The post Outsider appeared first on Wonderland.

First thing you would do if you were PM? Get rid of parking tickets!

Where did you grow up? Hertfordshire.

Favourite comfort food? Salt and vinegar chipsticks.

Earliest childhood memory? My dad and my grandad teaching me how to water ski when I was about four or five, with a tiny pair of red and yellow Daffy Duck skis.

Dream dinner party guests? David Brent, the cast of Bridesmaids, Paul Rudd, my nan and Kenny G for some sweet saxophone sounds.

Last dream you had? I dreamt I’d just got a new spaniel puppy. Gutted when I woke up and I didn’t.

Worst date you’ve ever been on? It was a cinema date – we went to see Moulin Rouge – and it was all going great until I panicked and had to leave because I thought I had the disease Nicole Kidman has in the movie. Tuberculosis. Wasn’t even possible!

Your greatest fear? My family getting hurt.

Worst personality trait? I’m very indecisive!

Most expensive thing you’ve ever bought? Erm… My house.

Producer Seona Taylor-Bell
Video Kiel Devalera

Look 1: Multicoloured leather skirt by HOUSE OF HOLLAND and pink shirt Laura’s own
Look 2: Patterned kilt by J.W. ANDERSON at HARVEY NICHOLS and ‘Team Azzedine’ T-shirt by LESPLUS DORES NYC at BROWNS
Look 3: Patterned dungarees by MOSCHINO CHEAP & CHIC and sweater by CARHARTT

The post In Profile: Laura Haddock appeared first on Wonderland.

We love it when celebrities, shiny things and fierce animals collide. So Jaime Winstone and Ash Stymest posing with a life-sized tiger head sculpture, encrusted with 35,000 Swarovski crystals? Believe us when we say this photoshoot by Louie Banks hits all our buttons.

But there’s a great story behind it too. British artist Lauren Baker, better known for her mosaic work with animal skulls, made ‘Crystal Tiger’ for Save Wild Tigers, a charity that raises conservation funds for one of the world’s most magnificent big cats. Enter Jaime Winstone to sprinkle a little bit of stardust onto an already glittery project.

“I love tigers so this is an amazing project to be involved in,” Winstone said. “Lauren Baker’s sculpture is so powerful – she does justice to the majestic creature. It’s down to our generation to save wild tigers.”

There are only 3,500 tigers left in the wild – in fact, wild tigers could become extinct within 10 years due to deforestation, urbanization and the illegal trade of tiger parts.

But this particular story, at least has a happy ending. The artwork was auctioned on 21st March after being exhibited in Asia House and bought by Elaine and Chris Fairfax of pet insurance firm Animal Friends for £10,500.

Check out the pictures below.

www.savewildtigers.org

The post Jaime Winstone and Ash Stymest want to save the tigers appeared first on Wonderland.

“I’m quite embarrassed to tell you this and have you write it in an article and have people look at it,” Willa Holland is telling me over the phone from Vancouver, laughing and talking in a rush like we’re in the back row at school. Her secret? She sings and plays ukulele on the soundtrack to the new Spike Jonze skateboarding film, Pretty Sweet. “It’s seriously such a rough edit; it’s insane. I couldn’t believe he put it on iTunes. I was like, ‘Are you kidding? Oh my god!’ My voice sounds so bad.”

This isn’t exactly the confession I was expecting from a polished starlet who’s been acting and modeling for high-end brands since the age of seven, encouraged by family friend Steven Spielberg and introduced to agencies by her stepdad Brian de Palma, who directed Scarface and Mission: Impossible. Holland’s made her name playing a string of troublemaking teens – she wreaked havoc on The O.C. for two seasons as Marissa Cooper’s little sister Kaitlin – and now she’s playing another angsty party girl on Arrow, the CW series based on DC comic book Green Arrow. But, despite being sick with food poisoning (she’ll never send out for Chinese food on set again, she vows), she’s as sunny and thoughtful as her best-known characters are sulky and reckless.

“I do get called an old soul a lot,” she says. “I think that living in Hollywood my whole life has helped hone that. I’ve dealt with a lot in my 21 years.” Born to an actress and a cinematographer, she grew up on movie sets, and while she was excited about working in the business as a kid, she also says that she “wasn’t really aware what i was getting myself into”. At 14, when she became part of The O.C.’s ensemble, she could relate closely to her rule-breaking, attention-seeking character. “I think I was right there in that stage of life where Kaitlin was,” she admits. “It was very obvious to me why I got cast in that role at that time.”

During breaks from The O.C. she worked on other jobs, “so it’s not like I really had a summer,” and when the show finished a couple of years later her gruelling schedule continued. she flew straight to Italy to play Colin Firth’s daughter in the michael Winterbottom film Genova, and then bounced around London, Sweden, Louisiana and Mexico making films of varying quality and success with the likes of Susan Sarandon, Paul Bettany and Ray Liotta. more recently, she had a recurring part on Gossip Girl as a bratty model and played the lead in a film adaption of the Judy Blume novel Tiger Eyes. “I was literally non-stop for three or four years from about [the age of] 14 to about 18, 19,” she says, “and then right before I turned 20 I was like, ‘I need a break.'”

She took a year’s sabbatical “to figure some things out” and try her hand at some new hobbies. “I spent a lot of time putting myself back into being a kid again. I [had been] forcing myself to grow up a lot.” Every weekend, she’d drive to San Diego, where a gang of her high-school friends

were living, and “we would go skate every day, I’d take photos every day, we’d play music all night, and barbecue, be together, have good times, and it was just awesome. There was no care in the world for a little while.”

‘Pretty Sweet Song’ came out of this period, and it’s a lot better than she’s making out. She speak-sings lines such as “I used to think my troubles were life-long” and “it’s a bitter life but pretty sweet” in a world-weary sigh that evokes hazy, hungover afternoons in LA. (She asks me to mention that the “Euro-pop kind of vibe” the Italian producers added to the track wasn’t her idea, though.) Since then, she’s been working on some covers and original songs that she’s planning to put on Soundcloud, and, while Twitter and Facebook “scare the hell” out of her, she has also been sharing some of her photography on Instagram, posting dramatic skyscapes and snapshots of friends.

Idyllic as that year off was, as Holland sighs, “you can’t live like that forever,” and she’s currently filming the second half of Arrow’s first season, and enjoying the daily routine of a TV set. Her character, Thea Queen, is turned from a brainbox into a rebellious socialite when her playboy brother disappears for five years. After he unexpectedly returns (and becomes a green-hooded vigilante by night) he becomes protective of her, and they butt heads. Many hints suggest that Thea, a character who was never in the Green Arrow comics, is destined to become the superhero’s bow-toting sidekick Speedy (move over, Katniss Everdeen) but holland says she hasn’t done any fight training yet. “We want to develop the characters for a nice length of time,” is the way she puts it, “before we take them out of this world and throw them into another.”

Real life has definitely resumed, but Holland’s keen to keep stretching herself. “A little peeved” that she’s still constantly offered Kaitlin Cooper types, her ultimate aim is to direct and star in her own film, drafting in screenwriters she trusts and possibly acting as producer, too. It will be based on the “crazy, romantic” story of her mother and father meeting for the first time on a boat in the Caribbean, which is “definitely a juicy one,” she says. “When my mom told me, I was like, ‘if there’s any story that I was born to tell I think it was this.'”

Photographer Michael Hauptman
Fashion Editor Julia Sarr-Jamois
Words Jessica Holland
Willa Holland wears checked silk cropped top and mini skirt both by LOUIS VUITTON

The post WILLA HOLLAND: Interview appeared first on Wonderland.

Where’s home to you? On my bedroom floor in Dagenham, reading a good book and eating strawberry laces.

Favourite London hang-out. Spitalfields and The Breakfast Club.

First record you bought. The first cassettes I bought were the Spice Girls’ ‘If You Wanna Be My Lover’ and Peter Andre’s ‘Mysterious Girl’.

Were you an indie kid, emo, goth or rock fan as a teenager? I got along with everyone really, didn’t really have a group!

Biggest fear. Spiders and really small spaces, which I discovered the other day when I was in a one person elevator!

Favourite actress. Kerry Washington in Scandal is amazing and Meryl Streep for obvious reasons, but there are so many for certain things they’ve done.

Describe your childhood crush. I was like five or something and there was a boy in my class and he had a really cute triangular shaped head. We were really young and I would give him my rubber…

Yourself in three words. Trouble (in a good way), weird, fun.

Check out Adelayo’s blog, Only Child Syndrome, here. She tweets from @adelayoadedayo.

MORE IN PROFILE:
Lily James

Photographer Jessie Craig
Fashion Editor Francesca Turner
Words Zing Tsjeng
Make-up Carol Brown at DW Management using KIEHL’S
Hair Elliot Bssila at DW Management for Rossano Ferretti using KIEHL’S
Adelayo Adedayo wears dress and denim jacket by CHANEL, tweed skirt with lace insert by SIMONE ROCHA

The post IN PROFILE: Adelayo Adedayo goes clean and classic appeared first on Wonderland.

]]> /2012/08/14/joe-dempsie-murder-he-wrote/ Tue, 14 Aug 2012 13:40:34 +0000 http://www.wonderlandmagazine.com/?p=10531 Joe Dempsie first hit screens in an explosion of pills and chaos as party animal Chris in Skins and he’s since graduated on to cult hits Game Of Thrones and This Is England ’86. Wonderland caught up with the Nottingham lad for an exclusive photoshoot and to find out about his lead role in BBC drama […]

The post JOE DEMPSIE – Murder he wrote appeared first on Wonderland.

]]> Joe Dempsie first hit screens in an explosion of pills and chaos as party animal Chris in Skins and he’s since graduated on to cult hits Game Of Thrones and This Is England ’86. Wonderland caught up with the Nottingham lad for an exclusive photoshoot and to find out about his lead role in BBC drama Murder.

You first came to public attention with Chris in Skins. Do you have any plans to reprise the role for its final series?

The show was a massive break for all of us and I think what they’re doing with the last few episodes is a great idea, but if I’m honest I doubt I’d reprise my role. It opened a lot of doors for me but it also closed one or two initially. I kind of spent a few years after doing Skins living in the shadow of the show.

Nicholas Hoult and Dev Patel have gone onto have amazing big screen success. Do you still keep in contact with the guys?

Yeah, we’re pretty much all in contact. Dev is in L.A a lot being world-famous and going to the Oscars and stuff, but when he’s in London or if I’m in the States then we’ll always make time to meet up. Nick is here, there and everywhere. All we normally get to know about Nick is that he lives on planet Earth. He’s filming something new at the minute so when he’s done we’ll be sure to hang out.

Did you carry on watching the show once you’d exited after the second series?

I did for a while. I’m friends with Jack O’Connell who played Cook, so I was keeping tabs on him via the show. Barring that I haven’t really seen any of the new series but I’ve met the cast and they seem like a great bunch.

Was it a conscious decision for you to break your ground in the UK rather than to try and crack America?

Not really. Nick had already had a successful career in movies before we did Skins and everyone knew him from About A Boy. That’s kind of what Skins was initially sold on, that weird looking kid from About A Boy is all grown up and looking sexy, having sex and doing drugs. Nick was always destined to graduate into the big league. With Dev, I think him landing the part in Slumdog Millionaire was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. It was amazing to watch him and the year that followed.

Do you think that Skins was the right platform for you to kickstart your career from?

Yeah, without a doubt. I don’t think the Skins cast didn’t get the credit they deserved for the performances that they gave. The programme dealt with a lot of issues and wasn’t just about teenage hedonism.

http://capturehislove.com/ relationships advice

photoshoot by Luc Coiffait for Wonderland” width=”576″ height=”386″ />

What was your first ever role?

I got my first role before I’d even thought about acting as a career. I took part in a Junior Television Workshop in Nottingham, which was kind of like a drama youth club. It was set up in the 80s by ITV as they had studios up north and they wanted to get some local kids involved. In my first year I landed a part in Peak Practice. Attending that workshop has definitely moulded me into the actor that I’ve become.

You play the lead role of Stefan in upcoming BBC drama Murder. Can you tell us a little bit more about it?

We shot it in Edinburgh and it’s directed by Birger Larsen, who directed The Killing. I spent a week helping various actresses perfect their Nottingham accent as that’s where the show is set and that’s where I’m from. I started reading their scripts and noticed a couple of male parts so decided I’d try out for an audition. The character was 37 in the script so I thought I’d try my luck anyway and hopefully they’d call me back to try for the younger guy’s role. They ended up bringing the age down for me.

You play Gendry in Games Of Thrones which has a massive cult following. How did that happen?

I auditioned for a couple of roles before landing the part of Gendry. My character could be the heir to the throne and he just doesn’t know about it. There are people out to get him. I hadn’t heard of any of the books before, but I mentioned to a friend that i was up for a part and he could’t believe it. He’s a massive fantasy fan. At the time I had none of the physical attributes that was required for the role so I hit the gym and dyed my hair. Unfortunately though, I’m still a bit short.

You also took on a role in Merlin. Is fantasy a favoured genre?

The weird thing is is that it’s a genre that I have no interest in whatsoever. I think the reason why Game Of Thrones is so popular is because those fantasy elements are used very sparingly. It’s not all monsters, dragons and wizards. It has more in common with a show like Sopranos than it does Lord Of The Rings.

What else is in store for you for the rest of 2012?

Filming Game Of Thrones is going to keep me occupied until late October. It’s been a good year all in all and I just want to keep on working. And I’m not usually one for patriotism but it’s been really good year to be British.

Murder will premiere on 26th August on BBC2 at 10pm.

WORDS: Shane Hawkins
IMAGES: Luc Coiffait
STYLING: Krishan Parmar

The post JOE DEMPSIE – Murder he wrote appeared first on Wonderland.