She says:
“There is a
real beauty
to the liberal
nature of
independent
filmmaking,
especially
experiencing
that as a
woman”
Saturdays at an improvisation workshop hosted by
the Young Blood Theatre Company at the Riverside
Studios in Hammersmith, west London. And she
found herself entranced.
Blessed with doe-eyed, sensual good looks and
long blonde tresses, Poots had what it takes to strike
out on a new course. With her passion for acting
stirred by the Youngbloods of Riverside, she got her
first break in the hit British TV drama Casualty before
making the leap into feature films with the (nonspeaking) role of young Valerie in V for Vendetta.
And the rest, as they say, is history.
Imogen Poots is fast becoming the go-to player
who directors can rely on to slough into any role. And
the Brit actress is gaining a reputation for her ability
to portray a gamut of characters.
Since her nomination for ‘Most Promising
Newcomer’ at the British Independent Film Awards
(BIFA) in 2007 for a breakthrough performance in
the passable zombie-thriller 28 Weeks Later, Imogen
Poots has gone from strength to strength.
Now, nearly a decade later, how is it that this
promising young British actress still appears to be
relatively unknown? It’s certainly not down to any
fault in her ability, as demonstrated by her sublime
turns in a number of well-respected recent titles.
The disorientating and surrealist black-comedy
adaptation of Irvine Welsh’s novel Filth may not be
everyone’s cup of tea. But playing the straight-laced
female cop opposite the brash, self-destructive James
McAvoy, Imogen Poots brings conviviality to a bleak
and desperate world.
She grounds the film in reality before it flies off
into obscurity beyond all comprehension, which is
perhaps a more difficult task than is often given credit
for. Being the sole voice of normality when all things
around you are melting into a cacophony of chaos, it
would have been easy for Poots to have stood out like
the proverbial sore thumb.
Or, take a look at her well-to-do English girl in a
debauched, drug-addled part of Edinburgh, if you ’d
40
prefer. She effortlessly glides into character with such
subtlety and deftness that connects with her fellow
characters that it’s impossible to dislike her, no matter
that sympathies are forcibly deflected elsewhere
during the hour-and-half shock-a-minute run time.
Sexy, warped, wild, Filth’s got it all.
Imogen Poots was born on June 3, 1989, in
Hammersmith, West London, the daughter of
Trevor Poots a Northern Ireland-born television
producer and Fiona Goodall, a journalist and
voluntary worker from Bolton. She has an older
brother, Alex, who is a model.
Raised in Chiswick, Poots was privately educated,
attending Bute House Prep School for Girls in Brook
Green, and Queen’s Gate school South Kensington,
She had intended to be a veterinarian before that
incident with the surgeon’s knife.
This led to her breakthrough role in 28 Weeks
Later as Tammy, the daughter of a plague outbreak
survivor who attempts to assist in the repopulation of
London after it has been declared infection free.
Since then, Imogen has been involved in a huge
variety of films with a number of big names. She
stared as Allyson in A Solitary Man opposite Michael
Douglas, Susan Sarandon and Danny Devito. She
starred alongside Michael Fassbinder in Centurion
and again in the period drama Jane Eyre, which also
starred Mia Wasikowska.
Although never formally trained as an actress,
Poots has developed an innate sympathy for the
dramatic method as evidenced by wide variety of roles
she has brought to life with what critics have called a
“compellingly natural” love affair with the camera.
And as well making increasing appearances on the
big silver screen Poots continues to lend her talents
to the small screen with movies such as Miss Austen
Regrets and Christopher and His Kind along with
multiple guest-appearances on the television show
Bouquet of Barbed Wire.
In 2012, Poots played the acrimonious young
violinist Alexandra Gelbart in A Late Quartet