'I don't like being recognised'

Shadow and Bone’s Jessie Mei Li tells Isobel Van Dyke about fan expectation, representation and working with Gillian Anderson

- Isobel Van Dyke

JESSIE MEI LI is squatting on a bookshelf in the loft of a converted church. I find the breakout star of Netflix’s cult fantasy series Shadow and Bone in this unusual position because she is having her photo taken — though I might not have recognised her without the camera pointing in her face.

The 27-year-old Li couldn’t look more different to her character, the show’s powerful protagonist Alina Starkov. Her primary focus is saving her world from the devastating actions of a power-hungry villain (and Alina’s sometime romantic interest) known as the Darkling, played by Ben Barnes. Starkov’s look is one of radiant, natural beauty: long dark hair in loose waves, no makeup, and no piercings. Li, on the other hand, is growing out a bleached buzz cut and has at least eight piercings visible.

“That was tactical,” she says when we chat at ArtHouse in Crouch End, “I don’t like being recognised. This disguise works — there’s been times where I’ve been at parties, chatting away to someone, I’ll tell them what I do and that I’m in Shadow and Bone and they’re like, ‘Oh my God, I love that show! Who do you play?’ It’s happened several times.”

Li lives in Bristol and only visits London every so often. Born in Brighton to an English mother and Chinese father, she grew up in Redhill, Surrey, with a huge appetite for life. “When I was a kid I wanted to do everything, which is what led me to becoming an actor,” she says. “I wanted to be a detective, or a forensic scientist, or a doctor, but then I realised I could be all those things on screen. I wanted to be a storyteller, I love spinning a yarn and doing voices and impressions. It was about following the fun for me.”