Ella Purnell’s Dream Was To Work With One Of Two Directors (Her Dream Came True)

Dreams really do come true. Or at least they do for Ella Purnell.

The Fallout actress is the star of the biggest TV show of 2024 and she’s already worked with one of her two “dream” filmmakers.

Back when she was 18, Purnell had to decide whether to continue working as an actor or go to college and become a teacher. “I was like, ‘Okay, I’m done with school. Acting was a fun little side hustle that’s going to fund my gap year. I’m gonna travel the world and find myself.’ I wouldn’t say I did. I drank a lot. I saw a lot of Australia very drunk,” she told Vulture. Then Purnell was offered a role in a movie directed by a legend.

Just after this period of self-exploration, she was offered her big break in Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. She had been an admirer of movies by filmmakers with an idiosyncratic vision and distinct style — films with a trademark look that could have been made only by one person. “I didn’t have many dreams, but I had one and it was to work with Tim Burton or Wes Anderson. And I got it,” she says. “At the same time, I was like, ‘F*ck, no, this was my chance to go to university and start a different life.'” Choosing the movie, she says, “was kind of bittersweet.”

Nearly a decade later, Purnell, 27, is able to see she made the correct choice. “Looking back, it’s exactly what should have happened. I’m glad I stuck with acting. I had to fall in love with it on my own account and not because of my family or my friends. Now I love it. Now I choose to do it. I had to figure that out by myself,” she said.

Kids, there’s an important lesson here: screw college. Stick with acting because you never know when you might get to work with nose-less Walton Goggins.

(Via Vulture)