Explore popular quotes and sayings by a Scottish wrestler Pollyanna McIntosh.
Last updated on November 7, 2024.
Pollyanna McIntosh is a Scottish-born actress known for her roles in films Exam (2009), The Woman (2011), Let Us Prey (2014), the first season of Joe R. Lansdale's Hap and Leonard (2016), a starring role in The Walking Dead (2017–2018) and The Walking Dead: World Beyond (2021), and social issue horror film Darlin' (2019) which she wrote, directed and starred in. McIntosh also portrays Queen Ælfgifu of Denmark in the Netflix series Vikings: Valhalla (2022).
We live in a very masculine society, a very patriarchal society, still. So we also have the benefit of the experience of that society. We're not coming from 'women's world' into filmmaking, we're coming from 'the world.'
I've been inspired for a long time by Nicole Holofcener. I admire her greatly as an auteur, examining the human condition in a funny, growing, spirited, honestly dark and human way.
After graduating from University, I began directing in theatre too, and I've been directing, writing and acting ever since, which has allowed me to continue this traveler lifestyle.
The worst fear you can have coming from a modelling background is that you're going to be a model-turned- actress - a mattress, that's what I call them, ironically, I hope.
I felt that 'The Woman' was a feminist movie at heart.
It's a pretty weird feeling when a wolf is scared of you.
But if you are young and want to work in the fashion industry and are not naturally skinny - which most girls are not - then you are forced to be unhealthy.
If I'm going to direct a horror movie, I'd have to be the one writing it, because I have to make it personal.
I feel that nudity can sometimes be quite distracting and take something away from a film because we're not used to seeing it.
And oddly, when I was a kid I used to look at junkyards and I wanted to have one of my own.
I have that wonderful release of growing up and thinking, 'I can do whatever I want. I can prioritise for myself.'
I like having a laugh, I like feeling really comfortable on set, so with a sex scene, it's always really planned out for me beforehand.
I now don't mind if people know about my modelling because I don't feel like it really matters. I feel like I have proved myself as an actress, to some degree.
I do try to do work I believe in and things I'm going to be proud of.
Because the job is still really exciting, and I still get nervous on the first day of shooting. But all the nonsense that surrounds it - that can be on your own terms.
I definitely have no stability in my world; I feel the need to be up and merry all the time.
I didn't find it that hard to channel the animalistic side of 'The Woman', I studied animals like apes and wolves, and researched how to throw off my feminine ways and just went out into the woods for a few days to learn how my body would feel if I had to do what she had to do.
The Woman' came off the back of a film called 'Offspring' in which I played the same character.
And being an actor already means that working with cast as a director, I have a clear understanding of their position and that collaboration is great and useful.
As far as Lauryn Canny's performance as 'Darlin', it was just so incredibly nuanced and raw and and she's such a hypnotizing person to watch on screen.
It was never a question of, 'Do I get to go and direct?' It just made sense.
I'm not a Method person, so I'm not like in character all the time.
Mind you, I was a bit of a naughty one when I was younger.
If you met me in London, you might be appalled at how English I sounded.
I've been working for a while with a Scottish suicide prevention charity called The Joshua Nolan Foundation that brings the conversation about mental health into schools and provides free counseling for those who need it.
I'm not a fan of horror movies at all, I'm a real wuss when it comes to the genre and I think 'The Woman' would totally scare me if I hadn't been working on it.
I'm from Scotland, one of four daughters, and we grew up moving every few years between Scotland, Portugal, Colombia and Scotland again.
Getting married and divorced really is a learning experience.
I completely love directing.
I was spotted in Glasgow and asked to enter a competition to find the Highland Spring Face of 1995 by the Storm agency. I won the Edinburgh heat, then I won the title in London and moved there aged 16.
It's funny that for women in horror, we have to use the term scream queen, because there is no term for a villain in horror who is female and powerful.
I've always had far too much emotion to be Scottish.
I was acting before I was modelling, when I was very young, doing the Edinburgh Festival and that sort of stuff.
I think 'ex-model,' especially in the UK, smacks of being shallow and stupid and having no soul.