Pearl Mackie landed her big break almost a decade ago, playing Doctor Who companion Bill Potts opposite Peter Capaldi.
However the South Londoner isn't one to look back. "I want to do loads of things," she tells us. "I'm only just getting started."
The latest of those things? Playing the titular Baby in a one-woman show running at Brixton House throughout October.
"At its heart, it's about one woman's journey through the legal justice system and her desire to get her daughter back," says Mackie. "The piece is so powerful and really epic. Baby's positivity in the face of some pretty awful things that she endures is a real testament to her character. I just hope I'm able to do it justice."
Expect justice to be served, in every sense.
Life
Square Mile: What are you most excited about right now?
Pearl Mackie: I'm doing a one-woman show, playing a character called Baby in a play of the same name. “Excited” is an interesting adjective to use. I would say I'm probably more terrified, but there is definitely excitement tinged in there too. I think all the most exciting things are probably a little bit terrifying anyway.
I've never done a one-woman show at this level before. I did one very, very early on in my career, but I felt like I had less reputation on the line, shall we say. It's such an incredible piece, written by Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti. At its heart, it's about one woman's journey through the legal justice system and her desire to get her daughter back.
What really drew me to it is that Baby is such a complicated woman. There are so many things going on for her. The play explores a lot of the trauma she's experienced and the ways in which she's been let down by people and by the system. It's so beautifully written, so poignant and such a powerful story that, as soon as I read it, I was like, “I don't want anyone else to do this play, this needs to be me.” Thankfully, Milli Bhatia, the director, the writer and the casting director also agreed, ha!
I think it's incredible. It's a really specific story, but there are elements of it that I think will be relatable to so many people. It's a story that I don't think many people will have heard told in this way or with this level of intimacy. I think one of the jobs of theatre is to open people's eyes to situations they might not necessarily have personal lived experience of, and to create some kind of empathy and understanding – maybe even a call to action, or the desire to actually make a difference and make a change.
I just think the piece is so powerful and really epic. Baby's positivity in the face of some pretty awful things that she endures is a real testament to her character. I just hope I'm able to do it justice.
SM: What is your proudest professional accomplishment?
PM: I feel like I'm hoping it will be this play when it's done. I'm already really proud of the show that Milli, Gurpreet and I, alongside the rest of the amazing creative team, have created. I don't want to say I'm proud of it yet because I think that might be a little premature, and I don't need any bad-luck vibes!
I'm pretty proud of playing the first out gay companion on Doctor Who. Really proud of that! I'm also incredibly proud to have been part of Grenfell: In the Words of Survivors. I think that was a really one-of-a-kind piece of theatre, and I really hope it helped to move the conversation forward around Grenfell. I'm honoured to have been part of that.
I guess if you ask me again in a couple of months' time, I would hopefully say that my proudest professional accomplishment to date is Baby. I don't know... come back to me on that.
SM: If you could change one thing about your career, what would it be?
PM: I don't think I'd change anything. I'm not really that kind of person. I kind of believe everything happens for a reason. Sure, there are jobs I've auditioned for that I didn't get – loads of them – but I have no idea what the trajectory of my career would have been if I'd done those jobs instead.
I feel very happy with where I am career-wise, but also with where I am in the course of my life. I wouldn't want to change one thing, because ultimately it would have a knock-on effect, and it would be naive to think that it wouldn't. Maybe I'm taking this question way too deeply... but I think that's just who I am.
I wouldn't change anything, except just more of the same. More jobs. More great, great opportunities. Please.
SM: What do you still hope to achieve?
PM: So much! I kind of feel like I'm only getting started, which is a weird thing to say at this stage in your career. I don't know. I've been in this industry for around 15 years, but I still feel like I'm only getting started. There's so much that I want to do.
For me, I love playing characters who are nuanced and real and complicated and vulnerable, who maybe don't always make the best choices and aren't necessarily clear-cut, because I think that's what humanity is all about. So I'd love to play more characters like that.
I also want to make more movies because I love movies. I think film is an incredible art form that I haven't explored as much as I'd like to, so I'd really love to do more of it. I also feel like we need to make more incredible films to get people back into cinemas and reignite that love for film around the world.
I want to do loads of things. I'm only just getting started.
SM: Who is your biggest inspiration?
PM: Angela Davis. I think she's pretty incredible. Her unwavering commitment to justice and liberation for all people is incredibly inspiring. I heard her speak when she came to the UK and she was just so eloquent. Her words had so much weight and power, and they just galvanised the whole room. She's been doing that for so many years. She's just super fucking cool.
I guess Angela Davis, for me, is someone who inspires me to live my truth and to stand up for what I believe in. I think that's a difficult thing to do in the world, and it has felt particularly difficult over the past couple of years. That's the way I was raised. My mum's an activist as well, so a lot of that inspiration comes from her too. Angela Davis, icon!
SM: Tell us something nobody knows about you…
PM: I would like to think I'm actually a very amazing cook. I really love cooking and I love food, so I'd genuinely love to train as a chef one day. Maybe in another life.
I think there's something really satisfying about cooking for people and watching them enjoy something you've made. I'm not saying I'm about to quit acting and open a restaurant tomorrow, but... never say never.
Style
SM: Favourite item of clothing?
PM: I've got a leather jacket, it’s a women's Harley-Davidson club jacket that I found in an antique shop - not a vintage shop, an antique furniture shop in Croydon - when I was looking for furniture for my house. It fit me perfectly. And on the front, it had the name Pam. My wife's name is Kam, so “Pam” was the couple name that a lot of our friends used to call us when we first got together. I was like, shit, I think I need to buy that.
She's falling apart a little bit now, though, so if anyone knows how to reattach badges onto leather, let me know, because at the moment I can't wear her. I'm just worried that all the bits are going to peel off, and that would honestly break my heart.
But ask me again tomorrow what my favourite item of clothing is and I'll probably say something totally different. I love clothes. I feel like I've spent a long time creating a pretty strong wardrobe, so it's actually a very difficult question!
SM: Favourite accessory?
PM: Again with a favourite, Square Mile. This is a lot, isn't it?
It's probably my sunglasses that I'm wearing right now. They're an oval pair of Versace sunglasses that I bought at the airport in Paris – great place to buy sunglasses, obvs. I've bought many a pair of sunglasses at an airport after realising I've forgotten mine and I'm about to go somewhere hot.
These ones are so sick, with a really chunky gold frame. This summer, I was at a picnic in the park with friends and, when we were tidying up, I put them down and then proceeded to step on them. I twisted the frame, but luckily they didn't break.
I spent the rest of the summer trying to find somewhere that could fix them, and finally found a place after many a trek. I didn't realise how important they were to me until I went on a three-month quest to get them fixed. But thank God they're fixed now.
SM: What's been your biggest style disaster?
PM: I like to think that I dress quite well... but that has not always been the case.
One outfit immediately comes to mind. When I was in sixth form, so I was probably about 18 or 19, my friends at the time were all very into colour-coordinated outfits. I was wearing red snow boots - big, moon-boot kind of snow boots - some fishnet tights, a blue denim mini skirt, a white gilet with a massive shit furry hood, a red zip-up top underneath and some little red bunch-of-grapes earrings.
Telling you about it now, I feel like that sounds kind of sick. Maybe I should recreate it. At the time, though, it did not feel so good. I did not feel so fly.
I feel like if you wear anything with confidence, you can get away with it. That's what I've decided, anyway. Just commit to it. Commit to the look. Believe in it.
SM: Is there an item you threw away – or lost – that you really miss?
PM: Oh my God, so much stuff! I've lost so many things. I regularly just stop dead in the middle of the street or in the house and think, “Fuck, where's that thing? I miss that thing.”
And maybe I've given it to a charity shop, or sold it, or just lost it. Probably lent it to a friend or left it at someone's house. So sadly, there are far too many things to count.
Maybe it's just a nice excuse to keep building the collection, you know?
SM: What’s next on your shopping list?
PM: It's a pair of parachute pants, like the old-school ones from back in the day, with the big pockets and the bits flowing off them, with the drawstring at the bottom. But I want a beige pair, and not that kind of army material. I want a huge pair, the sort of Korean-style ones that fit really nicely at the top but hang off the hips and sit quite low.
I've been scouring vintage sites. I try to buy most of my stuff vintage these days because it's better for the world, and you can find more individual pieces. I don't really like people to have the same stuff as me, and I don't particularly like having the same stuff as other people either.
I still haven't found them. Maybe it's a thankless task.
SM: What would you buy if money were no object?
PM: Ooh. I don't know. That's really hard. A big house?
I would love to increase the number of incredibly iconic ball gowns in my wardrobe. There are currently zero, so I would love some of those. But I need a house to fit them in, innit? So maybe like a five-storey townhouse with a huge walk-in wardrobe, so that I can continue to build the collection.
And then we go on a shopping spree.
