Lily Allen Was ‘Incredibly Alive as a Performer’ Despite Navigating ‘A Really Hard Time’ Shooting New Movie, Costar Haley Bennett Says (Exclusive)

Rebecca AizinFri, September 4, 2026 at 6:01 PM UTC

0

Lily Allen as Mary and Haley Bennett as Katharine in ‘Virginia Woolf’s Night & Day’Credit: Quiver Distribution and Kanopy (2) -

Lily Allen was navigating a difficult time while filming her new movie Virginia Woolf’s Night & Day

Costar Haley Bennett praised Allen, telling PEOPLE her costar has “always been incredibly brave about speaking her truth”

Virginia Woolf’s Night & Day explores themes of female friendship and ambition in 1910 London and is in theaters now

Lily Allen was going through a difficult time while shooting her latest movie, but was “incredibly alive as a performer” through the experience, her costar Haley Bennett tells PEOPLE.

The two women star in Virginia Woolf’s Night & Day as Katharine (Bennett, 38), an aspiring astronomer, and Mary (Allen, 41), a suffrage activist. The movie first premiered abroad before landing in U.S. theaters on Sept. 4.

“She was going through a really hard time when she was making the film,” Bennett says of their filming experience. “And I think she’s turned her pain into gold. I feel incredibly privileged to have shared the screen with her.”

Lily Allen in ‘Virginia Woolf’s Night & Day’Credit: Quiver Distribution and Kanopy

In January 2025, Allen separated from her then-husband of four years, David Harbour.

A month earlier, in December 2024, Allen opened up during an episode of her BBC podcast Miss Me?about how her struggles with mental health amid a “tough time over the last months” were impacting her eating habits, which she called a “real issue.”

Allen went on to release the highest-charting album of her career in over a decade, West End Girl, in October 2025.

In a press release for the album, Allen described it as “a mixture of fact and fiction,” before sharing in a British Vogue interview at the time that it was inspired in part by the breakdown of her marriage. “There are things that are on the record that I experienced within my marriage, but that’s not to say that it’s all gospel,” she said. “It is inspired by what went on in the relationship.”

Allen’s openness about her own struggles came through in her character, Bennett says. She describes Mary as someone who “opens Katharine’s eyes to another way of being a woman,” which she says Allen has been a “perfect example” of in real life.

Advertisement

“Lily has done that for so many women herself. She’s always been incredibly brave about speaking her truth,” she says. “I love that Lily and Mary don’t have any shame when it comes to shadow sides or uncomfortable bits. There’s enormous courage in that. And there’s something very also Woolfian about that. Lily is a reverent, observant, funny, completely herself.”

Lily Allen attends the Silver Clef Awards 2026 on July 09, 2026 in LondonCredit: JMEnternational/Getty Images

Bennett shared how “alive” Allen was as a performer, noting how that trait allowed her to have a “tender” and “vulnerable” relationship with the British singer.

“I think it’s important that women bolster other women,” she says. “And she was doing that for me in the film. And I just think that it’s important. We have to see each other and say that there’s more for you and keep going. “

Similarly, in the movie, Mary bolsters Katharine and encourages her to keep pursuing her ambitions, despite the trepidations of her family and society in 1910 London.

That example of female friendship played out behind the scenes as well, Bennett says.

“Sometimes another woman can see parts of you that you don’t see yourself or that you’ve lost sight of,” she says. “And there are things that women understand about one another without having to explain them, whether that be ambition or exhaustion or compromises, shadow sides; there’s a special shorthand.”

— sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

Virginia Woolf’s Night & Day, which also starsJack Whitehall, Elyas M’Barek and Timothy Spall, is directed by Tina Gharavi. The movie is in theaters nationwide now.

on People

Original Article on Source

Source: “AOL Entertainment”