Kaya Scodelario: 'I Never Want To Be The Token Female'

Kaya Scodelario on The Maze Runner: 'I never want to be the token female'

By Tiffany Rose

She's best known as Effy on Skins but things are quickly changing for Kaya Scodelario, who's following up her critically-acclaimed turns in Wuthering Heights and The Truth About Emanuel with a role in the hotly-anticipated adaptation of James Dashner's YA novel The Maze Runner.

Playing Teresa, the only female in the cast, Kaya assured Digital Spy that she was as tough as her co-stars when we visited her on set in Baton Rouge, Louisiana last year.

The film is set in a post-apocalyptic world where a community of teenage boys discover they're all trapped in a maze. Teresa is the first girl to be delivered and she soon develops a special bond with Thomas (Dylan O'Brien) in an attempt to plot an escape.

The sci-fi thriller is being directed by first-timer Wes Ball, who describes the film as Lord of the Flies meets The Hunger Games with an element of Lost. Kaya fills us in on her latest screen role below...

How does it feel being the only female on an all-male set?
"It's fine actually, they're all very lovely boys. They're all very well-mannered. And they've been teaching me to be brave and manly. Yeah, they're all really cool. A lot of my friends back home are boys so I do well with boys I like - roughing it with guys and being sweaty and dirty. It's cool."

What is Teresa like?
"She's tough. The one thing I never wanted her to be was the token female who was just scared and everyone was protecting. She doesn't need protecting. The first time you see her she has a machete, which I think is really cool. She's tough, she holds her own and she also wants to find answers and she wants to know why she's here."

This is one of your first big budget American films - how intimidated did you feel coming from a cult TV show in Britain?
"I tried to go into it treating it like any other job, which I think is what you have to do. I'm really lucky it's a big Hollywood film and everyone really cares about it. Everyone wants it to be made because they want it to be a good story. They've put a lot of time and effort into it. It doesn't feel as though it's just here for the sake of doing another young adult film. If you speak to Wes, he really gives a f**k about it! And when you have that passion and when you have that dedication, it's the same as being on the lowest-budget set ever. It's just that there's loads of free food which is great!"

Describe Teresa's relationship with Thomas and your dynamic with Dylan
"I love Dylan. He's the cutest thing ever. He's like my little brother. He's very cool. It's an interesting relationship between them. There's no romantic link, they're two souls who feel a connection to one another but they're so focused on trying to work out why they're in this place and why they don't have any memories of who put them there. They wouldn't suddenly be like, 'I love you'."

You played Effy in Skins over the course of a long period and this film has the potential to be a huge franchise like The Hunger Games - would you like to continue with this character?
"I like to work. I feel blessed that I am working! A lot of my friends are going through a difficult time right now. I don't think there is enough youth employment or enough push for youths to do what they want to do. I love my job every day, and when you're working on a set, it feels like a family straight away. You feel like you've been working for a year with these people and you know them inside out. It's lovely to know that they're going to be in your lives for a while."

How did you end up landing this role?
"A lot of my friends told me that there is this really cool script going around called The Maze Runner and I thought, 'It's going to be another stupid female role where she is in love with loads of people and she doesn't know what to do'. They said, 'No, she's actually a really good female part. She's really strong and intelligent and it's exciting'. I loved the script. I found it really interesting. Then I put myself on tape because I was back in England; it was quite strangely done in that way as I didn't have to fly out to America. Wes told me he didn't want her to be a damsel in distress. I totally got that."

Your character in Skins is pretty fearless. What is the most challenging aspect of this movie for you?
"Probably the physical side. I had never done an action film where I've had to run around, especially running after Dylan where he's all athletic and American and great at sport. And I smoke and drink, I'm typically English, so for me I've been pushing myself to get into shape and actually exercise and try to keep up with them all. It's been a great challenge for me. I've been able to stand my ground. I didn't want to be the pansy female, I wanted to give them a run for my money and I feel like I have!"

Have you read the series of books for research?
"I've read the first book. I'm holding off reading the second and third book because I don't want to know what happens. I think it's great to go into something completely fresh and experience it. We're so lucky to be filming on location. We camped out the first week here and all of us were like, 'Oh God, this is terrifying!' The sound of nature and the snakes and spiders was really intimidating! I'm from London; I'm not used to that at all! You can feel the environment straight away."

How much do you check online to see what fans of the book are saying?
"I don't check, it scares me. My mum does it and I say, 'Mum don't do that!' And she'll ring me and say, 'Do you know you did this?' And I'm like, 'No, I didn't do that mum, I would have told you if I'd done that!' She kind of filters out the bad and then tells me the good stuff. But I don't like Googling."

The Maze Runner will open in US cinemas on September 19 and October 10 in the UK.