Sophie Kennedy Clark

SOPHIE KENNEDY CLARK IN LONDON, DECEMBER 2013. STYLING: SUSAN BENDER. DRESS:McQ ALEXANDER McQUEEN. NECKLACE: DAVID MORRIS.

“I’ve never even said the word orgasm in front of my parents,” swears actress Sophie Kennedy Clark as she recalls the day that Lars von Trier released a series of provocative posters for his upcoming film Nymphomaniac. “So trying to explain that one of them showed my ‘bed face’ wasn’t even a possibility. I got a text message from my father—he’s a stoic Aberdonian who never sends text messages. It only said, ‘You look like you’ve been crucified.’ ” Mortified, the 23-year-old Clark responded the only way she knew how, by making a witty quip: “So you’ve seen Philomena then!” she said, referring to her other recent screen appearance, in the Stephen Frears drama. Clark grew up in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, playing the clarsach—Celtic harp—through her childhood. She quit boarding school at age 17 and moved to New York to take drama classes, living in a commune-style loft on the Lower East Side. Returning to the U.K. in 2009, Clark began to appear in numerous short films and hit upon the scheme of pestering agent Dallas Smith into taking her on. After 10 months of ignoring her phone calls and letters, Smith finally agreed to meet with her, after she landed a role on the four-part BBC TV series Single Father, playing a rebellious teen. Clark, who is the new face of Pringle of Scotland, will soon be seen in Brad Anderson’s gothic thriller Eliza Graves opposite Michael Caine and Kate Beckinsale. But first there’s the small matter of Nymphomaniac. Clark plays B, a teenager pivotal in the sexual development of the film’s protagonist, Joe (Charlotte Gainsbourg, Stacy Martin). “My part is great because I’m the catalyst for what ensues,” she says. “There is a certain Machiavellian streak to my character, taking a naive girl on little journeys of sexual exploration.”

COSMETICS: MAC COSMETICS, INCLUDING DIVINE NIGHT CREME SHEEN GLASS IN PRIVATE PARTY AND OVER LACQUER IN DELICATE.HAIR PRODUCTS: BUMBLEAND BUMBLE,INCLUDING SPRAY DE MODE. HAIR: LYNDELL MANSFIELD/CLM. MAKEUP: SHARON DOWSETT/CLM. MANICURE: ZARRA CELIK/CLM.SPECIAL THANKS: SUNBEAM STUDIOS.