Eliza Scanlen’s lead role in 'Babyteeth' proves that she is a star in the making. Scanlen opens up about shaving her head, collaborating with her twin sister, and why she’s always so ill.

Photography&nbsp;Annabel Scanlen

Eliza Scanlen keeps getting sick.&nbsp;The&nbsp;actress, now 21,&nbsp;made an unforgettable&nbsp;American&nbsp;debut as&nbsp;Amy Adams&rsquo;s psychopathic (and sickly) little sister in <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/film-tv/streaming-services-netflix-disney-hbo-quibi-2020">HBO</a>&rsquo;s miniseries&nbsp;Sharp Objects, and later&nbsp;joined the cast of Greta Gerwig&rsquo;s adaptation of Little Women&nbsp;as Beth,&nbsp;a sweet ing&eacute;nue who&nbsp;falls&nbsp;ill with scarlet fever.

When asked why she keeps getting cast as&nbsp;characters with illnesses, Scanlen responds with a&nbsp;laugh.&nbsp;&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know! It&rsquo;s very strange that I do play sick people. It&rsquo;s not something that I see in&nbsp;a script and am dying&mdash;slip of the tongue&mdash;to do.&rdquo;

Scanlen&rsquo;s latest role runs true to form. In&nbsp;Babyteeth,&nbsp;she stars as the terminally ill teen Milla,&nbsp;who falls in love with a face-<a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/men/fun-city-tattoo-big-steve-2018">tattooed</a> drug dealer in an attempt to&nbsp;pack as much life as she can into what little time she has left. While&nbsp;we may know how this story ends, director Shannon Murphy gets&nbsp;us there in&nbsp;an entirely new way, and Scanlen&rsquo;s&nbsp;nuanced performance as Milla further cements&nbsp;her as Hollywood&rsquo;s next big thing. &ldquo;I like to describe [Milla] as a supernova that is about to explode.&nbsp;Just because she is about to&nbsp;disappear and pass away doesn&rsquo;t mean she isn&rsquo;t going to go with a bang,&rdquo; Scanlen says. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s&nbsp;something I love about the film. This character doesn&rsquo;t waste away. Instead, she soars.&rdquo;

We caught up with Scanlen at home in Australia to talk Babyteeth, sisterly relationships, and mukbangs.

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L&#39;Officiel:&nbsp;You and your sister, Annabel, collaborated on this shoot for us.&nbsp;Did you collaborate creatively as kids?&nbsp;

Eliza Scanlen:&nbsp;Oh yeah, for sure. Some of my most fond memories are of creating something together, whether it&rsquo;s a drawing or a play&nbsp;or an imaginary world in our childhood backyard. I&nbsp;was actually looking back at <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/film-tv/jonah-hill-wrote-directed-a-film-loosely-based-on-his-childhood">childhood</a> photos and videos a few days ago ... and I was constantly&nbsp;filming things, and I could hear my voice in the background always saying something along the&nbsp;lines of&nbsp;&lsquo;Oh, this looks like a movie! If you look that&nbsp;way, it looks like a movie!&rsquo; Annabel has&nbsp;always been my guinea pig, so I think it&rsquo;s obviously very fitting that I do what I do now.

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LO:&nbsp;Sisterhood is a major theme within a few of your projects, like&nbsp;Sharp Objects and&nbsp;Little&nbsp;Women. What does sisterhood mean to you and why do you think it&rsquo;s such a powerful&nbsp;relationship?

ES:&nbsp;I think sisterhood means understanding. While you might not agree with your sister, you&nbsp;will always try to understand them, and I think that is the real testament to a relationship. That&rsquo;s&nbsp;why my really close friends I treat like sisters because I don&rsquo;t want to lose that bond. I&nbsp;think sisterhood is something so special. You see in&nbsp;<a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/film-tv/oscars-2020-nominated-movies-to-watch-and-stream">Little Women</a> that they&rsquo;re constantly&nbsp;fighting and bickering, but then the next moment they can all be curled up together. It&rsquo;s the&nbsp;same thing you see in&nbsp;Sharp Objects. I guess the turbulent nature of that is what makes it so&nbsp;strong, and I see that with my sister and I. It&rsquo;s really, really special and I don&rsquo;t think I would be&nbsp;anywhere near who I am today without her.

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LO:&nbsp;Your character in&nbsp;Babyteeth,&nbsp;Milla, is doomed from the start of the film. Despite that, she&nbsp;never really comes across as a weak person. What did you do to get into her headspace and&nbsp;play into that dichotomy?

ES:&nbsp;I think I have a bit of that in myself.&nbsp;I can be quite an emotional person and I think about&nbsp;things deeply, but my outer surface is very much not that.&nbsp;A big part of dropping into a&nbsp;character like Milla was the physical transformation. Shaving my head was extremely helpful in&nbsp;taking me to that place, and I didn&rsquo;t quite expect how moving and transformational it was going&nbsp;to be. At that point I had prepared for the shock of it, but what I didn&rsquo;t prepare for was the&nbsp;attention I got when I stepped outside my <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/travel-living/nick-wooster-home-tour-hudson-yards-nyc">house</a>. People&nbsp;just stare at you ...&nbsp;and then there&rsquo;s the&nbsp;other side of the spectrum where people don&rsquo;t want to look at you at all. I was kind of moved&nbsp;by how isolating it can be.

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LO:&nbsp;You recently wrote and directed a short film about mukbangs, which are videos people&nbsp;film of themselves binge eating for an audience. What is it about that phenomenon that&nbsp;made you want to explore it more deeply?&nbsp;

ES:&nbsp;Mukbangs, for me, were a perfect metaphor for <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/pop%20culture/positive-vibes-instagram-accounts-follow-fashion">social media</a> today, specifically how young&nbsp;people interact with it,&nbsp;and&nbsp;how they present themselves on social media platforms. I see it as a&nbsp;kind of sickness in a way. I realized there was this strange parallel between pornography and&nbsp;mukbangs, and they both shared this detached intimacy that I think pose the same threat...this&nbsp;feeling like you&rsquo;re connecting with a person through&nbsp;a screen&nbsp;that&nbsp;distorts connection in a&nbsp;similar way. I wanted to make a statement on how we can accept the reality of internet culture&nbsp;and what it&rsquo;s doing to our way of connecting, but also rise above it and try and find the&nbsp;authenticity in real-life connection.

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LO:&nbsp;What was it like to step behind the camera instead of being in front of it?

ES:&nbsp;I really enjoyed it, and I look back on the experience now with so many fond memories, but it&nbsp;was incredibly <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/wellness/best-foods-for-anxiety">stressful</a> too! I was wearing many hats in pre-production but once it came to&nbsp;filming I felt like I was in my element, and I was surrounded by people I adored.&nbsp;Everyone on&nbsp;that set was a friend. What I realized when I was directing is that I&rsquo;m very much reliant on other&nbsp;people&rsquo;s opinions. I don&rsquo;t usually like being the loudest person in the room, but that was&nbsp;something people were asking from me, obviously, as the director...initially I felt quite&nbsp;uncomfortable.&nbsp;As an actor you&rsquo;re quite confined to the group of actors working on the set, and&nbsp;a lot of the time you just have to sit still and not touch anything and not break anything, so it was weird to have people ask me my opinions.&nbsp;I was like, &lsquo;Oh, that&rsquo;s how some directors get&nbsp;God complexes, of course!&#39;

Meet the Electrifying Eliza Scanlen

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