‘You Have To Grow Into Chanel’: Get To Know Peaky Blinders’ New Girl Gaite Jansen

Gaite Jansen is kind of a big deal in Holland. But Rotterdam’s answer to Keira Knightley-meets-Rebecca Hall is unphased by the clutch of award nominations to her name  – ‘Well, they’re all Dutch, so you probably won’t know them’. She’s about to get a new wave of interest from UK audiences, starring in the latest series of BBC’s popular gang drama Peaky Blinders.

‘You guys make the BEST period dramas,’ she tells me. The 24-year-old has been doing acting classes since the age of six and working professionally from the age of 15. But it was her role as a deaf teen in the hugely compelling drama 170 Hz  (so called because that’s the highest frequency the main character can hear) that really helped her begin the international crossover.

We found out more about the intriguing new screen ingénue...

On acting with Cillian Murphy…
‘I don’t need to tell you what an amazing actor Cillian Murphy is, but to be so close to him and see him act, not through a screen, but with my bare eyes? That was definitely something I’ll never forget.’

On her Peaky Blinders outfits…
‘I play a young aristocrat forced to flee Russia so her outfits were really beautiful and grander than many of the other cast members. It’s so fun to experiment with costumes from different eras.’

On her style…
‘When I was younger, I didn’t really care about clothes. I was a tomboy and would spend the day climbing trees and getting dirty. You have to grow into some things. I want to wear Chanel when I can afford Chanel.’

On what she’d be if she wasn’t an actor…
‘It’s not realistic because I can’t really do anything else!’

On her dream film role…
‘I get really excited when I get a script where the woman is not necessarily a sexual object or the girlfriend, the wife or the sister. The more a role is not anything like me, the more fun it is.’

Peaky Blinders series three starts on BBC Two, 5 May at 9pm. Series one and two are available on Netflix.

Photographer: Jasper Abels

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‘You Have To Grow Into Chanel’: Get To Know Peaky Blinders’ New Girl Gaite Jansen