Dress & trousers / Ashish
Boots / Public Desire
Opposite
Dress / Topshop Unique
If we had to choose an actress to see a film with it would be Bebe Cave, a self-baptised “massive cinephile”. “I’m in the cinema a couple of times a week at least which I know sounds bizarre but I comfort myself and tell myself it’s research,” she confesses, before adding, “I’ve pretty much got membership cards to all the different cinemas in the UK so I get good discount”
She has an impressive and sophisticated taste in film that spans genres and periods, though she states a preference for “cinema that isn’t plot driven but more character driven.” Giving the example of ’60s new wave French cinema, she continues, “I just love the fact that with all the characters what they don’t say is so much more interesting. The glances between them and the way that they can be talking about something so minor and so insignificant like the dinner that they had last night but it can read so much more into their relationships and the way they feel about each other.”
While being the youngest of five children makes her the baby of her family she muses, “it also doesn’t help that I’m called Bebe”- the nineteen year old somehow speaks with a wisdom well beyond her years. This may be attributed to the fact that in her short career she has already starred alongside an impressive selection of industry veterans who she credits with giving her sage advice. It has all made her have to work harder and perhaps mature faster. She for instance, speaks fondly of one night after filming on the set of Tales of Tales when actor Toby Jones cautioned her not to get too distracted on set, reminding her that everybody on set had a job to do and it was important that she did hers as well. “That was really helpful advice,” she’s says, “otherwise I think I would have just spent too much time giggling to the Italians.”
When they weren’t proffering advice to the young actress, she says, they simply led by example. She recalls at first being both starstruck and nervous when first working with Helen Mirren; a feeling which soon dissipated after watching the actress work. She confesses, “Within maybe a week of us working together I didn’t feel so scared anymore because it was just like working with a colleague who was so involved in her work. She inspired me to be really involved in mine as well and I was just so inspired by that I stopped being so scared.”
Dress / Bedouin
Opposite
Jumper / ASOS White Label
Top / Caoimhe Mac Niece
Jeans / Topshop
She gives credit to working with the various actors as she explains “Working with those actors has given me so much material about their techniques which I can take into my own style of acting. They all have their own quirks and ideas. It’s really interesting as I become older and as I become more of an adult actress to be able to incorporate those ideas into my own acting but also to think of the things or the little quirks that make my acting unique, so it’s been wonderful to work with them.”
So far the actress has been cast in period pieces which she jokes may be due to her “Renaissance face” but she is not opposed to playing more contemporary roles. She confesses, “anything that comes my way that I get the chance to audition for I get excited by, it really doesn’t matter about when it’s set so I would love to play something about modern 21st-century girl who just looks ridiculously like an old painting.”
Though acting may have been her first port of call in the industry, she also has her sights set on expanding to her skill set writing and directing. She thoughtfully admits, “I think it’s important to realise as a young actress that there are so many wonderfully talented and invigorated people all in the same casting category all wanting to do the same thing and you just can’t let yourself get too neurotic and caught up in that bubble of jealousy and fear, because it’s a difficult profession to get into, so involve yourself in different aspects of it like writing or directing, anything that you’re interested in”. she also adds, “I find myself, as I get older, quite interested in the writing and directing side of things …so I am really interested in pursuing those different avenues in the future but I’m just sort of keeping an open mind and taking it day by day right now.”
Considering what lies ahead she admits to the anxiety of uncertainty, “…it’s one of these professions where you can’t predict what’s going to happen in the future and that can be scary.” she says. “It just sort of feels like all my friends who are at university know what their life is going to be like for the next few years and then they can start planning from there and I sometimes feel terrified at the prospect of me being out in the real world now but I actually find it quite empowering at the same time because they’re gonna have the same fear in three years’ time when they come out of university and at least I’m just dealing with it now.”
With a slew of impressive roles already under her belt and eyes set keenly towards the future, we have no doubt Bebe will continue to soar.
Tale of Tales is currently in UK cinemas.
Words / Kristie Gonsalves
This Schön! online exclusive has been produced by
Photography / Damien Fry
Talent / Bebe Cave
Fashion Editor / Coline Bach @ TheOnly.Agency
Hair / Alex James Fairbairn using Balmain Hair Couture
Make Up / Amy Conley @ Stella Creative Artists using NARS cosmetics
Fashion Assistant / Shade Huntley
