Wonderland caught up with the British Independent Film Awards nominee to talk all things Bird — Andrea Arnold’s coming-of-age fantasy-drama starring Barry Keoghan and Franz Rogowski.
Nykiya Adams was in science class when she got a text from her agent telling her she’d been nominated for a British Independent Film Award. “My friends Flo and Saul read it and started screaming. I was so shocked I went to my best friend Betsy’s class and told her. She was so excited for me,” she tells me. At just 14, Adams is living what feels like a real-life coming-of-age script—breaking into the industry following her critically acclaimed role in Andrea Arnold’s Bird, stepping into the spotlight, navigating her first festival circuit from London to Cannes, and, all the while, simply being a… teenager.
“It doesn’t really make a difference to me,” she says, when I ask what it feels to be walking on a red carpet one day, and back to school on the other. “I think having a part of normality in life is important because after everything, I would always look forward to going back to school and seeing my friends.” We connect days after our first encounter, an evening at London’s One Hundred Shoreditch, where a stellar lineup of rising talents gathered to celebrate their nominations at this year’s BIFA’s.
Whilst most 14-year-olds are preoccupied with GCSE prep, Adams is in the running for Breakthrough Performance for her role as Bailey in Arnold’s highly anticipated fantasy-drama, a character she would describe as “a lost teenager that wants an answer to everything,” and where she gets to share screen time with industry heavyweights Barry Keoghan and Franz Rogowski. “My relationship with Bailey was strong, I could relate to her,” Adams says with a conviction that speaks to her on-screen brilliance. It’s less about method acting and more about an innate, unshakeable wisdom. “[I relate] to her feeling that she isn’t heard enough, and is always trying to find ways to help everyone.”
Bird is another social-realist masterpiece in Andrea Arnold’s portfolio, following the trajectory of 2009’s Fish Tank and 2016’s American Honey. Set in North Kent, where Arnold herself grew up, the film centres on Nykiya Adams’ Bailey and her coming-of-age journey. “When I think of [her], the words that come to mind are ‘lost’ and ‘hope,’” she tells me.
When we meet Bailey, the 12-year-old is living in a graffiti-covered unit on a council estate with her older, half-step brother Hunter (Jason Buda) and her father, Bug—played by Saltburn’s Barry Keoghan—in a dynamic that’s “more sibling than parent.” And with a very different taste in music, too. Bug is an extravagant, volatile, free-spirited man, utterly covered in tattoos, and a self-described Colorado-toad-charmer—he serenades the creature with Coldplay’s “Yellow”, hoping it’ll secrete hallucinogenic saliva that could make him rich.
Bailey embodies every child forced to learn life by living it. She’s known violence, injustice, and abandonment from such a young age that there’s a disarming softness in the way she navigates her still-forming traumas. Angry, toughened, and lonely, she remains guarded—until she meets Bird (Franz Rogowski), a kilt-wearing man with an accent who crosses her path and asks for her help in finding his lost family.
“The first time Bailey met Bird was the first time I met Franz [Rogowski], so the reaction was as raw as possible,” says Adams. “But while Bailey was getting used to him, so was I, so it was just normal instincts.” On Arnold’s set, organic experiences form the core of the filming process. Keoghan mentioned during a Cannes press conference that he “wasn’t given a script, or anything like that”—a testament to the “confidence and belief” he had in the filmmaker. The same approach applies to Adams, who stepped onto set with her parents by her side, ready for whatever lay ahead but without knowing exactly what that would look like. “My mindset going onto this film was just: don’t give up and give your all,” she says. “I didn’t know what I was doing until the day of the shoot, and only sometimes I would get the script the night before. My mum would always say to me, ‘It’s not you, it’s Bailey.’ So I just did it and gave it my all.”
Truth be told, Nykiya had a lot to adjust to going into this project—she’s not exactly a film person, and on school days, you’ll usually find her “out and about or playing football with my friends.” She did, however, think growing up that being an actor could be cool. “I’ve always wanted to be famous in some sort of way because it brings me joy that people actually recognise you and appreciate your work. But I never thought it would be me on the big screen,” she adds. “If you had asked me two years ago what I wanted to be, it would probably be a footballer or a PE teacher.”
When Adams was invited to audition for Bird by Andrea Arnold’s casting director, Lucy Pardee, she was just having a normal day at school. “Something was going on in my school, and I went over, and the crowd parted. Lucy Pardee came up to me and asked if I wanted to go to a workshop,” she remembers. “I said ‘yeah,’ and so did all my friends, and we all screamed, ‘We’re gonna be in a film!!!’”
Her days on set were filled with laughter and casual chats, a “much less strict environment” than she had imagined. She also formed new connections, including a special bond with Keoghan, who encouraged her to always “be herself.” In Bird, Bailey undergoes a dramatic homemade hair transformation—a bold, liberating moment for a rebellious 12-year-old character, but a daunting experience for a teenager. “It’s one of my favourite memories, when I first cut my hair and Barry [Keoghan] started cutting his own too, and he said to me, ‘It’s only hair,’” she remembers. “It brought me a lot of joy.”
Bird turns out to be a wild, heartfelt, and head-turning experience—a piece of art that lingers in one’s psyche and makes you question how our emotions shape the way we navigate life. What’s fantasy, and what’s reality? Where are the lines between escapism and self-protection? Is Bird an imaginary friend to Bailey? A miracle? Before we part ways, I can’t help but pick Adams’ brain and ask if she’s solved the film’s final, open-ended enigma—a selfish and, in hindsight, embarrassingly simplistic question from someone still tangled in the story’s layers. “I think that’s for the viewers to decide and use their imagination,” she says without hesitation. Suddenly, I’m the one left feeling juvenile.
Nykiya Adams is a breath of fresh air in a crowded industry. She’s confidently not dwelling on the mystery like the rest of us. In her free time, she’s going on walks with a playlist full of Fontaines D.C. and Arctic Monkeys. She’s never been into birdwatching, but she’s keen on keeping her social media game balanced. “I’m not chronically online, nor low-key. I’m somewhere in the middle.” Yes, she wants to continue acting and is open to any roles, but what excites her most about 2025 is “her sister’s 16th birthday and my birthday.” It doesn’t get much better than that.
Photography by Dillon Rana
Words by Sofia Ferreira