Skins: 24-Hour Party People?

Skins: 24-Hour Party People?

They\'ve taken sex, drugs and rock \'n\' roll to another level in Skins but what do Kaya Scodelario, Kathryn Prescott and Lily Loveless get up to off screen? Company joined their gang to find out..

It\'s been a tough day in the Company office, staffed this month by the guys and girls from Skins. So the least we can do is take them for after-work drinks, and get down to the serious business of gossip. Do they party like the Skins gang in real life? Is everyone really sleeping with each other? And do these stylish ladies suffer wardrobe envy like the rest of us?

We\'re sitting in a swanky London hotel bar, and when I say we, I mean Kaya, who plays feisty queen bee Effy; Kathryn, who plays Emily, the shyer twin to her sister Katie (played by Megan Prescott); and Lily, who is Emily\'s on-screen lover, Naomi. Got all that? Good.

The first thing that strikes me is that when the waiter takes our order its sparkling water all round. A far cry from the vodka-swilling characters we\'ve come to love on screen. But the truth is that there\'s a reason why Skins is one of the most successful shows on TV. These girls graft, and they graft hard. As Kathryn says, "When you\'re working a 12-hour day, you can\'t have a hangover, believe me! Most people are surprised when they find out that none of us went to stage school. Skins is our acting training and it\'s the best possible teaching out there, so we\'ve got to get it right."

Mid-chat, Kaya leans out from her seat, looking distracted before bouncing up and down in a fit of excitement. "Look, it\'s one of the Weasley brothers from Harry Potter!" before Lily pipes up with, "I saw Duffy earlier, too." Clearly they enjoy a good celeb spot as much as we do. They fit right in at Company Towers, we think...

More Skins stuff!

Our exclusive behind the scenes video of the Skins cast in the Company offices

Quiz! Which Skins character are you?

Click through our gallery to see the Skins girl\'s views on body image, sex, scandals, style, partying and more...

Skins: 24-Hour Party People?

Skins On Skins:

Kathryn: The Skins cast are replaced every two years to keep the show fresh, and this is our last series. It\'s great because it means we won\'t get typecast as actors, like the Friends cast. But I\'ll miss working with these guys and we\'re shitting ourselves over what we\'re all going to do next. But when you look how well the cast before us have done, especially Dev Patel with Slumdog Millionaire, it\'s an inspiration.

Kaya: We\'ll still see each other. We\'re always texting and having been in the show the longest, for four years, I\'ve managed to stay in touch with the girls from series one, so it is do-able.

Lily: I love that I\'ll be able to watch Skins back one day and say, "Wow, look what I did."

Kathryn: Before I landed the role of Emily, I had no idea what I was going to do with my life. I was at college studying psychology, philosophy, textiles and drama. But because I wasn\'t one of those all-singing, all-dancing stage-school kids, I just assumed I\'d never become an actor. Meeting Kaya and Lily taught me that you can be an understated actor. Plus, could you imagine somebody from RADA having to pretend to take drugs and sleep around? I don\'t think it\'d work.

Next: Skins on Body Images....

Skins: 24-Hour Party People?

Skins on body image:

Kaya: Being on screen means we\'re forced to scrutinise ourselves more than most women. I had terrible self-confidence when I was younger. I was paranoid about being too skinny, I had no boobs and looked like a boy. It got to the point where I wouldn\'t wear short sleeves because I hated my skinny arms. I remember filming my first scene in a bikini and I cried and cried. But, as I\'ve got older and met some new mates who helped boost my confidence, I\'ve accepted that everyone is beautiful in different ways. And a padded bra works wonders!

Kathryn: We\'re good at boosting each other\'s confidence. If one of us is having a shit day the others will be saying, "No, you look great!"

Lily: Self-confidence is something I\'ve always struggled with.

Kaya: But without reason. Lily will walk off set and say, "That was a terrible scene." And we\'ll be standing there open-mouthed, saying, "But Lily, you\'ve made us all cry because it was so amazing!"

Kathryn: The great thing about Skins is that it\'s not 90210. We don\'t have to look stick-thin and ripped. Those shows send out the wrong messages by showing body-perfect people but not mentioning that they spend four hours a day in the gym to look that way. We all eat healthily and exercise, except for Kaya, who eats McDonalds every day and never puts on weight. We sort of hate her for that!

Kaya: I can\'t keep up with all the rules you two have. There\'s no wheat, no dairy, and I\'m like, can\'t we all just go to Nandos?

Next Skins on Partying....

Skins: 24-Hour Party People?

Skins on partying:

Kaya: I\'d love to say our parties are as wild they are on-screen, but does anyone actually have parties like that? One of the Skins crew threw a fancy-dress house party for Halloween, though, and that was brilliant. He had horror movies on a huge projector and hired hundreds of balls to turn his spare room into a ball pool!

Kathryn: That was a great party. But, generally, we\'re more likely to go to gigs or round to each other\'s houses than go to the pub just to get bladdered. I like clubbing, though, somewhere with great music, like Fabric. Lily and I have totally opposite tastes in music. She literally likes everything that I hate, like Arctic Monkeys.

Lily: I don\'t! We both like Blondie and Madonna. You just hate indie music, which is mostly what I listen to.

Next Skins on Style....

Skins: 24-Hour Party People?

Skins on style:

Kathryn: Brick Lane (east London) is my first stop if I\'m looking for a cool new outfit. When I\'m in vintage shops, I convince myself that I have to buy something because it will be gone by tomorrow, whereas if I\'m in Topshop I can buy it online anytime. I love the high street but I recently wore a velvet dress from Topshop and my friend turned up wearing the exact same one, as well as two other girls in the club! I like vintage because when people ask where I got my shoes I can say something glamorous like, "Oh, I picked them up in a boutique in Berlin".

Kaya: I\'m a high street girl all the way, or I just live in my character Effy\'s clothes. I\'m wearing one of her dresses today. Lily gives me wardrobe envy.

Lily: Why? I only wear jeans and T-shirts!

Kaya: But I love that, it\'s cooler than being dolled up in a dress. I like wearing boys\' clothes, too, really over-sized and comfortable.

Next Skins on Scandals....

Skins: 24-Hour Party People?

skins on scandal:

Kathryn: We get a lot of rumours about who\'s dating who on the show. But it\'s weird to think about any of the boys in that way. Girls come up to me and say, "Oh Luke [who plays Freddie] is so hot, what\'s he like?" and I think, I dunno, he\'s just my mate Luke.

Kaya: I got linked to Nicholas Hoult when he was in Skins. I was 14 at the time and played his sister! For the record, I\'ve never been married to Nick Hoult. I did go out with Jack [who plays Cook] for a year and we were open about that in the press. Filming is an intense environment so it\'s natural that relationships happen. We had a good time and I loved him a lot. He was a great first love and we\'re still good mates, which is amazing considering most people hate each other when they split up. I was nervous about working with him after we split but it was amicable so we slipped back to being friends very easily.

Kathryn: I don\'t think anything that we do in our private lives would be nearly as shocking as what we get up to in Skins, so the newspapers wouldn\'t give a shit.

Next Skins on Sex....

Skins: 24-Hour Party People?

skins on sex:

Lily: Towards the end of the show, I started enjoying my sex scenes more. I thought, this won\'t last forever, so just go with it. My boyfriend Ben is a camera assistant on the show but it doesn\'t bother him as he\'s seen it all before. I don\'t like the thought of my parents watching my sex scenes, though, so we don\'t talk about it.

Kaya : It\'s weird because when you\'re doing a sex scene, it\'s the least sexy thing in the world. Then you watch it back and you\'re like, wow, I really look like I\'m having sex!

Lily: The crew are brilliant and the lighting people work wonders to make you look good naked.

Next Skins on Men....

Skins: 24-Hour Party People?

Skins on men:

Kathryn: My boyfriend Oli is a runner who worked on Skins before I did and we\'ve been together for a year. I\'d have to think twice about dating a guy who wasn\'t in the industry. I\'d question whether he was just asking me out because I play a lesbian on TV. I don\'t have a type looks-wise but all my exes have been funny, open-minded and ambitious. I can\'t stand men with no passion in life.

Lily: Ben and I have been together for a year. It helps that he understands my job, because other boyfriends might get pissed off with me working 12-hour days.

Kaya: I thank Lily for my boyfriend! Elliott [Tittensor from Shameless] was on the same table as us at the Comedy Awards last year and his was the seat next to Lily. I\'ve always thought he was hot, so Lily let me swap seats so I was sitting next to him. We got chatting and it went from there. He lives in Manchester, while I\'m in London, but we make it work. I\'m useless at going on dates. One guy took me to a bar once and I lasted half an hour before I had to ring my mum to get me out of there. I find it awkward and I don\'t know the rules. With Elliott, it was more natural.

The last question....Skins on Each Other....

Skins: 24-Hour Party People?

Skins on each other

Kathryn: Lily is the one I\'d go to for advice. We got close because we\'ve done a lot of full-on scenes together and helped each other to get through it. Lily knows me the best, so she can give goo,d non-biased advice. Kaya\'s really cool for having fun with, going out and having girlie chats. On the last day of filming, all the girls were together in the green room chatting and it was like <Loose Women> for a younger generation!

Kaya: Lily and I have a spooky amount in common. Before we knew each other, we got the same tattoo on our foot in the exact same shop when we were both 16. Lily has a flower on her left foot and I have three little flowers on my right. For boy advice, I\'d go to Meg [Kathryn\'s twin sister, who plays Katie]. We shared a flat during filming and would sit up for hours talking about boys. Her no-nonsense approach is hilarious.

Lily: The one who gets the most attention when we\'re out as group is definitely Luke. He\'s the funniest of the boys because he does the best impressions.

Kaya: He\'s a comedy genius. There have only been two times when Luke has made a joke and nobody laughed. He was like, "Oh my God, have I lost my touch?" His face just dropped and obviously then we ended up laughing.

Skins Series 4 started on E4 on Thursday 28 January