There was a time when English actor Vanessa Kirby was bullied as a young girl in school, which made her self-conscious, but she chose not to keep any sour memories from the episode. In fact, Kirby actor calls it a “learning experience”.
“Today, when I look back at that whole thing, I think I was very sensitive and vulnerable. And that experience made me get in touch with my emotions in a way that I became an actor so that I can explore those emotions,” she tells us, explaining, “If you’ve been in that place, you can build empathy and use that. For me, (the result is that) I always want to understand other people’s experiences. I think mine was one limited one, and that is why I am intensely interested in understanding a lot of different human experiences.”
From being a girl who was bullied to bringing alive myriad shades of women onscreen, Kirby has come a long way. The 35-year-old has impressed audiences with her role as Princess Margaret in The Crown, and more recently, as the arms dealer Alanna Mitsopolis in Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One.
“I find it hard to access women on-screen who are just one thing — totally strong or very fragile. That’s because we are both all the time, we are strong and vulnerable. I have always been mostly interested in the contradictions or the two sides happening at once. It’s very important for me to try and embody those because I think that’s what men have got to do on screen and it is how I identify as a human experience.”
Stating how her earlier experience reflect in her journey as an actor, she adds, “Everytime I get a script, whether I get that part or not, I get interested in understanding different perspectives. I look for all the different angles, experiencing those emotions help me in my own life.”
Amid all other things, Kirby can’t stop gushing about getting to work with Tom Cruise in the Mission Impossible franchise. “He has an unbelievable confidence and ambition to push the boundaries. He asks everyone who works with him to do that. I remember he would always ask me, ‘How far can you go?’. He gave me a lot of inspiration. I tell him that all the time, I’m immensely grateful to get to be around somebody who believes in the impossible. He has definitely encouraged me to do that in all areas of my life,” wraps up the actor, who has featured in projects such as Great Expectations, Charlie Countryman, About Time, Everest, Kill Command and Me Before You.
