At the latest Dinard British Film Festival, she was one of the 2 revelations, with her partner Brogan Ellis, who brought both viewers at the theaters and photographers on the red carpet head over heels.
It was the first time in France for Lauren McQueen in order to present The Violators directed by Helen Walsh.
A strong movie that stays with you. An impressive acting performance that did not leave anyone indifferent.
Before the release in France, let’s meet the young actress.

UsofParis : If you had to describe Dinard, in a few words, to one of The Violators cast member to make him/her want to come here, what would you say?
Lauren McQueen : I’d say, It’s a beautiful town, with really nice beaches, cause Liverpool does hardly have nice beaches. It has beaches, but not as nice as these. And the food is really nice!

What made you want to become an actress?
Well, I started of the Musical theatre on the stage and seeing a play when I was younger and I kind of looked up to them and I wanted to be like them. I always used to watch a lot of films when I was younger, Annie. That made me wanna looking a lot of TV and films set. When I was 11, I went to acting classes and just went on from there.

Who was your inspiration?
I absolutely love Angelina Jolie!

Why?
I love watching her, she’s so… you can’t take your eyes off her when she’s on the screen. She always plays strong female roles, which I really like.

At what point in your life did you decide to become one?
It was when I was 11. When I went to the acting classes when we started to do a lot of improvisation, a way to make me confident. I started to go into castings for TV and film. I think that was just the drive and enjoying and, you know the scripts.

It’s very young!
Yeah, I know. I’ve always enjoyed performing arts.

How much did you learn about your profession while shooting The Violators movie?
Steven Lords who plays Mikey, was important important for me. Cause it was my first feature film, so he kind of really helped me when we were in the scenes like, he was very natural, yeah he really helped just with the conversation in the scripts to be very natural and intense as well and Helen kept us both apart, until day one of filming because on the schedule the first scenes were the lock scenes, they were the really hard, like intense scenes. It really came across, it was like true intensity.

What kind of advice did the team give you?
« Shelly» is like a motherly role. She has to look after her younger brother. I have a younger brother so I could use that, with Shelly; a vulnerable side as well. That’s quite similar to me.
But advice, just keep it natural because the film is natural.

How does the director, Helen Walsh work?
Because she was the writer and the director, it was very beneficial because sometimes if you’ve got directors who’s not the writer they can’t change anything in the script. But because Helen was, we kept putting all new ideas into the scenes and I felt really involved in the story.

Did you change anything?
It was a year ago now! We could suggest things and Helen was really open to…, yeah.

How did the movie change your personal and professional life?
I was still at school while I was doing it. I had to take seven weeks off school. I was doing A-levels. After, when I got back to school, I found everyone being dead immature, because I had worked with adults for seven weeks, so I was like: « This is not what I want to do, I want to go back on the set ».

Can you name one very emotional moment you lived on a set?
The moment in the car. The rape scene. That was my first time doing a scene like that. I was a bit nervous for the other, for that compared to the other scenes. That was the main one. The more emotional and especially the scene after, when she is in the bathroom, and she can’t believe what she’s done. She’s done it because she wants to get out of this life. She’s traumatized.

Next step of you?
I’ve got another feature film at the end of this month. It’s a harder film. The name is The Wasting. It’s a writer from Canada. She’s also director for the first time. So it’s kind of a link again first time directors!

Thanks to Emilie, Aude & Joël