Celine Buckens

From her first screen role in Steven Spielberg’s War Horse to the HBO action series Warrior, Celine Buckens has a massively diverse CV. The 25 year old actress talks to us about playing a rich girl accused of murder in the new BBC drama Showtrial, her foray into filmmaking and what she’s been watching recently.

Your character in Showtrial, Talitha, isn't the nicest person in the world - how do you prepare to play someone like that?

My way into playing her was that she’s someone who believes she is totally in the right, she genuinely thinks she's done nothing wrong. I've read in a lot of reviews people saying she's very easy to dislike, and really that's kind of the point, that right from the start the audience makes a snap judgement about her, they form an opinion based on this first impression. There's really quite a journey though between the first and final episodes - it's called Showtrial, but the trial is only the last two episodes.

Do you think viewers will change their opinion of Talitha?

I think the reason the show starts so early in the story is so we can see the police and the CPS's prejudices towards her, that they are so certain she's guilty because she's this rich, privileged girl. I don't want to give too much away, but there definitely is big journey in those three episodes leading up to the trial.

When was Showtrial shot, before or during Covid?

We shot it earlier this year! We were tested regularly and worked to all the normal regulations on set. We actually did have one Covid case, right on the last day! This was while we were filming the court scenes, and because production shut down one of the final scenes had to be reworked. I think that ended up for the better though - I saw it for the first time just the other day, and I think it works really well, it's more effective this way.

You've written and directed a short film, Prangover, which is currently doing the festival rounds - how did it come to life?

I'd sort of always had this dream of making a short film, but I've always been in front of the camera rather than behind it. I wrote a few script ideas, although none of them ever really stuck. The story for this came from a conversation I had with some friends, about how the "morning after" fears women have are completely unknown to men - like, all the women were saying "Oh, I've been through that at least once" yet none of the guys had any idea! I begun thinking about how to present this in a light, comic way, and ended up doing it as a silent film. Well, there is one bit of dialogue right at the end, but otherwise it's a silent film.

How long was it in the works for?

I wrote it a couple of years ago, and my intention was actually to make it just as we went into the first lockdown, so that didn't get to happen! About six months later I went back to it and finally managed to shoot it, although with a completely new crew. I edited it myself as well, as that was something I was interested in getting into.

As an actress and now a filmmaker, are you much of a cinephile?

Yes, hugely! There's just been the London Film Festival, and I managed to get myself an industry pass - I saw so many film, even some of the 8am screenings! During lockdown I watched a load of old Polish films - I'm a big fan of Krzysztof Kieslowski. I really love Wes Anderson and Edgar Wright as well, and Pedro Almodovar, who was one of my biggest influences when I was making Prangover - I love the colour pallet of his work.

What have been your favourite films this year?

I saw some of the best ones at the festival! There was Azor, an Argentinian film, and Drive My Car, a Japanese film which is three hours long, so I'm glad I saw it at the cinema as I'm not sure I'd have had the same attention span watching it on my laptop!

Words: Scott Bates