‘Rye Lane’ star Vivian Oparah on her Bafta nomination, shooting the film’s “painful” karaoke scene

“Everything is bubbling… I cannot complain,” grins actress Vivian Oparah, Bafta-nominated star of London romantic comedy Rye Lane. “It feels like it’s shaping up to be a good year.” It would certainly have to be to top 2023, a year that saw Raine Allen-Miller’s debut feature wow audiences at Sundance, gross $1.5m (£1.2m) at the UK and Ireland box office, and win Oparah a breakthrough performance prize at the British Independent Film Awards. And in May, she signed to talent agency CAA for US representation. It is fair to say 2024 has started promisingly though, with Oparah’s nomination for Bafta’s leading actress award placing her on a formidable six-strong shortlist alongside Margot Robbie, Emma Stone, Fantasia Barrino, Sandra Hüller and fellow Brit Carey Mulligan.

Oparah was in Atlanta when she learned of her nomination, the news reaching her early morning local time. “It felt like I was inside of a dream that continued for the rest of the day,” she remarks. “It kind of feels like a meme that’s gone too far, but I feel super blessed and super lucky.” Oparah had considered giving up acting before Rye Lane came her way, so there is an extra resonance to the film, securing her a first Bafta nomination, and itself being nominated for outstanding British film. “I’m sure there is a moral to this that I can’t quite articulate,” she muses. “But on a philo­sophical level, it does feel that if you love something and pour joy into it, that will be mirrored in the experience other people have.”

Oparah was no novice when she was cast in Rye Lane, having appeared as studious Tanya Adeola in the BBC’s 2016 Doctor Who spin-off Class. She also had a small part in I May Destroy You, sharing the screen with series creator Michaela Coel, and had appeared on stage at both the National Theatre and the Old Vic in her native London.

But it was her role as feisty and mercurial Yas in Allen-Miller’s urban love story that made audiences sit up and take notice - the film’s fresh-faced Black leads and authentic depiction of south London’s ethnic and cultural diversity were viewed by many as a refreshing and overdue departure from the British romcom archetype. “I wasn’t too bothered by the conventions of the genre,” says the actress, whose interplay with co-star David Jonsson was forged during an early chemistry read where they improvised setting up an online dating profile. “Once I knew it would have two dark-skinned leads, I knew Raine clearly wasn’t bothered either.”

Karaoke classic

Rye Lane - scripted by first-time feature writers Nathan Bryon and Tom Melia, and backed by BBC Film, the BFI and Searchlight Pictures - is set largely over the course of one day. It begins with newly dumped Dom (Jonsson) being overheard weeping in a toilet cubicle by aspiring costume designer Yas. The pair strike up a conversation that leads to numerous mishaps and adventures, one of which sees them obliged to sing Salt-N-Pepa song ‘Shoop’ - a number 4 hit in 1993 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart - at a neighbourhood karaoke bar. “It was so cringe,” shudders Oparah, who records her own music as Vivian Forever. “David and I were like, ‘What is ‘Shoop’? There’s so many bangers, why do Salt-N-Pepa?’” Shooting the scene, she says, “was as painful as it looked”. But when the film had its premiere at Sundance last January before a predominantly US audience, the serendipity of that song choice became only too apparent.

“It was so mad,” marvels Oparah, one year on. “Americans are super-expressive anyway, but I had never experienced anything like that in a cinema. People were standing out of their chairs, shouting, laughing and cheering. And when we did Salt-N-Pepa they were like, ‘Oh my god, ‘Shoop’ as well?’” Sundance, Oparah says, “was the true test of whether Rye Lane would resonate with people or not. It’s a very British film and it might not have translated, but it was the complete opposite.” She attributes this to Allen-Miller’s “brilliant” directing and how “she brings a world to life. She imbued such a sense of self-confidence into me, which I didn’t think was possible. I’m very early on in my career, so it’s great having her as a role model, a mentor and an older sister.”

Oparah has an actual sibling to thank for her entry into acting: an older brother who gifted her the £400 (approximately $500) she needed for a two-week summer course at the National Youth Theatre that led to the role in Class. Had that door not been opened, she might have taken up a place to study neuroscience at University College London - a pursuit that remains an abiding fascination.

“My interest in the mind hasn’t waned,” she says. “I like dissecting people and characters, but now I have the element of bringing them to life.” One of those characters was the strikingly named Stink, the thrill-seeking, heroin-stealing teen she played in Sky Max’s 2023 crime thriller series Then You Run. Filmed in 2021 shortly after Rye Lane’s five-week shoot had ended, the UK-Germany co-production saw her relocate to continental Europe for a demanding six months of - to quote a post on her Instagram feed - “drugs, death, giggles and gore”.

“I’d never filmed for that long on anything before,” says Oparah. “I was on set every day and I felt like an athlete.” This drama about four young women whose trip to Rotterdam takes a violent turn saw her motormouth character wield a firearm, talk her way out of an execution and, in one particularly memorable scene, receive oral sex in a children’s ball pit from co-star Anton Nürnberg. “I was like, ‘How is this my first sex scene? This is bananas,’” she laughs. “It was crazy, strange and hot. It was ultimately the least sexy experience because we were sweating so profusely. You can’t shake the thought that your parents are going to watch this, but it’s all part of the job.”

Oparah’s 2024 will see her star in another series - Prime Video’s Dead Hot - as a woman in Liverpool who teams up with her twin brother’s boyfriend to solve the mystery of his disappearance. Before that, though, there is preparation for the Bafta Film Awards ceremony, an event that comes three months on from her being chosen for the organisation’s 2023 Breakthrough programme. “You can have an amazing moment in your life without knowing how to harness it,” she says. “So it’s nice to talk to people who are going through a similar moment and can help you turn that moment into a career.”

• The UK team behind ‘Rye Lane’ on creating the most vibrant romcom of 2023