Brooke Carter

Interview by Nolwen Cifuentes

Photography by Evelyn Freja

Styling by Emily Bogner @ Exclusive Artists

Makeup by Clarissa Luna @ Uncommon Artists

Hair by Patrick Kyle @ Tomlinson Management Group

I sat down with young actress Brooke Carter to talk about her first feature film, Netflix’s Damsel. Brooke performs alongside Millie Bobby Brown, Angela Basset and Robin Wright.

I’m a new mom of a baby girl and I’m always excited to watch films that I didn’t get to see growing up where the young girls are the drivers of their stories. Damsel opens with a powerful line — "There are many stories of chivalry where the heroic knight saves the damsel in distress. This is not one of them.” 

In a fun and action-packed adventure film, Brooke delivers a charming and spirited performance as as Floria, Elodie’s — played by Brown — innocent, younger sister.

Brooke shares with us her journey to landing this role and her experiences fighting dragons on set. From modeling and commercials to her first breakout role, we’re excited to follow Brooke’s rising career.

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Congrats on Damsel! I just watched it a few days ago and it was so much fun.

Thank you.

Tell me more about that, how did you get that job?

My agency sent me the audition, I went to London to do it. I met the casting director. There were so many girls there. And I was like, how am I ever going to get this? I got called back for the second round, and I did the same thing again. But they were recording it from different angles and telling me to do different facial expressions within the scene. And then I went back for the third time, and it was just me and this one other girl, and I was like, “You know what? I've actually got a good chance.” 

I was in school, and I got a phone call from my mom, and she's like, “You got the job.” I screamed. Everyone was looking at me.

That's so amazing. And did you get to meet Millie beforehand at all, or do any chemistry reads or anything with her?

I don't think I did do any chemistry reads with her. I think I just met her on set, on our first day.

You’re on your first feature with these powerhouse women — Angela Bassett, Robin Wright, and Millie Bobby Brown — how was it working with them?

It was the most intimidating thing at the start. I've got all these big, famous actresses around me, and I'm standing here like, “Oh, my God. Hi.” It was really intimidating. But then I got used to being around them, I was with them the majority of the time on set. It was nice to have them around because they had loads of tips and tricks.

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And then what about shooting, where did you shoot this? You said this was shot in London?

Yeah, we filmed it in London for two months, and then we filmed a month in Portugal.

There's a scene where the dragon is carrying you across the cave. How was it working with those kinds of effects? Were you in a big studio space with a blue screen? What was that like?

It was really weird because I didn't know how they were supposed to make me look like I was being carried by a dragon. It was all in this chair that was sitting in the middle of this massive stage and a green screen. It's just a green screen chair and I had to sit on it like that. And then the man in the corner just blowing air at me. The other times with the dragon, it was just this man walking around with a dragon head on a stick.

Did you have to do any rehearsal or anything like that?

We only rehearsed before we filmed the scene. We’d walk in, we’d get in hair, makeup, wardrobe. Then we’d run our lines and then go over our positions and stuff. And then we go and finish getting our hair done things, and putting on the last little accessories, and then we'd film it.

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Your character, Floria, how do you feel about her? Do you feel any common ground with her? How was it for you to find that character?

When I first got the description of Floria, I made this PowerPoint slide about how she'd react, what she'd wear in normal daily life, how she'd speak and walk, and things like that. Her favorite types of songs. And then I read through the script and I added some more bits. I took the director's perspective and added some more bits to that. I feel like I had quite a lot of connection with her because she was quite chatty. She's quite confident. But, she was also naive. I feel I'm a lot more mature than her because she believes in happily ever after, princesses, and princes. Her perspective definitely changed a lot in the end.

The PowerPoint slide, is that something you have done before? What gave you the idea to put that together?

The idea to put it together was my mom's. I didn't know how to connect with the character at first. My mom was like, “Why don't you make a slide and sort of list her favorite things down? Try and think of different ways Floria could be the same as you.” So, yeah, that was a mom idea. It was a new technique, and it definitely worked.

What was one of Floria’s favorite songs?

Her favorite song was probably Bejeweled by Taylor Swift. Quite, like, glitzy, glam, royal.

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Talk to me a little bit about how you got into acting in the first place. What brought you here?

So when I was little, I had an obsession with the show Hairspray. The film musical. When I was about two years old, I used to get on my tap shoes, and I used to have this box. I’d put it up, stick the DVD on at 6 AM, and start tap dancing away. My parents were like, we need to put this girl somewhere. They started sending me to these dance lessons and I just loved performing on stage. My mom started following my current agency now, Bonnie & Betty, and she was like, do you want her to be in your books? I did a monologue and she accepted me. And it just went from there.

How old were you then when you got signed with your agent?

I was five years old.

Wow, so you've been doing it a long time. And in the beginning, what kind of work were you going out for? Was it mostly TV, commercials, film?

In the beginning, I was doing modeling, and then I did adverts, and then I started to get small roles in TV shows.

You were just in New York for the premiere. How was that? What’s your experience been doing press and the premieres?

This is my first big, proper premiere. At the New York premiere, I had this stunning dress, one of my favorite dresses I've ever worn. I went on the red carpet, and I had all these photographers shouting at me, and I was like, what do I do? I was like, smile away. Just smile and wave. And any time I wasn’t smiling, my lip was quivering, and I could feel my knee twitching the whole time. Then we went on to all the interviews and they went really well. I was a little bit nervous, so I went off on a little bit of a tangent on most of them, but other than that, it was such a great experience because I got to meet so many different people working on different TV shows.

What has the reception been like for this movie? Does it feel like things have shifted in your life?

Yeah, I mean, obviously my social media platforms have taken off. It's a bit weird when I'm walking around school and people are like, “Oh, my God, that's the girl from Netflix. Oh, my gosh. She plays this in this movie”, and I'm like, oh, they know who I am. But, I think coming back home, it hasn't really been too different, which is good, because I don't know how I'd handle it all.

What would be your dream job? Or is there an actor or director you really want to work with?

I would love to do a teen high school movie. Have you ever watched To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before on Netflix?

Oh yeah, I loved it.

I'd love to do something like that, like middle school drama. As for actors I'd love to work with, there is quite a lot. I met the main kid in Avatar at the premiere. He's such a good actor in Avatar. He's definitely one I'd love to work with at one point.

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