Women With GRITT: Erana James On Breaking Into The Acting Industry And Her Decadent Skincare Routine
“It is a notoriously challenging industry to get into, and I do feel like I'm one of those people who experienced that luck… being somewhere at the right time.”
Welcome to Women with GRITT: a series where we interview the resilient, hardworking women who have kicked in the glass ceiling and inspire us to do the same.
For New Zealand born actor, Erana James, it was her humble childhood growing up on an avocado farm that moulded her into the woman she is today. Stepping into the limelight at a young age, James’s journey into acting was, what some would say, destined. Now known for her roles in the TV shows, The Wilds and Bad Behaviour, James began her acting career after her mother enrolled her in acting classes while in high school. This is what led to her being cast, seemingly effortlessly, in her first film, The Changeover. From there, James has taken the acting world firmly in her gasp and made it her own. Having never forgotten her small town upbringing in Whangārei, New Zealand, James credits it, and the empowering women in her life, for shaping the performer she has become.
Having graced the cover of publications like InStyle Australia, and solidifying her place as a captivating force in the industry and inspiration to young women everywhere, James continues to redefine boundaries. In this interview she opens up to Gritty Pretty about her creative process, what inspires her and, of course, her beauty secrets.
Gritty Pretty (GP): Hi Erana! Before we jump into your career success, we’d love to know a little more about where you grew up. How did your childhood shape the woman you are today?
Erana James (EJ): I grew up in New Zealand in a small town called Whangārei on an avocado farm. I think it’s impossible for that experience to not have shaped me into the person that I am today—growing up in the bush and around animals. My love for my home and my whenua, my land, and the people is something that’s super important to me. It is integral, I think, to who I am as a person and a performer.
GP: Who was your greatest inspiration growing up and how did they shape your career path?
EJ: It sounds cliche, but it would be untrue not to say the women in my life. My mother and my grandmother, Joan. My grandmother is an opera singer, not that that aids the acting industry, but they would do musical performances when I was younger and she was all creativity and glamour. She was so gorgeous at what she did. And my mum as well is a lover of the arts and operates on the outskirts of it. So I think those two women are definitely my biggest inspiration.
GP: Creativity also comes into beauty a lot as well. So, what does beauty mean to you?
EJ: I would say that beauty to me is just feeling confident in yourself and oneself. Obviously, I don’t think I’m coming up with anything new there.
But I know that when there’s good stuff swimming around inside of me is when I feel the most beautiful. When I’m putting good things into my brain and into my soul and tapping into the creative arts, which I love, engaging in the arts, putting positive things into my body, into my senses, I tend to find that that’s when I reflect and I feel the most beautiful inside and out.
GP: What does your morning and evening beauty routine consist of?
EJ: My morning beauty routine consists of giving my face a good wash, putting on a light moisturiser and SPF. That’s it! SPF is the final step.
And then in the evening, I like to go a little bit crazy. I do a bit of a cleanse and I love an overnight sleeping mask. The Emma Lewisham Supernatural Sleeping Mask is gorgeous. And I love putting on, again, the Emma Lewisham serum—the Skin Reset Serum with a heavier moisturiser over the top. I do a little LED light mask every night if I remember, then a little decadence with some Aesop hand cream. And some days, a rosehip oil because that always makes you feel good. And then that’s me.
Photography: Amelia Dowd
Hair: Ashleigh Carpenter at Hart and Co
Makeup: Julie Provis at Hart and Co
Styling: Candice Lewin
GP: Acting is a notoriously difficult industry to break into. How did you go about getting your foot in the door?
EJ: Well, I took some acting classes when I was about 16 in Wellington, New Zealand, at a place called Rata Studios, which my mum manages here on the outskirts of the industry. I did a class with a woman called Miranda Harcourt, another inspiration, another influential woman in my life, and I was lucky enough to get cast in her and her husband, Stuart McKenzie’s, feature film, The Changeover. I played the lead role of a young girl called Laura Chant. As you say, it is a notoriously challenging industry to get into, and I do feel like I’m one of those people who experienced that luck, being somewhere at the right time and looking the right way to suit a role for the people that you’re around, if that makes sense.
Then I went to university and I studied social policy, and that was the path that I had intended for myself. But the creative arts are so brilliant, and I was so lucky to have that opportunity from Miranda and Stuart.
GP: In terms of your own creative process, what does getting into character look like for you?
EJ: I think it’s just attempting to walk around in the world in your character’s shoes—getting into the physical body of them. If they’re somebody that runs, then go running and feel what that feels like on your legs—the way that your muscles feel, the way that their muscles would feel. I like to go at things from a physical way so I can just turn off the Erana talking to herself inside of her own head. I feel like my brain’s already full with so much junk that I like to feel what it physically feels like to be in those character’s shoes. Then it’s a nice place to refer back to. That and the costume. I find when you get on set and you get to have your first costume fitting, that for me is a super affirming and solidifying experience for sure.
Gritty Pretty (GP): Hi Erana! Before we jump into your career success, we’d love to know a little more about where you grew up. How did your childhood shape the woman you are today?
Erana James (EJ): I grew up in New Zealand in a small town called Whangārei on an avocado farm. I think it’s impossible for that experience to not have shaped me into the person that I am today—growing up in the bush and around animals. My love for my home and my whenua, my land, and the people is something that’s super important to me. It is integral, I think, to who I am as a person and a performer.
GP: Who was your greatest inspiration growing up and how did they shape your career path?
EJ: It sounds cliche, but it would be untrue not to say the women in my life. My mother and my grandmother, Joan. My grandmother is an opera singer, not that that aids the acting industry, but they would do musical performances when I was younger and she was all creativity and glamour. She was so gorgeous at what she did. And my mum as well is a lover of the arts and operates on the outskirts of it. So I think those two women are definitely my biggest inspiration.
Photography: Amelia Dowd
Hair: Ashleigh Carpenter at Hart and Co
Makeup: Julie Provis at Hart and Co
Styling: Candice Lewin
GP: Acting is a notoriously difficult industry to break into. How did you go about getting your foot in the door?
EJ: Well, I took some acting classes when I was about 16 in Wellington, New Zealand, at a place called Rata Studios, which my mum manages here on the outskirts of the industry. I did a class with a woman called Miranda Harcourt, another inspiration, another influential woman in my life, and I was lucky enough to get cast in her and her husband, Stuart McKenzie’s, feature film, The Changeover. I played the lead role of a young girl called Laura Chant. As you say, it is a notoriously challenging industry to get into, and I do feel like I’m one of those people who experienced that luck, being somewhere at the right time and looking the right way to suit a role for the people that you’re around, if that makes sense.
Then I went to university and I studied social policy, and that was the path that I had intended for myself. But the creative arts are so brilliant, and I was so lucky to have that opportunity from Miranda and Stuart.
GP: In terms of your own creative process, what does getting into character look like for you?
EJ: I think it’s just attempting to walk around in the world in your character’s shoes—getting into the physical body of them. If they’re somebody that runs, then go running and feel what that feels like on your legs—the way that your muscles feel, the way that their muscles would feel. I like to go at things from a physical way so I can just turn off the Erana talking to herself inside of her own head. I feel like my brain’s already full with so much junk that I like to feel what it physically feels like to be in those character’s shoes. Then it’s a nice place to refer back to. That and the costume. I find when you get on set and you get to have your first costume fitting, that for me is a super affirming and solidifying experience for sure.
GP: Creativity also comes into beauty a lot as well. So, what does beauty mean to you?
EJ: I would say that beauty to me is just feeling confident in yourself and oneself. Obviously, I don’t think I’m coming up with anything new there.
But I know that when there’s good stuff swimming around inside of me is when I feel the most beautiful. When I’m putting good things into my brain and into my soul and tapping into the creative arts, which I love, engaging in the arts, putting positive things into my body, into my senses, I tend to find that that’s when I reflect and I feel the most beautiful inside and out.
GP: What does your morning and evening beauty routine consist of?
EJ: My morning beauty routine consists of giving my face a good wash, putting on a light moisturiser and SPF. That’s it! SPF is the final step.
And then in the evening, I like to go a little bit crazy. I do a bit of a cleanse and I love an overnight sleeping mask. The Emma Lewisham Supernatural Sleeping Mask is gorgeous. And I love putting on, again, the Emma Lewisham serum—the Skin Reset Serum with a heavier moisturiser over the top. I do a little LED light mask every night if I remember, then a little decadence with some Aesop hand cream. And some days, a rosehip oil because that always makes you feel good. And then that’s me.
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