If you haven’t heard of Juno Temple yet, you soon will.
The up-and-coming British actress starred opposite Angelina Jolie in the summer blockbuster “Maleficent” and has a role beside Johnny Depp in the upcoming Whitey Bulger flick, “Black Mass.”
Part of a crop of hot young actresses making a name in Hollywood and the indie film world, the 25-year-old actress was singled out last year by the public, which voted to award her the EE Rising Star BAFTA Award.
“There are some truly extraordinary young women actresses right now, like Jennifer Lawrence, Mia Wasikowska, Elizabeth Olsen,” the Somerset, England-born actress told her “Horns” co-star, Daniel Radcliffe, for the inaugural issue of Heroine magazine. “You watch them and you forget sometimes that you’re even watching them. They are so young but know the craft in such an old way, and I love that so much. So if the job doesn’t go your way, you’re just as excited to see the film anyway.”
But lately, things have been going Temple’s way, like adopting a Boston accent to play opposite Depp.
“Johnny Depp playing Whitey Bulger was just one of the most amazing transitions I’ve ever seen,” she told Radcliffe for Heroine. “He had these crazy contact lenses in his eyes that almost reminded me of lizards, so when you were acting with him you were genuinely quite frightened, but he was lovely, so encouraging.”
Here are five things you need to know about Temple:
She Comes From a Rebel Family
Her father, Julien Temple, a fan of punk music, directed the 1979 Sex Pistols documentary “The Great Rock and Roll Swindle,” as well as videos for The Rolling Stones and The Kinks. Her aunt, Nina Temple, was the last secretary of the British Communist Party, and her grandfather, Langdon Temple, once ran a travel agency specializing in Communist countries.
She Grew Up in a Fairytale House
Temple grew up with her father, mother Amanda Pirie, a producer, and two younger brothers in a 14th century house in Taunton, Somerset.
“As kids, we lived in this magical world and roamed free in the gardens,” she told The Telegraph earlier this year. “I was constantly in fancy dress and in character as a kid.”
No surprise, then, that Temple has a thing for fairies and flipped when she got the chance to play one beside Jolie, even if most of her time on set was spent filming in a “giant white room wearing a wet suit with ping pong balls all over it,” as she told Heroine. “I had all these ink dots all over my face and I was filming with a 10-foot-tall version of Angelina Jolie’s face.”
She Got Started as Child Actress
It’s no surprise, given her childhood, that Temple announced to her parents that she wanted to become an actress. Her first role, at 8, was in one of her father’s films. At age 12, she auditioned and won the role of Cate Blanchett’s sulky teenage daughter in “Notes on a Scandal.” By the time she left boarding school, she had worked on 11 films, and her co-star in “St Trinian’s 2: The Legend of Fratton’s Gold,” Rupert Everett, helped her write her essay for completing her secondary education.
Though she’s 25, Temple can still look like a child actress.
“I’m still at a stage where sometimes I look 18,” she told Radcliffe. “Some days people tell me I look 14, which is a bit of a shock … and then sometimes I look 25.”
She Prefers Character to Leading Lady Roles
Temple has already been cast in more than 30 film roles, including a 12-year-old girl whose virginity is offered as collateral to Matthew McConaughey’s hit man, a schizophrenic insomniac and a woman who is raped and murdered.
“I usually like to play a woman who’s got s*** going on,” she told The Telegraph. “I’m not sure I ooze leading lady, I’m not the high school catch. I’ve been lucky with characters.”
Her Boyfriend Is a Fellow Actor
Temple lives with her boyfriend, actor Michael Angarano, whom she met on the set of 2012′s “Brass Teapot,” in a 1920s Los Angeles bungalow filled with vintage clothes and British flags. According to The Telegraph, she once collected Angarano from the airport in nothing but underwear, heels and a raincoat.