Skins 5 Episode 5x02 HUGE SPOILERS

So did you enjoy the first episode of Skins? Now that we've been introduced to all the new characters, we thought we needed to catch up with the cast to discuss the premiere and discover what's still to come. Read on to find out what Laya Lewis (Liv), Jessica Sula (Grace), Freya Mavor (Mini), Dakota Blue Richards (Franky), Sebastian De Souza (Matty), Sean Teale (Nick), Alex Arnold (Rich) and Will Merrick (Alo) had to say, but be warned, there may be some spoilers!

Mini, Liv and Grace's friendship
Laya: "I think at first it's just quite a 2D friendship - Mini is the boss and they just follow her around. I think as the show goes on you see that their friendship goes deeper. Liv and Grace, I think their friendship is a lot more genuine, but with Mini it all sort of goes t*ts up."
Jessica: "We realised that Mini needs us."
Laya: "You think it's the other way round, then you realise she's quite dependent."

Grace's decision to follow Franky...
Jessica: "Grace has morals and she wants to be kind and good but at the same time she doesn't want to go against her friends. The thing with Grace is there's more to her than you see. You may think you're pushing her over but she's just getting her way, gradually, slowly moving around you. She's a kind person, she's a kind heart - that's why she goes to the good side and doesn't stoop to the dark side!"

Whether that will cause tension...
Laya: "Yeah! Especially with Grace and Mini. I think Mini doesn't even talk to Grace for a little bit. It's very bitchy, actually."

Will we see Liv break away too?
Laya: "She does in the end. Liv's breakaway is a lot more immature and instead of doing what Grace does and standing up for herself in a civilised way, she just goes about it in the worst way ever. It's more actually making a statement than breaking away."

Grace seems very optimistic - will we see another side to her?
Jessica: "You do see another side to her. In a way it's quite sad - she's grown up in a naive sort of world and kind of sheltered and then she starts to realise that not everything is that great and fine. The more she tries to hold it together the more it falls apart. That to her is kind of heartbreaking, that everything she loves is crumbling."
Laya: "Her family really cut her off from the world so it comes as a shock when everything all starts falling apart. She just can't understand... She wants everything to be perfect but with eight characters... it's Skins. There's no way. Nothing's ever perfect, especially when you're a teenager."
Jessica: "It's sad because no-one's holding her together. But she'll cry, she'll get upset, but she'll also have to try and learn to shrug it off and deal with it."

In the second episode, Grace helps Rich with girls - could romance blossom there?
Jessica: "Romance could blossom! I think because they're just so opposite and Grace likes to fix people, she likes to be a fixer and help them, and I think that must freak Rich out because he likes his own space, he's reserved, and he doesn't really care about the mainstream. He thinks all Grace is is mainstream, and underestimates who she is. But I think through showing him who he is it will make him see there's more to her. She's not a mainstream girl and love could blossom through that..."

How is Rich with girls?
Will: "It takes him a very long time to really - not just with girls, but to really see what's right in front of him. I like to think of Rich's story as a love story with a metal soundtrack. That's what's quite funny about it - it's not your typical love story. It's got quirky bits, which is the metal. I think Rich's journey is [learning about] not taking stuff for granted, really."

Alex and Jessica's scene with Napalm Death in episode two
Jessica: "I did crowdsurfing and I had to go crazy on the stage which was just so much fun because I'd never done that before, but I was really petrified. I had a ballet dress on, it was fantastic. But I got bitten! Somebody bit me! There were people stepping on your feet so by the time you get on the stage you're like... 'Yay'."
Alex: "That was actually really incredible. They did loads of pre-recorded stuff and it just looked completely different every time they did it, the way [lead singer] Barney mimed it and stuff just looked different every time. I can't describe it really. That was a lot of fun, actually. There were loads of extras, about 90 extras, that day. It seemed like a proper metal gig, which was good."

Will there be romance for Liv?
Laya: "There's romance for all of them pretty much, apart from Alo! With some people there's real nice love, and then there's friends with benefits. Liv's very naughty though - she's promiscuous, she's dirty and she's a bit of a slag... What I love about it is if you went up to her and said, 'You're a bit of a sl*t', she'd be like, 'Yeah, I am'... There's a pretty saucy scene in Liv's episode. I'm never going to live that one down and I don't know how I'm going to watch it with my mum. Oh my God."

Mini was horrible in the first episode - will we see another side to her?
Freya: "I think Mini definitely goes on a massive journey this series where you understand why she's hardened herself. It's desperate efforts on her on her behalf to break out of her own system, but despite herself even if she doesn't want to she makes wrong decisions. You know what she's capable of, you know what she's really like and you want to shake her."
Dakota: "What's great about Skins is that no character has ever been taken at face value and left at that point. You see different sides to all the characters. I think it's really important because there are no stereotypes. We may start off as stereotypes - you could say, 'Franky's the outsider, Mini's the bitch', or whatever, but they're so much more complex than you first see."

How will Franky affect the groups?
Dakota: "When Franky arrives, she acts as a catalyst to what happens with all the relationships between all the other characters. It's like they're holding on to each other to make these relationships work because everything seems to be going so perfectly. And then Franky comes and she's such an unusual person but she's really honest and really forgiving at the same time, that she makes them all question their relationships with each other and then completely changes the dynamic of the group."

Mini and Nick's relationship
Freya: "I think they use each other. It's one of those relationships where in theory it works but in practice it's a complete mess. He's like the trophy boyfriend and she's like the popular girlfriend. They work because they seem like such an iconic couple, but under the surface it's all a bit of a mess. Neither of them are suited to each other and he's not what she really needs. He's kind of a bad boy and she needs someone who's actually going to love her, and he doesn't love her in the way that she needs to be loved."
Sean: "Their relationship is strange. I think something clicks in Nick's mind that makes him feel like he should be with Mini. He's the captain of the rugby team, he's sort of the hotshot, and he's going out with the hottest girl in school. I think he's got an idealistic view of the world, but it's not strictly authentic. I think he's actually in love with somebody else. There's someone that he... I don't want to give away too much. He does care about Mini but whether or not she's the one he cares about the most or whether she's right for him or whether they're right for each other is quite explosive. She might get him to do her dirty work but he's doing dirty work well away from her! It chops and changes, their relationship, and in the end it reaches a bitter end."

How will Matty meet the rest of the group?
Sebastian: "That would be telling, wouldn't it? Through a fairly considerable number of twists and turns and plot... I mean, he's very ambiguous. His position in the group is wildly ambiguous to begin with and still is, actually. It's still fairly up in the air, I'd say, even in the last episode of the series, but you do find out a lot more about him. I think series six will be where the mirror is turned on Matty and actually all the other characters."
Sean: "And if there's going to be a group from the start Nick's certainly not a part of it. There are friendships formed, whether it's Alo and Rich or the girls, and Nick's got his rugby friends. Although you get a good glimpse of some of his rugby friends, he doesn't embark on any banter with the rest of the group because he just doesn't fit in. And you have to shred away at all that throughout the series."

Rich and Alo's friendship
Alex: "It's like ying and yang. Like a puppy and its owner. I'm definitely the owner. The thing is, with a puppy and an owner it can kind of switch round and the puppy can bite its owner. I think that's a good analogy."
Will: "I'm not impressed."
Alex: "That's a great analogy. I'm great. Let's just go with I'm great! No, it's ying and yang. There's a lot of banter between them and a lot comes off from the social dynamics they delve into. The stuff that they get into is majorly their fault. They're sort of the butt of the joke in school and I don't think they realise that sometimes, which is quite funny."

What storylines are coming up for Alo?
Will: "He's sort of on this mission to get into the world. He starts to succeed - he starts to have a much better time, he starts to go out a lot. And his parents decide it's time for him to start planning his life, to start getting a grip. He's s**t at school, absolutely s**t. He's flunking everything so they decide that he's going to take the farm and he's going to work there and he's going to earn his keep like everyone else. He's not really up for that. His dad is a bit of a p***y and doesn't really stick up for what he wants and he doesn't really stick up for Alo, he just goes along with whatever his mother says. So Alo suddenly finds himself very confused, because his parents start having a go at him and he's not used to this. He's got his routine, he's got his life, and they are messing with that. So he decides to mess with them."

Favourite moments
Laya: "There's a really great scene in Will's episode as well where we have the ultimate condom milk war, where he fills up condoms with milk and we had eggs and bags of flour. But we just stank. We smelled like omelette."
Jessica: "There's the manure in episode eight - we were running through a field and Alex dropped me!"
Laya: "Towards the end of the series Liv turns into a right bitch, for reasons I completely understand. Those were just the best scenes. They were so much fun to do."
Freya: "Dakota and I both agree that doing that roll-around-in-the-mud scene in the first episode was just so much fun. I loved it so much. It got really dry after a while and we kept asking them to pour tons of water on us so it got really mushy. At the end we were like, 'Can we just have ten minutes just to roll around in the mud?'"
Dakota: "And then they dragged us off and shoved us in a shower because we had another scene like ten minutes later."
Freya: "The very last scene of the whole series is a gig - the vibe that was there and the sort of music and everyone dancing constantly, it just sort of made everything really lively and one of our producers shed a tear. Stuff like that makes you feel like it's a really intimate process."

Labels: 5x02 , Brand New , Feature , generation 3 , Skins season 5 , spoilers