When Olivia Cooke answers my call, she's on holiday with her mum. A stream of warm yellow light blazes through a small walnut-stained window onto the white clay wall and a subtle wash of sunblush casts over her nose and cheeks. She wears a purple vest top, the strap of which falls effortlessly off her shoulder. This look is a far cry from the layered faux fur coats, lashings of belts and green tights—''I bloody loved those tights,'' she tells me—that Cooke found herself wearing just days before on our Autumn Issue cover shoot.
Instead of switching off entirely, she's carved out time to talk about her work. That alone says something. Few people would take an hour out of a hard-earned holiday to slip back into promo mode, but Cooke, 31, does it with ease. Not because she takes herself seriously—quite the opposite—but because she takes her craft seriously. That distinction, I quickly learn, defines her: deeply committed, never self-important. It's a testament to the way she has moved through the industry thus far; whip smart, opinionated in the most refreshing sense and utterly unpretentious.
These attributes have quietly guided her through more than a decade of standout performances, from early BBC dramas to Steven Spielberg's Ready Player One, to the force that is House of the Dragon. Now, with her latest role in Amazon Prime's new psychological thriller, The Girlfriend, Cooke once again proves herself an actor unwilling to be pigeonholed.
''I really, really dug the script,'' she says of the six-part series. ''I love anything that taps into the British class system—rich and poor—and how that sort of eats itself. And then to have it set with these two characters who are very much alike in many ways, save for their bank balances and their status, and play with all the complexities that relationship brings. I found when I was reading the scripts, I was really rooting for these two characters to be friends… but we live in a society that unfortunately pits women against each other still, which is just so fucking annoying and unfair.''
Cooke plays Cherry, a fiery estate agent with grit beneath the glamour, who begins a relationship with a man of means who has a very close yet complex connection with his family, in particular his formidable mother, Laura. Cherry is unapologetically ambitious, clawing her way to a place in a world that keeps threatening to shut her out. ''She is living in her overdraft and hoping to get a big break; sell a really high-end property to get that commission. So she is existing paycheck to paycheck, and something like caramel sauce spilling on a £400 dress she bought to impress her boyfriend's parents but had intended to return the next day is really fucking bad.''
That class tension—the sense of having everything to prove and nothing to fall back on—resonated deeply with Cooke. Born and raised in Oldham, Greater Manchester, she has spoken openly about her working-class roots and how her accent became an identifier of sorts in the industry. ''It was super cathartic,'' she says of channelling Cherry. ''All these sort of microaggressions you feel as someone [who] might be working-class—you often have to just bottle and swallow. For me, feeling that slight deficit, and also being a woman in an industry that's frankly easier to navigate when you went to Eton or another public school… it was freeing to play someone like Cherry who wears her emotions on the surface and isn't afraid to scream out her frustrations. Because of that, I got to address my own frustrations in a safe environment.''
Cherry's emotions aren't just written into dialogue—they burn through her costuming too. Cooke worked closely with the styling and hair departments to bring that vision to life. ''Her emotions are so on the surface, and there's a lot of fire within her,'' she explains. ''So all the reds she's in, all the various shades, felt emblematic of that. She's a bit of a siren; she's displaying herself in a way to attract, but she's also assimilating into this higher-class world. It had to have that 'va va voom'.''
The magnetism of The Girlfriend lies greatly in the sparring between Cherry and Laura, played by Robin Wright, who also directed the first three episodes of the series and served as producer. For Cooke, the chance to be opposite Wright was irresistible. ''I love her, I think she's fucking brilliant,'' she says plainly. Landing the part seemed serendipitous all round, too. ''We had a quick twenty-minute Zoom, and it was like, 'Yeah, I want to do this.' 'Yeah, I want you. Okay. Easy.'''
On set, Wright proved a revelation, living up to Cooke's expectations. ''She's doing the most nuanced, incredible, heartbreaking performance and then she just snaps right out of it and goes, 'What lens are we going to use? Okay, we've got that shot. Let's move on.' It takes me half an hour to come down from an emotional scene, and she's just there snapping right back into it. It was very inspiring to watch.''
Shifting perspectives is central to the show. Much of the drama is told through competing lenses: Cherry's truth, Laura's truth and the blurred space that exists between. So much so that some scenes were rewritten on the day to better serve these shifting points of view. ''We'd be filming and realise some of these points of view worked for the opposite character,'' Cooke recalls. ''So we should switch this, or rewrite the scene completely. It was tricky. And bless Robin, she also had the task of editing all that together.''
For an actor used to the rigidity of projects like House of the Dragon, where scripts are locked in months ahead, that spontaneity was invigorating. ''I quite like working a bit more 'run and gun,''' she says. ''It was a challenge, but you can feel how kinetic it is on screen.''
During our conversation, Cooke often returns to the idea of acting as a release. ''It's all that I think is in me,'' she admits. ''All those chips on Cherry's shoulders, all that defence, all the aspiration and striving. Those are themes I've had in my life at certain points. So it's easy to dial up and down.'' Yet she resists the idea of method acting as the necessary path to truth. ''I think method acting is for men usually,'' she says with a laugh. ''It's often men who feel that to do a more artistic job, [they] want to make it as painful for themselves as possible. They'd be so much happier if they didn't.''
Instead, Cooke emphasises balance, keeping things light between takes, grounding herself after heavy scenes and investing in therapy. ''You do portray all these emotions, and the body doesn't know it's not real,'' she explains. ''So I have to keep it light in between setups. I'm too sensitive to stay in that mode. Especially as I get older, things affect me a lot more than they used to. I thought I'd develop resilience, but that's not the case.''
She credits an intimacy coordinator she worked with earlier this year with helping her develop rituals of decompression, like stretching, moving and re-entering her own body after scenes that demanded more than everyday life. ''It's amazing. I had none of these skills in my early twenties, and I could have really used them back then as a young actor.'' Despite her impressive résumé, Cooke has largely managed to sidestep the trappings of celebrity, and she is grateful for it. ''I don't think I'd do well with über, über-fame,'' she admits. ''I'm really happy with my slow and steady progression, continuing to work, doing projects I believe in, being fulfilled in the meantime and then living my life in a very normal way.''
That normality suits her introverted streak. "People are so lovely, but I get so embarrassed when people come up to me and they're sort of awestruck. I'm like, 'No, you've got the wrong person.' It's energy better spent elsewhere.'' That said, there are still pinch-me moments: being directed by Spielberg at 24, or, indeed, spotting childhood TV idols in the wild. ''When I did The One Show, it was Matt from Blue Peter [hosting]. I'd grown up watching him, and he was one of my first loves. I was like, 'I can't talk to this person,'" she laughs.
Cooke blushes when I compliment her on her range. She's played everything from a troubled daughter to a gamer heroine and a politically fraught queen, and now, a plucky have-not with a dark past. What unites them, however, is complexity. ''A lot of the time it's story dependent,'' she says. ''But I suppose the characters I end up playing mirror a part of what is happening or has happened in my own life that needs some sort of exorcism. It's really curious. I end up learning so much about myself when I take on a role.''
That said, she doesn't buy into the myth of disappearing entirely into a character. ''It all comes from a prism [within] us. We dial things up or down, put on an accent or a wig. But I don't think you can fully throw away your personality and put on a new one, if you want to do [a role] truthfully.'' I ask her, if she were able to embody Alicent Hightower, her House of the Dragon persona, and rule for a day, what laws would she enforce? ''Oh god, so, so much,'' she says. ''The selling of arms, I would ban that. Dump all guns on Mars or something. I'd also release so many closed files, you have no idea. Then I'd make all world leaders women, just to see how things would change. Not to shit on all men, but, just for a generation, let's see what happens. And raise lovely boys who are respectful of women. It will be gorgeous.'' Show of hands for Cooke to become Queen of Everything as soon as humanly possible.
Cooke's path into acting, however, wasn’t set in stone. Growing up in Oldham, she attended after-school dance and acting workshops from the age of eight. ''I think I was always a bit of a show off; very 'daddy, daddy, look at me!'" But it wasn't until close friends began auditioning for drama schools that she realised the arts could be a viable career.
At 14, she auditioned for an agent in Manchester. Soon after, she landed on the agency's books. Then a casting director who worked next door began calling her in, and by 18, she had her first BBC job. ''Up until that point, I just couldn't ever see myself doing it in a proper professional capacity,'' she says. ''I'm not from an artistic background, and there was no reference point. But then I thought I'd better go for it.''
Her mum, supportive but pragmatic, worried when work didn't come quickly. "99% of actors are out of work 99% of the time. 'You need to get a job!' she told me. But I had the naivety of an 18-year-old to be like, 'No, the next job's going to come in.''' Today, Cooke still keeps a tight inner circle. ''I've got best mates [I've known] since I was 12, and a few really good girlfriends and guy friends. It's all gotten a bit coven and witchy, but it's so lovely. I do feel really held by them.''
Still, asking for help doesn't come easily. ''When I'm in despair and need help, I just don't. Sometimes it feels withholding, but really it's just not wanting an uncomfortable moment. I'm trying to get better at relinquishing myself to that.''
That humility, that sense of still figuring it out, makes her reflections on her younger self all the more poignant. If she could tell teenage Liv anything? ''All the things you're worrying about now will probably never come true. Stop exerting all that energy, fretting and making yourself ill over what-ifs. Try to live more in the moment. And ask someone if they know a really good therapist, because you need it.''
I can't help but see parallels between this sentiment and our autumn shoot; a celebration of frazzled elegance, of beauty found in imperfection. Cooke may admit to finding it hard to ask for help, but she's also disarmingly self-aware. She doesn't strive for flawlessness. Instead, she embraces the cracks and contradictions, and in doing so, reveals something far more compelling: her truth.
Stream The Girlfriend on Amazon Prime from 10 September 2025.
Photographer: Matt Healy
Stylist: Sophie Robyn Watson
Hair Stylist: Nao Kawamaki at The Wall Group
Makeup Artist: Lauren Reynolds at Bryant Artists
Manicurist: Saffron Goddard
Prop Stylist: Nicholas Rodgers
Editor-in-Chief: Hannah Almassi
Art Director: Natalia Sztyk
Executive Director, Entertainment: Jessica Baker
Editor: Maxine Eggenberger
Video: Natasha Wilson
Photography Assistant: Cameron Jack, Leigh Skinner
Digital Technician: David English
Styling Assistant: Brittany Davy
Production: Town Productions
