A shining star in the film industry, Imogen Waterhouse graces our screens once more, starring in the highly anticipated AppleTV+ series The Buccaneers. Releasing three stellar episodes last week, the show has received wide acclaim already. The hit series is based on Edith Wharton’s final novel of the same name. Imogen plays the role of Jinny St. George, a fun-loving, all star American girl, who finds herself transported into the tightly corseted London season of the 1870s.

Delving into themes of the “traditional” woman of the time alongside extensive multi-layered storyline that unfolds across the series, Imogen takes on the role with complete grace and style. We had the pleasure of sitting down with the star to discuss how 2023 has treated her, the whirlwind of The Buccaneers and what 2024 has in the pipeline…

Read the exclusive interview below…

Hey Imogen! How are you? How has 2023 treated you?
Hello! I’m okay, really can’t complain. It’s gone very quickly. 2023 has felt globally very heavy with everything going on but on a personal level it’s been grounding in many ways.

Talk to me a bit about the early days. How did your acting career first start?
Probably when I became a middle child and realised it was a valid way of getting attention. Joking… I think? But I’ll let the vibrant ticketed nativity plays I’d direct with my siblings at Christmas to perform for my granny speak for themselves. In terms of actual work, I was an extra in a movie which was my first taste of the industry. I was lucky enough to meet with an agent after pretending that I had a big role in the film and they took me on before it came out. I think you see half of my face for a few seconds looking at a menu. But it put me on the road to where I am now, so very thankful for those agents taking a chance on me.

Congratulations on your role in AppleTV+ series The Buccaneers! What has this experience been like?
Thanks, it’s been quite the whirlwind of corsets and bustles. Honestly, I wasn’t really sure what to expect when going into it. We were filming up in Scotland in some truly beautiful locations and some very grand haunty stately homes – the sets were major – so we were removed from the bubbles of our daily lives and immersed in the project. We worked with three different directors over the eight episodes, and each brought their own flavour to it which I think you can see throughout the series which I like. The shoot was over 6 months so we all got to know each other very well, I really loved everyone and it was a very supportive and funny cast which is a huge bonus.

What does it mean to you to play Jinny St. George?
I really felt for Jinny when I was playing her. She’s this young woman who’s fallen for all of society’s traps and really believes the fairy-tale to a fault. There’s this immense pressure to perform and to be perfect and when things don’t go her way, she can’t really handle the feeling of failure- it holds a mirror up to all of her insecurities (that lie very close to the surface.) And when her insecurities come out, and oh they do- it can be in a really thoughtless way to those closest to her. Jinny has the mindset of “when I do x y z, I’ll be happy” which is a trap she quickly finds herself in and she goes a long way to try and appear that all is wonderful on the surface level even when she is in a coercive relationship.

I also sympathised with her naiveté; she’s young with such little experience, and thrust into a marriage with great expectations only to be met with the reality of what it means to marry, in Jinny’s case, a very nasty and controlling man, one who holds all the power. I think that’s something a lot of young women can relate to, losing their voice to an older man. So yeah, she’s a little uptight and a little catty at times, but it’s a mask for the inner turmoil! It’s a projection. So I was always finding ways to justify her actions based on her inner life and tried to play her from a place of understanding.

How do you get into character when portraying Jinny?
It depended on where Jinny was in her story arc. As the episodes go on Jinny learns more about the world around her, in a world she’d once dreamed of but the bigger it becomes the smaller and more isolated she becomes. Jinny’s deeply goal driven and there’s a lot at stake to accomplish these goals. So I created my own narratives around Jinny’s situations to justify her actions using my own ideas around goals and what it means to be “successful.”

I love playing Jinny but sometimes it could be tiring being inside her head. I’d be thinking the thoughts she would think like “I’m a bad wife, I’ve failed, my friends hate me, my mother hates me, I deserve this kind of love” etc until it transformed into a sort of numbness that carries her through her marriage. A dissociation that is used as a survival technique for her. I’d sit in my trailer and listen to sad music quite a lot!

What has it been like playing a role within a period piece? How did you prepare for it?
The costumes and sets do a lot of that heavy lifting for you. Obviously the show is a modern take on period so it didn’t feel overly constricting in terms of the etiquette and intricacies. The American girls aren’t supposed to know the in’s and out’s of how the English conducted themselves- so that kind of worked. Corsets are hell and it’s no wonder every woman in a renascence painting is lying down with a hand on her forehead – they were made to constrict women in every way. You can’t really eat properly the food sort of gets stuck and don’t even think about running because you can’t catch your breath. It was peak summer when we filmed the Debutante ball scene and all the girls playing debutantes were struggling not to faint- so it really did feel like that’s what it must of been like. Was always a joy to put on my baggies after a day of shooting.

Josie (who plays Mabel) and I went to visit Edith Wharton’s house in Massachusetts on a SAG-strike-induced trip to the Berkshires. This was after filming, but we got a good sense that to be a Victorian woman – even one with money – was kind of a bummer. It was cool to see how much of her writing was influenced by her own life, which was actually pretty fruity! She definitely broke a lot of the rules and had more fun than most.

What has been the biggest learning for you being a part of this production?
It’s made me so appreciate female friendships in my own life – the complexities and the richness of them. Despite all the ups and downs Jinny and the girls go through, they do ultimately have each other’s backs. I have so much softness for my younger self seeing through the eyes of Jinny because we’ve all made choices we’re not proud of or thought we were older than we were at one time or another. As humans we’re all fallible and can only hope to learn from mistakes. I hope to take that sense of growing and learning along with me to future sets I work on and approach characters in that very nuanced way so that the story is always from a place of truth.

What is one thing you would tell your younger self starting out your career?
I’d say let go of the outcome and just enjoy the journey and getting to do what you love. Nothing’s a given. A lot of stuff you do will probably be quite whack and some you’ll be really proud of but at least you’re doing it, that’s something to celebrate. And once you’ve finished shooting- detach from the character, you are not her and she is not you. And don’t read things about yourself online!

If you could change one thing within the industry, what would it be and why?
It would be cool to see more productions taking risks on and investing in lesser-known creatives, in all forms and on every level. It feels like we’re at a place where the industry is influenced more by the corporate politics and less by the creatives which is a bummer. It would be great to see producers and studios not just depending on having a “star” to green-light a project. That goes in front of the camera and behind it! Indie films seem to be having a bit of a moment and I love that- European cinema as well always seems to be doing interesting stuff. I think there’s a lot more room for freedom and it’s less about having to tick a list of specific criteria, which is the purest form of filmmaking. It takes it back to basics where the work speaks for itself.

What do you wish to experiment with within your profession?
I love all aspects of filmmaking. I was on a show for a couple of years and spent a lot of time watching the directors and how they conducted scenes. I took the leap from thinking “I think I could do this” to being given that opportunity and thinking “I’m actually quite good at this” after directing a couple of episodes of the show. I adored being on the other side of the camera and seeing things I had visualised come to life in front of my very eyes! It really lit a spark in me. I can’t wait to do more of that in whatever form it might be. Been squirrelling away trying to write something worthy of the screen- stay tuned.

What is 2024 looking like for you? Can you share any new projects in the pipeline?
Great question, honestly I’d love to know. It’s all up in the air right now but there is a lot I’d love to get going on!

The Buccaneers is now streaming on Apple TV+.