You’ve immortalised the wreckage of Hollywood with both glamour and grit. What draws you to the aesthetics of ruin — and where do you find beauty in what the world forgets or throws away?

That isn’t something I seek out or do by intention. It’s purely based on what I find visually and socially interesting at present and then the work ends up being a reaction. I think this is why I have an issue when work is released over a year after I’ve made it. My opinions and interests are fueled and shifted by whatever is currently going on around me at the time, so if it takes longer then I forget about the initial compulsion.

Julie Bullard, the fictional version of your childhood babysitter, feels like a private myth reimagined — and this time, with Martin Parr behind the camera. What was the impulse behind resurrecting her, and how did your theatrical vision meet his documentary eye? In a culture obsessed with nostalgia and reboots, was this your way of reclaiming a personal past?

Julie’s teenage aesthetic really shaped me, having this project in existence made me realise that it’s a pretty common thing to place your childhood babysitter on a pedestal. It’s just a time in a kid’s life where they get fascinated and fixated on things, so seeing someone older and (usually) cooler at a different stage in their life makes a kid obsessive with Attenborough-level observance. It was a pivotal part of my upbringing and for some reason felt important to single out and spotlight. Martin is an expert in casting his macro flash onto a particular theme or subject in order to spotlight it, so that, alongside the basic joy of watching him wander around, was one of the many reasons that he was the only one to capture it.