Interview: Imogen Poots Talks Jeff Buckley Biopic & What She's Got Coming To A Theater Near You


British actress Imogen Poots’ career has been picking up steam for a few years now overseas with critically acclaimed roles in Jordan Scott’s (Ridley’s daughter) boarding school drama “Cracked” and the David Levien-helmed “Solitary Man.” Stateside, Poots’ exposure has been brief, with smaller roles in “V for Vendetta” and “Me and Orson Welles” along with her breakout in 2007’s “28 Weeks Later.” Poots’ will have her biggest exposure later this month in the remake of “Fright Night” where she’ll play the girlfriend to Anton Yelchin’s Charley Brewster and the potential plaything for Colin Farrell’s nasty vampire, Jerry.

At the end of 2010 The Playlist listed the actress as one of our 15 actresses “On The Rise” and with the slate of projects the actress is attached to or rumored to be connected with, we’re betting her unique name will soon be mispronounced with great regularity. The Playlist spoke with the young actress this morning about a few of the upcoming projects she’s been linked to including the intriguing Jeff Buckley biopic, “Greetings from Tim Buckley.”

“I play a girl who Jeff meets when he is preparing to do a tribute concert covering his dad’s music,” Poots tells The Playlist. “She works at the location and it’s really an exploration of their dynamic and how it evolves over four days.”

Poots says she is a longtime fan of Jeff Buckley’s music and also discovered the music of his father during the production. “I was very aware of Jeff Buckley. My brother actually bought me The Mamas And The Papas and Jeff Buckley for my birthday when I was in my early teens. In terms of Tim Buckley, I’m a huge [Bob] Dylan fan and Joan Baez, but Tim Buckey’s music was not something I was that aware of, so I’ve really enjoyed going back through all his records and understanding the man he was. He was quite extraordinary, beautiful voice and lyrics. I’m very happy to be a part of it. We’re rehearsing right now and we start in the next couple of weeks.”

The actress has also been linked to the Ralph Fiennes-directed Dickens adaptation, “The Invisible Woman” but she reveals that talk on that is premature for now. “I’ve met with Ralph Fiennes to audition for the role, but that’s pretty much as far as we’ve gotten with that one.”

And while IMDB and a few other sources that shall remain nameless have linked Poots to another vampire flick entitled “Hello Darkness,” the project is news to the actress, who chuckles at a question she’s clearly gotten before. “That’s actually not something I’m aware of myself.”

So we’ll leave it to Ms. Poots to set the record straight on what’s next for her. “After ‘Fright Night’ I went to do a film called ‘A Late Quartet’ with Philip [Seymour] Hoffman and Catherine Keener. It’s about a string quartet of musicians and I play Catherine and Phil’s daughter, who’s a student at Juilliard. It’s about the dysfunctions within the quartet and within life and how awkward life is and blah, blah, blah and all that. I’ve got another film called ‘Comes a Bright Day,’ which is directed by Simon Aboud and it’s very much like an old cool ‘60s dark comedy. It’s shot in a jewelry store in London where there’s been a heist. So it’s myself and great actor named Craig Roberts, who’s in a film called ‘Submarine’ and Timothy Spall, who’s a wonderful British actor. So it’s just the three of us in a room together for a very long time being held hostage by these less than savvy crooks. (Laugh) So those are the two that I’ve finished up.”

So lots on the horizon from the young actress who is eagerly trying her hand in everything from big budget horror to low key indie dramas on both sides of the pond. Poots will next appear in “Fright Night” which opens on Friday, August 19th.