HOLLYWOOD
CALLING
Natalie Anglesey chats with Olivia Cooke about her meteoric rise from a theatre workshop in Oldham to the set of Vanity Fair and living in New York
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hat takes a young girl from Oldham to Hollywood within a brief period of six years? Olivia Cooke’s meteoric rise, from Oldham Theatre Workshop, to star in Steven Spielberg’s latest film, Ready Player One, released earlier this year, seems itself the stuff of movies. Although her home is now in New York, twenty-five-year-old Olivia hasn’t entirely abandoned us. This autumn, we’ll see her star in the coveted role of the literary vixen, Becky Sharpe, in ITV’s sumptuous production of Vanity Fair. “When I first heard I’d got the role, I felt an overwhelming sense of grateful excitement I’d got the job. But then I thought they have cast the wrong person,” Olivia confessed at the London launch. “Everyone has their impression of Becky Sharpe in their head so, after the joy of getting the role, I felt an impending sense of dread at having to play her”. I’ve been fortunate to see the first two episodes, and Olivia’s performance on screen is excellent. Born and raised in Oldham, her parents divorced when she was a child and she and her younger sister, Eleanor, lived with their mother, Lindsy. Olivia loved ballet and gymnastics and started acting when she was eight years old at the famous Oldham Theatre Workshop. At 14, she secured her first local talent agent who placed her in a number of commercials. She appeared in One Direction’s “Autumn Term” video, as a student getting a
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piggyback ride from Cheshire’s Harry Styles! Olivia attended Royton and Crompton Secondary School and studied drama at Oldham Sixth Form College. When she was 17, she starred as Maria in the college’s production of West Side Story. Soon after, she landed her first leading role at Oldham Theatre Workshop’s Prom: The Musical. She left college just before taking her ‘A’ Levels when casting director, Beverley Keogh, got her roles in two BBC miniseries, Blackout and The Secret of Crickley Hall.Both proved pivotal roles in Olivia’s career and eventually led to her leaving Oldham. “ I’m based in New York now paying flying visits back home. But that’s why it was great filming Vanity Fair because I was based here for six months. My mum, who still lives in Oldham, came down to see me in London for weekends. I couldn’t go back to Oldham because work on Vanity Fair was pretty full on. And you know what it’s like, wherever you are from, once you go back to your mum’s house for two days, you feel like a fifteen-year-old again!” In 2012, still with no formal training, Olivia was cast in the film, The Quiet Ones and acquired an agent in Los Angeles. She played Emma, one of the leads, in the contemporary Psycho prequel Bates Motel. Her second feature film, The Signal, with Laurence Fishburne, opened at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival. That same year she led the cast of Ouija, horror film which proved a box-office success in spite of being panned by the critics.
RIGHT: OLIVIA COOKE AS BECKY SHARPE
