Jessie Mei Li is squatting on top of a bookshelf in the loft of a converted church. I find the breakout star of Netflix’s cult fantasy series Shadow and Bone in this unusual position because she is having her photo taken – though I might not have recognised her without the camera pointing in her face.
The 27-year-old Li couldn’t look more different to her character, the show’s powerful protagonist Alina Starkov. Her primary focus is saving her world and all those in it from the devastating actions of a power-hungry villain (and Alina’s sometime romantic interest) known as the Darkling, played by Ben Barnes.
