Meet Ella Balinska, one of the new Charlie's Angels

Ella Balinska is fronting one of the most anticipated blockbusters of the year — and it’s her first-ever film. Laura Craik meets a south London star on the rise
VALENTINO dress, £8,300 (valentino.com). COMMANDO bra, £70, at net-a-porter.com. CARTIER ring, POA (cartier.co.uk). Shot on location at Beckenham Place Mansion
Charlotte Hadden
Laura Craik14 November 2019

You can tell a lot about a person by the place they choose to be interviewed.

When her team suggests we meet at Blakes, a chi-chi hotel in South Kensington, I immediately assume that Ella Balinska must also be rather chi-chi. Maybe she’s partial to its lobster paccheri. Maybe she only hangs out in SW7. And then she arrives, all smiles in Air Jordans, black leggings and an Off-White hoodie, with a heartfelt ‘Thanks so much for coming here — I was doing a job nearby and a bit pushed for time, so I really appreciate it.’ So much for that theory.

Rare is the actor whose resume reads ‘Casualty, Midsomer Murders, big-budget Hollywood blockbuster,’ yet 23-year-old Balinska’s says just this. Cast by actor-director Elizabeth Banks in the new Charlie’s Angels film without even so much as a meeting — her audition was done via video — it’s easy to see why Banks was so certain she’d found her star. At 5ft 11in and trained in 12 different forms of stage combat, Balinska’s skill set extends far beyond the average Hollywood starlet’s. ‘It includes different types of martial arts, different weapons — knife, single sword, gladius and shield use, broadsword…’ she reels off, breezily. ‘You name it, I could probably figure out a way to use it.’

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Charlotte Hadden

Such credentials make her a perfect fit for the physically demanding role of Jane, a badass detective who, along with Sabina (played by Kristen Stewart) and Elena (played by fellow British newcomer Naomi Scott), makes up this latest iteration of Angels on a mission to save the world. Banks, who also takes the formerly male role of Bosley, has described her version as a ‘continuation’ of the previous two films, rather than a ‘remake’. Certainly it’s the most female-focused, with far more physical action and weaponry. ‘I think my combat training definitely helped with getting the job,’ Balinska acknowledges. It also allowed her to carry out most of her own stunts, thanks to skills learned at the Academy of Performance Combat in Northolt, Middlesex.

‘You learn how to be safe, but also to be knowledgeable,’ she explains. ‘So when the director wants you to jump through a ring of fire, you’re able to do it in a safe way, without panicking. It’s a real discipline. So I know everything there is to know about rigs and harnesses and using your momentum on a jump, which made it really cool with my stunt doubles, too.’ She is full of praise for her three stunt doubles, keen to emphasise that it was they who had to test each stunt was safe before she embarked upon it. ‘They’re so incredible — I trusted them so much.’

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Charlotte Hadden

She is even more effusive in her praise for Banks. ‘She wrote, produced, directed and starred in it,’ she swoons. ‘And she’d do rewrites while we were on set. And she had her whole family with her in Berlin, when we were filming. Her kids are quite young, so she’s being a mum, a wife and an emotional support for the actors. She’s spinning all the plates.’ She also loves her co-stars. ‘Kristen’s really awesome. And so smart: the way she delivers lines, the way she sets you up for certain things. She’s very instinctive — a real artist. We clicked immediately, and it was the same with Naomi. The three of us had instant chemistry.’ Presumably, this chemistry is something that Banks must have picked up on early.

‘She definitely did. I never even read with them during the [audition] process. We all knew what each other’s strengths were, so if there was ever a part in a scene, in the dialogue or in any of the improvised moments where we could boost each other up, we would.’ They also hung out together off set. ‘We had a lot of dinners. We cooked for each other, which was so nice. We had each other over and showed each other short films that we’d done. It’s a really special bond.’

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Charlotte Hadden

As the first mixed-heritage Angel (her mother is the model turned TV chef Lorraine Pascale; her father is the Polish entrepreneur Kazimierz Balinski-Jundzill), she was especially keen that Jane’s ethnicity was accurately represented (the previous film version, released in 2003, starred Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore and Lucy Liu). Balinska pushed for what she calls ‘a natural hair progression’ throughout the film. ‘My hair’s naturally curly. My hair in the film is straight. I straighten my hair: Jane straightens her hair. Cool. She goes into the water, her hair comes out curly, because that’s what would happen [in real life]. I’m like, “Hey, I’m representation here. I’ve got mixed heritage.”’ She’s also proud of how Jane experiments with her hair. ‘At one point she puts a fringe in, because people do put hair extensions in — it’s a real thing.’

If the original Charlie’s Angels was a popular 1970s TV show that bore all the sexist hallmarks of the decade that spawned it (‘When the show was number three, I figured it was our acting. When it got to be number one, I decided it could only be because none of us wears a bra,’ the the show’s star, Farrah Fawcett, once said), in keeping with the times, this latest remake is avowedly female-positive. ‘Jane’s very independent,’ says Balinska. ‘She was that person in school who wasn’t great at working together in a team. So my character’s journey is that she learns the power of teamwork.’

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Charlotte Hadden

She admits that as a child, she shared similar characteristics with Jane. ‘I was really independent. Even when I was at drama school, I was [secretly] auditioning and saying that I was going to the dentist. I always liked to be one step ahead of the game.’ Brought up in south London (her parents are divorced, but still on excellent terms, and she has three half-siblings from her father’s second marriage), hers was a grounded childhood, albeit one more bereft of the delicious, cordon bleu cuisine than one might expect, given her mother was a chef. ‘A builder doesn’t want to go home and build,’ she laughs. ‘My mum didn’t want to come home and keep cooking. She was like, “Here’s £20. M&S.” So I know that Dine for Two [offer] very well. But when she was recipe testing and writing, that was a good time.’

Balinska’s striking looks and height meant she was frequently scouted to be a model, but never took the bait. ‘It just didn’t inspire me, so I didn’t do it. I’m just not that good at it. I want to do something that I’m good at.’ Despite her modesty, she is the current face of Cartier, and is starring in the Kurt Geiger autumn/winter campaign. It wasn’t so long ago that she was on the shop floor at Selfridges. ‘I worked for the better part of three years in the men’s shoe department, and only left last May,’ she smiles. ‘They let me take two-hour lunch breaks when I had an audition. The friends I made there would read my lines with me in the stockroom.’

Poised on the cusp of international stardom as she is, there’s no danger of fame going to Balinska’s head, something she credits her mum for. ‘She’s been a massive help. Like I can come here and chat to you and not have my publicist sat next to me.’ Nor is she afraid of the fame that is about to engulf her. ‘Rihanna still takes the Tube. You can be a massive, huge star and still live a totally normal life. So that’s what I aspire to have. Fame is only what you endow it with.’

Besides, if she ever finds herself getting too big for her boots, she knows exactly what to do — go back to the shop floor. ‘It sounds so weird, but it’s a really cool place to ground yourself. I know I sound ridiculous — “Yes, I go to Selfridges to ground myself” — but it feels like where I came from, if that makes sense. The most important thing for me is that I want to stay true to myself. I always want to be genuine.’ It’s hard to imagine her being anything else.

Photography by Charlotte Hadden. Styled by Jenny Kennedy. Shot on location at Beckenham Place Mansion.

‘Charlie’s Angels’ is in cinemas on 29 Nov

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