Krysty Wilson-Cairns, photographed exclusively for Empire at The Toucan in Soho, London, on 4 August 2021.

PORTRAITS OPHELIA WYNNE

“KRYSTY WILSON-CAIRNS trained at the National Film and Television School, London. She loves screenwriting, storytelling and writing about herself in the third person.”

Not our words, readers, but the words of Krysty Wilson-Cairns’ mini-biography on the IMDb. And if the crack about writing about herself in the third person wasn’t already a strong hint, what comes next — references to “her Mother’s gin” and “why the dog is wearing a polo neck” — seems to suggest that the bio was, in fact, written by Krysty Wilson-Cairns herself. “When I was at film school,” she says, with a wince and a laugh, “you had to write a bio, and I thought, ‘This is absolutely fine. It’s not like I’m gonna be nominated for an Oscar or anything.’”

Others in her position might by now have taken it down, but why should she? After all, it’s all true. Krysty Wilson-Cairns does love screenwriting, and storytelling, and writing about herself in the third person. (Although Krysty Wilson-Cairns did not write this article.) But the thing about her bio is that it stops with a declaration that “Krysty has just finished her first feature, Prophets, a high-concept black comedy, and has two shorts in post production.”

It stops, in short, just as the going gets good. Or, more accurately, really good. It stops before she gets nominated for an Oscar for her first produced screenplay. It stops before she cowrites one of this year’s most anticipated films.

It stops before she bags a gig working on a Star Wars movie. It stops just before the 34-year-old Scot becomes one of the hottest screenwriters in the world. There are a lot of blanks to fill in, and given that Wilson-Cairns admits that, “I probably don’t know my password,” it’s up to Empire. Let’s begin.

Krysty Wilson-Cairns didn’t love screenwriting or storytelling.

Not for the longest time, in fact. It wasn’t that she didn’t love movies. She did. Growing up in Glasgow, where she lived with her mum and her grandparents, movies were huge for her. “We didn’t have a lot of money,” she says, relaxing on a sofa in her new offices in Soho. “We weren’t driving through to Edinburgh to see the theatre. It was cinema cinema cinema, at least once a week to the Odeon in Renfield Street. I had a Global Video membership card. I can still remember the membership number: 793.”