In this episode of VICE Talks Film, host Hannah Ewens meets Sasha Lane, first time actor and breakout star of Andrea Arnold’s new film, American Honey.

Lane was plucked from obscurity by the British filmmaker on a beach in Florida while she was partying there with friends over Spring Break and cast as a lead in American Honey, a freeing exploration of American youth culture. Lane’s character is Star, a southern girl who leaves home to join a magazine sales crew, before falling in love with wildcard Jake, played by Shia LaBeouf. Trekking across the States in a van, drinking, smoking weed and scamming rich people, Star and the others learn about themselves outside of the confines of poverty or unhappiness they’re running from.

Here, the 21-year-old Texan describes her unusual fairy-tale origin story, what it was like working instinctively with the empathetic Fishtank director and how you can find light in the darkest places.

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