Ella Joyce: Hey, how are you doing? You’re very bubbly for a Monday morning!
Ella-Rae Smith: I’ve got a new morning routine at the moment. I wake up, make my coffee, and listen to a podcast. I’ve been listening to Louis Theroux all morning [The Louis Theroux Podcast], it’s been lovely.

EJ: The series he did over lockdown was a lifesaver.
ERS: It was so good. I’m such a fan, he’s a national treasure.

EJ: Did you have a good weekend?
ERS: I had a chilled self-care weekend. I was meant to go to a party but I just wanted to lie in bed and read my book, which is really lame but I think it’s just as important to have a moment to yourself instead of trying to be social and do everything. My agent always says to me, “What makes an actor is how they spend their downtime.” That’s one of the most important things I try and live by because doing my job is what makes me the happiest but I’m not always going to be on set. That’s not how the life of a working actor goes, and finding joy in your normal life is so important. During lockdown, I was fantasising about getting a pottery wheel. I was like, “Why not?” [laughs]

EJ: I was buying all sorts of nonsense in lockdown, I even bought a Tamagotchi.
ERS: No way! What a blast from the past. It’s actually quite stressful trying to keep those small, inanimate objects alive. I think I had two or three back in the day, not to brag or anything. [laughs] I wish I’d made a treasure box when I was a kid and buried it. We’d have Groovy Chick, we’d have Polly Pockets. Big question for you, did you have a pair of Lelli Kelly’s?

EJ: I didn’t!
ERS: My mum would never buy me Lelli Kelly’s, I wanted a pair of Heelys too but I wasn’t allowed them! I grew up in Bristol and it’s so hilly, it would’ve been a death wish.

EJ: How long have you lived in London for now?
ERS: I moved here when I was seventeen, then I spent two years in Brighton and came back. I’ve been living in this place for four years now. The best thing about Brighton was having the beach to yourself on sunny days when it’s not kids’ holidays.

EJ: And when did you realise you wanted to start acting?
ERS: I was twelve and we did a year six leavers play, for some reason we always did Shakespeare turned into musicals. We did Twelfth Night, I still have it on DVD. I tease some of my friends about their roles in it but we can all still sing along. I’d never thought about acting before and suddenly I’m cast in a play. I was quite shy when I was younger so I never thought about performing, I wasn’t the person standing up in class singing and dancing. All through my life, I’d had people telling me I should be a model because I looked unusual and very tall. [laughs] So that had always been in my mind as something which was worth following, but acting was my goal. I got scouted by a [modelling] agency and around the same time I was doing my first movie – which I applied for through an open casting and somehow managed to get – then I met my acting agent. I found myself in a situation where I was seventeen years old working on my first ever movie, just signed with a new modelling agent, and an acting agent. So I moved to London and the rest is history.

A Masterpiece Crazy Quilt (c1870-1890) $9,500

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