Emma Mackey is an exceptionally talented and respected actress. Known for picking up well-written characters and projects, the actress has started in many massively successful projects like Sex Education, Barbie, Death on the Nile, and Emily. She has established herself as a truly phenomenal actress, having some of the most complex, interesting, and realistic characters in her filmography. A great example of this would be her character in the Netflix series, Sex Education.
One of the most iconic dialogues for her character in this series, Maeve, is when she was asked what her thing was, to which, she stated that her thing was complex female characters. During an interview, Mackey was asked about this scene, more specifically, who is her favorite complex female character in cinema and why.
Who Is Emma Mackey’s Favourite Complex Female Character?
During this interview with Still Watching Netflix, Emma Mackey, without giving it a second thought stated that her favorite complex female character has to be Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s in Fleabag. The actress stated her reasoning for this, mentioning that it is a pretty common answer by a lot of people and there is a reason for this, in her opinion. She stated that this character has had a massive impact, not only on the film industry on the basis of the way Waller-Bridge made this widely successful series but also on society as a whole.
“I think recently it has been Fleabag, hasn’t it? She’s had a massive impact, I think, generally on the industry, and the way her work is received and she is received as a writer, and director and an actor extraordinaire is really empowering and she is like, she’s such a good example and role model, cause she kind of, Fleabag was so, it was so provocative and so direct and so frank and funny and dark and it had this kind of visceral nature to it.”
She then talked about how Waller-Bridge’s work is received by audiences, not only as an actor, but also as a writer, director, and producer, adding that her work is very empowering for those who watch it. Mackey also mentioned that Fleabag is an exceptional example and a role model, being direct, visceral, and unique in its concept in the most perfect ways possible.
Why Fleabag?
Emma Mackey then went on to talk about this to Still Watching Netflix, stating that Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s character in Fleabag is like nothing anyone has seen before, being a beautifully written story and message disguised as a witty series. She also added that the fact that the series is not hiding behind anything and is so unapologetically its own thing is what makes it revolutionary to cinema and the way stories are told.
“And I think her character is, I don’t think we’ve ever seen anything like it before. Which is why it is so revolutionary that she is not hiding anything which I love. She’s a very brave person.”
Mackey isn’t the only one to think like this as Waller-Bridge has been praised for her storytelling capabilities time and time again, with Fleabag being the perfect example of her genius as a writer. Her works showcase very real and very flawed characters and make you fall in love with them without getting rid of these flaws, putting for humans rather than characters. She also portrays the struggles and challenges faced by women in the modern world in a similar fashion, proving time and time again why she is as well-liked by her audiences as she is.
Source: Still Watching Netflix
