Top 33 Bel Powley Quotes

I feel confident that I’m presenting myself in a feminist way that is good for young women.

I actually fall asleep really easily. I’m a bit of a scaredy-cat, though, I have to make sure that all the doors are closed, the front door is locked three times, and then make sure everything is covered and look under the bed.

I think people get confused: people think ‘strong female characters’ mean you need to play an action figure.

I had a place to go to university; I was going to study history. I was in New York doing ‘Arcadia,’ and I suddenly thought, ‘It feels a bit weird to go from a New York stage to Manchester University.’ It didn’t quite feel right.

It sounds so negative of me to say, but I don’t feel like there were many coming-of-age films when I was growing up. I think that when I was a teenager, I felt really misrepresented in the teenage roles that I was watching onscreen. Especially in women.

We try to push such crazy ideals onto young women: the Hollywood version of what they should look like, what they should do, and the kind of Prince Charming they should be looking for. We should just be proud of who we are, because we can’t be anybody else. So what’s the point of trying?

I started doing theatre, and that’s when I really fell in love with the profession; I learned a lot. It felt a bit weird to go from living in New York on Broadway to university, so I kept putting it off. Then, eventually, I had to give up the place.

When you’re a teenager, your essence is so specific to being a teenager, and everything becomes so extreme. Your emotions are on the surface, and you oscillate between different things at one time.

‘Diary of a Teenage Girl’ was my first American movie. It was my first movie in an American accent. It’s based on a graphic novel, which was written in 2002 by someone called Phoebe Gloeckner. It was turned into a play by Marielle Heller, who then wrote it as a screenplay for Sundance Labs.

Let’s just say musicals aren’t really my thing!

I was really quite geeky at school. At one point, I wanted to be prime minister or a mathematician.

If you’re doing something like ‘Arcadia’ by Tom Stoppard, which has been done millions and millions of times, and it’s been played some unbelievably well-respected actors, there’s a lot more pressure there. But I try not to think about all the other people who have done it before me. You’ve got to try and be original.

I always wear lip balm because I wear a lot of lipstick. I’m a big lipstick person. I would rather wear too-bright lipstick than too-heavy eye makeup.

I loved history and Eastern European politics.

The movies I used to watch, I remember always being so angry because I felt like I, as a teenage girl, was never truly represented in a film. There were always bits of me that were represented – I’d watch ‘Juno’ and be like, ‘Oh, well part of me is like that, but it’s still not the whole thing.’

I think that Hollywood misconstrues actresses saying, ‘Oh I wanna play a strong female character,’ like we all want to play, like, superheroes or something.

I used to do a Saturday drama group called Young Blood Theatre Company with school-friends in west London – nothing to do with my mum and dad. A casting director came to pick people out for a new BBC children’s series called ‘MI High.’ She picked me, I auditioned, and I got the job.

’70s music is the kind of music I listen to. ’70s clothes, I adore.

I want to keep playing strong female roles. I don’t mean superheroes, but women who are really alive.

I grew up with my parents in the kitchen discussing the audition my dad had that day or moaning about something or other in the industry, so it was unglamourised and normalised for me from a very young age.

I’m not not a fan of graphic novels, but it’s not like one of my pastimes, reading graphic novels.

So many times, you get sent scripts where it’s, like, the token chick, where the woman is just there to serve the man in the film.

Most of my really strong friendships are with people I’ve known all my life.

I hope to teach people that it’s fine to make mistakes because they will learn from them, to be who they are, and to learn to love their bodies.

There’s so much pressure on young people to go to university when they’re 18 or 19, but actually, in the grand scheme of it, I don’t think it matters to do it at that time.

I want to play a range, from victims to strong people, just as long as it’s a well-rounded character. And it’s not a woman who’s just there for the purpose of the man.

My dad’s an actor, and my mum’s a casting director and a writer.

All my friends were off on gap years, so going to New York alone, at the age of 18, was kind of my flying the nest. It was an amazing experience.

I’m so open to different things. The only thing I’d say is I’ve set the bar pretty high in terms of good female roles with ‘Diary,’ and I want to continue in that vein.

When I was young, there weren’t any teenage girls I could relate to in film. They were all put in boxes: the virginal good girl, the really sarcastic asexual one. I wanted to do something that represented how I felt then.

I’m one of those girls that, day-to-day, I’m in trainers or Converse. I have about 50 pairs of trainers, so when I get the chance to dress up, I will definitely be in heels. 100 percent. I might take some battered Converse in my bag to wear at the after-party when my feet are tired.

I’m not saying I only want to work with female directors. But I want to continue to work with emerging female directors.

Playing weird and quirky characters, like those with weird nuances, I find very interesting.