Holly Cattle stands on the cusp of a moment. The young Londoner will shortly grace two of the biggest shows of the year – the first season of Guy Ritchie’s Young Sherlock and the hugely anticipated return of the blockbuster Rivals.
What can she share of her two characters? Not vast amounts. In Young Sherlock, she plays the enigmatic Edie “who has an amazing arc that’s very dark, but also she’s very funny and witty and quick. She’s incredibly intelligent and she’ll flip the whole chessboard and you won’t see it.” Most intriguing.
And in Rivals? “In Rivals… I can’t say anything!” Fair enough.
Funny and witty and quick is a fairly accurate description of Cattle herself. Some info: she would buy a farm were money no object. She keeps a list on her phone of anything she considers cute. (Men with flowers; mice on the underground.)
Her favourite poem at the time of writing is Gabrielle Calvocoressi’s ‘Miss you. Would like to grab that chilled tofu we love.’ You should look up the poem – it’s lovely. But read the interview first – it’s rather delightful too, though we say so ourselves.
Life
SM: What upcoming projects are you most excited about?
HC: I'm very excited about Young Sherlock, which is out on the 4 March, and then also Rivals season two, which is out in part on 15 May.
In Young Sherlock I play a wonderful character called Evie who has an amazing arc that's very dark, but also she's very funny and witty and quick. She's incredibly intelligent and she'll flip the whole chessboard and you won't see it. And then in Rivals... I can't say anything!
SM: What's your proudest professional accomplishment to date?
Working with Guy Ritchie was a big milestone for me. He is amazing. It's a high octane, high pressure set. He works very quickly. You don't do loads of takes and we get new lines before each of the scenes, which keeps us on our toes – big time.
But it creates such brilliant work and there's a sort of lightness and a freedom to the text that he brings as well. He has a super clear vision so he knows exactly what he wants, which just makes our job really easy.
SM: If you changed one thing about your career to date, what would it be?
HC: In this industry I feel like that's getting into 'grass is greener' territory, which is playing with fire. I don't know if I would pick anything because I feel like the hard times were there for a reason, and then the good times I just try and celebrate. So I would not change anything.
Not that it's all been smooth sailing. It hasn't by a long shot, but I feel like I've learned a lot from the hard times. Although when I'm going through them, I would probably answer differently!
SM: What do you hope to achieve that you haven't yet?
HC: I would love to work for A24. I'd love to lead a film with a director like Joachim Trier or something like The Worst Person In The World.
SM: Outside of your family, who slash what is your biggest inspiration?
HC: I feel like it's impossible to pick one thing but I come back to music a lot. I'm constantly listening to music. I always have my AirPods in, to the point where my family and friends complain, but the artists are on rotation so I wouldn't say there's one in particular.
Also poetry – I would say there are a lot of poets that I revisit, like Mary Oliver, Billy Collins, Gabrielle Calvocoressi. My current favourite poem is a really sad one by Gabrielle Calvocoressi called ‘Miss you. Would like to grab that chilled tofu we love.’
It's just so beautiful. It's about grief, the menial moments in their life that she couldn't get anymore. It's a really beautiful poem. It'll make you cry.
SM: Tell us something that nobody knows about you…
HC: This is a tough one because I would say I'm quite an open book so there’s not a lot that people don’t know. I keep a really long list on my phone of things that I think are cute. Anything cute goes on the list. Recent editions were mice on public transport: I love it when they're running across the tube tracks. Men carrying flowers. That was a big one from Valentine's Day, always sweet.
What was the other thing I put on there recently? Dogs and shoes. There were a lot of those in New York. It was really cold and so they were all wearing shoes. It was really cute. Made up for the minus 17 degrees weather.
Style
SM: What’s your favourite item of clothing – and what does it mean to you?
HC: Again, I would say I go on rotation with this. If we're going based off what I wear the most at the moment, this leather jacket that I picked up in a vintage shop in Cádiz when we were filming Young Sherlock. Just goes with everything. It doesn’t even have a label, which makes it all more unique.
SM: What’s your favourite accessory – and why is it special to you?
HC: My gold necklace! I got it for my 22nd birthday, the chain from my mum. And then I have loads of really random charms that mean different things on there. One of them is actually for my character in Young Sherlock, but it's a bit of a spoiler.
There's a boot for working. A heart that says, ‘I love you more than yesterday and less than tomorrow.’ There's a cow on here for Cattle. There's a teapot for no reason whatsoever. There's a bike for my brother – I need to get one for my sister. They're just things I love.
SM: What is your biggest style disaster?
HC: Oh my goodness. How long have you got? I have a very clear memory of going up an escalator in orange crocs and skinny jeans – I was quite young.
Are we talking style mishaps or things that I just wouldn't wear now? I popped my old dress open at the Bafta party last week. It was all buttoned up the back, beautiful little Chanel mini dress, every time I moved it just went!
So that, and probably the orange crocs and skinny jeans. Not my finest hour. But then I reckon you could style that now in a cool way. Simone Rocha is doing crocs, I like those.
SM: Is there an item you threw away – or lost – that you really miss?
HC: My best friend Jess made me a T-shirt when we were 18. It was a yellow T-shirt, she printed a really cute picture on it – I think it was a chicken but a takeaway chicken. A fried chicken. I loved it. That got thrown out by accident. It was more the sentiment that was attached to it. I love things that my friends make.
SM: What's next in your shopping list?
HC: It should be nothing. I should not be shopping; I've bought all my shopping list. This is the problem. I want to get a really nice black scarf but we're going into spring now.. I also want a nice bag. I need more things to go with everything. I have bright colours in my wardrobe and I need to get some more muted ones.
Actually, I have these ASICS Gel Quantum Lylia shoes that I wear all the time. I got them as a gift like three years ago. I wear them every day and they are ruined and I want to replace them with exactly the same ones. Keep it simple. Although the shoes are not very simple. They sort of look like Spy Kids shoes. Like they'd stick if you walked up the wall.
SM: What would you buy if money was no object?
HC: Two things. I would buy a massive holiday for me and all my friends. I'd go to Italy, somewhere on the coast. Why not?
Also I'd buy a massive farm with loads of animals for me to live – with my family if they wanted to come. Or my friends. I love animals so much, I want to be around them all the time. I’d want horses and cows and dogs and pigs and bunnies. And then I'm good.
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Young Sherlock is out now on Amazon Prime
