Kaya Scodelario won global acclaim for her portrayal of rebellious teen Effy Stonem on Skins, but when it came time to reprise the character on a two-episode spinoff of the acclaimed British series, the actor was sure to lay down some personal boundaries.
Speaking to The Guardian, Kaya recalled balking at the script for Skins: Fire, which aired as part of the series’ seventh season in 2013 and followed a grown-up Effy as she went to work for a London hedge fund.
Given that Effy was now an adult, the show’s creators planned to amp up the sex quotient on Skins: Fire – that is, until Kaya put her foot down.
“I felt much more confident in saying what I felt during that series,” she recalled.
“When the first draft came through, there were a lot of sex scenes in it, and I could tell it was because I turned 18, and that meant that they could show more. And I went back and said: ‘No, there’s no need to do that’.”
Effy’s Skins: Fire character arc isn’t particularly surprising given the groundbreaking nature of Skins, which premiered in 2007.
The series followed a group of teens in Bristol, and was known for its frank take on teen sexuality, mental illness and substance abuse, among other hot-button topics.
In 2011, a U.S. version of Skins premiered on MTV, but was cancelled after a single season.
The influence of the show, however, can still be seen on contemporary works like 13 Reasons Why and Euphoria. Several actors from the original, including Nicholas Hoult and Dev Patel, continue to enjoy successful careers in Hollywood, too.
Comparing Skins with Euphoria, Kaya said she’s happy to see the latter series’ actors working with intimacy coordinators when it comes to shooting sex scenes ― something she wishes she and her cast mates would’ve been access to.
“Nothing too awful ever happened [on the set of ‘Skins’], thank God, but it could have, and I think that’s what’s scary about it,” she told The Guardian. “What’s wonderful now is that every production is aware that a sex scene is essentially a stunt, and it should be choreographed.”
These days, Kaya can be seen as Susie Glass, the head of her family’s crime syndicate, on Netflix’s The Gentlemen. Swapping drama for action, she said, has been a “really fun” experience.
“In action, it doesn’t matter that I’m the woman, and it doesn’t matter that there’s no love story,” she explained.
“I don’t have to snog anyone, I don’t have to bat my eyelids – I get to just do what I need to do to survive in that moment. I fell in love with the power that came from it, of screaming at the top of my lungs, of killing things.”