STILL IN a slight disbelief of what is currently orbiting around her, Emma Appleton is navigating a non-stop schedule of interviews, shoots and red-carpet premieres, and it’s still only Wednesday. “It’s been a week of madness,” exclaims the UK actor who currently occupies that weird, brief middle space between total anonymity and head-turning fame.
Unlike most in her position, her breakthrough trajectory is not based on a single role, but two, the first as Nancy Spungen in Danny Boyle’s much anticipated Pistols, an FX miniseries about the Sex Pistols, and the second as Maggie in the BBC’s adaptation of Dolly Alderton’s award-winning twenty-something memoir, Everything I Know About Love. It just so happens that the projects are coming out at the same time. What’s more, they have the type of juxtaposing duality in nature that every actor tries to express, yet few ever manage to pull off.
Born in Oxfordshire, Appleton grew up in the English countryside transfixed with entertaining her family. “I was always performing as a kid. That’s what I was the happiest doing,” she recalls. “I would put on shows for my parents and force them to watch.
Photographer: Joseph Sinclair
Even if they had dinner parties, I would ensure that everyone saw me do my dance”. It’s evident that her knack for the spotlight came naturally but the ah-ha moment of realisation that it might mean something more occurred during one of her dance lessons. “I remember doing the Wizard of Oz and playing the Scarecrow. That was the first time I did a character and I have a really clear memory of being, like, ‘this is amazing’.”
What came next though wasn’t a straightforward march onto the stage, but rather the occasional role in a school play and then a change of direction into modelling for a few years. However, it didn’t take long before she realised it wasn’t quite what she wanted to do. “I knew I was getting to a point where I needed something more stimulating and creative, but I didn’t know how that was going to come about,” she remembers. “It was only when I got an audition for Dreamlands, a short film I did [in 2016], where it felt like a magnet. I was, like, ‘I have to do this’”
Photographer: Joseph Sinclair
Photographer: Joseph Sinclair
Other film and TV parts followed. Then one day she received an email with the subject line Untitled Danny Boyle Project. “Obviously I was, like, yes and hadn’t even read a thing,” recalls Appleton. It contained some fake scenes, which she self-taped for and sent in hoping to get even a minor role. Months passed and she hadn’t heard anything back.
She’d almost forgotten all about it when her agent called her saying that Boyle was considering her for the role of Nancy Spungen, the girlfriend of Sex Pistols’ bassist Sid Vicious. “That was the first time I knew it was about the Sex Pistols,” she says. “I knew I needed to get [Nancy’s] voice down. She’s got such a specific voice. I watched a video of her on repeat for a whole day just copying it. Then I was, like, I’m going to go full punk for this – which is quite punchy for a Thursday at 10am on Zoom – but I spiked my hair up, did all the make-up and wore a fur jacket. I was just going to commit because I feel like he was the type of director to appreciate that.” And he did. Days later, she was confirmed for the role.
To anyone unfamiliar with the Sex Pistols, the English band are famous for starting the punk movement in the UK in the ‘70s with the help of their manager, Malcolm McLaren, and his partner, the designer Vivienne Westwood. Playing Spungen, Appleton is aware of the notoriety of her character and the sad tale of the couple’s descent into drugs. “I really wanted to see a side of Nancy we hadn’t before. She’s always been quite vilified in popular culture,” asserts Appleton. Wanting to humanise her more, she pored over the book Spungen’s mother wrote to find some truth about the misunderstood young woman.
Photographer: Joseph Sinclair
Photographer: Joseph Sinclair
Reflecting on the project, it was working with Boyle that she pinpoints as the biggest highlight in her career to date. “He’s someone that I’ve admired since I was a teenager,” she enthuses. There’s a particularly memorable moment she recalls during the shoot when her co-stars were on stage performing and Boyle shouts at them to stop. “He was, like, ‘it’s not loud enough, it needs to be louder. The audience needs to feel it’. You could see how visceral and passionate he was about it. They did turn it up and you really did feel it. He wanted us to understand why this gig was so important.”
Playing Maggie, the character based on Alderton herself in Everything I Know About Love, reveals Appleton’s sheer chameleon-like qualities as an actor. “I did the self-tape without really knowing who Dolly was. I wasn’t trying to be her, I just did what was on the page. I think it kind of worked to my advantage.” Once she got the role, she naturally picked up a copy of the bestseller and understood why it had cultivated so much attention. “Within the first few pages I was like ‘Oh my God, this is the most relatable thing I’ve ever read in my life’. It’s like she’s peered into all our minds and gone, yeah, we all feel this.”
Photographer: Joseph Sinclair
Before production of the series began in Manchester, the actor sat down with the writer to explore the inner workings of Maggie over a bottle of wine. “Because I’m so close to the character, the lines were quite blurred, but I think that’s the clever thing about Dolly’s writing. There’s something so pure about it,” says Appleton. “Through Dolly trusting me to bring this character to life, it’s given me more confidence in myself as Emma.”
With a storyline centred around the farrago of experiences, emotions and personal evolution that we all undergo during our twenties, what does Appleton hope people take from the series? “I really want people to know that you do not have to know what you’re doing in your twenties. All these milestones, like you should probably have a mortgage by this age and have a long-term relationship, or whatever, all these milestones we are meant to hit, they don’t mean anything. As long as you’re going at your pace and you’re happy, you are good,” she answers. “Also, knowing that platonic relationships in your life are just as important, if not more than the romantic ones, so put as much time and love into those.”
by Imogen Clark
Pistol is steaming now on FX on Hulu
Everything I Know About Love is available on iPlayer
Photographer: Joseph Sinclair
Stylist: Steph Wilson
Make up: Gina Kane at CAREN using SHISEIDO
Hair: Josh Knight at CAREN using SAM McKNIGHT
Styling Assistant: Roz Donoghue
Makeup Assistant: Sally Bahri
Look 1:
Right wrist, top: Juste un Clou bracelet in 18K yellow gold, Right wrist, bottom: Clash de Cartier bracelet in 18K rose gold, Right hand: Clash de Cartier XL ring in 18K rose gold, Left wrist, top: Clash de Cartier XL bracelet in 18K rose gold, Left wrist, bottom: Juste un Clou bracelet in 18K yellow gold with diamonds, Left hand: Les Berlingots de Cartier ring in 18K yellow gold with onyx, diamond, Top necklace: Clash de Cartier necklace in 18K rose gold, Bottom necklace: Juste un Clou necklace in 18K white gold with diamonds, Double C de Cartier Chain bag in powder pink calfskin with gold and powder pink enamel finish, all CARTIER, Jacket STELLA McCARTNEY, Dress PREEN BY THORNTON BREGAZZI
Look 2: Left wrist, top: Juste un Clou bracelet in 18K yellow gold with diamonds, Left wrist, bottom: Clash de Cartier bracelet in 18K rose gold, Left hand, left ring: Love ring in 18K yellow gold, Left hand, right ring: Love wedding band in 18K yellow gold, Right wrist: Tank Must watch in steel and leather, Right wrist: Juste un Clou bracelet in 18K yellow gold, Right hand: Les Berlingots de Cartier ring in 18K yellow gold with onyx, diamond, Top necklace: Clash de Cartier necklace in 18K rose gold, Bottom necklace: Juste un Clou necklace in 18K white gold with diamonds, all CARTIER Dress PREEN BY THORNTON BREGAZZI
Look 3: Right hand, left ring: Les Berlingots de Cartier ring in 18K yellow gold with onyx, diamond, Right hand, right ring: Clash de Cartier ring in 18K rose gold, Right wrist: Clash de Cartier XL bracelet in 18K rose gold, Left hand, left ring: Clash de Cartier ring in 18K white gold, Left hand, right ring: Clash de Cartier XL ring in 18K rose gold, Left wrist: Clash de Cartier bracelet in 18K rose gold, all CARTIER All clothing DIOR
Look 4: Clash de Cartier single earring in 18K rose gold, Right hand, left ring: Clash de Cartier ring in 18K rose gold, Right hand, right ring: Les Berlingots de Cartier ring in 18K yellow gold with onyx, diamond, Left hand, top ring: Love wedding band in 18K yellow gold, Left hand, bottom ring: Panthère de Cartier ring in 18K yellow gold with onyx and tsavorite, Clash de Cartier bracelet in 18K rose gold, all CARTIER, All clothing MOLLY GODDARD
Look 5: Clash de Cartier single earring in 18K rose gold, Left hand, top ring: Clash de Cartier ring in 18K rose gold, Left hand, bottom ring: Les Berlingots de Cartier ring in 18K yellow gold with onyx, diamond, Right hand, top ring: Love wedding band in 18K yellow gold, Right hand, bottom ring: Panthère de Cartier ring in 18K yellow gold with onyx and tsavorite, Clash de Cartier bracelet in 18K rose gold, Clash de Cartier bracelet in 18K rose gold, Clash de Cartier necklace in 18K rose gold, all CARTIER, Jacket ACNE STUDIOS, Jumper, skirt MOLLY GODDARD
Look 6: Left hand: Les Berlingots de Cartier ring in 18K yellow gold with onyx, diamond, Left wrist: Juste un Clou bracelet in 18K yellow gold with diamonds, Right wrist: Clash de Cartier bracelet in 18K rose gold, Tank Française watch, small model, quartz movement, steel, Double C de Cartier Chain bag in black calfskin with gold and black enamel finish, all CARTER All clothing and hat CHANEL