Vanessa Kirby’s rise to fame has been pretty astounding.
But like most actors, Kirby has been through quite a lot to get to where she is today.
By the sounds of things, her childhood was a happy and creative one.
From an early age, Kirby was exposed to plenty of films, thanks to her father.
He “always watched loads of films with me,” the actor toldThe Guardian.
“Totally inappropriate ones like ‘Midnight Express’ when I was about 6.”
She and her siblings were also frequently taken to the theater.
“[My father] is totally obsessed with Shakespeare,” Kirby explained toEsquire.
It’s easy to see where Kirby gets her passion and talent from.
It made Kirby feel constantly nauseous.
She summed it up as being “prodded around from age 9 to 11.”
In addition to her long-term treatment, Kirby was also severely bullied at around the same time.
“That was one of my darkest times,” she toldMarie Claire.
Apparently, being bullied led to Kirby becoming extremely self-conscious and sensitive as a child.
She joined after-school drama clubs and became fascinated by the world of acting.
She explained to Esquire, “It was an area where I was totally accepted.
Somewhere I could truly be myself.”
While drama clubs gave Kirby a sense of community, seeing live theater became another passion.
“Whatever that magic is, I started to absorb it.”
I couldn’t stop the thoughts coming.
In the back of mind there was me, going, ‘Huh?’
And the next scene was so amazing to play," she went on.
This early discovery has seen Kirby through most of her career.
“If you think the character’s thoughts, the camera can read it,” she explained.
At all of her auditions, Kirby was told she needed more experience.
She took their advice and set off traveling for nine months before applying to universities.
“I thought, ‘I have to go to uni.
I have to meet tons of people who aren’t actors,'” she remembered.
In an interview with The Last Magazine, Kirby recalled that the university experience was just what she needed.
“I had the most transformative, amazing experience,” she recalled.
When she left, she was more sure than ever that she was determined to become an actor.
However, long before rising to fame, the actor worked in a very different industry.
“I’d be out.
I’d get maybe one hour of sleep,” she confessed.
Despite the challenges of the job, Kirby described working at the bakery as deeply gratifying.
She particularly enjoyed the sense of community that came with greeting customers in the morning.
Of course, baking was never Kirby’s lifelong dream.
Even early on in her career, she longed to be an actor.
That being said, Kirby has considered pursuing a career outside of acting.
“The [entertainment] industry is so transient …
So, yeah, I’ve gone through different phases,” she admitted in the same interview.
At times, she even wondered if a professional contract with actual compensation would ever be on the table.
Luckily, much of Kirby’s doubt evaporated when she finally received a paycheck for an early acting job.
Speaking to Harper’s Bazaar about this transformative experience, Kirby recalled, “Well, I do remember.
It was my first job.
I was doing some plays in the north of England in Bolton in this little theater.
I remember walking at the end of the first week from the theater to my little flat.
And, I opened my first pay slip.
And, you know, it was200 or something for the week.
That moment helped Kirby understand that she actually had a future in the industry.
Since then, her career has skyrocketed.
She turned down the drama school and jumped into the world of professional acting.
So at the beginning I was this wide-eyed, naive, self-critical, nervous, neurotic thing.”
However, she did more than prove herself.
She even ended up winning the BIZA Rising Star Award for her roles in Thacker’s productions.
It seemed as though her career was off to a fantastic start.
Her early stage credits are impressive, to say the least.
It’s evident that, for Kirby, theater is her first love.
As she told Culture Whisper in 2016, the actor read all of Chekhov’s plays as a teenager.
At the time, screen work wasn’t a priority.
“I would be quite happy being on stage forever,” Kirby shared.
She ended up seeing his performance three times and even spotting him on a London bus.
After filming the scene, Kirby confessed her childhood “infatuation” to her co-star.
She laughed, remembering the moment: “Of course, he was with his boyfriend.”
Kirby playedQueen Elizabeth II’s younger sister Princess Margaretin the first two seasons of the Netflix show.
Soon enough, the actor was obsessed.
“I’m fully immersed in her life,” she confessed.
“We’ve even got a picture of Margaret in our loo.”
Not only did the role catapult her to stardom, it also became a personal passion.
“It’s more exciting and fulfilling than any acting job I could ever get,” Kirby gushed.
The experience couldn’t have been further from the upper class, 1950s world of Britain’s royal family.
Kirby’s first big Hollywood role saw her taking on a whole new genre.
As she explained to The Talks, it was a big step out of her comfort zone.
“I come from stage acting, so I had no idea even how to even do that world.
It was really scary and challenging,” Kirby said.
She went on to explain that the film really changed her as an actor.
While the change of pace was tough, for Kirby, it was a welcome challenge.
Luckily, the Netflix alum had a very experienced action hero by her side.
One of Kirby’s projects was developed with the New York director Adam Leon.
By the sounds of things, we can expect to see Kirby developing more female-driven projects in the future.
I really feel that’s my mission, to play a part in bringing that back."
For Vanessa Kirby, finding balance has been an important learning curve as her fame has grown.
WhenGlamourasked her about how she looked after herself, Kirby replied, “Not very well.”
The actor’s method of self-care generally consists of seeing good friends and her sister.
As Kirby explained, many actors have mental health issues linked to their success.
As she told Glamour, “It’s so hard to not have self-doubt.”
“It’s my main aim to quieten [the self-critical voice],” she revealed.
As she toldGlamour, after being bullied, the self-critic was ever-present in her life.
For Vanessa Kirby, the lockdown forced her to pause her busy schedule and take some time off work.
Moreover, Kirby ended up enjoying the new sense of routine and structure.
As she put it, “It’s soothing, isn’t it?
I think it’s what human beings actually need.”
In that sense, it also represents an important moment in her personal and professional transformation.
I think I came in quite strong at the beginning."
“They said, ‘Try playing with it.
Remember that the most powerful don’t need to assert it.
“It was a big acting challenge and also lesson.
This experience on “Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning” helped Kirby transform into a more sophisticated actor.
As Brits, we didn’t study a lot of French history growing up.”
To play this role, Kirby knew that her notion of French history had to change and fast.
Naturally, Kirby had to learn a lot to portray Josephine.
She dug into archives to read first-hand accounts of what Josephine was like in real life.
you’re free to’t sort of only feel good if you feel confident, you know?
I think I’ve realized that fear and doubt is always going to be there no matter what.”
“I think that’s kind of true of all of life, really.
You have to sort of be okay with the everything.
That’s actually genuinely the sort of thing that’s helped me the most,” she revealed.
For Kirby, learning to accept these feelings has led to self-acceptance, as well.
