Naomi Ackie's eyes sparkle as she talks about the power of her body. She flexes her biceps and growls, laughing at the absurdity of it all. It's a far
Naomi Ackie’s eyes sparkle as she talks about the power of her body. She flexes her biceps and growls, laughing at the absurdity of it all. It’s a far cry from the Naomi Ackie who once did exercises solely to try to be skinny. Now, she’s discovering the mental and emotional release that comes with physical strength. “I feel like I’ve got a lot of energy rolling around in my body,” she says. “I observe a lot, and I see a lot, and I feel a lot. I don’t say everything, so I have to get it out somewhere.”
Ackie’s journey to self-discovery began when she played Whitney Houston in the 2022 biopic I Wanna Dance With Somebody. The role pushed her to the edge, forcing her to confront her own limitations and the pressure to conform to societal expectations. “I was away from home, isolated in Boston for like seven months, and hungry – I lost about 30lb to get to the shape of Whitney,” she recalls. “And, I was playing a real person who everyone loved: it scared me.”
In the six-month break between playing Houston and her next film, Blink Twice, Ackie found the gym and discovered the inextricable link between her body and mind. Her turn as Houston saw her nominated for the EE Rising Star award at the 2023 Baftas, but it also took something from her. “It got me to such a rockbottom that it was a wake-up call. A job cannot mean so much that it steals my life’s joy. I was like, we’re gonna need to fix some priorities.”
There’s little trace of that exhaustion today in the woman sitting across from me in a Notting Hill café, surrounded by shopping bags. “I look like such a fancy lady, but,” she says, “it’s not true!” Those bags, she insists, are for work purposes. Ackie, wearing all black, looks vibrant. She says she’s in “soft-life mode” now. Still, she wants to talk about anger.
“Even when I was little I wanted to play characters that were big, large, and like – aaaarggghhhh!” she screams, words doing no justice to the visceral thing straight from that gut that she wanted to portray. In The End of the F***ing World she plays a woman avenging her (serial rapist) lover’s death, Whitney Houston’s complicated life ended in an overdose in a bathtub, and Blink Twice leaves her drenched in blood. “We’re so conditioned to be well behaved, men and women – everyone is – but there is something very unique about being a woman and not even being able to recognise what anger is and how to channel it in a productive way. And I’m not talking about being productive so everyone gets along,” she clarifies, stabbing the halloumi on her plate. “I’m talking about being productive in a way that someone knows the effect they’ve had on you, and you’re giving them their shit back. It’s only as I’ve gotten older I’ve realised anger isn’t a bad thing. Anger is super, super useful. It’s a motivator. It’s a moving energy. It’s an action energy.”
Blink Twice is, certainly, a film about anger. It’s also a satirical thriller about misogyny, manipulation, abuse, and revenge. Ackie plays a cocktail waitress who becomes infatuated with a billionaire tech mogul, and takes him up on his offer to join him and his friends at his private island for a party. Its working title was Pussy Island, to set the tone. On this tropical idyll – so Eden-like a snake enables its women to learn the truth – they are all dressed alike in virginal white dresses when they sense something is wrong, that maybe they’re not having a great time after all, and are just pretending to be fine.
I tell Ackie about the security guard. When I saw the film a couple of weeks ago, it was just me and him in the screening room – a nice middle-aged man whose job it was to make sure I didn’t turn my phone back on and record something. When the film ended, he turned to me and said he didn’t get it. Ackie cackles. “EXACTLY. Isn’t that divide interesting?” Watched a certain way, it could seem like what happens in the film comes from nowhere. But tune in to the experiences all around you: women are close to boiling point already.
Ackie was born in Camden, but moved to Walthamstow when she was five. Growing up with parents who had “real” jobs – her father works for Transport for London, her mother in the NHS – Ackie had no links to the film industry when she decided to be in it. “I was 11 and I said, ‘I want to be an actor.’ My parents were like: ‘Wow, leftfield. Nay!’ It really was like a lightning strike. I just went: that’s what I’m gonna do.”
Ackie’s mother wanted her to take it seriously. “When I was younger, I was more attached to the idea of being famous,” she admits. “I wanted to be the best actor so I could go on a red carpet and do premieres – or be in Harry Potter.” Ackie laughs. “Mum was like, ‘Why would you want to be famous? You should be an actor if you want to act.’ She was very keen that I do it because I love it, that I study it, and that I become a master of a craft, but never aim for being a star for being a star’s sake.”
That reality check for Ackie came at 22, when her mother died – before getting a chance to see any of Ackie’s successes. Her death caused Ackie to “lose” her 20s to a kind of sedated half-life in her grief, which she says she only began emerging from three years ago. “I was still in that kind of optimistic, everyone’s gonna live forever, and everything’s gonna stay the same, you know?” she says. “And as a family, we had dealt with the previous death of my little sister when she was seven months old. In my head, I was like, ‘Well, if one person died in my family, that’s it.’ That was my deal with God. It was a true bargain with the universe.”
“I watched that with my dad,” Ackie continues, “and I said I think it’s got a point. I need to withdraw the safety net.” She moved out of home, and quit all of her side jobs. “I gave myself a year. I was like, if I don’t get a job this year, I’m done. I put up my hands. I accept defeat. I quit. I’m done. I will go back to school.” Though she had previously had roles in Doctor Who and a handful of independent films, none of them had given her the security to move out of her childhood bedroom. Within four months of her self-set ultimatum, Ackie had booked Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker playing Jannah, a renegade Stormtrooper. Soon came starring roles in The End of the F***ing World, Steve McQueen’s Small Axe, and the Aziz Ansari sitcom Master of None.
I ask if catharsis is what she looks for in a role, given she picks so many dark ones. “No,” she replies. “I don’t think a job can or should be therapeutic, and acting is for other people; my job is to tell a story so they can feel it.” Why, then, the pull toward pain and darkness? She thinks for a bit. “There is something cleansing to me about exploring characters who are really in their darkness, because we don’t do it out in the open. It feels more intimate than a happy-go-lucky thing. That’s just not been my life. I haven’t had a happy-go-lucky life, and that’s fine, that’s what’s inside me. It feels real, it feels robust – it feels fucking messy. I think I was so fake-positive when I was a kid,” she says, “that my honesty has stepped into overdrive. I’m like: nothing is fine, ever. Sometimes it’s OK, sometimes. Most of the time, we’re all grappling with some level of deep trauma or pain. When I say I love darkness or morbid things, it’s not because I’m really sad or twisted – it’s because I see the world for what it is.”
Some bargains with the universe do work, it seems. Ackie’s upcoming schedule is impressive. After Blink Twice, there’s Mickey 17, a science-fiction film directed by Parasite’s Bong Joon-ho. Then, a role in the star-studded film adaptation of Richard Osman’s The Thursday Murder Club. But this afternoon, she’ll be back at the gym, harnessing all the power she has. “Underneath all of that insecurity and shame is a gritty, grounded human being who’s super-resilient,” she says. And all of this – the pain, the trauma, the struggle – feeds into her work. “Listen, life will teach. There’s so many things I now understand in a deep way. I have access to the complexity of being a human being that I just did not have when I was 22. You think you have it – you don’t have it. I think I have it, but 40-year-old me is gonna look back on 33-year-old me and be like, ‘Bitch, you ain’t had nothing,'” she grins. “And so on and so forth, until the day I die.”
Conclusion
Naomi Ackie’s journey is one of self-discovery, growth, and empowerment. From her early days as a young actor to her current status as a leading lady in Hollywood, Ackie has faced her share of challenges and setbacks. But through it all, she has remained true to herself and her craft, using her platform to tell stories that resonate with audiences.
FAQs
Q: What inspired you to become an actor?
A: I was 11 years old and I said, "I want to be an actor." My parents were surprised, but they supported me.
Q: How did you get your start in the industry?
A: I began with small roles in independent films and TV shows. I also worked as a barista and did other jobs to make ends meet.
Q: What was it like playing Whitney Houston in I Wanna Dance With Somebody?
A: It was a challenging but rewarding experience. I had to learn how to sing and dance, and I had to immerse myself in Whitney’s world.
Q: What do you look for in a role?
A: I don’t look for catharsis or therapy. I look for a story that resonates with me and allows me to tap into my emotions.
Q: Why do you choose to play characters who are in darkness or pain?
A: I believe that exploring the darkness is a way to find the truth and to connect with others on a deeper level.
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