Exclusive Interview: Synnøve Karlsen

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The Art of Storytelling

Ahead of Miss Austen, Synnøve Karlsen reveals how a childhood of make believe and telling stories set her up for a career in acting

Photography by Lesley Edith | Styling by Abigail White | Hair by Chad Maxwell | Make up by Joey Choy

Shot on location at South Place Hotel

Ahead of big roles in Miss Austen and Foundation, Synnøve Karlsen tells us about the importance of seizing opportunities, the appeal of strong female characters, and why the best roles are at home, here in London

Synnøve Karlsen Interview Fabric Magazine Synnøve wears: dress by Noon by Noor; and fur coat by Michael Kors

It’s hard to believe that Screen International Star of Tomorrow Synnøve Karlsen – who was given the lead role in cult BBC drama Clique aged 19 years old and hasn’t stopped working since – is familiar with rejection, but she assures me she is. “I auditioned for loads of different plays at school, and I never got any, and I was so sad,” she recalls. “All my friends would sort of look at me, and be like, ‘Why do you care? It’s not that big a deal’. But it really impacted me.”

At 15 she arranged work experience with a casting director. “I worked with her for a week, and I remember she said to me, ‘What do you want to do?’. And I thought about saying that I’d love to work in films, or do something in casting, but then I just said to her really honestly, ‘I think I want to be an actor’. And she looked at me and she was like, ‘You can’t think that you want to be an actor, you need to know, and you can’t have a plan B’.”

It was the push she needed; deep down, Synnøve did know. “I loved pretending, as a child, playing make believe and coming up with these stories, and putting on little plays,” she explains. “And I think when I finally got into a play at school – I was in The Seagull in my lower 6th year – I just absolutely fell in love with it. It suddenly felt like I had found what I was meant to be doing, and everything clicked.”

After school, she took a foundation course at LAMDA, and then got a place on a three-year course at Guildhall. “I dropped out after a year, because I ended up getting the role in Clique, which was my sort of breakout role, I guess. So, it was all quite fast; looking back, I’m like wow, it all happened quite quickly. It happened in a bit of a different way for me, and I’m so grateful that I just took the opportunities when they came.”

Synnøve Karlsen Interview Fabric Magazine Synnøve wears: blazer with cuffs by Noon by Noor; bra by ERES; tights by Heist Studios; and earrings by Retro Chic

This month will see her appearing in the BBC’s highly anticipated adaptation of Gill Hornby’s best-selling and much-loved novel, Miss Austen. “It’s about the life story of Cassandra Austen and her sister Jane Austen. And Keeley Hawes plays the older Cassandra Austen, and I play the younger Cassy,” Synnøve tells me. “The story unfolds with Keeley’s character trying to preserve her sister’s legacy; she is trying to find lots of letters that her sister Jane wrote before she passed away, and in finding these letters we go through a series of flashbacks and explore the life that her and her sister Jane had together. And the way that she supported her sister in her writing, and her short but obviously incredibly prolific career. So, I had the joy of playing young Cassy, alongside Patsy Ferran, who plays Jane.”

It was an irresistible project for Synnøve, who tells me: “I read the script, and I just totally fell in love with the sisterhood, and the relationship between these two amazing women. It was such a difficult period for women in history, I suppose. Life was so governed by having a husband or being financially supported by your brothers or your father. So, the sisterhood, and the power and the way they supported each other was what really drew me to it. And then the writing was just brilliant. I mean it’s so rare, but occasionally you come across something that you’re just like, I’ve got to do that, I’ve got to be in that. It was really immediate for me, and I’m very grateful, because things like that don’t come around often.”

“IT’S A SIMPLE STORY, BUT IT’S SO BEAUTIFULLY TOLD, AND I REALLY HOPE THAT IT GETS THE AUDIENCE THAT IT DESERVES, BECAUSE I THINK IT’S JUST LOVELY”
Synnøve Karlsen Interview Fabric Magazine Synnøve wears: red beret by Emily-London; jacket, shirt and skirt by The Frankie Shop; and ring by Mejuri

And the experience of making it surpassed any of those initial expectations, she says. “It came at a really tough time; I’d been filming an Apple series in Prague for the past year and a half, called Foundation, and we got shut down because of the actors’ strikes in Hollywood last year, so I was sort of back in London in this weird hiatus, and then Miss Austen just popped up out of nowhere, and it was just such a joy. It was really led by women – we had a female director, Aisling Walsh, and Christine Langan the executive producer, and Stella Merz the producer. It was adapted by Andrea Gibb, a female writer, and obviously we had Keeley as the lead; it just felt like we were all on the same page about what it was that we were trying to make. It was so easy and joyous, and everyone was just so grateful and happy to be there. It’s a simple story, but it’s so beautifully told, and I really hope that it gets the audience that it deserves, because I think it’s just lovely.”  With the strikes over, she was able to go back to Foundation after filming wrapped on Miss Austen; that series is also expected to be released in the early part of this year. Synnøve joins returning stars Lee Pace and Jared Harris in the third season of the Apple TV+ sci-fi series as the new regular character, Bayta Mallow. Based on Isaac Asimov’s trilogy, the series chronicles the saga of The Foundation, a band of exiles who discover that the only way to save the Galactic Empire from destruction is to defy it.

There could not have been more of a contrast between the two stories, Synnøve tells me. “Bayta is just this amazing, larger than life character. I would sort of describe her as an intergalactic influencer. She cruises around these different planets and is basically the most famous person in the Galaxy, and just has such an amazing time, and loves herself – it’s one of the biggest and most bizarre characters I’ve ever played. The contrast between the two roles was quite stark – going from space influencers to Georgian petticoats and carriages… it was quite a different vibe. I loved it though, it was a real challenge, and quite a big step away from what I usually do, so I am excited for people to see it.”

Synnøve Karlsen Interview Fabric Magazine ynnøve wears: dress by Maison Rabih Kayrouz; and cuff by Retro Chic

In fact, these two roles might just be her favourite to date, she reveals. “They felt really exciting, and really challenging in a kind of new and more adult way,” she tells me. “I think of the things that are out, the first role that I played, in Clique, is probably my favourite though. I was in every scene of that show, and it was such a learning curve. I was 19 years old when I got that role, and being able to play a character from start to finish is quite a unique thing, you know, when you’re leading something fully. It’s sort of like the experience you get on stage, I suppose. So, I really loved telling Holly’s story. It sort of mirrored where my life was at the time; I felt kind of like I grew up alongside her. But every character I play definitely leaves a mark on me in some way or another.”

Though she is not yet thirty, those roles have been many and varied. As well as Clique, which became one of 2018’s most watched series, she starred in Netflix’s acclaimed Bodies alongside Stephen Graham and Shira Haas, and as the mysterious Jocasta in Edgar Wright’s Last Night in Soho, the psychological horror starring Anya Taylor-Joy, Thomasin McKenzie and Matt Smith. She is also known for her leading role in Netflix’s Italian historical period drama, Medici: The Magnificent, in which she played Clarice Orsini, daughter of a noble Roman family who marries into the Florentine Medici Powerhouse in renaissance Italy and starts a lifelong political and personal relationship with the heir apparent.

What does she look for in a role, I ask. “What’s most important to me, I suppose, is the project as a whole, and how I feel about that,” she explains. “As I get older, I realise the impact that these bigger roles, like Foundation, for instance, have on your life, and I’m maybe a bit more cautious about only taking things now that I really believe in, or really love, and where I’m really excited about the character and their impact on the story. I think they always said at drama school, that there are no small parts, there are only small actors. If the project as a whole is really exciting to me, then I’m usually tempted to do it. I feel grateful just to be able to be earning a living doing what I do, and I just hope for more opportunities like the ones I’ve had.”

“I FEEL GRATEFUL JUST TO BE ABLE TO BE EARNING A LIVING DOING WHAT I DO, AND I JUST HOPE FOR MORE OPPORTUNITIES LIKE THE ONES I’VE HAD”
Synnøve Karlsen Interview Fabric Magazine Synnøve wears: dress by ALEMAIS; tights by Heist Studios; shoes by PLEIADES and ring by Mejuri

Any dream roles? “It’s such a bizarre industry, and an especially bizarre job being an actor – it’s kind of an exercise in being flexible and seizing the opportunities that you get, and so I try not to think in terms of like what my dream role might be,” she explains. That said, she certainly wouldn’t say no to a theatre role. “When I started at Guildhall, it’s funny, if I thought about what the dream would be, I always imagined that I would be on stage, and it just so happened that I kind of started in TV, and then more films and TV shows came along. I’ve worked a lot with my screen acting, but I haven’t had that opportunity yet to do any professional theatre. And I think now I’m definitely craving that more than ever. That’s actually something that could be in the pipeline for me in the next few months. I’m waiting to see about a few different things… it’s something that I’m hoping will materialise soon.”

What is it about theatre that appeals? “I just have a real craving for it suddenly… I think after doing so much screen, especially with a bigger TV series, it’s so disjointed and the way that you are telling the story is kind of broken up. You have like three directors and three different crews, and, you know, you’re block shooting for months and months and months, and you might start filming on scene 50, of episode 10, and then you jump back to episode one, and then you’re on episode four… and it’s so all over the place. So, what I’m really craving right now is the ability to sort of tell a story from start to finish. And I guess having that kind of control over your performance, and kind of embodying that character fully. I really miss that.”

And there’s something else attractive about theatre. “I mean, the best type of work is when you get to come home and sleep in your own bed,” she laughs. “When I was younger, I did this series, I was in Italy for a while shooting a Netflix show, and I found that really tough, I think. I was 21 and I felt so grown up, and really wanted to kind of prove how independent I was, and actually I found that in doing that I became totally isolated, and totally alone, and I sort of fell out of love with my work a little bit at that point. I think my biggest achievement would be just the way that I’ve learned to manage work, and I guess home, and my sense of self. I’m really proud of the fact that I have really good relationships, and a really solid home life, and I’ve managed to keep that up alongside travelling all over the place for work, just uprooting and going places, and yeah, I guess I’m proud of being able to juggle those two things.”

Home, for Synnøve, is London. “I love it,” she tells me, simply. “I have lived here for 10 years. And then longer with my family growing up. I feel so grateful to be able to live in a city where you can walk out the door and have so much at your fingertips. And that really rang true for me during COVID. I think after the lockdowns was when it really became clear just how fortunate I feel to live in such a wonderful city, where there is so much on offer, and also such diversity. You know, it’s a real melting pot of so many different cultures, and it’s such a vibrant and exciting and energetic place, and I love that about it. That said, I love where I live, in north London, because I feel slightly removed from being right in the thick of things.”

I wonder how she’d spend her perfect day in the Capital. “My perfect day would probably be… I had it yesterday, actually,” she exclaims. “I had a lovely day. I went for a swim – I go cold water swimming – so I went for an outdoor swim near where I live in north London, and then I went for a walk through the park. And then I went and met some friends at Borough Market. We had some food and a coffee, and then walked along the South Bank, and went to the Tate, and then I got on the train home and made some delicious food and watched a movie. I think that’s sort of my ideal day.” It sounds good to me, too.