Co-written by Krysty Wilson-Cairns and Edgar Wright, Last Night in Soho is Wright’s story, and he also directs. The film follows Thomasin McKenzie, who plays a young girl named Eloise, and she’s passionate about fashion design. But London is overwhelming for her.
McKenzie had a similar experience of London, which she barely knew before taking the role as her character. “It makes an incredible setting for this film because, like Eloise, I think the whole world looks at London as being very shiny, a big city full of opportunities. Like Eloise, when I first got off the plane and started driving around, I was kind of star-struck trying to take everything in. It’s been amazing working in London because although there is a bad side, it is a magical city, and there are really incredible people.”
She can go into the past and enter the 1960s. There, she encounters her idol, Sandie, a dazzling up-and-coming singer played by Anya Taylor-Joy.
Taylor-Joy was initially “a tiny bit anxious” because she didn’t want to be pigeonholed as a horror actress because she had just finished The Witch. But she quickly realized that this was no stereotypical effort. “As he kept telling me more and more about the story, I realized that I was going to have a lot of fun with it.”
At first, both the star and director thought she might play Eloise. But by the time the script materialized, Wright had another idea, and he sent the script with a note asking the star to consider the Sandie role. “Seeing her in other roles over the years and watching her grow up in public, I thought, maybe she’s the other part,” says Wright. “I sent her an email and said, ‘I have two surprises. One, the Soho script exists. Two, I want you to look at Sandie’. She was 100% onboard.”
That’s no exaggeration to hear Taylor-Joy describe her immediate reaction to Sandie. “I enjoyed the fact that she scared me. I’ve played a lot of outsider-y type roles, and Sandie is so confident and so sure of herself as this kind of sexy kitten. When I first read it, I was like, ‘How on earth am I going to pull this off?'” Sandie is outgoing, vivacious and confident: she comes to London determined to become a star. “I think she wants to do it all!” says Taylor-Joy. “She’s an aspiring singer and actress, and dancer. She just wants to see her name up in lights. I call her ‘Brass Balls Sandie’ because she really just throws herself into every situation. I wish I had a bit more of her in me, in that respect.”
Wright is best known for directing Baby Driver, and the large cast includes Matt Smith, Jessie Mei Li, Terence Stamp and Diana Rigg.
“I would love the audience to go on that journey too when the film opens on October 29th. We purposely pushed the film back to this autumn date, not just so that it can hopefully be enjoyed on the biggest screen possible, but also so the nights would be longer and the audience could go in cold… literally.”
In the Final Production Notes, Wright also asked that anyone who sees the film doesn’t spoil it for others by telling them what happens.
