‘I want to inspire people’: Mackenzie Foy admits she wants to try her hand at directing after finishing high school

The actress, 17, will star in forthcoming Disney film The Nutcracker 
Rising star: Mackenzie Foy is keen to try her hand at directing
Rollacoaster magazine
Jennifer Ruby24 April 2018
The Weekender

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Rising star Mackenzie Foy has said that she’s looking forward to completing her final year of high school and trying her hand at directing after starring in Disney’s forthcoming blockbuster, The Nutcracker.

The US model and actress, 17, is set to become a household name thanks to her role in the eagerly-awaited fantasy epic, starring opposite Keira Knightley and Morgan Freeman and set for release in November.

Foy said she was in the shower when she got the call from director Lasse Hallström, telling her that she’d landed the role of Clara.

“I was actually in the shower when my mom ran into the bathroom and told me Lasse was on the phone,” she said in an interview with Rollacoaster Magazine.

Keira Knightley and Mackenzie Foy in The Nutcracker and the Four Realms (2018)
Disney

“He asked me if I would be Clara and, of course, I said yes. I was just ridiculously excited to go on a new adventure.”

She added: “It was amazing. It was just like ‘wow, we’re doing this!’ The costumes, the hair, the make-up, the set design; everything is so detailed and absolutely stunning.

“It was really fun working with Lasse. In the beginning process for the film, Lasse and I had a lot of meetings where we would talk and develop Clara. I had a wonderful time creating Clara’s story with him.”

Foy first rose to fame as a child star in the final two Twilight films, before landing roles in hit horror The Conjuring and Christopher Nolan’s sci-fi epic Interstellar in 2014.

But it seems that the teenage star has even higher aspirations as she wants to try her hand at directing after she leaves school.

“I’ll be working on my senior year, which is very exciting. It’s so cool to be finishing high school. I want to be a director once I finish high school,” she said.

“I pretty much want to make films that will make people end up looking at the world in a different way, so that they will feel inspired and learn something new.”

British actor Sam Claflin told the magazine that he was keen to pursue more “three dimensional roles” now that he feels more confident in his career.

The Hunger Games star, 31, said that he’d felt “too nervous” to speak up for himself while filming blockbusters Snow White and the Huntsman and Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides.

Read the full interview with Mackenzie Foy in Rollacoaster magazine
Rollacoaster magazine

“With Pirates and Snow White, they were a year apart, both supporting roles, both romantically involved, both with no great characterisation. They were very well written pieces - I’m not holding it against them - it’s just I creatively have so much more to offer and I was too afraid to speak up for myself,” he said.

“I feel that now that I have been through the experience I would definitely go into the same experience being able to speak up for myself and come up with my own ideas.

“Back then [filming Pirates and Snow White], I was too nervous and I think I’ve grown in comfort and I’m excited to get an opportunity to prove that I am now a collaborator and not just someone who gets told where to stand.”

Claflin has pursued meatier roles in recent years, including the recent Journey’s End and My Cousin Rachel, and is set to star in Jennifer Kent’s gritty drama, The Nightingale.

“I want to play three-dimensional roles. I want to challenge myself as much as I can. I think I’ve made conscious decisions and done things that are very challenging, be it learning new skills or working in difficult locations playing complex characters,” he said.

Read the full interviews in the new issue of Rollacoaster Magazine, out now.

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