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‘It was buy eggs or put money on my travel card’: actor Lashana Lynch on Bond, Bob Marley and being broke

She shot to fame as the first female 007 and is now tackling reggae royalty as Marley’s wife, Rita. But the actor hasn’t always had it easy in an industry hostile to people without a safety net

Then, months later, as barefoot warrior Izogie in Gina Prince-Bythewood’s historical epic The Woman King, she swung her machete through pummelling fight-scene choreography with grit and fluidity (in an ensemble cast led by Viola Davis). Directed by Reinaldo Marcus Green with Kingsley Ben-Adir in the title role, the film focuses on a few years in the 1970s to tell the lesser-known stories of the man who became a legend in the decades after his death, aged 36, in 1981. “And when I came in, it was like – I don’t know, this is very dramatic but – a version of heaven,” she laughs, “where there’s a god-like, queen-like ethereal figure sitting way in the distance, with their back to you.” Lynch put down her things, and went to freshen up before going to greet Rita, “and Sharon said, ‘Mum said she can already see that you have the energy.

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