Jessie Cave is bloody ace. If you’ve not yet lost an entire afternoon to her YouTube channel (think Smack The Pony meets Muriel’s Wedding meets Broad City meets The Queen’s Nose), please tell me you’ve at least several times stalked her Twitter/Insta/Pindippy.com page?
The on-screen object of Ron Weasley’s affections – she played Lavender Brown in the Harry Potter films – her acting credits elsewhere include the LGBT historical comedy drama Pride and E4’s rural murder series Glue and last month she released her first book, Love Sick, and when we speak she’s 12 shows into her second Edinburgh Fringe run proper, with I Loved Her.
‘I definitely have a persona on Twitter,’ she notes of the platform from which Love Sick, the product of five years’ worth of doodles (and that debut), developed. Felt-tip observations of relationships and the accompanying anxiety, Cave’s book is ‘like my diary, all ridiculously personal’ and dedicated to those waiting for a text.
Introduced with a list of her hobbies, including the very familiar ‘Googling people around my age in a similar field who are doing better than me’, it casually lends itself to the semi-neurotic persona 77k people have fallen for online.
We met Jessie IRL and quizzed her for some life advice.
Love is a waiting game
‘When I was pining after a guy who had no interest in me – I just didn’t get the hint – I remember somebody telling me after, if I had sent all those texts to my current boyfriend, he would have been so into them. All of the things that you do wrong for someone, are actually right for someone else, it’s just about having the patience to wait for the person who gets you.
‘I remember thinking that was such a cool bit of advice, ’cause at the time I felt like such an idiot because of all these texts and feeling like, this is funny, how can he not find it funny? And then, realising it was just because he didn’t get me.’
Social media has warped relationships
‘Imagine waiting for a love letter now, you’d be completely fucked, just waiting there all day every day. We’re much more picky now, so you never even get to go on a date because you’ve already judged them 10 times over on their profile.
‘But also, there’s no judgment now if you do find a boyfriend online, whereas five years ago if you met someone from Guardian Soulmates people would be like, oh my God she’s a loser. It’s kind of made everything much more fair.’
Apps are, ahem, interesting
‘Happn is incredible, you can find someone, and you can see where they were. I would have been absolutely obsessed with Happn [if it had existed when I was single], I would have gone to town on Happn. I kind of got into Tinder as I got into a relationship, but I used it more like a game and it just terrified me. I really have to be seen in person to make any kind of impression.’
Talking TMI
‘I probably share too much, but I’m quite cautious now with the baby [Jessie has a nine-month-old son with comedian Alfie Brown], ’cause my first instinct when I had him was to Instagram the shit out of him, but now I only Instagram his back.
‘I go through phases, usually in my more anxious phases, I’m more honest online. Social media for me is more of an outlet rather than an actual confession box, it’s not completely truthful, an element of me that I wish I could express.’
Instagram makes you lazy
‘Instagram is definitely my favourite platform, I can’t believe I didn’t get it sooner. Twitter seems to be dying slowly, it’s more for articles and stuff, but Instagram is for the lazy person to be supplied with nice things in front of them.’
Career jealously
‘When I started acting, I used to spend my life on IMDB looking at people’s star ratings and just think, why aren’t I at number five, I’m at like 17,892. I’ve since got real and realised that there’s just a different place for everyone. I’ve got friends who are like, oh you should never compare yourself to anybody else, it’s not a race, and my instinct is to say, “We are in a fucking race, what the fuck are you doing? Get going,” but I’ve calmed down.
‘Since having a baby, I’ve just been like, we’ve all got our own paths and it’s all going to be OK. There’s enough room for us all.’
Women heroes
‘I really love writer/actor Sharon Horgan, she’s awesome, her writing is amazing and she just seems so fucking cool. Who else? I completely love how my mum has lived her life, she’s the epitome of a mother, but she also works. And I love stand-ups Sara Pascoe and Bridget Christie, they’re two people that I really look up to.’
The emoji game
‘I like the kiss and the white heart within the pink square and I like the footsteps emoji and the family emoticon. I used to always use the family emoticon as a joke with guys to scare them, but now I can actually use it, which I’m thrilled about.’
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.