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In a hotel room near Embankment on the hottest day of the year, the actress Laura Harrier is dancing in her chair. She’s showing me her moves from this year’s Oscars afterparty.

“I looked to my left and there were Jay Z and Beyoncé just dancing next to me like it’s normal,” says the 29-year-old, slipping off her black pointy Manolo Blahnik shoes and tossing her long braids over her shoulder. She says her “jet lag is real”, having just flown over from Los Angeles, but she looks bright-eyed and graceful in a fitted grey waistcoat and flared trousers.

“It wasn’t normal; it was completely surreal — every actor you grew up watching is in the same room as you. It still doesn’t feel real when I look at the pictures. I was at Jay Z’s party until six in the morning but it didn’t feel late because everyone was there. Erykah Badu was DJing in a big hat. My friends from home were messaging asking me to tell them all the secrets. The next day I don’t think I got out of bed.”

Harrier was there with the cast of Spike Lee’s film BlacKkKlansman — she played Patrice Dumas in the film, the straight-talking president of the black student union. It was only her second film role, after winning acclaim as Peter Parker’s high-school sweetheart Liz in Spider-Man: Homecoming. Since then, work has been “full on”. She’s just finished a film called Bios, a post-apocalyptic thriller starring Tom Hanks. “He knocked on the door of my trailer and said, ‘Hey, I’m Tom’” — she does a good impersonation of him. “I thought, ‘I know, I grew up watching you.’ He’s lovely.”

But she’s in London for the premiere of Balance, Not Symmetry, an independent British film directed by Jamie Adams, who made Black Mountain Poets, and co-written by Simon Neil, lead singer of Scottish band Biffy Clyro. Harrier plays Caitlin Walker, a British-American art student living in Glasgow who is processing her father’s death and trying to console her mother (Kate Dickie, who she “loved” as Lysa Arryn in Game of Thrones).

Filming in Glasgow for a month was “cold and I couldn’t understand the accent, they could have been speaking Korean.” Did she try haggis? “I did not eat it, no. I’ve been a vegetarian since I was eight,” she says, both amused and repulsed at the concept.

The film appealed because a lot of it was improvised, which Harrier has never done before. “I’ve never done a movie like it — it was interesting to have involvement in the creative process,” she says.

The must-see films arriving in 2019 6 show all The must-see films arriving in 2019 1/6 The Irishman – November 8 Martin Scorsese teams up with Robert De Niro for the ninth time, delving into the real criminal underworld of post-war America (again) in his new gangster epic, The Irishman. The Netflix production, which gets its theatrical release on November 8, follows the relationship between hitman Frank Sheeran (De Niro) and union leader Jimmy Hoffa (Pacino), who were close friends, examining Sheeran’s ties with the Bufalino crime family and involvement in Hoffa’s disappearance in the mid-70s. The Netflix production receives a cinematic release on November 8. 2/6 Le Mans ‘66 – November 15 Two giants go pedal to the metal in November, with Le Mans ‘66 telling the story of Ford’s fight to end Ferrarri’s dominance in the world of motor racing. Car designer Carroll Shelby (Matt Damon) and driver Ken Miles (Christian Bale) attempt the impossible in this high-octane biopic, which races into cinemas this November. 3/6 Marriage Story – November 15 Mumblecore icon Noah Baumbach’s latest is another one to watch out for, with many calling it his best film since 2005’s The Squid and the Whale. Marriage Story is, contrary to the title, a gruelling look at the divorce process, and promises fantastic performances from Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson. The Standard’s critic David Sexton called it “a fearsome cautionary tale, long and painfully detailed, a divorce horror story to put alongside Kramer vs. Kramer.” The film received a limited release in the UK on November 15, before streaming on Netflix from December 6. 4/6 Frozen 2 – November 22 The sequel to the highest grossing animation ever made arrives this Winter, with sisters Anna and Elsa reuniting once more. Snowman sidekick Olaf is back again too, helping them discover the truth about an ancient mystery in the kingdom. Whether it can live up to the incredible success of the original remains to be seen, but in a year packed with Disney releases, this could well prove to be the biggest of the lot. 5/6 Knives Out – November 29 Detective Daniel Craig leads an investigation into the death of a famous crime writer, found dead at his home following his 85th birthday. Chris Evans, Ana De Armas, Jamie Lee Curtis, Toni Colette and Katherine Langford all star in the film, and it’s up to Craig to find the killer among them. Star Wars: The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson is at the helm. 6/6 Star Wars: The Rise of the Skywalker – December 19 Arguably the most popular film franchise of all time returns this Christmas, taking film lovers to a galaxy far, far away all over again. The third and final instalment of the sequel trilogy will see the Resistance prepare for battle with the First Order once more. With the spectre of Palpatine looming large in the trailer, Daisy Ridley’s Rey has the hopes of the entire universe resting on her shoulders. 1/6 The Irishman – November 8 Martin Scorsese teams up with Robert De Niro for the ninth time, delving into the real criminal underworld of post-war America (again) in his new gangster epic, The Irishman. The Netflix production, which gets its theatrical release on November 8, follows the relationship between hitman Frank Sheeran (De Niro) and union leader Jimmy Hoffa (Pacino), who were close friends, examining Sheeran’s ties with the Bufalino crime family and involvement in Hoffa’s disappearance in the mid-70s. The Netflix production receives a cinematic release on November 8. 2/6 Le Mans ‘66 – November 15 Two giants go pedal to the metal in November, with Le Mans ‘66 telling the story of Ford’s fight to end Ferrarri’s dominance in the world of motor racing. Car designer Carroll Shelby (Matt Damon) and driver Ken Miles (Christian Bale) attempt the impossible in this high-octane biopic, which races into cinemas this November. 3/6 Marriage Story – November 15 Mumblecore icon Noah Baumbach’s latest is another one to watch out for, with many calling it his best film since 2005’s The Squid and the Whale. Marriage Story is, contrary to the title, a gruelling look at the divorce process, and promises fantastic performances from Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson. The Standard’s critic David Sexton called it “a fearsome cautionary tale, long and painfully detailed, a divorce horror story to put alongside Kramer vs. Kramer.” The film received a limited release in the UK on November 15, before streaming on Netflix from December 6. 4/6 Frozen 2 – November 22 The sequel to the highest grossing animation ever made arrives this Winter, with sisters Anna and Elsa reuniting once more. Snowman sidekick Olaf is back again too, helping them discover the truth about an ancient mystery in the kingdom. Whether it can live up to the incredible success of the original remains to be seen, but in a year packed with Disney releases, this could well prove to be the biggest of the lot. 5/6 Knives Out – November 29 Detective Daniel Craig leads an investigation into the death of a famous crime writer, found dead at his home following his 85th birthday. Chris Evans, Ana De Armas, Jamie Lee Curtis, Toni Colette and Katherine Langford all star in the film, and it’s up to Craig to find the killer among them. Star Wars: The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson is at the helm. 6/6 Star Wars: The Rise of the Skywalker – December 19 Arguably the most popular film franchise of all time returns this Christmas, taking film lovers to a galaxy far, far away all over again. The third and final instalment of the sequel trilogy will see the Resistance prepare for battle with the First Order once more. With the spectre of Palpatine looming large in the trailer, Daisy Ridley’s Rey has the hopes of the entire universe resting on her shoulders.

Working with her friend Bria Vinaite was another draw. “We met on a Teen Vogue shoot on Valentine’s Day, romantic, then we got super-close filming this in Glasgow, just the two of us. She plays Caitlin’s friend Hannah. This film shows female friendship in a way I think we don’t see enough. It’s about being close, it’s like romantic love but different.”

Playing an artist was fun too. “The art department would start Caitlin’s paintings and I would finish them on screen which was great. I think I got better. We talked about Caitlin’s artistic influences — who she liked, how long she’d been painting. Processing emotions and grief through art is something I can relate to.” She smiles enigmatically. “But I’m not Daniel Day-Lewis, I don’t go full method. The best thing was I got to just throw paint at a canvas, which I’ve always wanted to do. It was awesome.”

She and Spike Lee are still in touch. “I was texting Spike this week. He texts like he talks, straight to the point, and he’s the only person I know who still uses a Blackberry, so there are no emojis.”

Harrier grew up in Illinois. Her mother is a speech therapist and “cured my speech impediment when I was three, I couldn’t say the letter L so I was Waura”, her father works in insurance and she has a younger brother who makes music and has just graduated. She and her father watched a lot of action films together, and Seventies Blacksploitation films. “I get my interest in film from him,” she says. “I had already seen a lot of the films my character in BlacKkKlansman talks about with my dad. We also watched action movies together, then later at film school I got into French New Wave stuff and started to understand what film can do to change people’s minds and change the world.”

As far back as she can remember Harrier has always enjoyed performing in and making shows. “I was shy but I had an active imagination. I was always putting on shows and making everyone watch me, making my dolls talk to each other and organising plays with kids in the neighbourhood. I remember being a princess and a Power Ranger. But I never thought I’d be an actor because I didn’t know anyone that did that.”

Her family didn’t talk about being mixed race — Harrier’s mother is white — but she was aware that she didn’t see families that looked like hers on TV. “I felt underrepresented as a person, as an audience member. It’s been amazing to be part of that changing. So many people came up to me on the street after Spider-Man and said it was so encouraging to see a character with a family that looks like theirs.”

“I find it crazy that people are surprised that films with black people in are doing well,” she continues. “People don’t go to the movies or not because of black cast members, a good film is a good film.”

The industry is “full on”, she adds. “You either don’t have a spare second or you are just sitting there and like ‘I’m not working’. The anxiety of it is something I’m trying to manage.”

Last year she moved to Los Angeles from New York. “I’m starting to adjust to LA but I miss the energy of New York and my friends.” She likes to have them over and cook — spaghetti vongole is her “go-to dish”. On the plane to London she started reading Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James, “but it’s taking me a long time because it’s super-trippy and you have to keep checking what’s happening”. She also started watching the third series of The Handmaid’s Tale “but it was too real and sad so I had to stop”.

We meet on the night of the premiere of Balance, Not Symmetry and she’s looking forward to reuniting with the cast and crew. “The industry is getting better, with so many more strong roles for women and more diversity of characters creating films. Even since when I started a few years ago, the roles for women are more three-dimensional and fully rounded. I hope it’s not just a trend, I’d like to be seen and heard and have a job in the future.”

Balance, Not Symmetry is in selected cinemas from Friday. Special preview screenings on Thursday feature a Biffy Clyro acoustic set (pinpointpresents.com/balancenotsymmetry)