Filming the Uprising, a pivotal scene with Andrew Garfield left Thomasin McKenzie vulnerable, unprepared
Thomasin McKenzie recalls a pivotal The Uprising scene with Andrew Garfield that left her unprepared and vulnerable — and what, exactly, put her in that headspace.
The moment came during a confrontation where Alyce tries to stop Andrew Garfield’s Ploughman from walking away. Thomasin McKenzie says she nailed one blistering take, then hit a wall trying to summon that level again — and spent the rest of the day convinced she’d blown the scene.
"One of those days as an actor where I felt really unprepared and like I felt a lot of imposter syndrome,"
Speaking on the Collider Ladies Night podcast, McKenzie explained that director Paul Greengrass stepped in with something unexpected: he shared personal details about someone in his own family and why the scene mattered to him. That unlocked a flood of emotion. Even so, the version Greengrass ultimately used wasn’t the tearful eruption — it was the second, more contained take, with Alyce holding herself together instead of fully breaking.
McKenzie plays Alyce in The Uprising, Greengrass’s historical drama set amid the English Peasants’ Revolt of 1381, as commoners push back against the power orbiting King Richard II. Garfield is credited as Ploughman, a central figure in the film ’s depiction of ordinary people forced into extraordinary choices.
The cast
- Andrew Garfield — Ploughman
- Thomasin McKenzie — Alyce
- Jamie Bell
- Stephen Dillane
- Tom Hollander
- Cosmo Jarvis
- Jonny Lee Miller
- Woody Norman
- Katherine Waterston
The movie ’s edge
Focus Features frames the story as a fight for justice and survival, and Greengrass shoots it with the physical intensity he’s known for — handheld urgency, clashing crowds, and close-quarters violence. Early reviews note a grim, chaotic battlefield feel and praise the visceral craft, while some question the story’s overall direction.
The finished film runs about 128 minutes and is rated R for violence and bloody images.