The breakout talent of the espionage caper The Phoenician Scheme sits down with Yasmin Omar to discuss working with Wes Anderson and crying at Cannes.
‘Not in my wildest dreams did I ever think that I would be walking up those very big, very scary red steps,’ gushes Mia Threapleton, eyes wide and hands gesticulating furiously as she remembers her Cannes Film Festival experience. ‘Surreal is the best word to describe it.’ She was there less than a week ago, walking the carpet in a jewel-toned Alexander McQueen gown for the world premiere of The Phoenician Scheme, Wes Anderson’s madcap comedy in which she stars as a withering noviciate nun.
The film, which played in competition, marks Threapleton’s first lead movie role. She was clearly taken aback by The Phoenician Scheme’s warm reception at the festival, and was caught on camera with tears streaming down her cheeks during the extended standing ovation. What was going through her mind at that moment? ‘It all felt incredibly overwhelming,’ she admits, in that endearingly earnest way of hers. ‘I was just waiting for someone to pinch me and go, “Sorry, this was a dream.” I’m still slightly afraid that someone’s going to tell me it was all a massive joke.’
Such a statement is typical of Threapleton, who’s humble to the point of self-deprecation. This is an actor who, upon learning she’d been cast in Anderson’s movie, made her agent call his team back to double-check they hadn’t made a mistake. For an ingénue, she feels unusually attuned to the precariousness of the business, which might be because she grew up adjacent to it. As anyone who watches The Phoenician Scheme will observe – given their striking physical and vocal resemblance – Threapleton is the daughter of Kate Winslet.
The rising star is quick to point out that she forged her own path in the industry. Aged 15, Threapleton signed up to open-casting websites to secure auditions, though ‘nothing came about’. A few years later, portraying the title character in her school production of The Three Lives of Lucie Cabrol, she was shocked to discover that a talent scout had been in attendance. ‘They got through to me and said, “I saw you doing this play. You don’t know who I am but this isn’t a scam. If you’re serious about doing this I’d really like to represent you,”’ she explains. Threapleton insisted she finish her A Levels (‘if it didn’t work out, I’d have a backup plan’), and landed her professional debut a month after sitting her final exam.
I Am... Ruth (2022)
Her CV thus far has been modest – but promising. She earned a string of rave reviews for her turn in 2022’s BAFTA-winning I Am… Ruth, an entirely improvised TV drama about teenage Freya navigating a social media-induced mental-health crisis, where every iPhone shutter click feels like a gunshot. Threapleton authentically inhabits this struggling adolescent, self-hatred peeking out from behind a sullen moue until she launches it angrily at her well-intentioned but clueless mother (Winslet). That she holds her own opposite Winslet is a feat in and of itself, only bolstered by the fact that her small-screen follow-up, The Buccaneers (2023–), shows a completely different side of her.
An adaptation of the unfinished Edith Wharton novel, it’s a sugary, ahistorical confection, garnished with Phoebe Bridgers needle-drops and hot-pink poodles, that explores how a group of young women play the 19th-century marriage market. Where I Am… Ruth’s Freya is emotionally open, Threapleton’s Buccaneers character Lady Honoria is a buttoned-up – or, rather, laced-up – British aristocrat who is gradually undone by the free-spirited American Mabel (Josie Totah), with whom she begins a clandestine affair. Their queer romance became a fan-favourite storyline of the show, which returns for a second season in June. Threapleton promises the new episodes will include plenty of ‘japes, laughs and excitement’. ‘For all those who want to know about Honoria and Mabel…’ she teases, ‘it’s lovely. And we’ll leave it there!’
The Buccaneers (2023–)
Threapleton is an important, but decidedly supporting, member of The Buccaneers ensemble (indeed, she’s eighth-billed in the dreamy opening-credits sequence). In The Phoenician Scheme, by contrast, she’s a key player in a sprawling Andersonian ensemble that includes industry titans Tom Hanks, Scarlett Johansson, Bill Murray, Bryan Cranston and Willem Dafoe. There may have been big names on set, but there were no big egos. ‘Wes is the best captain of any ship. He leads with so much love and care,’ says Threapleton. ‘There’s no hierarchy, no trailers. You’re in it together with one common purpose.’ Arriving at Berlin’s Studio Babelsberg for the three-month shoot, she was ‘very nervous’. She needn’t have been. ‘When I walked into lunch on the first day, the camera team gave me this big hug,’ she says, miming being embraced. ‘They went, “We’re all here. We’ve got you. You’re safe. We’ll catch you.”’
The Phoenician Scheme (2025)
Staying at the same hotel, the cast and crew quickly formed a community. They had ‘Lunch Club’ every day, when they would eat their sandwiches together on little pop-up picnic tables, and Threapleton would valiantly try to forget that Hanks was the voice of Woody while he regaled stories about working on Saving Private Ryan (1998). There was also a film library for people to check out movies to watch, then discuss them; and, on warm days, Threapleton would head out to a nearby lake with the team for a swim. ‘It was the most unbelievable atmosphere, and I never felt unwelcome.’ She loved being on set so much that she hid under tables and behind plant pots on days she wasn’t shooting – just to be there and drink it all in. ‘I really did learn something new every day. I feel very lucky that I had that experience,’ she says, sincerely. Threapleton is a remarkably present conversationalist, her gaze unwavering as she recalls the whirlwind that has been her past few months.
With Wes Anderson on set
Before The Phoenician Scheme went into production, the rising star undertook a level of research that impressed her co-star Benicio del Toro. (‘She was just prepared, like a veteran.’) To flesh out her character Sister Liesl – an upstanding nun who’s coaxed out of the convent by her racketeering multimillionaire father (del Toro) – she consulted the Bible and pored over ‘anything with Catholic connections’ when she went to Rome for costume fittings. Like all Wes Anderson movies, the film necessitates a very mannered, non-naturalistic form of acting. Threapleton ably taps into this frequency, keeping her face largely expressionless, her affect largely flat, then tossing out zingers with a cutting, bone-dry humour. It’s very effective and, once again, significantly departs from her previous roles.
The Phoenician Scheme (2025)
Now Threapleton is the toast of Cannes, she’s looking ahead to the future. Working with Anderson had been a bucket-list dream ever since she scrawled it in her diary as a 13-year-old. The filmmakers she’d like to collaborate with next include everyone from Sandra Hüller (‘I have watched Anatomy of a Fall [2023] so many times, and I still do not understand how she managed to do what she did’) to Hans Zimmer and Jodie Foster. ‘I’m fizzing thinking about it!’ she says, impassioned. ‘Oh, it’s just so bright and technicolour. I really hope that I get to keep being surrounded by like-minded, creative individuals with a common goal to tell versatile, amazing stories. I want to walk through that technicolour palette a little bit more.’ Thanks to her work in The Phoenician Scheme, a rainbow of opportunity should be shining down on Mia Threapleton.
WATCH THE PHOENICIAN SCHEME IN CINEMAS
