Filmmaker Andrea Arnold has developed a well-earned reputation for finding incredible, undiscovered talent and placing them centre stage in her feature films. From Katie Jarvis in Fish Tank to Sasha Lane in American Honey , these new actors have become the beating heart of Arnold’s narratives. The real-life experience they bring and their compelling and unmannered performances are crucial to the realism Arnold has become known for, and it’s vital to her latest cinematic venture, Bird , too.

Bird follows Bailey (Nykiya Adams), a 12-year-old loner who lives with her single dad Bug (Barry Keoghan) and older brother Hunter (Jason Buda) in a squat in Gravesend, England. Bug doesn’t have much time for his kids and leaves them to their own devices the majority of the time. As Hunter deals with drama in his relationship, an on-the-edge-of-puberty Bailey sets out to find attention and adventure elsewhere—all while attempting to take responsibility for the well-being of her other half-siblings.

That Shelf’s Managing Editor Emma Badame spoke with the film’s two young stars, Adams and Buda, earlier this fall about how they got involved in the project and what it was like working with both Arnold and co-star Keoghan. Read the interview below now:

That Shelf: Andrea Arnold seems to have this knack for finding new great talent for the leads in her films, and Bird is no exception. Can you talk a bit about how you both got involved with her and with the film?

Jason Buda: Andrea’s casting director, Lucy Pardee, came around schools in and around Essex, looking for kids who would suit a role in a movie. I was told that it was a theatre movie thing. That’s how they put it. So I had no clue that it would get to this point and be such a big movie. But that’s how they cast it, basically.

Nykiya Adams:
Lucy came to my school and went straight to the drama department, asking if we had anyone that would suit this role. The first time they came, they were told my sister could do it, my older sister. But they were so sorry: “She’s just literally out of the age [range] that we need”. [So the department was like], “Oh, we’ve got a younger sister!” They weren’t even looking for me. I literally walked through the crowd and Lucy came over to me. She goes, “I want you to come to this workshop that we have on Thursday,” and I was like, “yeah, why not?” So all my friends went, and I went too. So we’re all just sitting there [on the Thursday] in the drama room when Lucy picks me and my friend to answer a few questions: “What’s your name? What’s your age and when’s your birthday?” So we answered that and then, I got a call back.

I told my mom about it. Then I kept on getting call back after call back after call back until it was down to the last two. They said it would take a week for us to hear the final result. When two weeks has passed, we figured I didn’t get the role. So we just carried on with our life. Then my mom got a call from Lucy who said, “Nykiya has got the role”. I wasn’t there, I was in school and I had my football finals. So I finally came home and saw they had got me a massive congratulations balloon, and I thought it was for my football finals, but it wasn’t. So then I opened the card and read it. There were already tears in my eyes because I lost my finals. So I was staring at the card and it said, “congratulations, you’ve been selected for this part in the film”. I dropped the card and I just started screaming. It was a crazy experience.

That Shelf: That takes the sting out of the football loss a bit! What was it like to work with Andrea once you started working with her and in developing your characters? What director is she to work with?

Adams: She’s a wonderful director. The way she thinks and the way she plays things out is just so smart and beautiful. I think if all directors could work like Andrea, they should. I think that’s what makes her one of the best directors to work with. She’s so different.

Buda: Yeah. She’s a very unique director, and I love that nobody works like her. She’s just basically one in a million. No one can get close to her.

TS: Both your characters, Bailey and Hunter, live quite chaotic lives. There’s little guidance, little direction in how they lead their day-to-day lives. Can you talk a bit about their relationship and how they interact with each other?

Adams: Bailey is not really an affectionate person. So when she compliments her brother, it’s not something you’d generally see as a compliment. It’s just like, “Oh, you’re this, you’re that”. She’s not the type of person to open up to her older brother or to make herself look weak to him. I think really instead of being nice to him, she’ll just leave him alone. Her way of giving love is giving people space.

Buda: I don’t think Bailey is ever nice to Hunter, to be honest. I think she just stares at me most of the time. And I think there was always bickering between them. Hunter really thinks of Bailey as that annoying little sister that always follows him around.

TS: Even amongst the chaos, they have this really almost regular sibling relationship in that way. Their common bond, though, is their dad, who jut acts like a really big kid. They have to be more adult than he is most of the time. What has their life been like with Bug and how did you work with Barry Keoghan to bring those relationships to screen?

Adams: I think their life with Bug is just chaotic because his is just a massive kid. I think sometimes the two of them need to work together to show him that he’s the adult and that they can’t keep up with everything as kids. Working with Barry was one of the best experiences because he’s such a wonderful person to be around. When you talk to him, you just understand everything. He just sees things from your perspective and it’s just so easy to understand him. He’s such a nice person.

Buda: Bug is definitely a big child, and we have to be more adult than him at certain times. And it’s chaotic because obviously he’s a drug lord, and we just have to live with that. I think Hunter is following in his footsteps, just trying to be like him in a way. And working with Barry: We had a sibling bond going on, and really understood each other, since we both come from Dublin. So that really helped with building the relationship in Hunter and Bug.

TS: Music is a big part of the film, too. To Bug’s character, in particular, he just wants music all the time, so it’s a constant presence in their life. Do you find music and things like that helpful when you were trying to get into character? How do you use things like music or costumes or those external things to help you?

Buda: Definitely. Five to 10 minutes before we would start shooting, I’d take myself away from cast and crew, and it would just be me and my phone. I’d just listen to songs that would help me get in the mood for that specific scene. For example, if it were a violent scene or a scene where Hunter would need energy, then I would listen to music that would give me energy. Or if I’d have an emotional scene, then I’d listen to emotional songs.

Adams: With Bailey, I didn’t need music to get into the zone. I was just her. If not, then I was just Nykiya. So there was no in between or getting stuck, bringing Bailey’s attitude home. I would just always leave her on set. From the time someone yells, “cut”, that’s it. You’re not part of it.

TS: Bailey’s very solitary. You said that she’s not a physically affectionate person and space is what she gives people, but she has a lot of space herself because she’s on her own so much of the time. Hunter is caught up in his own drama, so she doesn’t have anybody to turn to. Then Bird appears. What do you think Bird represents to her, and how do you think he helps her?

Adams: I think Bird helps her a lot. I think he’s her guardian angel. He guides her to the right and wrong things. He can’t help physically remove her from the situation, so he teaches her ways to get out of it herself. When Bird sees her try and deal with her pain, and with all the young kids too, he realizes that she is trying to be the hero of every story. If things don’t go her way, then that’s it. She has to make it go her way. I think he takes her away from that and makes her realize not everything has to happen in your way.

TS: The film has a number of incredibly powerful scenes, and not just with Bird. The scenes with Bailey and Skate (James Nelson-Joyce), her mother’s abusive boyfriend, are so tense. What were those scenes like to film? Were they the most difficult scenes to do or were there other, more challenging ones?

Adams: The most challenging scene was when both of us got our hair cut, wasn’t it?

Buda: It was, yeah.

Adams: It was just a big change. My hair used to be long. It’s long now, but it was before, too. I was just sitting there in the chair thinking, “there’s no going back now”. And I remember straight after, I ran off the set, ran to my bed and started crying.

Buda: I think we both wouldn’t have anything else changed but the hair cut.

Adams: But I think now, it’s just a big learning curve.

TS:  It’s your first big feature experience. You’ve spent all of this time doing it, and then you finally get to see it on the big screen with audiences. What’s that been like?

Buda: I couldn’t really believe it. I had been waiting to see the movie maybe 6 to 8 months. And when it actually happened, I just sat in Cannes watching and started to get really emotional. It was a shock to me. I was just getting waves and waves of nostalgia, and that’s what really made me emotional.

Adams: Yeah, I can relate. I’m not a really emotional person. So watching the film back, I was just proud of myself and proud of the way the film turned out. I’m just really so proud of myself and Jason for doing this.

Buda: I’d say I’m not really an emotional person either, but when it comes to things I’m very passionate about, then you might see me shed a tear.

TS: Bird is a drama, but it’s not just a drama. There are fantasy elements, too. Like the Guardian Angel piece you talked about, or indeed however you view that. How would you describe the movie to people?

Adams: I’d describe it as odd. It’s realistic, but it’s not realistic at the same time. I think it’s a big life lesson. I also think Andrea showed parts of Kent, like Gravesend, as it is. It’s not filtered down, it’s full on how it is and what Bailey has to deal with–she’s trying to get out of there or trying to get along with the reality of being there. I think that the film does a good job of representing gang violence in areas like that and how children there are being brought up in a different way to others. The less fortunate ones. Jason and I are very fortunate for this opportunity that Andrea has given us. People have paid millions of pounds to go to acting schools and can’t get roles like these.

Buda: We’re very lucky, very lucky, and we’re very grateful.

And like Nykiya has said, Bird is not filtered at all. That’s what Andrea does so well in nearly all of her movies. She really shows this reality, which I’d say we don’t really see much in movies. In American Honey , she showed a group of young adults trying to make money what that was like going all over America. And here, in Bird , she showed a 12-year-old’s story and how she deals with her life and with puberty. I just love the way Andrea works and what her movies show us.

—–

(This interview has been edited for length and clarity).

Bird is out now in select Canadian theatres.