She's Midge in 'Barbie': spotlight on Oscar-winner Emerald Fennell

Emerald Fennell stars as Midge in what has been one of the most highly-anticipated films of the past years. Its concept, emotional undertones and stellar cast have been the talk of the Hollywood world. But who is Emerald Fennell, the director who snapped up a role in the blockbuster?

Many questioned the nature and style of the new film which was produced by Margot Robbie's LuckyChap Entertainment. It may come as no surprise that the film, directed by Greta Gerwig, isn't a typical story about a doll. Emerald Fennell herself won an Oscar a year ago for her directing skills, also for a female-led production. With a film produced by Robbie.

Emerald Fennell has been popping up everywhere these days and, if you haven’t heard, she made quite a splash at 2021 awards ceremonies. She is an exceedingly talented and motivated woman with an incredible story to tell…

Emerald is a writer, director, producer and actress, but she made headlines in 2021 for writing and producing the film, ‘Promising Young Woman’ and received no less than three Academy Award nominations: Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay. It was for the latter that she received the important award.

Ms Fennell’s name vibrated through the film industry and secured a ‘first’ for British women - she was the first British woman ever to be nominated by the Academy for directing. Go Emerald!

Emerald Fennell took her screenplay to Margot Robbie’s company, LuckyChap Entertainment, and they snapped it up immediately: loving the dark, feminist approach to the movie. When commenting on their reaction to the pitch, LuckyChap co-founder Josey McNamara said, “Whatever the rest of it is, we want to do it.”

Promising Young Woman was meant to be released a year previously but, for obvious reasons, the release was delayed. The film depicts a woman who wants to avenge the self-inflicted death of her best friend, a victim of assault. Dark and twisted, this film focuses around Carey Mulligan’s character, Cassie, as she creates sinister situations for those involved, as well as those who didn’t believe the crime happened in the first place.

Emerald spoke out about how grateful she was to the production team as well as all cast and creatives, saying: “How dedicated and brilliant every single person was who came on board, and they all did it because they believed in it. It was a low-budget, 23-day shoot with a first-time director. Their hard work has been rewarded. I'm especially so proud of Carey Mulligan, who is truly the best person in the world. She is the film.”

Fennell herself appeared in her film. It is a ‘blink-and-you’ll-miss-it’ cameo, but good to see the debut director jump on the screen. She appeared as the host of a make-up tutorial video.

You may recognise Emerald Fennell primarily for her role in ‘Call The Midwife’. The BBC period drama, set in the 50s and 60s, focuses on a group of midwives in the East End of London. Emerald plays energetic and strong-willed Patience Elizabeth “Patsy” Mount in the series.

Her former co-stars were over the moon for their colleague, Emerald, when her awards nominations were announced and took to twitter to congratulate her. Helen George, AKA Nurse Trixie, shared her pride and admiration with the public, saying: "So amazing, so proud, so deserved!!!”.

(Here we see Emerald Fennell winning the BAFTA for Outstanding British Film.)

She is also known for her role as Elsa in ‘The Danish Girl’ and in the late 19th Century drama film, ‘Anna Karenina’ as Princess Merkalova.

One of Emerald’s most known acting roles was as Camilla Parker Bowles (previously Shand) in the much-loved Netflix series, ‘The Crown’. Of her portrayal of the royal, Ms Fennell said, “I absolutely love Camilla and am very grateful that my teenage years have well prepared me for playing a chain-smoking serial snogger with a pudding-bowl haircut.”

It's amazing how she resembles the actual Camilla Parker Bowles.

Emerald is no stranger to awards ceremonies and has been nominated in 2019 for Outstanding writing in a Drama Series for her Head Writing and Producing role for ‘Killing Eve’. That same year the show, and Ms Fennell were nominated for Best Drama at the Golden Globes.

As she was growing up, Emerald told her parents she would like to move to the US and write murder novels. She has so far written three novels and was on the shortlist for the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize in 2014 for her first novel, Shiverton Hall. She followed her first success with a sequel called, The Creeper.

She then wrote, Monsters, and went down very well with the critics. The book was was nominated for the Carnegie Medal in 2017 and dubbed ‘a modern classic’ by The Guardian.

More recently, Emerald Fennel has been seen writing for the stage. She had written the book for Andrew Lloyd Webber’s new ‘Cinderella’ musical. Fans were very eager to see it on the stage last summer but the Omicron wave put a halt to its success.

Excitingly, Emerald Fennel will be trying her hand at writing for a new DC comic. The new movie will be about the heroine Zatanna who hasn’t been seen much on the screens so far - she just makes a small appearance in ‘Smallville’ but we're sure with Emerald’s experience and talent behind the film, it will be an eagerly anticipated release.

Emerald has had excellent upbringings with her author mother and jewels father. She was born in London but studied at the prestigious Marlborough College and then went to the distinguished University of Oxford.

Her talent was discovered while at the elite university. She spent a lot of her time starring in plays and she was spotted by an agent which allowed her to pursue acting as a career.

Emerald Fennel has a sister, called Coco Fennel (that’s right, they have some pretty amazing names, too) and she is a well-respected fashion designer, specialising in dresses with floral prints.
The style is described as ‘flattering and fun’ and her clothes have been worn by some big names, such as Rihanna, Paloma Faith and Fearne Cotton.

Fennell had a baby boy in 2019 with partner, Chris Vernon who is a film and advertising director and producer. They started dating a very long time ago when Emerald visited Paris on her gap year. The relationship has stayed away from the public eye.

In fact, Fennell was eight months pregnant with her son when she finished filming Promising Young Woman. She gave birth only three weeks after the wrap. “It was quite grueling, but that’s OK, isn’t it?” Fennell says. “It’s not very often you get to make a film.”

That’s right, she told the New York Times, right after being told about her Oscar nominations, that she doesn’t drink or smoke so ‘wasn’t sure what she should do in the meantime’. Of course, she was also crying and screaming for joy.

Emerald Fennell doesn’t have an Instagram account. - but she really doesn’t need one. Her Twitter account is, as you might expect from an Oscar-nominated writer, a wonderful, engaging and funny read. Ms Fennell has a seriously great sense of humour and bundles of sarcasm in her posts, projecting her personality with some hilarious, exaggerated banter.

One of the fans’ favourite posts has to be the comment Emerald made about isolating in her parent’s home. She said from her childhood bedroom, “Day 3 of self-isolation. Is this how our civilisation ends? Wearing moisturiser that expired in 2008, the dregs of a bottle of Gucci Envy and an f*** t-shirt?”

Emerald Fennel could now be worth an estimated whopping 7 million dollars according to idolnetworth.com. The exact figure is unknown, but she continues to go from strength to strength.