Freya Mavor (‘Skins’: Series 6) interview

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In tonight’s Skins episode, Mini (Freya Mavor) is trapped; she’s lost control of her life and needs to get away.

Mini’s mum has a pervy new live-in boyfriend who Mini hates with a passion. To make matters worse, Alo has broken the rules of their ‘no strings attached’ secret relationship and declared his love for her.

> Order the Series 6 DVD on Amazon.

CultBox caught up with Freya to find out more…

Can you tell us a bit about what to expect in tonight’s episode?

“Mini’s episode is about relationship and family struggles. It’s a lot to do with her relationship with her family and how that’s very dysfunctional.

“She’s faced with this massive secret that she can’t tell anyone about so she gets in contact with her dad – who previously abandoned her family. She’s desperate to have someone she can talk to and she ends up being bitterly disappointed and let down by all these expectations of what her dad’s like.

“So it’s quite a sad episode. Alongside that she’s dealing with Alo and what she wants from him. It’s basically all about denial.”

Series 6 so far has had quite a dark tone. Are we going to get any happy Skins episodes?!

“Yes, don’t worry! I think they all try and tackle quite dark and sinister issues but as it’s still an adolescent drama so they still try and sprinkle in some jokes in there as well.

“Alo’s episode (Episode 7), I know from filming is a really funny episode – brilliantly written and with some great comedy so that’ll be a great episodes.

“It does try to balance itself out in that sense. Skins can feel a bit like “gotta reach out to the tortured kids”, but they want to explore the dilemmas teens may or may not be facing in their lives so that’s why.”

Last series Mini found herself quite attracted to Franky, but we haven’t really seen that side of her since. Is there any reason for this?

“I think basically the whole aspect of Mini’s character and her sexuality is that she had very unreliable male figures early on; for example, her dad and her boyfriend Nick who he ended up cheating on her, so she’s constantly being let down by these men.

“So she found herself latching onto her female relationships – especially with Franky. And I think along with that came questions such as is it attraction or just a need to have someone there?

“But this year especially because Franky has had quite a significant change in her character – she’s a lot more girly, she went out with Matty – it’s been quite different. I’m not sure if the attraction could really translate to infatuation or lust.

“In terms of them having a relationship it’d be too far-fetched… to have the Queen Bee and the Outsider forming a lesbian romance!

“It’d be interesting but it’s nicer that they have a mutual understanding and unconditional love for each other. They actually have an episode in Episode 9 where it explores their relationship more so you understand what they mean to each other.”

Did you catch any of the US verison of Skins when it was on?

“I didn’t but I know it didn’t go down as well as it did here. I think Skins is incredibly British its now part of our culture, it’s a British teen series. So I don’t think it’s a bad thing they stopped it over there – it’s our thing!”

What’s next for you? Would you like to do something completely different?

“I’m very open to many possibilities. I’d love to do some theatre and get involved with something on an international level. I speak French and I’m learning Spanish so I think it’d be quite interesting to do something in the theatre in France, especially because I’m going to be moving to Paris in early autumn.

“Not every actor wants to do massively diverse jobs but I’d really love to have as diverse a career for acting as possible, if it does work out for me.”

> Order the Series 6 DVD on Amazon.

Watch the Series 6 preview to see what’s coming up…

Are you looking forward to Mini’s episode? Let us know below…