Ella Purnell had a remarkable year in 2024, showcasing outstanding performances in Arcane, Sweetpea, and Fallout. However, she began her acting career as a child and gained significant recognition alongside a star-studded cast in Tim Burton's Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children.
Clearly delighted at the chance of working with Burton, Purnell recalled her time on set with him, saying:
"He's like a mad scientist. He's got such vision, and his thinking space is up here, so he'll never make eye contact with you because he's thinking all the time. He just pulls these things together, and it's all just in his mind's eye. It's amazing to watch him work."
Ella started modeling when she was just 4 years old
In an interview with Interview Magazine, Purnell shared her inspiring journey, revealing she modelled as a child.
Purnell also referenced the television commercial she starred in for candy brand Toffifee, telling Crash:
"I got my first advert when I was 9. Before that I was doing auditions and baby modeling things. It was always something I did with my mum for fun and I met all my friends that way." Basically, Purnell was already making a name for herself within the entertainment industry while most of us were blissfully unaware of the world of work.
Ella Purnell was worried about playing the younger versions of A-listers
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At just 11, Ella Purnell secured a major role in the West End production of "Oliver!", showcasing her talent among many young actors. This breakthrough sparked her passion for acting, she quickly became the first-choice child star for directors seeking girls to portray younger versions of some of Hollywood's biggest stars.
In Never Let Me Go, she beautifully brought to life a young Keira Knightley, and in Maleficent, she perfectly captured the spirit of a young Angelina Jolie. Just a few years before Margot Robbie embraced the iconic role of Barbie, Purnell skillfully portrayed a youthful version of her character in The Legend of Tarzan.
“It became my thing for a while," Purnell said to the Independent. Although she worried that only playing young versions of lead actors might hamper her career, but she figured: “If someone asks me to be the young Margot Robbie I am not gonna say no!”
And she was right -as she revealed working with some of the biggest and best female stars in the world, really inspired her.
“It really helped, watching how disciplined they were and how they were devoted and committed to their craft," she said to Crash.
"I actually just like to get to know them and see them as real-life human beings. Working with smart, driven women was a huge inspiration at a young age."
Ella Purnell revealed she refused to do certain things on-screen
As Ella Purnell grew, she embraced the value of setting healthy boundaries. Looking back on her early experiences in the industry, she acknowledged the challenges she faced, and realized that she had put up with a number of inappropriate scenarios.
"I've gone into photo shoots when I was 15 and they've pulled out a bra and a pair of knickers for me to wear," she told the Independent. "As a 15-year-old, I don't have the power to say no because I'm thinking, 'Am I going to get cancelled? Am I not going to work again? Am I going to burn bridges?'" Luckily, Purnell had a team of family and agents around her to make sure she always felt comfortable.
Ella Purnell talked about the first time she spoke up in an interview with Collider, revealing she had her first kiss on screen.
“It was probably when I was a little younger, maybe around 15, 16. I have an incredible team. I've been with my US and my UK agents for years and years and years. But realizing, ‘You know, I don't wanna do nudity,’ or, ‘I don't want to do a love story,’ or, ‘I don't want to do this, this, this,’ and actually, being a little bit embarrassed the first time you ask those things, because you feel like, ‘Am I less of an actor? Am I less professional?’ And having them really validate my feelings, like, ‘No, it's okay to have preferences. It's okay to not feel comfortable doing this, doing that.’
She continued: My first kiss was on screen in a movie. That took me a couple of years to reckon with, and then to actually be able to be like, ‘No, I think I need to take a break. I wanna do comedy. I wanna do action,’ and then have someone actually value that opinion and that preference is really, really empowering, and important for a child actor to have that validation.”
Ella Purnell felt lost as a young adult
Ella Purnell's revealed that after her role in Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, her career suddenly slowed down and she started to question her acting ambitions.
"I thought, 'I'm 21, I haven't had a job in a while, I really don't know if this is a job I want to continue doing," she confessed to the Belfast Telegraph.
She didn't want to take on roles like "the girlfriend of the main, male character; a female that needs saving; or the goal, something that is wanted. Just there to be a sex object, portrayed as weak, pretty, nice."
Purnell began to consider alternative paths — she thought about heading to university, but never did. Soon, her mental health began to suffer. "I felt really quite lost and didn't know who I was," she said.
Eventually, Ella Purnell found the meaty, nuanced role she had been looking for with Tess in Starz' coming-of-age series "Sweetbitter."
“I had all these plans to go to university to study English or film or psychology and never did go. I felt really quite lost and didn’t know who I was. Then I read the first line of the breakdown of my character in Sweetbitter: “Tess’s life is a shambles.” I thought: Ha! This is relatable.’
Ella Purnell has let go of the need to “be liked”
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Ella Purnell revealed in an interview with Collider, that something she uses to think was important earlier in her career, but has come to realize isn' all that important after all is the need to be liked.
“Being liked. That's probably something that most people, most women, have to reckon with at some point in their lives, is just letting go of the conditioned need to be liked and be likable, right? Because you know people don't like you, but you just have to always appear likable.
She continued: “I sound like an old person, but with social media and everything like that, it's so hard not to read the comments, and it's so hard to not care what the critics say about your work because, as entertainers, it's easy to believe that's your job, to make stuff that people like. It's not your job to make stuff people like. It's your job to make stuff. Whether they like it or they don't like it, it doesn't matter to you. You're done with your job. It's freeing, actually, to come to that conclusion.
She continued: “And maybe Yellowjackets, in a way, helped with that because it was my first time playing a character that I honestly thought wasn't likable and people wouldn't like. I had a real fear, is anyone gonna care when Jackie dies, because she's such a piece of work sometimes? But she turned out to be a fan favorite, and it was really like, ‘I really get to do whatever I want.’ Now I want to play a villain. I want to play someone really evil. I want to go there.”
She faced intense hate mail for her 'Army of the Dead' character
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In 2021, Purnell starred in Zack Snyder's "Army of the Dead," a Las Vegas heist film set in a world infested with zombies. The actor played Kate Ward, the daughter of Dave Bautista's character, who joins her dad on the heist. Sadly, the response to Purnell's character was largely negative, with one Redditor writing, "Kate from 'Army of the Dead' is probably one of the worst characters I've ever seen in a movie."
Purnell was not immune to the widespread hatred, telling The Independent, "I got more s**t for that movie than I've ever got in my whole career," she said.
"It got to the point where I couldn't post a picture without people commenting, 'You should kill yourself', 'You're a terrible actress.'" Luckily, Purnell didn't let the hate get to her too much.
Discussing her new approach to sharing her life online, Purnell explained to Crash, "For a long time, mean comments got me down. I felt like I had to put up with it because I was asking for it. In actual fact, I'm a human being like anybody else so I just started blocking negative people who insult or objectify me."
She would later tell Nylon: “It didn’t really hurt my feelings, because people didn’t hate my performance, they hated my character, which let me know that I was actually being a good actor,” she says. “This is girl math for you.”
She's expressed desire to stay away from video games adaptations
After roles in video games adaptations Arcane and Fallout, Ella Purnell has revealed she wants to stay away from video game adaptations in future for fear of being typecast.
As reported by Popverse, the star said, “Here’s the truth, and I feel guilty saying this, but I’m not a gamer, and I don’t know how I’ve managed to land two video game adaptations that have both been good. I don’t know how that’s happened, but it has. I don’t know the answer.”
Purnell continued, “I actually think I need to stay away from video game adaptations now, because I’m going to get typecast. I’m going to be the video game girl. There are worse things to be than that, I suppose.”