Defined Magazine

Emma Laird The New Face Of Cinema

17 May, 2026

Photos Rachell Smith
Styling Annie Hertikova
Words Defined Team

Right now, Emma Laird is in the middle of a major moment. Fresh off the release of the BBC’s MINT — where she delivers one of her most emotionally exposed performances to date — the actress is entering a new chapter that feels bigger, darker, and impossible to pin down. The Louis Vuitton favourite, who first emerged through modelling before quietly becoming one of the most compelling young actresses working right now, has built a career on instinct rather than image. Laird speaks openly and approaches acting with the same honesty that makes her performances so compelling.

Her upcoming slate only confirms her range. There’s The Housekeeper alongside Helena Bonham Carter and Anthony Hopkins, Blood on Snow with Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Eva Green, and Neuromancer opposite Callum Turner — projects that move effortlessly between psychological drama, noir, and sci-fi. But what makes Laird so magnetic isn’t just the calibre of names around her. It’s the sense that she’s still figuring it all out in real time, trusting instinct over polish and vulnerability over performance. Ahead of her DEFINED Magazine cover shoot, she talks about imposter syndrome, movie stars, protecting the mystery of her process, and the piece of advice from Callum Turner that completely changed the way she works.

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Before stepping into the role of Shannon in MINT, how did you first perceive her?

I think if you sit with a character long enough, stuff just keeps coming. I never feel like I have enough prep time. There’s never a day where I’m like, ‘Yep, I’m ready to shoot.’ It’s always evolving. You have an instinctive reaction to reading a script for the first time, or at least I do. I have a very instinctive perception of someone when I read the script. For Shannon, it was that she was really young. I sort of thought I wouldn’t be able to play her because she read so young and naive and innocent and rebellious, and all of those things were pretty clear to me.

And did that evolve once filming began?

Of course it evolved, and the scripts changed quite a lot. With Charlotte, there were a lot of drafts and rewrites, and she was super communicative and open to hearing my thoughts, which is sometimes rare. But the essence of Shannon was always the same from that first draft. Then you get to set, and you can do all the prep you want, but that’s when you really figure out who the character is because you’re actually living it then — you’re not just thinking about it. My first few days on set are always a bit like, ‘I’ve got no idea what I’m doing.’ Then it clicks and you think, ‘Yeah, okay, cool. I’m doing something right.’

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What kind of research or preparation did you undertake to fully understand her world?

We’re in an age where people just want to know about the actor and what they do. Culturally, it’s celebrity culture, which is fine — I don’t resent that — but I don’t ever want to hear about an actor’s prep. I hate seeing interviews where it’s like, ‘Anthony Hopkins reads the script 200 times,’ because then I’m like, ‘Oh, should I read the script 200 times?’

The way that I work is so deeply personal and embarrassing and all those things that I prefer not to say too much. Also, for the sake of the audience, I think there’s a magic to not knowing, to not seeing beneath the veil. I want someone to watch it and experience it in their own way and perceive it in their own way. I think sometimes explaining too much can ruin it. I don’t even like to tell a director too much about what I’m thinking or feeling because on paper it could sound wrong for the scene, but on screen it works. I work with my coaches, and my scripts are always battered. They’ve lived lives. I keep all my scripts and they’re all scribbled on with coffee stains and rips, and I glue the pages back together. I’m constantly doodling and making notes and scribbling things out and writing personal things, and I don’t let anyone see my scripts. So yeah, my prep is something that I prefer to keep private for the sake of everyone watching. I do remember going to set and Laura Fraser, who plays my mum, saying to me, ‘Oh my gosh, I love the way Shannon walks.’ And I was like, ‘Oh yeah, Shannon walks differently to me.’ That was something I didn’t plan. If you sit with the work long enough, you start to inhabit it and things just appear. Sometimes it’s not always a conscious sit-down process. Sometimes it forms itself, which is cool.

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Do you see Shannon’s romantic connection as genuine, or more as a form of escape?

Her romantic connection with Aaron is so genuine. She doesn’t want to escape her world, while Aaron is in the same world and he wants to escape. She doesn’t see the problem with it. That’s where there’s this interesting tension. Aaron teaches her a lot and opens her eyes to a wider world, but she’s quite sheltered. She’s daddy’s princess. She doesn’t want to leave. She’s so happy there. When you’re growing up, your parents are your world, and it’s only when you’re an adult that you’re able to look back and see all the things your parents did wrong or what you’d do differently. But Shannon’s not there yet. She still lives at home with her parents. She’s so sheltered that, to her, her parents can do no wrong.

I suppose meeting Aaron unravels that a bit, and maybe through the romance she takes her first steps into adulthood. But yeah, the romantic connection is 100% genuine. I think she fully believes she’s in love.

You’ve spoken before about loving collaborations with women directors, including Charlotte Regan on MINT and Nia DaCosta on The Bone Temple. How does that dynamic differ from working with male directors?

I’m not sure it necessarily affects my performance. I don’t prefer working with women, and I don’t necessarily feel more comfortable working with women. Maybe there’s a vulnerability that I can access, or I feel like I can do more embarrassing work on screen — vulnerable and weird work — because maybe there’s more comfortability there. But I’m at a place in my career now where I feel pretty confident, and I do the work before I get to set. I can show up to set and stand my ground and work with difficult people now. Hopefully I don’t ever have to do that, but I feel like I’m a confident actor now. Maybe a couple of years ago I would have preferred working with female directors because I’d have felt more comfortable. But now I just love working with talented people. That said, I’ve had great experiences, and it was really fucking cool to see Nia step into Danny Boyle’s shoes and run a massive set and make it her own and have very strong opinions. I love learning from those women. They set an example for me. I’m a girls’ girl. I just like seeing women do well, especially in directorial positions.

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You have several exciting projects coming up, including The Housekeeper, Blood on Snow, and Neuromancer. What has it been like working alongside such icons?

Love that word, icons. You know, probably one of the most exciting moments of my career was meeting Helena Bonham Carter. There’s very few people in the industry that I really care about in that way. It’s not celebrity that I’m interested in as much as I admire people’s work, but Helena, to me, growing up, was someone that I saw a lot in the films that I loved. I gravitated towards what Helena did on screen. It was so loud and brave and big and fun and exciting to watch.

I was terrified to meet her because I thought, ‘Oh my God, this is just going to be tough. She’s going to be horrible. She’s not going to be nice to me and it’s going to ruin everything.’ And she was just a dream. These are the moments in my career where I’m just so grateful because that meant a lot to me. To work with her was really a bucket list moment.

And Hopkins — I’m not as familiar with Anthony Hopkins’ work as I am with Helena Bonham Carter’s, but I was very aware that I was working with an icon and a legend and someone that had immense respect within the industry. I went onto that set thinking, ‘I should learn as much as I possibly can. I should spend as much time with this guy without annoying him.’ He would tell me stories and I would just listen and try not to talk. But it was weird because I didn’t idolise Hopkins in that same way, so I was able to go in as Emma Laird and as the actor that I am, and meet him on that level and talk about the scene as equals, which was really nice. It felt like I really acted with him. But there were moments where he did stuff in front of me where I was like, ‘Whoa, that’s crazy.’ That’s another level of acting that I’ve not experienced in a co-star before. Working with someone of that calibre was really mind-blowing. I was genuinely like, ‘How did he do that?’

I learned a lot from Callum Turner as well, and Aaron Taylor-Johnson. Those two — and Jack O’Connell, actually — are forever some of my favourite co-stars that I’ve worked with. Callum Turner is a movie star. The way that he shows up to set, the way that he holds himself, the way that he speaks on set — he’s kind and all that good stuff, nothing negative — but it’s the confidence, the talent, the humour, the way that he controls his performance, the way he doesn’t apologise. There’s so much about Callum Turner that I really admire, and I took so much from working with him in the short space of time that I did. I could speak about all these people forever because I feel really lucky. I’m in a place in my career where I’m not jaded. I really am loving going to work at the minute, and I think that allows me to look around and appreciate the people that I’m working with and learn from them if I can, and just enjoy the experience that I’m having with them. So I’m just really grateful.

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Neuromancer feels like a completely different world. What excited you about stepping into that universe?

Probably just going to Japan, honestly. Maybe I can give you a short answer — I got to go to Japan, and that was really fun. Also, I’d never done that genre before. I’m all about trying to have the most diverse IMDb page going, so I was like, ‘You know what I’ve not done? Sci-fi. Let’s tick that off the list.’ I just want to experience all the things I can as an actor.

With Blood on Snow, did working with such distinctive performers shift your own performance in any way?

I didn’t have scenes with Eva Green, but Blood on Snow felt like a big deal for me. I didn’t feel like I deserved to be on that set. I was number two on the call sheet, and Aaron is, again, a movie star and a big presence. You can easily feel small if you don’t feel like you deserve to be there. I had a difficult time trying to stand my ground and have the confidence to do really great work. But I think I’m proud because there were a lot of growing pains on that set, and I’m super proud of the actor that I am because of Blood on Snow.

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What’s the most valuable advice you’ve ever received — either about acting or life?

I have a really shit memory, so I don’t know if anyone’s ever said anything that profound to me. I get advice from my friends every day about life, but nothing philosophical. Actors don’t really give actors advice unless you ask for it because it maybe feels like a boundary. But Callum Turner did tell me to never apologise on set because I apologised mid-scene once and he looked at me and said, ‘Don’t apologise.’ That really changed everything for me. It made me so much more confident as an actor. Maybe someone else had told him the same thing because he’s so unapologetic in the way he is on set. He has so much control. If he fucks up, he’s just like, ‘Let me do that three more times.’ That advice — not apologising on set — allowed me to step into myself more confidently.

What was your first true love?

The outdoors. I grew up in the Peak District, and my fondest memories and the thing that shaped me the most was being outside and camping. I was a cadet. I was a military kid. I loved going on expeditions and taking a little stove and making my noodles and following a compass and map and waking up to birds and sunshine. Being outdoors was definitely my first love. It’s where I feel most deeply connected. It’s the thing that makes me happiest now.

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What does your perfect day look like?

I’d be in nature somewhere. A good coffee. I love getting ready in the morning — putting music on and doing my hair and makeup. I love a swim. I love a cold dip. Ideally by a lake with nobody around. Maybe one person that you love with you, but I’m happy on my own too. You’re waking up and there’s wet grass and it’s all dewy and there’s a light breeze and it’s just tranquil. That’s what I love the most. Just lounging around, reading a good book, eating good food, having a good hike, feeling your legs aching at the end of the day. I could talk about this all day.

Can you describe yourself in three words?

I don’t want to reduce myself down to three words. I think that’s pretty tough. I’ll just start thinking about myself too much, and I do that enough as it is.

What’s something people would be surprised to learn about you?

I think people know too much about me already. I got diagnosed with ADHD last year — or the year before — and the doctor was like, ‘You have severe ADHD,’ which means I talk a lot and start a lot of different conversations at the same time. I tell people far too much and I’m very honest, so I don’t think anyone would really be surprised to learn that much about me. Actually, do you know what? I wanted to be a WWE wrestler when I was a kid.

One thing you always carry with you?

Sunglasses, because I’ve got really light eyes and my eyes hurt on sunny days.

MINT is streaming now on BBC iPlayer