Emily The Criminal’s Aubrey Plaza on making a film in 21 days, playing ‘relatable’ characters, and ‘doing something different’
Parks and Recreation star Aubrey Plaza plays a woman who turns to crime to pay the bills – and realises she’s good at it, and enjoys it – in new movie Emily The Criminal.
Here are five things worth knowing about the film:
Plaza, who rose to fame doing comedy roles, says she when she read the script she loved Emily “immediately” because the character was something new to her.
“It’s hard in Hollywood, in the industry, because people see you do one thing, and then they just want you to do it over and over again,” she told the Sky News Backstage podcast.
“So it’s always hard to show people all sides of yourself.
“So I’m always looking to do something different, I never want to do the same thing.”
Writer and director John Patton Ford wrote the film as “wish fulfilment”
“I worked a lot of the same jobs that she has in the movie, I worked these catering jobs and I had a ton of student debt and I wanted to behave the way that she behaves in the movie,” he told Backstage.
“I didn’t behave that way, but I think I wrote it like that because it was like wish fulfilment – those are the things I wanted to say, those are the things I wanted to do, and I thought ‘well, if I felt like that, a lot of other people may also feel like that, so I’m going to create this character, so we can all live vicariously through her’ – that was the idea.”
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The whole movie was shot in just 21 days
“It was a sprint, the whole thing, and there was no time to stop and reflect on what we had done,” Patton Ford said.
“It was like you’d finish the scene, and then you would run and shoot the next scene, then run and shoot the next scene and then go home and collapse and sleep for like four hours and get up and do it again – for weeks and weeks and weeks.
“So there was no time to stop and think… it was just non-stop.”
Plaza thinks the time constraints helped them to hone their instincts
She said: “I think the energy kind of infuses into the movie.
“Like the production really mirrors the movie in a lot of ways, it had the same kind of energy.”
The film’s themes – of normal people turning to crime because they can’t cover their bills – seems only to be getting more pertinent as the cost of living crisis hits
“I wish I had answers, I wish I could make a movie about solutions to these problems, that would be cool,” Patton Ford added.
“I’m not smart enough to do that, the best I can do is just ask a question, you know?
“But yeah, it’s frustrating, and it’s real and that’s been my experience – cost of living gets higher and higher and wages do not increase at the rate of inflation, that’s really the maths and if that’s the reality, then how do people win?”
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Plaza says as well as being relatable, it’s also just a great film.
“I don’t choose movies for any kind of political reason or to try to have some kind of political message or social commentary, but I think I’m just naturally drawn to movies that are really relatable and that do say something because I think those are the kind of characters that you just care about the issues because you relate to them,” she explained to Backstage.
“So it kind of makes the movie better in that way, it’s like a bonus that it has this other kind of commentary.
“But I mostly just want to make really great films, entertaining films, and if they have a message like that, that’s all the better.”
Emily The Criminal is available to rent and own now.
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Cara Delevingne reveals how Topshop inspired her fashion sense – as brand relaunches in London
Fashion brand Topshop celebrated its relaunch with its first catwalk in seven years.
The company’s website promised everyone was invited as models strutted down a runway on Trafalgar Square in front of noughties fashion icons Cara Delevingne and Adwoa Aboah and the London Mayor Sir Sadiq Khan.
The label has been operating on the online fashion platform ASOS after ceasing to operate as a standalone business in 2020.
Topshop held a catwalk in Trafalgar Square. Pic: PA
A model on the catwalk
Its previous owner, Sir Philip Green’s Arcadia group, collapsed into administration and all of Topshop’s physical stores – including the Oxford Circus flagship in London’s West End – closed soon after.
Delevingne told Sky News she was “totally blown away” by the relaunch event.
“It was like nostalgia mixed with something eclectic but also something brand new,” she said.
“For me, it really brings back a time of exploration of my own fashion sense because I think for me at Topshop I got to discover so much.”
The model, who is working on a capsule collection for next year, has already unveiled a choice edit in this year’s show and said her relationship with Topshop precedes her fame.
She said: “I would go in and my friends would be like ‘you would look good in that’ and I would go ‘no, that’s not really me’, and then you’d try it on and be like ‘oh maybe I can explore more’.
“They really have everything for everyone, and I feel like they brought that back.”
The runway showcased highlights from its Autumn-Winter 2025 collection, as well as an early preview of pieces set to drop later this season, including showstopper gowns, the classic white tee, and an aloe vera-coloured faux fur coat that surely should not have been on display – to prevent just about everyone rushing to buy it.
Topshop’s relaunch was staged at Trafalgar Square
Models in front of the National Gallery in London’s Trafalgar Square. Pic: PA
Reclaiming the high street
But sharp tailoring and statement outerwear suggest the brand is ready to reclaim the high street.
Must-have denim pieces completed the womenswear line-up while the Topman collection screamed modern utility by blending refined formal wear with sharp new silhouettes.
Casual pieces are grounded by authentic denim in deep indigos, which stood out on Trafalgar Square’s magnificent stone steps.
Topshop’s relaunch comes as the high street continues to struggle and as the UK operation of Chinese fashion giant Shein announced pre-tax profits of £38.3m for the year, up some £14m from 2023.
‘Top end of the market’
Moses Rashid, global marketing director at Topshop/Topman said they are competing in a different space.
Topshop has been operating on the online fashion platform ASOS after ceasing to operate as a standalone business in 2020
“We’re at the top end of the market. We’re about elevation. We pride ourselves on the quality of the product,” he said.
Those products are being designed in north London, and managing director Michelle Wilson said the aim is to stay that way.
“We are a British brand, we want to be a positive force for fashion. We want to bring London to the world. It’s fundamental to who we are as a brand, our style is very much London-driven.”
The majority Danish-owned company has suggested it will slow fashion down by opening physical stores where customers can touch the products, browse collections and try things on, though the flagship on Oxford Circus is unlikely to return because a Swedish fast furniture brand has since occupied the space.
Designer Wayne Hemingway has previously collaborated with Topshop and said the relaunch must be more than nostalgia.
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“They can’t rely on their old customers because their old customers have now got kids of their own to spend their money on, and they’ve got mortgages and all of those things of what being an adult means.
“They’ve got to have designers, marketeers, people who understand – who are on the pulse – who understood, number one, what was a success back then, and also a young generation of people who are there saying, ‘this is what our generation needs’, and who are bright and can help deliver that. They can’t rely on the past.”
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