Asha Banks is Just Getting Started

With the release of My Fault: London, which became an instant roading success around the world. Asha Banks became a household name overnight. At just 21-year-old, this mercurial British born triple threat, actress, singer and songwriter has even conquered the West End with a role in Les Miserables. Now Banks is on a fast-track to Hollywood. Hold on tight, this rising star is about to go stratospheric.

In a time when the roles for Gen Z acting up-comers are predominantly born through either nepotism or social media strategy, Banks has a refreshingly old school trajectory to performance. ‘My mother signed me up for ballet classes every Saturday, which I hated. So, to get out of them I agreed to go with a friend to a local theatre class instead – we did an hour of singing, an hour of dancing and an hour of acting – I loved the whole thing.’ 

From there, Banks was spotted and signed by an adjoining kids agency, ‘I remember one of my first auditions was for Les Miserables in the West End, I just saw it as a day off school going with my grandmother and mother to London by train. I was 7 years old at the time and got the part, which was nuts looking back. From there it has been a domino effect and I haven’t really stopped working.’ 

Said domino effect includes a run of Orwell’s 1984 at the Almeida theatre, a 2015 UK musical tour of Annie, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory at the Theatre Royal and play productions at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, to name a few. Finding her footing first on stage has given Banks a unique grounding beyond her years, which is palpable in person and on screen, as well as an innate knack for improvisation, which she has carried with her for her two latest screen projects: the first is a BBC/Netflix adaptation of the popular teen thriller investigation books, A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder, directed by London born, Brooklyn based comedy treasure, Dolly Wells. The second is a London located feature film adaptation of Spanish writer, Mercedes Ron’s, award winning book, Culpa Mia, first published on Wattpad, and renamed for the film as My Fault: London. 

Whilst I am due to talk to her about My Fault: London (released February 13^th, Prime Video), both the feature film (Bank’s big screen debut) and the TV adaptation series, sit within the much discussed and disseminated ‘coming of age’ genre. For any readers from a pre social media time, the coming-of-age narrative has had many renditions for each generation of screen audiences: arguably, it has come to be defined by the 1995 smash hit ABC Series, My So-Called-Life, starring Claire Danes and Jared Leto, navigating the perils of teen life and love, which gripped audiences worldwide, long before the easy access of streaming services. Memorably, My-So-Called-Life worked with exposition conveyed through the introspective inner dialogue of its two central teen characters. I ask Banks her thoughts on creating coming of age films for an algorithm driven generation: ‘I think they are stories that are so loved by any generation, but social media just mirrors and elevates the stage the characters are going through,’ she muses, ‘also I am actually that coming-of-age myself, so the scripts resonated with me so much. I easily found myself and my friends in the characters, just the situations they are in are a bit pushed,’ she concedes. 

Indeed, whilst both Good Girls Guide to Murder and My Fault: London centre the coming-of-age genre, these two modern day narratives blend our timeless curiosity in the teen to adolescent stage of life with everything from crime investigation, action thriller, rom com and generational trauma drama. ‘I made a conscious decision to not watch the Spanish film version of Culpa Mia before I started filming, so I could approach my character, Noah, without preconception,’ Bank assures, ‘also this version was adapted to have Noah move from her hometown of Florida to London instead and the film and cinematography really feels like a love letter to London.’ Whilst this adaptation has been getting favourable reviews, somuch of the film’s success, undeniably, rests on the pinnacle relationship between Noah (Banks) and Nick (Matthew Broome) – one that is pitch perfect in its true-to-life arc of hate, love, electric chemistry, distance and fiery tension. So how did she manage to create chemistry through a self-tape audition? ‘Like everything nowadays, I did a self-tape first. They are not the easiest but I have got used to flirting with my mum standing behind the camera to try and create the atmosphere,’ she laughs. ‘Then I got called in to meet the two American female directors (Dani Girdwood, Charlotte Fassler) which made me completely fall in love with the role.

Next, I got asked to do the chemistry test with three actors, Matt (Broome, who plays Nick) was the first one, and to be honest up to then I hadn’t appreciated how vital the chemistry was to the film. He came in and we just immediately clicked because we are so similar, he’s become like a best friend,’ she enthuses. Broome also comes from a stage background so was happy to approach filming with improv and as if in daily rehearsals. Notably, Banks perfects an American accent throughout, more challenging to execute in improv scenes: ‘one of the most notable improv moments is the fireplace scene, one of the first we filmed. In the script, Nick just burns the tee-shirts and says a few words, so we weren’t expecting the scene to be anything but a segue into the next section with the sound off and a montage, but through improv, it became something so much more profound and allowed Matt (Broome) and I to really feel so in our characters,’ she recalls. 

Unlike the 90’s post feminism era of My-So-Called Life, which left its female lead character at the whims of the protagonist teen guy, Banks’ character Noah is given an equal power dynamic shift as Nick, throughout the duration of the film. ‘It’s a female led story with two female directors and the whole team was so excited about this strong female character not afraid to stand her ground and be sexual but who really has a head on her shoulders,’ she notes. 

Like many shapeshifters of her generation, Banks has found solace in an alternate universe, segueing into a parallel career as a singer, songwriter. Whilst she has always created a playlist to get into characters – for the Noah role, Banks created a mix of everything from Florence and the Machine, Fiona Apple, Avril Lavigne, and Wet Leg to get ‘hyped up every morning’ – post filming, Banks has used songwriting to transition from character to ‘force me back to being inside myself.’ Said songwriting lyrics became the single, ‘Feel the Rush,’ from her debut EP ‘Untie My Tongue,’ (released March 7^th), ‘I never expected the single to also feature on the credits of the film,’ laughs Banks. 

Currently she is taking the route of modern ingénue acting talent – attending the latest shows at London and Paris fashion week – and elevating her presence, whilst looking to the ‘versatile’ careers of the likes of Florence Pugh and Daisy Edgar Jones. ‘So far I have played Noah (My Fault: London), Cara (A Good Girls Guide to Murder) who feel quite close to myself so I would love to play a character further away,’ Banks enthuses.

After the extraordinary success of My Fault: London and three books in the Culpa Mia series, hopefully we will get to see a lot more of her nuanced portrayal of Noah, ” Noah and Nick are in a complicated relationship so there is definitely more to explore,” she teases.

My Fault: London is available exclusively on Prime Video. Stream Asha’s debut EP Untie My Tongue now.

@ashaabanks

Interview by Davina Catt

Photographer 

Kyle Galvin 

Stylist 

Adele Cany 

Make-up Artist 

Lisa Potter-Dixon at A Frame Agency using NARS Cosmetics 

Hair Stylist 

Davide Barbieri at A Frame Agency using Leonor Greyl