Director Olivia Wilde said having you playing this role was on her vision board, and how if you have an instinct to trust it and fight for it. Is that a feeling you can relate to?

Yes! I really had no business thinking I could be in How To Build A Girl. Upon initial read I somehow knew I was this 16-year-old girl from Wolverhampton and yet I’d never been to Wolverhampton. Booksmart gave me the confidence to go and do How To Build A Girl.

How was working with Caitlin Moran?

She is a feminist force of nature. The first time I met her was during a six-hour dinner: it was me, Alison Owen [producer], Bonnie, one of our other producers who’s also my girlfriend, and Caitlin. I called my mom after and said, “I don’t know if I’ll get this role, but all I know is I had the privilege of sitting with those women at that table tonight and I will forever be changed.” I felt the same way with Greta [Gerwig, who directed Lady Bird] and the same way with Olivia [Wilde]. Four out of five directors I’ve worked on films with have been female and I don’t take that lightly.

How did you learn the Wolverhampton accent?

I like to think that I’m like an accent detective. I moved to Wolverhampton for about three weeks and worked in a feminist utopia of a store called the Shop in the Square. I met these different incredible artistic ladies who spoke to me in their accents all day and I had to speak back to them in my accent.

Booksmart’s Beanie Feldstein reveals the movies that shaped her and the motto she swears by