Phoebe Dynevor: Portrait of the artist as a young woman
Britain’s newest rising star, Phoebe Dynevor, has acting in her blood.
When Bridgerton came out of nowhere to become a huge Netflix hit, the series’ unknown leads, Phoebe Dynevor and Rege-Jean Page, were propelled to instant stardom. While Page is in the running to become the next James Bond – “I think he would be great,” admits Dynevor – the 26-year-old British actor has been busy.
Not only has she been filming the second season of Bridgerton, but she is featured in the upcoming British version of the hit French series Call My Agent! Most significantly she is starring in her first feature film, The Colour Room, directed by Australia’s Claire McCarthy (Ophelia).
We meet during Canneseries (Cannes International Series Festival), where quite rightly Dynevor received a rising star award.
“I’ve been acting since I was 14 and waiting for this moment for a long time,” explains the petite yet surprisingly feisty actor. “So I guess I’m taking hold of it in any way I can. I’m very much focused on what I’m doing right now, which is trying to produce and develop and create and star in as many things as possible – until someone gets bored of me and wants to, you know, chuck me out.”
On the red carpet the previous evening she had looked sassy, posing with hand on hip in a stylish pants suit. Today she looks demure, again in Louis Vuitton, for whom she is a brand ambassador.
“It’s a really fun way of expressing myself, but I definitely don’t see myself as a fashion icon,” Dynevor says. “I love working with Louis Vuitton because the way they dress people has such a story to tell. I went to see their show the other day and it was incredible, how they incorporate music and the mood. It really is like watching a performance on stage and I think it can determine how you feel. Wearing a suit yesterday to pick up my award I felt quite powerful and didn’t feel like smiling as much. Today I feel quite girly because I’m in a little dress. So it’s fun exploring different ways of dressing. It brings out a certain emotion in you and as an actor that’s fun to do.”
Of course, her acting talent didn’t come out of nowhere, as she hails from a showbiz dynasty. Her mum, Sally Dynevor, has played Sally Webster on Coronation Street since 1986, her dad became a screenwriter on Emmerdale after starting out as an actor, while her paternal grandparents worked in theatre and television and her maternal grandmother paints sets.
“I was destined to act in a way as I was surrounded by it and it was all I knew,” she says. “Even my parents’ friends were in the industry and hearing tales of being on set and in the theatre is very seductive. I just wanted to be involved in any way I could.”
How did she go about achieving that? “I pestered my parents for a very long time asking how I could make it happen. My first audition was an open call for The Golden Compass, when I was 11,” she recalls of the production starring Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig. She didn’t get the part. Her first job was on the series Waterloo Road over two seasons.
“By then my parents were very aware that there was no stopping me, which I think was very concerning for them. In a way it really helped that they didn’t want me to do it. They said that it’s really difficult as there’s so much rejection. So I definitely didn’t have a romanticised idea of it.
“It was more like, if you want to do it, you’ve got to really work hard.”
She went on to appear in an array of series, Prisoners Wives, Dickensian, The Village Snatch and Younger before Bridgerton came along.
Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised by Bridgerton’s success since the series, based on the best-selling novels by Julia Quinn, is the brainchild of super producer Grey’s Anatomy’s Shonda Rhimes.
In the first season, set in Regency era London in 1813, Dynevor’s Daphne, the eldest daughter in the powerful Bridgerton family, had a raunchy romance with Page’s Duke of Hastings, Simon Basset, whom she ultimately married and they had a son. In the second season, the British-Zimbab-wean Page has departed and the story focuses on Daphne’s big brother and family head, Viscount Anthony Bridgerton, played by Jonathan Bailey. Daphne helps her brother navigate the upcoming social season.
“What’s really fascinating about being involved in a show like Bridgerton is that you never know what people are going to love,” admits Dynevor. “The series of books is about the Bridgerton siblings falling in love. I suppose for the viewers who don’t read the books, it’s really heartbreaking that the Duke has left. Now they will see Johnny Bailey take on his role with Simone Ashley (the Sex Education star is of Indian heritage) playing the new love interest, Kate Sharma. For me watching it from an audience perspective it’s just as beautiful and just as romantic and just as heart wrenching. But in a different way. I think as soon as people watch the show, they’ll understand what it is.”
Dynevor explains how she’s been “best friends” with Bailey on the series since the first season. “We’re each other’s go-to-person in the chaos of all of this. From day one Johnny’s been my rock.”
How does he feel about being the series’ new focus? “I think he’s excited. He’s working very hard and he’s absolutely brilliant. I can’t wait for people to see him, because he is truly a phenomenal actor. People are going to fall in love with him so much in this season.”
Achieving fame has not been without its difficulties, nor has been working during Covid, Dynevor notes.
“This year it’s not only been about navigating coming back out into the world and the anxieties of that, but also the anxieties of being seen as someone people know. It’s been a learning curve, for sure. But I’m very lucky to have a great family and friends and all the support I could ask for.”
She was particularly the focus of the paparazzi’s attention when she dated Saturday Night Live star Pete Davidson for five months this year. When I ask how she feels about the paparazzi’s attention on her love life, she responds bluntly, “They suck. The problem is you don’t see them. So they could be there any moment and you could be picking your nose or I don’t know what. And suddenly you see photos that you aren’t particularly happy with. I really love fans coming over because they’re usually young women or young girls and they’re very excited. And that makes me really happy to meet them. But the paparazzi, I personally think they should be illegal.”
A feminist at heart, Dynevor embraced the challenge of playing groundbreaking potter Clarice Cliff in the British film The Colour Room which is based on the life of the 1920s and ’30s artist who is credited with revolutionising the workplace for women.
“My mum comes from a very northern working-class background in Oldham in Manchester and this is a story of a potter in a northern milieu, very much in a man’s world. I find it fascinating that Clarice went from being a working-class potter who had to work her way up, learn the skills and then somehow managed to make her own factory and hire her own women and start her own line and become successful. If you don’t know her name, you know her work. It was such a contrast to playing Daphne, who in many ways is the complete opposite as she has so much privilege and is very self-aware. There’s no vanity with Clarice, she just has an eye for detail and it was a story that I wanted to tell.”
Dynevor says it was wonderful working with McCarthy and the film’s producer Georgie Paget. “Everyone involved was a woman. Making a female-centric film like that was a joy and a thrill for me in many ways.” London-based New Zealand actor Kerry Fox plays her mum. “Kerry’s amazing. She’s playing a widowed mother and in those days it was just about getting the job done. She’s a single mother so was asking ‘Why are you trying to do all these jobs?’ It just didn’t make any sense to her. The fascinating thing about pottery is that there are so many different skills, from moulding to painting, that these women learnt their whole lives, and that’s all they did. In order to learn more Clarice would constantly be swapping jobs, while her mother could barely feed her kids. That was a shocking thing for her mother, so it’s an interesting relationship.”
After doing so much television Dynevor was excited to move into feature filmmaking though was surprised by how different it was. “You have the three acts, the beginning, middle and end, so as an actor, you see where your journey is on the page. But with Bridgerton we had the first six scripts and then we didn’t have the last two, so you didn’t know where your character ended up. It was lovely to know where the journey went. The shorter time period of filming is quite nice as well.”
When she returned to television for the British remake of Call My Agent! she was a featured player in one episode.
“I was a huge fan of the French version, so I loved doing that. The directors found a good balance where it’s a fun, heightened version of myself. Luckily, she’s not a bitch or anything. You know, I’m not a diva,” she chuckles.
Dynevor also uses her fame to advance social causes. She is an ambassador for the charity ActionAid, which helps vulnerable women across the world. “I’m really passionate about that and I’ve actually been involved with them since I was very young. It’s an honour to have a platform where I can spread awareness. If you have a platform you may as well use it for some sort of good as opposed to just posting selfies.”
After a stint in Los Angeles she currently lives in London. “I came back for the second season of Bridgerton and I’m so happy to be back. London is my place for sure. I won’t be leaving anytime soon.”
That doesn’t rule out working in Australia. “I’ve never been to Australia and I’d love to go. I’d love to shoot something in Australia.”
She’s about to star in a Sony film, I Heart Murder, directed by Matt Spicer (Ingrid Goes West).
“It’s a thriller and I’m playing the female lead and I’m really excited about that. I just want to connect with scripts and stories, whether that’s in Hollywood or Britain, or wherever. If there’s a character that I feel like I want to play, I’ll do it.”
I mention how Anya Taylor-Joy is about to get down and dirty in the Mad Max prequel Furiosa, set to shoot in Australia. Could she play a rough and tumble girl like that?
“Oh yeah, oh my God, there’s not really much I wouldn’t want to do at this stage,” she responds emphatically. “I’m ready to tick all the boxes. I want to keep making choices that are very different from the last, so I’m looking forward to shocking people and making different movies and playing different roles.”
After starring in two period dramas is she keen to do something contemporary?
“Yes, that would be nice. I also think there’s something to be said for not boxing everything into being just a period drama, because they are very different periods and very different roles.
“But yes, I’m ready to play a more modern character that isn’t myself, that isn’t Phoebe Dynevor.”
The Colour Room featured at the Red Sea International Film Festival and will screen in Australia in 2022.
