Back in March, Self Esteem said something that explains what she's been up to this year better than any casting announcement could: "It ruined my life. Sometimes I've hit rock bottom because of music. And then I think, it's just songs, and you've got a roof over your head!" That was her state of mind after wrapping the release and tour for her third album, A Complicated Woman. She described herself as "knackered" and "fed up," and admitted that starring in the 50th-anniversary revival of David Hare's stage play Teeth 'n' Smiles made her realize she'd been "dead for a while."
Now that pivot has taken concrete shape. BBC Wales has confirmed that Rebecca Lucy Taylor—aka Self Esteem—will lead Mountain, a 1980s-set Welsh coming-of-age film, marking her first major film role. She'll be joined by Peter Mullan, Iwan Rheon, and Seth Isaac Thomas, with Welsh actor-turned-filmmaker Celyn Jones directing and Bill Ryder-Jones composing the score.
The story follows a boy played by Seth Isaac Thomas, growing up in North Wales in the 1980s and yearning for friendship and belonging, until he meets a man living alone on a mountain, played by Peter Mullan. The two form a lasting bond. The film shot in Anglesey in June and has already wrapped, with Jones describing filming in his hometown of Holyhead as "an emotional and spiritual homecoming."
Taylor's recent acting work has been quietly building toward this shift all along: Sky series I Hate Suzie and Smothered, playing Sally Bowles in the West End revival of Cabaret in 2023, and now Teeth 'n' Smiles earlier this year. At the Ivor Novello Awards in May, she told NME that after summer she planned to take a few months off to "properly think about things." "I've already got a bit of an idea of what the next album might look like," she said, "but if you're not careful, this industry just keeps taking more and more from you. So I'm making myself stop, so I can actually think clearly and make something better."
Before that, though, she's got two more shows to play: opening for Florence + The Machine in Edinburgh on August 24, and supporting Pulp at Wythenshawe Park in Manchester on August 28. Mountain is expected to be released next year, though no exact date has been announced yet.
