10 Amazing Acting Performances To Watch On Netflix

Spotted by director Andrea Arnold, Katie Jarvis’ acting career started at Tilbury Town Railway Station, Essex, where she was arguing with her then boyfriend. Arnold, on the lookout for a volatile, distressed young lady for her latest film, Fish Tank, had found a possible star. After convincing Jarvis that she was for real, and after a couple of successful auditions, Jarvis was cast in her first film role.

Fish Tank then became the best British film of the decade, with Jarvis as its startling centrepiece. In spite of (or perhaps because of) her lack of acting experience, Jarvis excels as Mia, a fifteen year old aspiring dancer who can’t seem to escape her council-estate trappings or her lust for her mother’s new boyfriend, Conor (Michael Fassbender). In a challenging role Jarvis delivers a naturalistic performance of surprising skill, clearly drawing on her own life-experiences so that the role simply becomes an extension of a life she already knows.

Her chemistry with the much-older Fassbender is electric and, despite what the relationship will become, its early moments attain a kind-of realistic, genuine affection. Jarvis hasn’t really acted since (she took time off to look after her daughter, whom she gave birth to as a teenager), but even if she never does again, her contribution to British cinema is crystallised in this one truly great performance.