Rising star: Isabella Laughland
Isabella Laughland is a grafter. After making her professional debut in Harry Potter And The Half Blood Prince, no-one could have blamed her for getting carried away. She didn’t. Instead she built a career on the stage. After helping wrap things up in The Deathly Hallows, she headed to the home of new writing, The Royal Court, to star in Wanderlust. From there, she leapt to the National Theatre, appearing in Greenland and The Last Of The Haussmans. So, appearances in major film series and at the most influential theatre in the UK. But still no big head; her next move was to the off-West End Finborough Theatre, starring in Hard Feelings. This month she’s appearing in the West End. Not in a massive theatre with hundreds of seats, but in the intimate Trafalgar Studios 2, where she stars in the transfer of hit drama BU21. “There’s nowhere for you to hide,” she says of the small Whitehall venue. “You can’t put a foot wrong. There’s nowhere for the audience to hide either. You can see exactly what’s going on.” BU21 finds Isabella Laughland playing a woman affected by a terrorist attack. It’s set in a survivors’ group in which six characters try to find solace and support. Before I write that off as the least cheery show with which to begin 2017, Laughland mentions the “weird gallows humour” that writer Stuart Slade brings to the show. “It’s how we deal with dark situations,” she argues. “He’s got a very twisted mind in places, but it works.” The critics agree. BU21, much like Laughland, comes to the West End after success elsewhere in London. It was first seen at the influential Theatre503 last year, when The Stage described it as “intelligent, complex, questioning and very funny”. Its success at the Battersea venue has seen it make the West End leap. [youtube id="yihMURywp3k"] When we chat, Laughland is on her way to see Hedda Gabler at the National Theatre. It only takes a few minutes to realise that she’s a theatre fan as much as an actress. “It’s just so immediate,” she exclaims. “Every performance you see is unique. And in London it’s like looking on a menu and deciding what you want that evening; there’s so much choice and you’ll never conquer it all.” You’re far more likely to find her in a theatre audience, in fact, than at a glitzy red carpet event. She has seen that side of the entertainment industry as part of the Harry Potter franchise, and it is not something that appeals. “If you really want to be successful in this industry – and that doesn’t mean fame – you have to work your socks off, because someone else behind you will be working just as hard, if not harder, than you.” Peaky Blinders star Cillian Murphy is her model for success: “We don’t see him at every opening or red carpet event. He just does his job, does the press he needs to do for that project, then disappears again. It allows us to buy whichever character he’s playing. It’s a choice.” When it comes to making choices, Laughland has a knack. From big screen beginnings she’s built a career that, by her mid-20s, has included the National Theatre, Royal Court, Donmar Warehouse and the West End. Some might call it a magic touch, but there is far more to Isabella Laughland than Harry Potter.