Progress 1000: Charlie's Angel star Ella Balinska – I was acting out my role for this movie when I was six in a park

Ella Balinska, the British star of the new Charlie’s Angels movie, has revealed she first practised for the role by acting out the previous movies with her friends as a child.

The Londoner, 22, joins Kristen Stewart and fellow Brit Naomi Scott as members of the crime-fighting trio in the latest instalment of the franchise coming to cinemas in November.

Her role in Charlie’s Angels is her big screen breakthrough.

The star, the daughter of TV chef and former model Lorraine Pascale, was just six when the last film Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle, starring Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore, and Lucy Liu, was released in 2003.

Balinska, who is set to feature in the TV and film section of our annual Progress 1000 list next month, said: “We played Charlie’s Angels in the park, my friends and I, when we could. We were running about, inventing our own characters. It was awesome.

“Watching these characters, you see qualities in them and you go, ‘Hey, I could be an Angel’ which is really cool.

“It’s amazing to be able to be part of the continuation.”

Balinska, who was born in London, trained at the Guildford School of Acting and has previously had roles in Casualty and Midsomer Murders.

She said it was “amazing” to be a part of a film that had “so many women” on set.

The screenplay was written by Elizabeth Banks, who is also directing, producing and starring in the movie.

Balinska heard she had been chosen for the role of Jane Kano while filming for Sky drama series The Athena.

“I knew I had a conference call coming in and I had no idea what it was for,” she said.

“I had obviously [screen]-tested at that point and had a couple of other auditions come through, so I thought, ‘It’s going to be a general team meeting.’ And then Elizabeth Banks was on the line and she told me I’d got the job.

“I had to go back inside and continue the day as if nothing had happened. But one of my colleagues could tell something had happened. He just gave me the look.”

Balinska credits Banks with giving the movie a “360 degree method of empowerment”.

She said: “When someone has that much of a vision for it, you feel like it’s such a safe environment to work in, to win, to fail, to try new things and make interesting choices.

“We’re all really good friends and it shows. One of the things that’s super empowering is seeing women do all of that together.”

Balinska, who brings a background as a promising childhood athlete to the action role of “Angel” Jane Kano, has recently being named a face of Kurt Geiger’s AW19 Characterful Style campaign.

She described starring in the campaign as “mad” as she worked for the brand selling men’s shoes in Selfridges until April last year.

“I was doing a TV series five days a week and then I was working Saturdays and Sundays in Selfridges,” she said. “I thought to myself, the TV series isn’t out yet, it’s an extra way to make money, and I had a great time.

Speaking about starring in the campaign, she said: “It’s a story that makes me smile. It’s one of those things where you never know what path you’re on and where it can take you. It’s really cool.”

• The Progress 1000, in partnership with the global bank Citi, is the Evening Standard’s celebration of the people changing London’s future for the better and will be announced on October 3.​

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