The 26-year-old actress opens up about her career successes and downfalls
In an ideal world, Mia Mills sees Jennifer Aniston playing her in a rom-com about her life. “A movie about me would be pretty quirky,” she says.
“There would be funny little moments but also ‘get your shit together’ moments. The kind of rom-com where everything seems to go wrong and then everything comes together in the last minute.”
Mia has that Aniston kind of bubbly presence. However, the more she tells me about her career successes, the more I wonder whether the ‘get your shit together’ moments would more accurately reflect the plot of her life.
The 26-year-old Coventry-born actress began performing at the age of six and started formally training in acting at the age of 15.
After graduating from Buckinghamshire New University with a degree in acting for film, TV and stage, she went on to further training at Pinewood Studios, London.
It was during her time at university that she first experienced being on a real set when she was chosen as extra in the first couple of episodes of the popular sci-fi series Black Mirror.
“I remember learning so much just from being on the set,” she says. “Extra work is very tough. It’s long hours, hours of waiting around and doesn’t have a lot of pay off, but the experience you get just from watching the set ups and the technicalities of shooting is brilliant.”
While practising mainly stage acting, she also continued to train in dance, physical theatre and she even has a British Academy of Dramatic Combat certificate in stage combat.
Mia’s career took an upward turn when she obtained one of the leading roles in the feature film ‘Do Something, Jake’, which is currently in the running for Best Feature at the annual Midlands Movies Awards.
The film continues to receive international attention and was recently shown at the Odeon cinema in Loughborough.
Mia describes the moment she saw herself on the big screen as surreal. “Moments like that solidify and confirm why we choose crazy things like performing arts to do,” she says.
“It can take ages of trying and failing and giving up on it at least five times a week, but then you get moments like that, that, without sounding cliché, make all the blood, sweat and lots of tears worth it.”
Mia explains that her grandma was the one person who turned her to film and theatre. Her grandma had been a playwright and English teacher for many years, so she always had strong viewpoints about films.
They used to watch together the big classics, such as ‘The Breakfast Club’ and ‘Some Like It Hot’ and chat about them for hours.
“The Breakfast Club is my favourite of all time,” Mia says, “I’ve probably watched it close to 50 times. I can recite virtually every scene and still laugh in the same places and get emotional in the same places.”
Mia is currently working on different projects, including a horror feature, a mythical-style pilot and other new and fresh “under wraps” titles she can’t speak about. Her future looks promising.
“When did you have one of the ‘get your shit together’ moments?” I ask after it has been playing on my mind for the whole interview.
Mia laughs and explains that although she’s had many amazing film experiences, she’s also had just as bad ones she gained nothing from.
“Some of these were unavoidable but some I could have avoided myself,” she says. “I wish I hadn’t been as afraid to just say ‘no but thank you for the opportunity’.”
However, Mia says now she is more confident in selecting the right opportunities for herself and she feels to give advice to aspiring actors: “Don’t be afraid to be picky because it’s your career and your brand you’re carving out not anybody else’s. You have to be savvy about it. Put your career first and be as honest as you can be with people and yourself.”