JESSICA SULA Words by SHELBY CHARGIN Photos by CATHERINE POWELL Hair by STEVEN MASON Make-Up by COOPER
A friendly young woman with a knack for storytelling is the easiest way to describe Jessica Sula. Hailing from Wales, and having traveled a lot, Jessica was very much a go-with-the-flow type of kid. “I started to [act] it in drama class really, that’s how everything sort of began,” she says. “I auditioned for a youth theater, and we put on this parody called ‘O What a Lovely War’ and it was fun but I was super shy. I came back the first weekend and I was so excited but then, you know, you have this thing where, ‘I’m just a kid from Wales who really cares,’” she jokes. As she grew up, she realized that the regular route of going to school and university was not for her. “I thought I could be a lawyer, but I realized I mostly liked it for the performance aspect of it,” she laughs. She heard about an open audition for the widely popular television series Skins and begged her dad to drive her to Bristol for it. It ended up being the first part she booked. “Which was a real spontaneous stroke of luck,” she says. Jessica’s attitude is refreshing. She’s filled with cheesy, sarcastic jokes that make it hard for not to love her. Through this, it’s easy to see how her love for acting kept her pushing through when her family didn’t have the financial standing to afford the extra things actors often need early on in their careers. “I got an agent, I took the last of my money, and I decided to move to New York,” she says. “My parents divorced around that time, so it was kind of a weird transition where you’re flying the nest, but your parents are breaking up and they were my biggest supporters so that was strange. I moved to New York with my mum for a little bit.” Jessica began studying acting at Stella Adler studio in New York after reading online comments that led her to believe she wasn’t that good of an actress. “I met some really 4