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Amelia Warner
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The Observer Online
- Sunday December 17th, 2000
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Amelia Warner - Teenage star of Lorna Doone
Chances are if you saw the BBC's version of Kingsley Amis's Take A Girl Like You, you'll remember Amelia Warner; it seems the 18-year-old is everywhere. The trailers for Lorna Doone, the BBC's big Christmas adaptation of R.D. Blackmore's romantic adventure, have been hard to miss. Warner plays the lead.
She also uses the same mix of innocence and sexuality she displayed in Take A Girl to startling effect in Quills, Philip Kaufman's black comedy about the Marquis de Sade which is released next month. Kate Winslet is the female lead, but Warner is the true Sadean heroine. Raised in a convent, she becomes the reluctant bride of the bullying Dr Royer-Collard (Michael Caine). Warner claims she wasn't worried about working with Caine. 'My friends made me watch Alfie< and The Italian Job.'
Warner's mother is actress Annette Ekblom, who tried to put her off show business, but at 16, Amelia appeared in the BBC's Aristocrats and the film Mansfield Park. Still, she insists she is going to get a degree.
Lorna Doone starts on Christmas Eve on BBC1.
Five things you should know about Amelia Warner.
1. Her first screen role was on Kavanagh
QC.
2. She wasn't allowed to ride in the action scenes in Lorna Doone.
3. Having turned 18 in June, she is now legally allowed to see Quills.
4. She made her US debut in a TV version of Don Quixote with Bob Hoskins.
5. Despite her film and TV commitments, she managed to get three decent A-levels.