When Mia Threapleton learned that Wes Anderson wanted her to star in his next film, she did what any normal person would: She asked her agent to call the casting director back to make sure there had been no mistake, and then found a quiet spot on the train she was riding in, curled up and sobbed.
“I couldn’t believe it,” the 24-year-old British actress said. In Anderson’s latest, “The Phoenician Scheme,” Threapleton plays Sister Liesl, a nun who is estranged from her father, the eccentric businessman Zsa-zsa (Benicio Del Toro). He wants to reconnect and make her his heir.
Chic in a white sleeveless top, her long blond hair falling in loose waves around piercing blue eyes, Threapleton was preparing to head to the Cannes Film Festival, where “The Phoenician Scheme” premiered this month. The movie is by far her most prominent role to date — not that you would recognize her in it even if she were a familiar face.
“It was a lot,” she said of the I-did-my-makeup-in-a-closet-and-cut-my-hair-with-garden-shears look: blunt brunette bob, garish turquoise eye shadow, bold red lip. But she trusted Anderson because she had long admired his work. She grew up with the director’s stop-motion “Fantastic Mr. Fox,” and his coming-of-age romance, “Moonrise Kingdom,” is a personal favorite.
“I remember watching it and thinking, ‘I’d love to be able to do that,’ so then having this opportunity to do that was such a surreal experience,” said Threapleton, who, unlike Sister Liesl, laughs readily and occasionally breaks into a smile that plays up the likeness to her mother, the actress Kate Winslet.
Despite the resemblance, Threapleton has been determined to find her own way in the industry. She made her feature film debut in a little-seen Italian psychological thriller, “Shadows,” in 2020, and followed that with a lead role in the Apple TV+ Gilded Age drama “The Buccaneers,” though she did act opposite her mother in a 2022 episode of Channel 4’s “I Am …” anthology series.
During a video call, she explained how a napkin helped inspire her onscreen look in “The Phoenician Scheme” and how her mother has supported her desire to carve her own path as an actor. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.
What was it like meeting Wes Anderson for the first time?
I remember walking up to the hotel room in London and knocking nervously on the door. Then he opened it, and I was immediately not scared of him anymore, because he was wearing pink socks and hotel slippers and had striped trousers on. We ended up talking for like an hour, just chit-chatting. At one point we both went, “We should probably do a bit of acting.”
What surprised you about meeting him in person?
Even though he knows what he’s looking for, there’s so much freedom within the quest of finding that to try different things. I remember on set one day, we were changing over film magazines, because we were shooting on film. I was just standing there with my hands on my hips, and I saw Wes’s head pop out from behind the monitor, and he went, “Don’t move. Just keep your hands exactly where they are.” It’s just those little humanisms that he loves.
Your character has a very distinct physical appearance. Where did that come from?
The way Liesl looks is something Wes had in mind from quite an early stage. We tried a couple of veils, but they weren’t nun’s veils. They weren’t quite right. I looked over to the lunch table, and there was a napkin on it. I asked, “Has anybody got any hair pins?” I pinned a napkin to my head, and Wes and I positioned it together. Then he was like, “OK, that’s it.”
Did you have a big-picture conversation with Wes about what this film is about?
There weren’t any specific instances where we sat down and really unpacked it. Wes and I would do these virtual rehearsals. He would send me an email saying, “I wonder if you could record some of your dialogue for me, and we can just bounce around with putting emphasis on certain things.” So through that process, we had a lot of conversations — even while we were shooting.
What is the movie about, in your opinion?
It’s about understanding oneself in a lot of different ways. Zsa-zsa’s coming to terms with what it is that he actually realizes is good and what he should be doing. Liesl’s recognition of the fact that perhaps the life that she has been brought up in, in a convent, is not actually the life that she chooses.
What was it like working with Benicio Del Toro? Your characters have such a fun dynamic.
I remember thinking the first time I met him, “You’re like a big, lovely, purring cat.” He was like a gentle bear. He was so lovely, but so concentrated and so dedicated. To be in a space with that level of commitment and diligence was amazing to watch.
I remember walking on set for the first time, having never done something like this before, feeling extremely nervous and excited. Benicio came over and put his hand on my shoulder. He said, “We’re going to do this together.” And, in that moment, I felt like it was going to be great. He gave me a hug on his last day and said, “I told you, we did it together. I told you we were going to.” It was a beautiful full-circle moment.
How would you describe the relationship between your characters?
When they meet, Liesl is estranged, and she’s curious: Why has this person invited me back after six years of really not wanting to know me? What is his agenda?And Zsa-zsa, in a way, does feel like he wants to reconnect with her, as well as secure his personal assets. Toward the end of the film, they realize the impact they’ve had on each other. It was really beautiful to experience that with Benicio.
Your mother and father, the director Jim Threapleton, divorced when you were really young. Did you get to spend time with both of them growing up?
They did it really, really well. It worked quite seamlessly. I have a wonderful relationship with both of them, and I feel very lucky for that.
Did you initially resist acting because your mom was in the same line of work?
That never crossed my mind, the idea of not doing it just because it also happened to be something my mum was doing. The discovery of my love of film really came about on my own. It wasn’t something I was that exposed to.
It’s quite a big misconception that people think just because my mother also does this job, I would have grown up on a film set. I genuinely can count on both hands the amount of times that I went to set as a child. It feels like the equivalent of a lawyer bringing their child into a courtroom. It’s a workplace. I’m actually very grateful that she didn’t bring us to set, because it meant that when I decided this was something I wanted to do, the experiences that I have had and are still having have all been mine and mine alone.
When I told her that acting was something that I wanted to do, she was incredibly supportive of me wanting to do this on my own, because that’s what she did.
You do have a different last name, so people could theoretically not know.
They didn’t initially! I got my first job, and they really did not know.
You aren’t on social media. What are you doing when you’re not acting?
I am painting, I am drawing, I’m doing photography. I’m climbing mountains and going on very long walks. I’m having little adventures, but yes, not on social media. I don’t think it’s something that would particularly serve my life, and I’m quite happy that I don’t have it.
Sarah Bahr writes about culture and style for The Times.
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