Mickey 17 actor Jamila Wingett: ‘There’s a special vibe in Hackney’

Within minutes of speaking with Jamila Wingett, her pride for Hackney is clear.

The actor – fresh from an appearance in dystopian satire Mickey 17 – reflects on her childhood in the borough with the kind of wistful affection usually reserved for a first love.

“Every time I go back to Hackney, I just love it,” she enthuses. “There’s a really special vibe which you just don’t get anywhere else.”

Wingett’s roots in the borough run deep.

Born in Dalston “when it was really rough” – so rough, in fact, that her grandmother reportedly cried when her parents first bought their house there – she moved to Stamford Hill aged eight, where she remained until recently.

Despite having temporarily relocated to Camden, she still feels Hackney’s strong eastward pull. She’s returning to Dalston this summer and “cannot wait”.

“I’ve been joking a lot with my parents saying, ‘Why is there not a health shop on every corner [in Camden]? Why is there not an array of brunch places?’” she laughs.

While Wingett remains firmly planted in East London, her career has recently propelled her to more distant worlds.

Her role in Mickey 17 saw her work with one of cinema’s most celebrated directors, Bong Joon-ho.

Though it was filmed nearly three years ago, Mickey 17 feels eerily prescient today.

Amidst environmental catastrophe on Earth, business leaders promote the colonisation of a faraway planet as a solution for the human race’s imminent extinction.

The figurehead of this interplanetary mission is a smarmy, dim-witted demagogue – an antagonist portrayed by Mark Ruffalo with a New York drawl oddly evocative of a certain political leader from across the pond. His supporters don red baseball caps and echo his fascistic slogans with robotic fervour.

“When I first read my scene, it was very out of context,” Wingett explains. “But then seeing the whole film come together—it really speaks to the moment we’re in.”

The opportunity to collaborate with Bong was a formative experience.

“He’s a brilliant director – hilarious and an absolute creative powerhouse,” Wingett recounts with genuine warmth. “And it was incredible to be privy to his process. He is just so supportive.”

Being part of a family steeped in the creative arts – “parents, aunties, brother, everyone’s very artistically gifted in their own way” – Wingett was drawn to acting from an early age.

“I love the freedom of creativity and where it can take you,” she explains. “When you face those moments of connection with the text, character or a fellow actor – there is nothing like it.”

Her earliest role? Mary in her nursery’s nativity play.

“A starring role,” she insists with a laugh. “The female lead.”

This was shortly followed by a role aged seven in a BBC drama, Down to Earth, with Pauline Quirke.

Despite choosing a more conventional academic route for her secondary education, it was not until her mid-20s, stuck in a joyless job in production, that Wingett committed to pursuing acting professionally.

“I think sometimes being in a place that you’re not necessarily very happy is kind of a blessing,” she reflects. “I was at a crossroads before deciding that [acting] is my dream, this is my love and this is what I want to pursue.”

This soul-searching led to a serendipitous encounter.

After taking acting classes (a secret she guarded from her family at first) and travelling to America to reassess her priorities in life, Wingett found herself in an Uber in Los Angeles chatting with a fellow Londoner who urged her to put herself forward for the Identity School of Acting.

Upon returning to the UK, she applied, auditioned and was promptly accepted into the school. Shortly thereafter, she discovered that her classmate at the school was a friend of the very same stranger from the taxi.

“That’s when I knew the stars were aligned,” she grins.

After winning the Actress of the Year Award at Identity, Wingett decided to do drama full-time and take a master’s degree at Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts.

Nearly a decade into her career, Wingett discusses the difficulties she has faced with refreshing candour.

“The main [challenge] is just the rejection,” she admits. “I don’t really like to call it that. I think as I’ve grown in my career, you realise that it’s not personal. It’s just a part of the job, the highs and the lows.”

This mature perspective was hard-won.

“No-one can prepare you for the industry,” she explains, recalling how her drama school devoted its final week to mental health talks that initially seemed superfluous but quickly proved vital.

“You’re out [of school] for six months, and you’re like, ‘Where are those pamphlets again?'”

Having weathered those early challenges, Wingett now finds herself drawn to projects that allow her to fully express her creative range.

“I would love to do more action, and also more supernatural. But I also love drama. I just enjoy all of it – it’s all so fun!”

She has nonetheless found herself drawn to portraying a certain type of character – roles that “stretch the imagination”, supernatural women, ancient snake goddesses, and “high-octane” action films that demand “a lot of running through the woods”.

“Mysterious, sexy, a bit weird,” she chuckles. “Not from this world.”

Alongside her acting career, Wingett has carved out a parallel path as an intimacy coordinator – a role that emerged from her drama school amid the sea-change of the #MeToo movement in 2018.

“The lead facilitator of the [intimacy coordination] movement in this country was my teacher, who was developing the method and shared an introductory workshop with us,” she explains.

This training proved unexpectedly valuable on a low-budget indie film featuring “edgy scenes” where she offered support.

Having completed a series of recognised courses, she now boasts five years of experience as an intimacy coordinator on several high-profile productions.

Over this time, she has witnessed tangible changes in the industry’s attitudes towards on-set boundaries.

“Everyone is so aware now. I think cancel culture is so prevalent that no-one wants to be cancelled, so everyone is very, very respectful.”

But she occasionally observes traces of “a hangover of what the industry was like pre-#MeToo”.

For Wingett, this dual career has offered a rewarding opportunity to give back to others in her industry: “It’s nice to use my skills as an actor in a different way, and hold space and advocate for others.”

As for the future, her ambitions are clear.

“I see things heading in a very positive direction,” she predicts with quiet self-assuredness. “I see things moving into a place of freedom and joy and expression.”

With Mickey 17 setting the standard, she’s eager to participate in similarly grand-scale projects.

“This is definitely the level I would like to continue working at,” she says.

Her parting advice to aspiring actors is straightforward, distilling ten years of experience into three pithy nuggets of wisdom.

“Trust yourself, be bold, and never forget where you came from!”

Mickey 17 is showing at cinemas across the UK.