When Balinska isn ’ t fighting on screen , you can find her fighting in front of one , usually with fellow actor and Call of Duty fiend Nicholas Galitzine . To accompany her spread of Bond girl-meets-Bond villain looks from Saint Laurent ’ s Fall 2022 collection , Galitzine called up his gaming buddy for a quick check-in . BALINSKA : Hi !
GALITZINE : Of course , you ’ re in your gaming room .
BALINSKA : There ’ s nowhere else I can take Zoom calls .
GALITZINE : So you thought this was for Interview , but it ’ s actually for Gamers Weekly .
BALINSKA : This is arguably a terrible idea .
GALITZINE : Listen Ella , I ’ m going to be on my most professional behavior . I ’ ve been given lots of questions to ask you .
BALINSKA : I ’ ll be giving you lots of answers .
GALITZINE : But this is particularly funny considering there ’ s a part of me that wants to just take this interview completely o the rails .
BALINSKA : I know , but they ’ ve actually got to make a piece . GALITZINE : Exactly . Interview , I ’ m not going to let you down . Miss Balinska , very good to see you . Where are you in the world ? BALINSKA : I ’ m in my o ce in Los Angeles . Are you in NYC ? GALITZINE : No , I ’ m in L . A . as well . BALINSKA : I ’ m coming over after this . GALITZINE : I ’ m leaving tomorrow for a few days . BALINSKA : Does that mean I can have my Xbox back ? GALITZINE : Yes , you can have your Xbox back . I wanted to talk about Run Sweetheart Run . What was it that drew you to the project initially ? BALINSKA : I got this script from my team and I read it in one sitting over a lunch break . I absolutely flew through it . And then at that point , I was like “ Okay , I need to be part of this . I need to meet the creatives . I want to do it .”
GALITZINE : You filmed it a while ago , but I remember talking to you at the time and you were filming all around L . A . Is that correct ?
BALINSKA : Yes .
GALITZINE : You were doing a bunch of night shoots , and it was very physical , but what would you say was the hardest part of filming that , the physical or emotional ? BALINSKA : Both , because we shot it in the beginning of January 2019 . GALITZINE : Pre-the world bursting into flames .
BALINSKA : Yeah , pre-Rona . On the first night it started raining . We were all like “ Well , I guess it ’ s raining for the rest of the film then .” Because the entire film happens over one night . So even on nights where it wasn ’ t raining and it was actually quite pleasant , we ’ d have to get the rain machine in . GALITZINE : Stop , you didn ’ t tell me that . What are the odds as English people where have been born and bred in a country of gray and constant rain , are transplanted to the sunniest city in the whole fucking world , and the one night you need fucking continuity , it ’ s like , nope . BALINSKA : So that was one of the tribulations , but also if you take apart the script , there are some really important messages underneath everything . And obviously , before you do any of those scenes , I spoke a lot with Shana the director to really dissect what those moments are and go through those beats so that we don ’ t glorify any of those sensitive topics . So having that in the back of your mind whilst you ’ re shooting something like this night after night after night can get quite heavy .
GALITZINE : at ’ s actually a very interesting thing to touch on that people don ’ t understand about acting a lot of the time is because you have to emotionally put yourself in a place where — someone ’ s knocking on my hotel room door . I ’ m going to pause you for one second .
BALINSKA : Please tell me it ’ s room service . If it ’ s room service , you have to share what you ’ ve got .
GALITZINE : He ’ s asking me if I need clean cups .
Flashmag ! Issue 133 September 2022
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