'KATE IS ONE OF THE MOST PHOTOGRAPHED WOMEN — THAT'S SCARY'

The walk, the accent, the laugh — even the smoking. Turning into Kate Moss was the challenge of a lifetime for Ellie Bamber, who plays the supermodel in a new film

- JOE BROMLEY

What did I find hard? Erm, all of it,” Ellie Bamber says laughing, but only just.

Playing Kate Moss on the big screen was never going to be as simple as shrugging on the supermodel’s 1990s John Galliano Union Jack blazer and stumbling through the streets of London in front of a camera.

Not that either endeavour is unimportant. Bamber, 29, undertakes both convincingly in biopic Moss & Freud, out tomorrow. The film follows the model's life between 2001 and 2002, when she sat nude for artist Lucian Freud three nights a week, from 7pm until late, over nine months, including while pregnant with her daughter Lila. The sittings resulted in Naked Portrait 2002, an almost life-size, full-length oil painting which sold at Christie's for £3.9 million in 2005.

Becoming Moss meant more than mastering a walk, a voice or a wardrobe. She is one of the most famous women on the planet and one of London's greatest cultural icons. From her hometown Croydon to Claridge’s, big Topshop, Primrose Hill, Glastonbury and the bedroom walls of adoring fans the city (and world) over, almost everyone has a take on what the real Kate is like.

Some of those opinions may owe more to the tabloids than her catwalk appearances; she has appeared in their pages throughout her career, which began when she was scouted at 14 in 1988. “I’ve played people who have been in the public eye before, but not in this kind of way,” says Bamber. “She's one of the most photographed women and that is definitely scary and daunting.” To embody her was a far more involved, uphill climb than the actor may first have thought when the email about the role arrived one morning in 2023, as she sat in her dressing gown at home in north London. “I just remember it being a total shock. I thought, ‘Who wouldn't want to play Kate Moss?’ And then I think the fear set in very quickly. After that, I was like: ‘I’ve gotta do this now.”