For most millennials, Skins was the teen drama that defined mid-late noughties telly. Instead of studying for our A-levels, we were tuning into E4 every Thursday night and trying to plan our own neon-heavy house parties. The show was a phenomenal success and launched the Hollywood careers of Dev Patel, Nicholas Hoult and Daniel Kaluuya, but amidst the glow sticks and floppy fringes it attempted to deal with the darker coming-of-age corners.
Throughout the 7 seasons, Skins punctuated scenes of free-living drug-taking teenagers with weightier subject matter - viewers watched as the beloved characters experienced things like abandonment, homelessness, mental illness and grief. But according to Kaya Scodelario - who played Effy Stonem for four seasons - the safeguarding that is now industry standard for young actors was not there in 2007.
During an interview on Nick Grimshaw's podcast Dish, Kaya shared that she was always fond of the presenter as he had been so supportive of the Skins cast in the early days. She explained: "You really encapsulate that time for me and it’s such a pleasure to see you still thriving and still doing well. It’s true, I really adore that."
On the show, Kaya's character Effy experienced a severe psychotic depressive episode and attempted suicide. Going on to describe how safety measures weren't in place in the same way they would be today, she told the host: "You were like a safe place for us. Back then there wasn’t the same amount of safeguarding with young actors, there wasn’t anyone checking if we were OK. But whenever we worked with you, you were always kind and gentle and lovely."
Dev Patel - who is currently being lauded for his performance in Monkey Man - has also spoken about his experience on Skins. He recently told The Hollywood Reporter: "They did these commercials where they'd rent out these mansions of whatever and then just a bunch of kids, our age and older, would come and half of them were drugged off their faces, and [the crew] are like, 'just… have fun.' It was insane. It was really, really insane."
Kaya Scodelario is currently starring in The Gentlemen on Netflix, which is streaming now.
