“Ask me anything unrelated to acting and I’ll love it,” says Emma Laird, laughing. She’s perched in the green room of a cavernous Tottenham studio, clad in a crisp white poplin dress and glossy red loafers. The 27-year-old is technically pre-glam, though she already looks camera-ready in a way that suggests little will change. It’s worlds away from her current feral on-screen incarnation: Jimmima, the blood-spattered, shell-suit-wearing anarchist of the 28 Years Later franchise. Set three decades after the rage virus first tore through London, the latest instalment follows survivors navigating an apocalyptic Britain still clawing at the edges of civilisation. Jimmima moves through this landscape as part of the Jimmys – a violent gang led by the deranged (and Jimmy Savile-adjacent) Sir Jimmy Crystal, played by a ridiculously creepy (and, frankly, hilarious) Jack O’Connell.
Laird has a lot to say about many things: her experience of modelling (“I was ready to say goodbye to it”), growing up in Chesterfield (“a very normal upbringing”), fashion, pets, female directors… On the subject of fashion, especially, she lights up. She loves clothes – Laird is a Louis Vuitton ambassador after all – but doesn’t often know what her vibe is. “I’m having an identity crisis everyday,” she says. “Am I 40-year-old woman today or a 15-year-old skater boy?” To wit: on our second meeting, it’s a “sophisticated” day – a sleek black turtleneck and a tartan skirt – because she’s going for dinner later with her pal, Bill Nighy, to exchange Christmas gifts. “That’s why I’m dressed like a woman, because I’m having dinner with a very well-dressed 76-year-old man,” she explains, chuckling. Nighy is Laird’s “north star”. “He changed my life in unimaginable ways for so many reasons. Advice, book recommendations, anything personal, I can tell him anything,” she says. “Yeah, it’s such a pure, lovely friendship. I love him.”
In The Bone Temple, the second instalment of 28 Years Later directed by Nia DaCosta, Laird’s Jimmima has the mental age of a 13-year-old – a detail that Laird added herself. “That wasn’t there at all actually,” she tells me. “[Jimmima] just had these cat ears on, and that was the only description.” From there, Laird began building a backstory for her. What would it be like to come of age in an apocalypse, with no education, no family, no art, raised in the wild by a psychotic man? “I think she’s quite clearly very mentally unwell,” Laird says. “I think we watch really dark stuff like that and go, ‘Oh my god, how do people get into that headspace?’ But it’s actually quite easy.” The dark stuff in question includes burning people alive and being impaled with a steel hook, which leads to – spoiler alert – Jimmima’s untimely death. “I walked around set for five days with a hook in the back of my head,” Laird recalls.
Production on the film began straight after the first 28 Years Later wrapped. “I think in my mind it would be difficult to take over a franchise from Danny Boyle,” she says of the franchise that started 24 years ago. “For [Nia] to come in and take over, she had such a clear vision of what she wanted. She really made it her own […] I love women. I genuinely love seeing women do well.”
For Laird herself, acting has always been the goal. She began modelling and vlogging on YouTube as a teenager, after being discovered at a music festival. She moved to London, and soon found herself in the fashion capitals. Campaigns, editorials, international travel – on paper, it was a dream. The reality, not so much. Long hours and a lack of safeguarding have left a mark she’s still processing. “I still have a lot of anger about the industry,” she admits, before quickly adding, “But at the same time, I’m incredibly grateful.” Modelling gave her financial independence, the ability to go to acting school in New York, lifelong friendships, and a broader sense of the world. “I wouldn’t be here without it,” she concludes.
That attitude has carried her into a career with credits spanning spoof period dramas (Fackham Hall), science fiction (the hotly-anticipated Neuromancer with Callum Turner, which she recently wrapped), and Oscar winners (The Brutalist). When we meet in December, she’s deep in prep mode for a top-secret role. Rather than staying in her new London flat over Christmas, or going back to the East Midlands, Laird tells me she’ll be spending the festive period alone, walking, reading, and researching the woman she’s about to portray (the likeness is uncanny, by the way). Mostly, she’s ready for some downtime. “It’s so busy all the time,” she says. “I’m so excited to be antisocial for a week and not see anyone!”
Teddy hoodie, viscose trousers, studded leather belt, and shoes, Phoebe Philo. Gold earrings, Tiffany & Co. Photographs by Brett Lloyd. Styling by Jessica Gerardi. Hair: Yumi Nakada-Dingle. Make-Up: Florrie White. Nails: Ami Streets. Tailor: Megan O’Connor. Set Design: Daisy Azis.