BUSTLE — There’s having a banner year for your career, and then there’s Imogen Poots’ 2016. Over the course of the last 12 months, the actor has appeared in three acclaimed movies, each as different from each other as could be: the terrifying horror flick Green Room, out in April; the satire comedy Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping, from June; and the indie thriller Frank & Lola, in theaters and on demand now. Add in a 10-episode stint on the Showtime series Roadies, and it’d seem like Poots hasn’t had a moment to breathe this past year. Yet while her schedule might be crazy, the actor is the first one to say that, considering how few great roles there are for women in Hollywood, she wouldn’t trade it for the world.

“I think it’s a struggle all the time, but I do think there’s a minority of actresses who are in a position and can have this conversation, and I’m acutely aware of that and I’m very grateful for that,” Poots says, while at Bustle’s New York office. “And I think that you shouldn’t misuse that. You should try and be active and urgent about changing the way that women are represented in film — not to say that they should be strong, artificially pure perfect characters, but actually explore the idea of the anti-hero and a woman who is flawed and has made mistakes and is enduring the struggle of life.”

Poots’ latest character, the titular Lola of Frank & Lola, is right up that alley. A mysterious fashion designer whose past romances complicate her relationship with Frank (Michael Shannon), her serious, possessive boyfriend, Lola has a backstory and motivations impossible to pin down, making the film a constant surprise. For Poots, getting to play a character as complex and flawed as Lola was what drew her to the film.

“It’s interesting, because people have called [Frank & Lola] a noir, sometimes, and I see why — there are elements that are definitely faithful to that genre,” she explains. “But there was something more than just a linear depiction of what women is…. in its own way, it subverts the archetypes, because even if you could describe Lola as a femme fatale or siren, I really think that she’s just a human being who made a mistake and is at great unease to tell the truth.”
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INSTYLE — Imogen Poots has had her share of happily-ever-afters onscreen. So for her latest role, the 27-year-old English actress was seeking anything but the rom-com standard. In Frank & Lola (now in theaters) she portrays the titular Lola, a Las Vegas-based fashion designer who finds herself in a passionate love affair with Frank, a possessive chef portrayed by Michael Shannon. Both characters are flawed: Frank is jealous and suspicious, and Lola gives him reason to be. Their romance is dark and messy—and that’s precisely what drew Poots to the part.

“I was intrigued by the fact that the film is about a couple who, despite trying their best, were never going to work things out,” she said during a recent visit to InStyle’s New York City offices. “They were just human beings, and both sides messed up. There wasn’t anything they could correct, and nothing was redeemable.”

After an indiscretion on Lola’s part, things only spiral further out of control in the film. “Once you lose trust in someone, you also lose respect,” said Poots. “Everyone has that fallacy. So people might say that Lola is a siren or a femme fatale, and that Frank is an incompetent, imperfect man—but at its core, this is just a very human love story. It doesn’t put pressure on anyone. It just says, Look at what happens to this couple, and in a strange way, I think there’s something we all slightly enjoy in seeing the realness of that tragedy.”

While Poots and Shannon have an intense relationship on-camera, things were a lot more light-hearted off-screen. “It was the first time we’d worked together, and it was a great experience,” she said. “We shot most of the film in Las Vegas, over the course of just 21 days. It was a great experience—I couldn’t have asked for a greater tennis player, in a sense, than Mike. And I couldn’t have asked for a more emotionally f****d up tennis player for Lola than Frank.”
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