The two actors who inspired Mia McKenna-Bruce’s career: “I became obsessed”
At the 2024 Baftas, Mia McKenna-Bruce won the coveted ‘Rising Star’ trophy, having just come off the back of How to Have Sex, a refreshingly dark take on the traditional coming-of-age story.
The film and its subsequent success made McKenna Bruce an instant star, who has since gone from strength to strength; not bad for somebody who got their big break on Tracy Beaker Returns.
McKenna-Bruce, who was recently announced would be playing Maureen Starkey in the upcoming Beatles quadrilogy, is definitely one to watch, but with all the attention currently on her future, let’s take a look back at her past as a young child scared of the art form.
In an interview with Cool America, the young Briton was asked about how she got into acting in the first place, where she revealed that, as a six-year-old, she was actually traumatised by a TV adaptation of Titanic, but once she got over her fear, she quickly fell in love with a classic star from a bygone era.
“I then became obsessed with Shirley Temple,” she revealed, “I watched the same documentary about her every afternoon when I got home from school… This is what got me obsessed with becoming a real-life actor.”
In terms of child stars, they don’t come much bigger than Temple, well, not physically, for she was tiny. She started her career at the age of three, becoming a major name three years later with the movie Bright Eyes. Throughout the rest of the 1930s, ‘America’s little darling’ was box office gold, the perfect antidote to the Great Depression and the rest of the turmoil that enveloped the era. She also helped break down racial barriers in the States through her onscreen partnership with dancer Bill ‘Bojangles’ Robinson.
The problem with child stars is that they eventually grow up, so when Temple got older and, therefore, less cute, interest in her movies gradually waned. She attempted to make a go of it as an adult, but by the late 1940s, the writing was on the wall, with her final film appearance being A Kiss for Corliss in 1949; she retired from the big screen at the grand old age of 21. Don’t feel too bad for her, though, as she had an extremely successful career in politics, serving as the United States’ ambassador to both Ghana and Czechoslovakia.
Back to McKenna-Bruce, remember that Titanic TV show that left her cowering behind the sofa? After seeing their little girl distraught at the fate of the ship, her parents arranged a phone call with the director of the series to explain to her that it was all fake. She later learned that this ‘director’ was actually just her grandfather doing a voiceover on the phone, but by then, she was already hooked on the idea of becoming an actor.
As it turns out, a star from the most famous film version of the story of the doomed White Star Liner would also play a massive part in her life. “Kate Winslet has always, and will always be a huge idol of mine,” she continued, “I think she’s just so real, it’s so inspiring”.
