Ella-Rae Smith

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Black wool gabar­dine boyfriend jack­et Michael Kors Col­lec­tion ear­rings Tasa­ki ring Tasa­ki

This inter­view and pho­to­shoot took place pri­or to the SAG-AFTRA strike.

Words Lil­ly Delmage

Ella-Rae Smith tells all on lead­ing role as Queen Sareth in the new sea­son of Apple TV+’s, Foun­da­tion, get­ting scout­ed as a mod­el at thir­teen in Paris and her beau­ty and fash­ion must-haves

Join­ing the cast for Apple TV+’s high­ly antic­i­pat­ed sec­ond sea­son of Foun­da­tion, Ella-Rae Smith plays the unapolo­getic and bold, yet ten­der and sin­cere char­ac­ter of Queen Sareth. 

Based upon the suc­cess­ful Foun­da­tion book fran­chise by Isaac Asi­mov, the sec­ond series wel­comes the char­ac­ter of Queen Sareth as a new, refresh­ing, and thought-pro­vok­ing addi­tion to the on-screen remake. 

Intro­duced to the plot as a poten­tial part­ner for Day Cleon (played by actor, Lee Pace), she enters the empire enter­tain­ing her own agen­da. Despite know­ing her life is at stake, she uses her emo­tion­al intel­li­gence to her advan­tage, play­ing the Cleons against each oth­er. Her char­ac­ter shakes up every­thing the empire had his­tor­i­cal­ly known as ‘nor­mal’.

Though, ris­ing star Ella-Rae Smith’s on-screen suc­cess is not lim­it­ed to this sci-fi, Galac­tic Empire. Her impres­sive on-screen CV boasts her well-known role as Nix in AMC’s Into The Bad­lands and Daisy Hoy in Netflix’s The Stranger. The year also 2021 saw the actress lead in the crit­i­cal­ly acclaimed BBC Film Sweet­heart along­side Jo Hart­ley. Need we con­tin­ue? Because the list does.

Recent cam­paigns with Hugo Boss and Rim­mel estab­lish mod­el­ling as anoth­er trade she has mas­tered. Smith has come a long way since being scout­ed by a scam­mer as a mod­el in Paris at thir­teen, to now mod­el­ling for world-famous brands. You will have to read on for that story.

I inter­viewed Ella-Rae Smith on her expe­ri­ence get­ting cast for the role, her favourite parts of her char­ac­ter and whether she per­son­al­ly relates to Queen Sareth (though she humor­ous­ly remind­ed me, she is in fact “not a space queen betrothed to the emper­or of the galaxy”). But, you may be sur­prised by their indi­vid­ual differences… 

I also got the inside scoop on her fash­ion and beau­ty must-haves, and what Ella-Rae Smith con­sid­ers her ‘go-to’ out­fit to be. 

You have an impres­sive list of act­ing roles under your belt, when did you first realise you want­ed to become an actress, and how did you find the process? Was it hard to get into?

I first realised I want­ed to become an actor when I was ten or eleven in a school play and I made it my mis­sion after that moment. For me, my entry into the indus­try was so unbe­liev­ably lucky. I still don’t real­ly under­stand how it hap­pened! A series of events, incred­i­bly for­tu­nate events, led to me being in a posi­tion where I could start my career. I think it’s gen­er­al­ly a dif­fi­cult indus­try to get into, but I was very, very, very lucky and I still pinch myself that things worked out the way they did and con­tin­ue to.

Con­grat­u­la­tions on book­ing the sec­ond sea­son of Foun­da­tion! Tell us about the process of get­ting the role, had you watched the first sea­son before?

The process of get­ting the role was inter­est­ing because it was still semi in COVID times, so I end­ed up doing a chem­istry read on Zoom which was quite inter­est­ing. I sup­pose there’s also some­thing quite nice about doing it through a com­put­er screen, I felt I could man­age my nerves a lit­tle better.

I had­n’t seen sea­son one before we start­ed shoot­ing as it was being released as we start­ed going into pro­duc­tion for sea­son two, so I watched it along with the rest of the world. It was fan­tas­tic to be able to watch it while I was going into pre-pro­duc­tion because it meant that I could see what all of these plan­ets looked like! With sci-fi, you have no idea what these worlds will look like until you actu­al­ly see them on screen, so it was real­ly helpful.

How was it going into the pro­duc­tion of a series which already had one sea­son released? Was it nerve-wrack­ing? Did any of the cast give you good advice?

It was inter­est­ing going into pro­duc­tion as the first sea­son was com­ing out and it felt like we were expe­ri­enc­ing the world’s reac­tion to the show whilst going into mak­ing it!

I think that was a real­ly good thing because it had a pos­i­tive recep­tion over­all and we were able to work off that and go, ‘Okay, look, this was the start­ing point, it was great, and now let’s make it even bet­ter’. I feel huge­ly lucky to have had such sup­port­ive cast­mates who were all at very dif­fer­ent stages in their careers, but I think we all sup­port­ed each oth­er in all sorts of ways through­out the process.

We also must ask… how was it work­ing along­side the icon Lee Pace?

Work­ing with Lee was incred­i­ble. He is a mag­nif­i­cent actor and just a plea­sure to watch, let alone a plea­sure to work along­side! I feel like I learned so much from work­ing with him and I’m real­ly grate­ful for the opportunity.

You played Queen Sareth – how did you pre­pare for the role? 

I’m so ter­ri­ble at answer­ing this ques­tion! I think main­ly because after I fin­ished play­ing a char­ac­ter I go through a process where I real­ly try to for­get them and leave them behind. Look­ing back ret­ro­spec­tive­ly, it’s hard to remem­ber how I got into them when I’ve already gone through this jour­ney with them and I’m now on the oth­er side of it.

Though, my gener­ic answer is hair and make­up and cos­tume, and it’s a bit of a bor­ing answer, but when I don’t look like myself, I don’t feel like myself. And I find it real­ly help­ful to not look like myself when I’m working.

What are your favourite things about your character?

Every­thing hon­est­ly! She’s one of my favourite char­ac­ters I have ever played, I think she’s fan­tas­tic. I love her anger, I love her strength, I love how she leads with her heart rather than her head, which might not always be the smartest thing to do, but I think it’s a real­ly beau­ti­ful qual­i­ty to have… and obvi­ous­ly her fashion!

What did you find the most chal­leng­ing about play­ing Queen Sareth? Can you relate any of your own per­son­al char­ac­ter­is­tics or expe­ri­ences with hers?

I’m def­i­nite­ly not a space queen betrothed to the emper­or of the Galaxy… but I do think we have some things in com­mon. I think we’re both emo­tion-led peo­ple, I’m def­i­nite­ly not as bold as her, but I would like to be as bold and as con­fi­dent as her.

I would say the most chal­leng­ing thing about play­ing Queen Sareth was wear­ing high heels every day because I do not wear high heels very often in my reg­u­lar life!

Your char­ac­ter shakes things up for Cleons Empire, hav­ing come into the plot to be forced to mar­ry a man. How do you think Queen Sareths reluc­tance to con­form to ‘tra­di­tion­al’ views of women in the empire may send a big­ger mes­sage into the pow­er bal­ance of women and men in society?

It is inter­est­ing because I imag­ine in the world of Foun­da­tion her actions would prob­a­bly be swept under the rug and kept secret, so it’s dif­fi­cult to think about how they could impact peo­ple with­in the sto­ry world. 

With­in the real world though, her reluc­tance to con­form makes sense because she’s forced into an arranged mar­riage with some­one she sus­pects of mur­der­ing her entire fam­i­ly. You com­ply or you die when you’re deal­ing with the Cleons, and she would rather die than com­ply with some­one so abhor­rent. I guess it’s more a stand on moral­i­ty than feminism.

Dur­ing an inter­view on the Apple TV+ YouTube chan­nel, you said, “Just because a woman comes in wear­ing high heels and a floaty dress doesn’t mean she’s not going to ruin your life”. This is an icon­ic line. Please tell us more about your thoughts behind this statement!

It’s the clas­sic case of don’t judge a book by its cov­er. I think women, espe­cial­ly young women, are used to being under­es­ti­mat­ed. Espe­cial­ly women who care about fash­ion, make­up, and clothes — there’s a cer­tain neg­a­tive expec­ta­tion that can go along with that. But you nev­er know what some­one’s real­ly like or what some­one’s real­ly capa­ble of, so I sup­pose it’s a les­son about not judg­ing people.

Now… onto fash­ion! Queen Sareth serves some seri­ous looks dur­ing the sea­son. Did you have any favourites, or any you weren’t so sure about…

I loved every sin­gle thing I wore, hon­est­ly, every­thing! My favourite dress is this beau­ti­ful blue gown that I wear for my engage­ment scene to Day, it’s just the most beau­ti­ful dress I’ve ever worn; it is tai­lored to fit my body per­fect­ly, lit­er­al­ly hand­made for me. You feel so spe­cial when some­one’s mak­ing a dress for you, it’s incred­i­ble. I also have some real­ly cute two pieces; lit­tle crop tops and floaty trousers with beau­ti­ful bead details. I loved it all, Jane Petrie is an absolute icon.

Tell us, what are Ella-Rae Smith’s favourite fash­ion brands and designers?

I real­ly love vin­tage cloth­ing shop­ping! There is just some­thing real­ly fun about it and I love find­ing real­ly unique pieces of cloth­ing that no one else will have. I have found so many gems, espe­cial­ly vin­tage design­er pieces and they become these trea­sured items in my wardrobe. 

I have a vin­tage Yves Saint Lau­rent jack­et which I’ve prob­a­bly only worn five times, but it’s one of my most trea­sured items in the world! I can still remem­ber the exact day I bought it. I’m a qual­i­ty over quan­ti­ty kind of cloth­ing shopper. 

I love Shrimps, I real­ly like Stine Goya, I like ROTATE by Birg­er Chris­tensen and REMAIN by Birg­er Chris­tensen. I also love a Bel­la Freud jumper. 

If there was one out­fit that would sum up your style, what would it be?

I would say a pair of loose high-waist­ed jeans (like bag­gy high-waist­ed jeans), a pair of Doc Martens and then some kind of inter­est­ing body suit or crop top. Some­thing sim­ple, but fun and dif­fer­ent! Also, a cute lit­tle bag and sun­glass­es always!

Do you have any favourite beau­ty brands or prod­ucts that our read­ers need to try?

I love Neal’s Yard Reme­dies. I have been using their prod­ucts for years and I swear by them. My favourite is the Frank­in­cense Intense Lift Serum, it’s my favourite thing to put on my skin.

I also real­ly rec­om­mend Lano­lin for eczema and there’s a real­ly nice brand called Lano­lips. I think that’s it… I’m real­ly into skin­care, but those are the two main things that come to mind.

As the jack-of-all-trades that you are, I also heard through the grapevine you were scout­ed for mod­el­ling at 14 in France, please tell us more about this sto­ry! How did you feel? Had you ever thought about mod­el­ling before? Do you still love mod­el­ling now, or do you see act­ing as your priority?

Act­ing has always been my pri­or­i­ty, mod­el­ling is just anoth­er string I added to my bow. It was some­thing that when I was a kid peo­ple would men­tion to my mum and then as I got old­er, I decid­ed I might want to pur­sue it. 

I was thir­teen or four­teen on a school trip to Paris walk­ing along the Champs-Élysées with my friends when this woman just stopped her car, ran out of it, and ran up to me and was speak­ing in French… I had no idea what she was say­ing! So, I just said, ‘Je par­le anglais’! And she then scout­ed me. It turned out she was a fraud and my mum sniffed her out! But she also told me I need­ed to start watch­ing what I ate at the ten­der age of thir­teen or four­teen so yeah, it was quite a rough start into the industry.

It’s some­thing that I enjoyed doing in my own way but it’s not some­thing I’ve ever sought to make a career of. It’s a side thing for me and some­thing that I am hap­py to do, and I real­ly enjoy doing it some­times, but it’s nev­er been my dream to be a supermodel.

What’s next for Ella-Rae Smith?

Hon­est­ly, I don’t know. I feel the com­mon thread in my life is that I nev­er know what’s going to hap­pen next, so I always just have to try to not wor­ry about the next step. I nev­er know what it will be, where it will be, or how I will feel, but I know it’s com­ing. I guess we’re going to have to wait and see! 

Thank you for speak­ing with us Ella-Rae Smith. Be sure to catch Ella-Rae in the newest sea­son of Foun­da­tion on Apple TV+ and keep an eye out for her future endeav­ors on her Insta­gram @ellaraesmith.

Tal­ent Ella-Rae Smith
Pho­tog­ra­ph­er & Edi­tor-in-Chief Andrew Kim­ber
Art Direc­tor Bel­la Koop­man
Styl­ist Justin Hamil­ton at The Only Agency
Hair Ken­ta Uchi­noku­ra
Make-up AZU
OVERDUE Assis­tants Maria Hele­na Solowej & Jamal Springer-Lynch