Agyness Deyn hailed for her ‘life-changing’ role in period drama

Acclaimed: Agyness Deyn claims her new role was a life-changing experience
Amanda Edwards/Getty Images
Tom Teodorczuk16 September 2015
The Weekender

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Agyness Deyn, the actress and former catwalk model, says her acclaimed new film role as a distressed Scottish farmer’s daughter was a life-changing experience.

Following the world premiere of her independent period drama Sunset Song, an adaptation of Lewis Grassic Gibbon’s 1932 novel, at the Toronto Film Festival, Deyn said playing Chris Guthrie had made her a stronger person.

The movie features scenes depicting rape and incest and Deyn, 32, said: “I learnt so much about strength from playing this woman. I think [it was] being a younger woman in modern-day society and reading something so inspiring that was written so long ago about a young woman.

“I feel like playing her made me different at the end of the film from how I was at the start.

New role: Agyness Deyn in Sunset Song
Dean MacKenzie

“It taught me that it wasn’t me that had to have the strength to play her. It was the opposite way around — I had to let Chris play me.”

Deyn stars with Scottish actors Peter Mullan and Kevin Guthrie. It marks her first foray into period drama after roles in contemporary low-budget films Pusher and Electricity.

Black Mass Toronto Film Festival premiere

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Mancunian Deyn was discovered as a model while shopping in Kentish Town but has given up the catwalk.

The Hollywood Reporter described her performance as “career-changing” while Screen International called her “forceful”.

The veteran British independent filmmaker Terence Davies, who directed Sunset Song, had never heard of Deyn before her audition.

He said: “I wasn’t familiar with her. I don’t know anything about popular culture. Someone said she was a model and I said, ‘That doesn’t matter!’ She did a wonderful audition. She was the very first [to be auditioned] and I said ‘We’ve found her’.

“She’s very intelligent and very responsive to material and to direction and really that’s what you need.”

Sunset Song will premiere at the London Film Festival on October 15 and will have a full release later. An American distribution deal is imminent and Deyn is considered a dark horse for awards recognition early next year.

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