Erin Kellyman Reflects on Working With Scarlett Johansson in Her Directorial Debut

It sounds cliché, but when Erin Kellyman first appears in Eleanor the Great, she lights up the screen. Her freckles scatter across her face like a constellation and her crimson curls serve as an ornate frame to her awestruck, wide-eyed expression. Her open demeanor makes it clear that she’s like a sponge, ready to absorb. In that moment, Kellyman doesn’t exist—she inhabits her character, Nina, fully.

Her ability to disappear into her characters likely has something to do with the way that she approaches acting. “As a kid, I was always very interested in people in general,” Kellyman says. “I used to be very observant of the people around me. I had a need to understand people and understand why they did certain things or how they acted or responded.”

The now-26-year-old actress from Birmingham, England, always had a penchant for playing pretend. But she never envisioned herself as an actor until her mom took her to a modeling audition as a preteen, where she was asked to improvise in a classroom. Kellyman says she was extremely shy, but left the audition feeling confident and energized.

She was instantly hooked. Kellyman started professionally acting a year or two later, at age 14, when she was cast in the British sitcom Raised by Wolves, a project that she thinks will eternally have a hold on her heart. “I felt like I should be paying them to be there,” she says of working with writers Caitlin and Caroline Moran and actresses Helen Monks and Rebekah Staton. “I had so many role models that I got to work with. They are unapologetically themselves—hilarious, powerful, and admirable women.”

In Eleanor the Great, Kellyman found herself surrounded by female role models again. She starred alongside June Squibb, and the film marked Scarlett Johansson’s directorial debut. It chronicles Eleanor (Squibb) as she navigates a move to New York City at 90 years old, and pretends to be a Holocaust survivor, who Kellyman’s character intends to profile for a journalism class. Kellyman likens the moment she found out she got the role to Christmas Eve or the night before her birthday—brimming with anticipation and excitement to play Nina.

It also helped that she felt very connected to her character’s journey. “When you meet Nina, she’s anxious all the time. She’s so wrapped up in her own head, she’s not seeing any friends, and she’s very isolated. But by the end of the movie, she really finds her voice,” Kellyman says. “I feel like I’ve gone on a fairly similar journey.”

Though Kellyman has found her voice, she’s still not angling to be the center of attention. “I’ve kept a very low profile,” she says with a laugh. “I definitely did not get into this to become famous. That was my worst nightmare as a teenager, and it hasn’t happened yet, so I think I’m doing pretty well.” But after starring in Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez’s first Loewe campaign last month, and with another big movie, 28 Years Later, on the way, Kellyman might find herself receiving more attention soon. Much like Nina, she seems poised to channel that excitement into something truly extraordinary.

Owen Cooper is incredible. I saw him in Adolescence and he blew me away.

Curlsmith. My hair loves them. I love Byoma too. My skin likes Byoma a lot. For fashion, just charity shops—vintage. Loewe! I’m very excited. Their new stuff is very exciting.

This Is England. Shane Meadows, who directs that, is a genius. Vicky McClure, who’s in it, is a genius. Every actor in that movie is unbelievably talented, and you can’t tell what lines are improv. I like when it just feels like the camera happens to be there in a film.

If could have been an actor as a kid and had those opportunities back then—the Cheaper by the Dozen movies. I would have killed to be in them. I’m actually so pissed that I’m 26 years old, and if they ever do a new one, I can’t be in it. That movie just looked so fun. When I was a kid, I used to watch the behind-the-scenes all the time.

My sister. I don’t even think it would pass as a biopic, but I want to write a film about my sister and her journey as a [skeleton bobsled] athlete, and then play her, because her story is so interesting and complex and heartbreaking, and I think that story deserves to be told.

Let me go on my Spotify right now...Olivia Dean. Chappell Roan. Sabrina Carpenter. Lots and lots of dancehall music by various artists. But I’m gonna go with those gals.

On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous. I’d like to see that as a film.

If I had any talents, I’d be showing them off. I can play piano a little bit.

Julie Walters, because she was from Birmingham, too. Once I realized that she was from Birmingham and I wanted to be an actor as well, I was like, “Oh, that’s somebody who is from where I’m from, and has done really well for herself.” That was the first time where I saw somebody and thought, Okay, maybe I can do this, even though I’m not born in L.A. That’s what I thought you had to be if you wanted to be an actor.

Greta Gerwig. She is incredible. Ever since I saw a behind-the-scenes of her directing Lady Bird, I thought she’d be so fun to work with. And I’m obsessed with her movies.

I am very conscious of everybody having to balance work life and personal life. When the days are so long, work can really take over. And I think sometimes it’s difficult for people to prioritize their mental health or their personal life, because you can get so wrapped up in work. I’ve really found that balance of handling both sides of my life.

Acting. I had no idea that it was a risk when I was 14. I thought that everything would just work out, because I had no idea how hard it would be. Delusion is the only thing that’s got me working with people like Scarlett Johansson and June Squibb, because I really thought I’d made it on a Channel 4 job.

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THE BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMERS OF 2025