1. Smoothie In the Morning
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Kirby starts the day with a smoothie made of bananas, blueberries, lemons, oats, and almond milk. "I don't eat first thing in the morning," she says. "I used to. I always used to have a really early rye bread with avocado, but now I've gotten really into smoothies... I get really hangry, that is uncomfortable for the people around me. Super grumpy. I'll eat anything."
2. Learning To Fight
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Kirby enjoyed the physicality of her role in Fast and Furious Presents: Hobbs and Shaw. “It’s the elbow move!” she says. “The stunt team realized quite early on that my punches would knock nobody out and so they were like, ‘how are we going to make this remotely believable?’ Instead of doing a straight punch, which I tried to do badly, you rotate from the hips and use your whole body. You can’t do a follow through; you’ve got to reverb! It’s also a great dance move!”
3. Female-Led Films
Kirby loves how many more female-led movies there are being developed. “I’m really excited by that,” she says. “There are so many stories about women that haven’t been told. And it’s not about putting a woman in a male role and her playing the equivalent of the masculine alpha. Which I also can’t identify with. I don’t feel like I recognise that person, this invincible woman. I want to see women who are humans. I want to see those really raw, big journeys that [female characters] used to have. I really feel that’s my mission, to play a part in bringing that back.”
4. Playing a Princess
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Kirby is proud of her role as Princess Margaret on The Crown. “She’s this incredible mixture, this huge color palette,” she says. “She has this range, that’s what’s so fun to play. On a piano it’s all the scales. Those people are rare, especially on screen. I loved her for that. She was the strongest person, the most potent energy. Intense as hell. A major life force. Burn bright, live hard. And at the same time, underneath, like a scared little girl.”
5. Lucid Dreaming
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Kirby compares acting, and the emotional impact of the craft, with lucid dreaming. “It’s almost like lucid dreaming,” she says. “Like when you wake up from a dream and it really stays with you. You’re not sure: did that really happen, or did you just imagine it? I’ve learned to understand it. And I know how to do it without making it risky. I have boundaries and I have tools. Once you know it’s happening you can handle it.”