Actress Mia McKenna-Bruce has revealed how Ryan Gosling almost derailed her acceptance speech when she scooped the rising star award at the Baftas.
The 26-year-old was named EE Bafta rising star at Sunday's ceremony ahead of fellow nominees Euphoria actor Jacob Elordi, Bridgerton star Phoebe Dynevor, The Bear’s Ayo Edebiri, and Talk To Me actress Sophie Wilde.
The Royal Festival Hall was packed with celebrities including Bradley Cooper, Margot Robbie and Cillian Murphy - but it was Gosling who almost caused the British star to go off-script as she delivered her acceptance speech.
Speaking to the Standard, she quipped: “I kept catching Ryan Gosling out the corner of my eye and I was this close to being like, ‘Ryan, I'm really sorry, but you're putting me off. I can't focus on this speech, when all I can see is you. I’m trying to focus. That’s what the party is for Ryan’.”
The EE Rising Star award holds a unique place at the Baftas as the sole category voted for by the public. Previous recipients, include British stars like Daniel Kaluuya, John Boyega, Tom Holland, and Letitia Wright all of whom have gone on to forge powerful Hollywood careers.
Joining this esteemed roster of winners, McKenna-Bruce confessed that reality has yet to fully sink in but felt deeply honoured to receive the award in front of actors and directors she “looks up to so much”.
“It's still just not sunk in at all,” she shared. “I feel a bit like I'm sitting a math exam and I'm trying to work out this equation in my head. I'm like, ‘I don't understand. What? How? the numbers? Who?’
“It just feels absolutely mental.”
The London-born actress clinched the award for her stellar performance in Molly Manning Walker’s critically-acclaimed film How to Have Sex, a coming-of-age drama about sexual consent set during a post-GCSEs holiday in Malia, Crete.
When asked what she hopes will be the impact of her award win, McKenna-Bruce said she hoped it would keep “conversations going” around the British film.
She shared: “I think to just keep working, to just keep doing what I'm doing and hopefully making more stuff that's got these messages that matter.
“Hopefully this means more people watch How To Have Sex now that haven't had the chance to see it or haven't even realised that it's there - and just carry on this conversation, that's the goal.”
