Thomasin McKenzie plays Ursula Todd

What is Life After Life about?

It’s hard to explain, but Life After Life is basically centred around reincarnation. We follow a young girl called Ursula from the moment she’s born up until the moment she dies. She goes through life multiple times and we see how each of her lives changes depending on specific events or moments in her life, and the decisions she makes based off her instincts.

What was it about the book that struck you, and why do you think this story connects with people?

I learnt when we were filming that a lot of people have read the book and really love it. So it’s a good question as to why so many people have responded so strongly to it. I think it’s the idea of reincarnation in general as it’s interesting - the idea that it opens up the possibility of reliving or fixing past mistakes or living your happiest moments again. The reason I responded to it so strongly is that I’m always someone who lives in the past, constantly regretting things and cringing at things I’ve done and wish I hadn’t!

There would have been days of filming where you would have had to go through every emotion - joy, trauma... what was that like for you as an actor?

It’s a really tough thing, as some days I would turn up on set and not realise how intense some of the scenes would be. I didn’t take into account how much that would affect the other scenes we were doing that day that might be lighter, or from one of Ursula’s different lives. It was quite hard, both mentally and physically, to go through so much and so many emotions in one day. You just don’t have as much time to recover from it with such a crazy schedule.

How important was the director, John Crowley, and how did he help you?

John is incredible. I really felt I could trust him and his opinion. He’s so smart and intelligent, but really cares and really feels what he’s talking about. I remember my accent coach describing him as like being a priest that just kind of floats into the room and gives you some wonderful pearls of wisdom. I want to work with him again as he’s just incredible - I don’t know if I can say anything that would do him justice.

As an actor, how involved are you in finding the look of your characters?

There were lots and lots of looks - the hair and make-up department play a huge part in creating the character and Sinead [Kidao] and Konnie [Daniels] did such a wonderful job. I wouldn’t be able to play Ursula in my own clothing, my own accent and without a 1940s fancy sculptural hairdo. Sinead was so generous and collaborative and asked my opinion on if I thought Ursula would like to wear something.

I was really interested in the colour palette for each of the characters - for Ursula it was green and maroon red. Konnie has incredible knowledge of the period, it was really cool to see how they worked.

It's a period piece, do you think it’s still contemporary and relevant?

That’s a good question. There's a theme, in the pressures of society, that particularly weigh Sylvie and Ursula down. You still kind of see that societal pressure coming through these days as well.

Do you think Ursula is a modern woman? Is she born out of her time?

I think in some of her lives she is and in some lives, she isn’t. In some of her lives she really struggles with the idea of what it is to be a mum and what it is to be a wife, and whether that’s something she wants or not. Back then, that was something that was expected and maybe if she was born now, it wouldn’t have been (although still is) as much pressure for that to have been her life.

Can you sum up Life After Life in three words?

Joyful, relentless and magical.