27 February 2024 , 21:26
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Just over a week after winning the EE Rising Star Award at the Baftas, Mia McKenna-Bruce watched the Christian Dior show at Paris Fashion Week from the front row with The Crown star Elizabeth Debicki, 33.
Mia, 26, wore a white tank top and pleated skirt, with a beige trench coat thrown over the top at the show in the French capital’s Tuileries Garden. Celebrities including Jennifer Lawrence, 33, and Natalie Portman, 42, were also among the audience, watching the Fall/Winter 2024-2025 ready-to-wear collection that heralded the 1960s.
Mia won the only Bafta award chosen by the public for her role as Tara in Molly Manning Walker's How to Have Sex. The former CBBC Dumping Ground actor said the win was a "complete surprise" and she wanted to "hug every single person" who voted for her to win.
Actress Mia McKenna-Bruce looked sensational at Paris Fashion Week (Vianney Le Caer/Invision/AP)
Natalie Portman was also in attendance (Corbis via Getty Images)A photo of Prince William, who is president of the Baftas, meeting Rising Star Award nominees Phoebe Dynevor, Ayo Edebiri, Sophie Wilde and Mia McKenna-Bruce backstage, went viral because of their shocked expressions while speaking with him. The Prince caused contention by saying the film, which tackles sexual assault and consent, “looked like a lot of fun to film.”
The storyline has been praised for its critical portrayal of the issues and for highlighting the lack of conversation surrounding the subject. Mia said she hoped the win would keep "conversations going" around the film. Beyond awards season, the actress is slated to star in the upcoming sci-fi series The Marshlands.
Pete Doherty makes questionable style choice at Paris fashion show
Addressing her win, McKenna-Bruce told the PA news agency that winning the award felt “so surreal” and revealed the gravity of it did not hit her until the following day after she watched videos of her friends and family reacting to the news.
After the festivities on Sunday, she celebrated the win the next morning with her partner and their baby boy, who they welcomed last summer. Mia said becoming a mother has made her appreciate “everything so much more”, adding: “It opens up this whole other side of who I am, I think.
“It’s really exciting having that when it comes to acting, and also when it comes to these events.” McKenna-Bruce also advised up-and-coming actors to surround themselves with “really good people to pick you up in those moments that are really difficult” and to enjoy the wins when they come.
“Celebrate the moments that you worked really hard for. Everything is made a million times better when you get to celebrate it with good people and the people that you love around you so I think that’s really important”, she added. Alongside her family and friends, the actress said her partner and fellow actor Tom Leach had been “absolutely brilliant” at supporting her, including writing a back-up speech for her.
She explained: “He knew that I hadn’t prepared anything because I really didn’t think I was going to win so he had a little note in his pocket in case I panicked to give to me, just who to thank and everything. And then at the bottom, it says ‘I knew you were going to win this’.”