Naomi Ackie on Playing “Balls to the Wall” Nasha in Mickey 17

In the loopy future-world of Mickey 17, which opens March 7, Mickey (Robert Pattinson) is duplicated and reborn every time he gets killed on the job on a spaceship. But for Naomi Ackie—who plays Mickey’s shipmate-turned-lover-turned-heroine—the gig was a dream: “I just look back at that time and how I was on cloud nine the entire job,” she tells W. “I could have done that for a whole year.”

The London-born actress got her start in movies like Lady Macbeth opposite Florence Pugh, then went on to play Whitney Houston and notch a Star Wars sequel. Mickey 17 comes on the heels of Zoë Kravitz’s horror flick Blink Twice, where Ackie tangled with a tech bro on his love island. This time, as the defiant Nasha, she joins Mickey on an ice colony where a politician, Kenneth Marshall (Mark Ruffalo), lords over everyone with Trumpian aggression. Ackie is funny, sly, and fierce (and gives the film’s standout speech—but no spoilers).

Much more is on the way: a Boots Riley whatsit (I Love Boosters, slated to finish next month), a very British mystery (Thursday Murder Club, with Helen Mirren), and the sharp, funny Sorry Baby, a Sundance hit. I reached Ackie in New York—steeling herself for her first solo “chat show” appearance (Seth Meyers)—and we talked about the liberating power of this role, working with Oscar-winning director Bong Joon Ho (Parasite), and the righteous rage of her favorite scene.

I have to start by saying that the idea of replicating oneself does have a certain appeal.

I know, me too. I would do it now. Because I’m not great at traveling for work, I get homesick. So I would probably get my Nay Number Two to do all the jobs that I needed to do across the seas. And then Nay Number Three to do all of my chores. And then I guess I would just stay in bed and go to the gym.

What about Nasha made you feel connected to her?

I said at the time to Director Bong that I played quite a few characters who were very contained. They have a sense of control over how people perceive them. I was desperate to play someone who just was the opposite of that, who was like, ahhhh! balls to the wall, “I don’t care what anyone thinks.” And Nasha came along, this really free character who didn’t watch herself, didn’t question herself, knew what was right, and didn’t ask permission from other people for what was the right thing to do.

I’ve heard that Bong Joon-ho is a master at the art of framing a shot. What was it like for you as an actor?

Yeah, the frame, man, that beautiful frame! It’s the best way to work, still to this day my favorite thing. It was really calm and easy, because it was our job to fill up that frame with whatever we chose to fill it up with. And much like Nasha, I wasn’t being very watchful of myself, I was just allowing things to happen. That’s what is exciting about watching Bong’s films: it’s sci-fi that also has theatre in it.

You’ve had theater training, and I was curious how you brought that to this character.

With Nasha, I was imagining a coiled spring that was ready to pop whenever. There’s this feeling of readiness and alertness in her body: ready to make love, ready to fight someone, ready to shout, ready to scream.

That takes us to the scene where you first meet Mickey. You lock eyes across the cafeteria during a big commotion, and beckon him over.

It’s a funny thing where you’re like, “Oh, well, this is the boy-meets-girl bit.” I’ve never been a girl the boy meets in a film! I was like, what do girls do? I can’t pretend, I’m not that good of an actor! Lucky for me it was in the midst of all the action.

Nasha really rises to the occasion in this movie—I won’t spoil anything, but you deliver an intense monologue to Marshall’s face. Could you talk about that moment?

Oh my god, my favorite! I was practicing that for months. I remember reading it and being like, bingo, I feel everything that she is saying right now. There’s that pure rage that is so fun to do. We don’t get to scream that often as people in the world. We don’t get to tantrum when we’re grown-ups. And we definitely don’t get to shout at a bully. In that moment, for me, Marshall became all the bullies I’ve ever known, all the bullies I’ve watched on TV. It was probably one of the most freeing, joyful moments of my life. [Laughs]

Did you and Director Bong talk about the thinking behind the Marshall character? I believe audiences might find it cathartic, too.

With Marshall, he was picking from many different leaders or dictators, from many parts of history and the present. There’s something global about people like Marshall: in every continent, in most countries, there is someone like this. In most communities, there is someone like this. So we all knew that we were pinning this archetype into this story and not trying to hide it. So by the time we get to Nasha’s ahhh!, we can connect it to someone that we feel that way about in real life.