BalanceOctober2016 - 21

T H E B I G I N TERVIEW Make-up free, and with her hair pulled back, Naomie Harris draws admiring glances as she walks towards the table where we're unexpectedly having lunch alfresco, thanks to last month's heatwave. Accompanied by her mum, Carmen (who looks more like her sister), she greets me like an old friend and, being typically English, we immediately start discussing the virtues of the great British weather. For someone who has just arrived from Toronto, via Los Angeles, and says jet-lag is her enemy, Naomie, who recently turned 40, looks incredible. 'That's down to a flotation tank,' she says. 'I've discovered that the only way to combat the effects of travelling is to immerse myself in a dark pod, filled with salt water and float for an hour. 'It's all about sensory deprivation and works a treat. I go straight there from the airport, but my dream is to have my own tank at home. That's what keeps me working!' Carmen's tried it too but can't attest to its success in quite the same way. 'Mum had a freak-out in there,' laughs Naomie. 'She was screaming, "I don't like it, I don't like it," but half an hour later people had to bang on the door because she'd fallen asleep! I've never done that!' Carmen and Naomie often come as a pair and live on the same street. 'We are very close,' Naomie says. 'There's not much I wouldn't pass by mum first - and I have a lot to be thankful to her for.' TOP OF THE CLASS Naomie's father left the family home before she was born, so it was down to Carmen to raise her daughter alone. Times were tough, but so was Carmen, and being surrounded by strong, powerful women in the family, brought out the very best in Naomie. 'I grew up to believe anything was possible if you worked hard enough,' she says. 'Mum has always had a very strong work ethic; she's penned a prime-time BBC1 sitcom [Us Girls] and worked a 10-year stint as a core writer for EastEnders, among many other projects, so I've always known I had to work if I wanted to be independent.' She continues: 'I went to school in Finsbury Park and was always top of my class, but by the end of my GCSEs, I was ready to go into acting full-time. It was mum who convinced me to do my A-Levels and although I went to Sixth Form College begrudgingly, it was while I was there . . . P E E L S N O that I met Mr Murdoch, a wonderful teacher, who told me I had the potential to go to Oxbridge.' And it turned out he was right. But despite being immensely proud of being there, it was a very different environment to the one she'd been used to. 'My school had been like the United Nations - there were all different races - so I'd never felt colour was an issue. But at Cambridge, I was the only black person in the year. 'Looking back, though, my colour wasn't the issue; it was my class that made me feel like an outsider.' They talked about Eton and skiing, which was a million miles away from her childhood in north London. Nevertheless, she refused to give up and stuck it out for three years until she got her degree. 'I was always told, "don't see obstacles; see where you want to get to and ignore everything else. If other people have issues, let them be their issues." It was invaluable advice and I still apply it today.' LIVING IN THE MOME NT 'Sleep doesn't come easily to me... I have too much of an active mind that never seems to want to switch off, so the only way I can get off to sleep is by using a meditation app. I've found a really good one by Glenn Harrold and it works every time, but invariably I'm awake again a few hours later and have to go through the entire process again! I need eight hours a night and I probably get it overall, but it's very erratic. One of my greatest hopes is to be able eventually to sleep through the night.' BALANCE October 2016 But these days, having starred in Pirates Of The Caribbean and as (M's secretary) Miss Moneypenny in the two most recent Bond films, Naomie is a Hollywood A-lister, you'd imagine has very few obstacles in front of her. 'I still struggle with the same challenges everyone else does,' she insists. 'There is so much going on in my life that I find myself in constant high-stress mode, so I'm always looking to find ways to overcome that feeling. We're all human and will always have challenges thrown at us, but it's how we perceive those challenges that we can control. 'I used to find it so difficult to enjoy each moment, preferring to look impatiently to the future to see what was next. But I'm learning to appreciate it is the now that's important. Every moment is a gift, even the negative ones, so be as thankful when things go wrong as when they go right, as that may well take you on a different path that is ultimately better for you.' It is clear to see Carmen, who now has a healing practice in London and has written a self-help book entitled Sh*t Happens... Magic Follows (£15.99, O-Books), has instilled a spiritual empathy in her daughter which she relies on in times of stress and conflict. 'There are certainly techniques I implement when I feel under fire,' says Naomie. 'At the moment, I'm practising Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) and I meditate for at least an hour every morning. It's been the best thing; it centres me and brings me back into the here and now. I feel utterly joyful afterwards and 21

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of BalanceOctober2016