Ella McCay is out in cinemas now.
