Turning the page

As one book closes, another one opens. That’s the Buket Kömür philosophy. The 26-year-old actor recently finished reading Eve’s Hollywood, the LA memoir of sultry and sharp-witted socialite Eve Babitz. She’s adding it to a pile that already includes Just Kids, Patti Smith’s cult classic about her relationship with Robert Mapplethorpe. “I just love a memoir by a cool woman,” shrugs Kömür. “But now comes the task of finding my next book.”

What that might be is anyone’s guess. Kömür says her bedroom brims with paperbacks: “Piles and stacks of the things. It’s like a haphazard library. And every bookshop I pass, I always end up popping in and picking up something new.”

But Kömür’s last trip to a bookshop was more than a quick visit. This summer, she appears in Bookish, a six-part murder mystery drama, set in 1946 and starring Mark Gatiss as a bookseller with a sideline in sleuthing. It brings together Kömür’s twin passions: books and performance. When she was a child (and didn’t have her nose in prose) Kömür would obscure the family TV, acting out whatever was happening on screen. This led her mother to enrol Kömür in drama classes, held in the churches and community centres of her native north London. They paid off. In 2020, she landed her breakout role in ITV drama Honour. An even bigger break came last year, in Ben Wheatley’s genre-bending, flesh-eating zombie satire, Generation Z.

But Bookish is the perfect project for Kömür — or so her friends tell her. “They all know how much I love reading! And because of its period nature, Bookish felt like time travel. The hair, the costumes — I felt like a proper actor.” Arms thrown wide, she shifts into a hammy old Hollywood accent. “It’s a proper picture!” There was an accent for Bookish, too — a sparky East End twang that Kömür’s character, Nora, owes to old films the actor spent hours watching. “I hope it didn’t get too Oliver Twist,” she laughs, before revealing that the role originally had no specified ethnicity when she first auditioned. Instead, Gatiss planned to write Nora’s background based on who was ultimately cast.

“That felt like a really authentic way to do it,” says Kömür. “Because then you’re not prescribing anything, you’re not trying to tick any sort of box. You’re just open to the idea of including diversity, but it’s more about who comes into the room and brings themself to the character. It feels really special, because there’s a big Turkish immigrant community in London, and there’s not enough representation of that on screen.”

Kömür’s mother moved to London at 19, and the actor is currently drawing on her literature and film studies degree by writing a screenplay (her first) based on those experiences. Set in 1980s Hackney, it follows her mother’s life and work in a textile factory. “I’m trying not to be too hard on myself,” says Kömür of the writing process. “I have a few writer friends and they tell me to just write. Don’t judge it! Don’t worry about it! Don’t try to make it perfect — just write!”

But reading a script, Kömür says, is different to reading one her many beloved books. “It feels more active. I’ve always had quite a visual mind, and with a script you get to imagine the sets and the dynamics between actors. Your mind is whirring a lot more. Reading a book, I find more relaxing. It’s an escape.”

Kömür also uses film to relax. “Just going to the cinema and sitting there — with popcorn! There’s a comfort, a magic to it. I love traditional cinema, in much the same way I love books. I’m very tactile like that. I refuse to listen to audio books or have a Kindle. I have to hold the paperback in my hands, turn the pages. It’s like that with film, too. The cinema gives me such a sense of escape, and to still have that storytelling, especially in modern culture, is so important. We can’t give everything away to trends and algorithms.”

Television may be where Kömür made her name, but she’s also appeared in several films herself, including last year’s queer coming-of-age dramedy, Layla. She cites Andrea Arnold and Lynne Ramsay as two directors she admires, and horror as the genre she’d most like to tackle next. “It would be an absolute dream to be covered in blood,” she laughs. First, though, it’s more Bookish — as the series has already been renewed for a second season.

“It’s a good omen, and I’m really excited to be in everyone’s lovely company again! We had a great time filming last summer in Belgium — where there are so many good vintage shops. I bought so much, my sister had to bring me an extra suitcase when it was time to head home.”

And it wasn’t just novels and non-fiction stuffed in those suitcases, for Kömür has another fierce fondness: cowboy boots. The high-heeled love was sparked at school, which was a non-uniform secondary in Camden. It was during this time that Kömür developed a passion for the fringe and floaty silhouettes of Boho chic. “I was giving Glastonbury vibes in maths class!” she says. “But it’s my goal to have a collection of cowboy boots. I grew up with a lot of fashion icons on TV: Rachel Green; Blair Waldorf. Carrie Bradshaw may have had her Manolos. I have my cowboy boots.”

Unfortunately, it’s strictly sweater vests and sensible skirts for now — there are no cowboy boots on Bookish. There will, however, be books. Lots of them. And Kömür couldn’t be happier about that. In fact, before she landed her role on Generation Z, when the actor was still looking for a day job, she searched for a position at a plethora of bookshops in London. “I dropped a CV into every bookshop I passed. Every one! I told Mark [Gatiss] that story at the Bookish chemistry read. Who knows, maybe that’s why he hired me — to make my dreams come true!”

Bookish is available on U&alibi (on Sky, Virgin and NOW)