Cara Delevingne: 'I was terrified to play role based on murdered Meredith Kercher until I found out I could act'

Model Cara Delevingne reveals that she was surprised by her own acting talent
Role: Cara Delevingne (Picture: Getty)
Getty
Tom Teodorczuk8 September 2014

Cara Delevingne says she was “terrified” to be playing a leading role based on murdered British student Meredith Kercher but soon “found out I could act”.

Speaking to the Standard at the premiere of The Face of an Angel, the model told how she formed a “family” with her co-stars to overcome her fears.

The BBC movie is inspired by the 2007 murder of Kercher and the subsequent high-profile trial of American Amanda Knox, who has threatened to sue the film’s makers.

Film role: Cara Delevingne at The Face Of An Angel premiere at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival (Picture: Getty)

Delevingne plays vivacious student Melanie, who meets a director in Italy making a film adapted from a book written by a journalist about a high-profile murder of a young British woman, with the suspects being her American flatmate and Italian lover.

The movie, which takes the story but changes the location and names, also stars Kate Beckinsale and Daniel Brühl and is directed by London filmmaker Michael Winterbottom.

At Saturday night’s premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival she told the Standard: “It was one of the most incredible experiences of my life. I learnt so much just because I found out alot about myself.

Real life: Amanda Knox, left, and Meredith Kercher (Pictures: AP)

“I found out that I could act, that I could do it confidently and not be nervous and die because usually I think I’m going to die doing things that scare me!

“I went in so terrified and nervous but I got so much good advice from Michael and Daniel. We just made a family.”

Speaking of the case she added: “The amount of coverage it got is crazy. I followed it. who didn’t? But I don’t like to make opinions unless I know about something.”

It is based on the book Angel Face by CNN journalist Barbie Latza Nadeau after 21-year-old student Kercher, from Coulsdon, was found half-naked with her throat slit in the cottage she shared with Knox in the hilltop university town of Perugia.

Cara Delevingne for Topshop AW14 - in pictures

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Knox’s lawyer Luciano Ghirga said as her case is still ongoing they would seek damages if it is “damaging to Amanda’s image”.

Knox and then-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito served four years for the murder, but were released in 2011 on appeal only to be sensationally re-convicted earlier this year.

Beckinsale, who plays an investigative journalist, paid tribute to Delevingne whose upcoming roles also include the film adaptation of Martin Amis’s novel London Fields.

She said: “I love Cara. She’s an absolute character and really serious about acting. It’s been her passion for ages but she’s really willing to learn.

“She’s incredibly humble, funny and silly. Completely insane. Absolutely my type of girl!”

Winterbottom said: “I wanted someone who had energy, a sense of joy and who had optimism. Cara had all that. She was perfect.”

In tribute he added: “It’s not the Amanda Knox case, it’s the Meredith Kercher case. I hope by the end of the film people are thinking about Meredith and other murder stories where someone has lost their life. That is the most important thing.”

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