Lily James: I'm a control freak when I play characters from novels I love

Lily James says she has struggled to play characters adapted from books because she is “a bit of a control freak” — and finds it hard to let go of the original text.

The actress starred in the BBC adaptation of Leo Tolstoy’s War And Peace and will soon be seen in Netflix’s version of Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca. She plays the new bride of Maxim de Winter, and finds herself living in the shadow of his late first wife, Rebecca.

James, 30, told AnOther magazine she found it hard to “inhabit” the role to begin with as she is a big fan of the book.

“I think I was really annoying because I love that book so much,” she said.

“I clutched to it like a lifeline and wasn’t brave enough for a while to just let it go and say, ‘This is a new version.’ I was like that with War And Peace, too.”

She added: “I’m a bit of a control freak and I don’t trust myself that much, so if there’s something there saying how it should be, I trust that rather than myself, which was a bit difficult. But then I just have to allow myself to really inhabit it.”

James said the character was in “such turmoil” that she had panic attacks and felt “unsettled and discombobulated” after filming.

She added: “It’s certainly the role I’ve inhabited the most. Even talking about it, I get kind of breathless. It was a really powerful experience.”

The Mamma Mia! and Baby Driver star also spoke about Hollywood’s attempts to give female writers and directors more opportunities in the film industry.

She said: “There’s now a general initiative to support, foster and nurture female writers and female directors, and inevitably by doing that we’re going to capture women in a different way from through a male lens.

“There are definitely new voices coming through that are finally being encouraged. So that’s going to change everything and it’s so exciting.”

AnOther is on sale on Thursday February 13. Read the full interview with Lily James, left, on anothermag.com now. Shoot styled by Katie Shillingford.