Skins Star Kaya Scodelario Shares Swimsuit Photo From Brazil

Skins star Kaya Scodelario went on a very special trip to Brazil in November, and it clearly meant a lot to the actress (who is half-Brazilian). Scodelario, who played Effy Stonem on the show, shared pictures of the experience, including one of her wearing a black swimsuit and lounging on a very zen-looking patio. “Brasil meu coração. My heart. My soul. My love. Thankful for the memories I’ve shared with my family, for the amazing food and people that we met over the last four weeks. Eu sou brasileira 🤍,” she captioned the post. Scodelario has been acting since she was a young teenager—here’s what’s next for the star.

1. Ice Skating

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Scodelario trained as an ice skater for her role on Netflix show Spinning Out. “I started from the very bottom,” she says. “I was one of those people that get on the ice rink at Christmas, and holds onto the edge. Go around two times, and then get off. I don't think I'd ever been in the middle of an ice rink before. But I had an amazing coach here in London who worked with me. I trained for an hour every day for three weeks. When I got to Toronto, we would do five to six hours a day with Sarah Kawahara, who's this incredible skate coach and choreographer. She did I, Tonya and Blades of Glory. She's scary, but in a really good way.”

2. Time’s Up

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Scodelario felt very empowered by the Times Up movement. “I requested that we have an 'intimacy coach' on the set of the Netflix series,” she says. “That's something that I would have loved to have had during Skins. I would have felt safer and more in control and empowered and able to speak up if I had been uncomfortable. I feel optimistic for my son’s generation, I just hope that we continue to keep on having the conversation.”

3. Mental Health Awareness

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Scodelario really began to relate to her Skins character when the storyline tackled mental health issues. "At the beginning, I was the opposite of Effy, I was so shy and I would never sneak out of the house, I was trying to be the grownup and to look after my mum and look after my friends," she says. "And then in the later seasons when we go into her depression, that's when I realized that I had stuff going on that I needed to address too. And I've had so many wonderful messages from people saying that it helped them understand a part of themselves or at least question a part of themselves. And those are the kind of roles I want to play. I want it to matter."

4. Motherhood and Work

Having children changed Scodelario’s way of working. “Lots of things impact me every single day,” she says. “I think that was the big realization – that every day you wake up and it’s the same kind of survival to get through to the end of the day with them and you alive. It’s just that battle, which is amazing and beautiful. I think it’s made me a much better actor; I understand the nuances of being a human so much more. My emotions feel deeper, my empathy feels deeper. My strength feels a lot stronger, like when I’m playing… action roles. My stamina has completely changed. I started working when I was a teenager, so I used to sleep 12 hours a day. Now I can have four hours’ sleep and work 18-hour days, no problem. Having a new-born will teach you that you do not need sleep.”

5. Working With Women

Scodelario loves working with women, and hopes there will be more opportunities to do so in the future. “For me personally, I work so comfortably with women,” she says. “I feel like creatively, it opens me up on a different level. I feel safe with them. I trust their vision, and I feel like the working relationship is more honest, and more level and more equal. My end goal is to produce eventually, and I want to elevate other women's stories because I've seen these great female directors I've worked with who've produced great work, and then haven't continued to. Whereas male directors I've worked with, who have been completely mediocre, get given opportunities left, right and center. So I want to be someone who can elevate women's stories for this industry because that is still a huge imbalance.”