Cassie Ainsworth

Cassandra Ainsworth
Skins character
Hannah Murray as Cassie
First appearance	"Tony" (episode 1.01)
Last appearance	Pure (episode 7.04)
Created by	Bryan Elsley and Jamie Brittain
Portrayed by	Hannah Murray
Seasons	1-2, 7
Centric episode(s)	"Cassie" (episode 1.02) "Cassie" (episode 2.09) Skins Pure (episodes 7.03–4)
Information
Nickname(s)	Cassie, Cass, Cassandra
Occupation	Student Waitress Model
Family	Marcus Ainsworth (father) Margeritte Ainsworth (mother/deceased) Reuben Ainsworth (younger brother)
Significant other(s)	Sid Jenkins (boyfriend/soulmate ) Chris (best friend)(deceased)

Cassandra "Cassie" Ainsworth is a fictional character in the television series Skins, portrayed by Hannah Murray.

She's thin, she's blonde, she says "wow" a lot.

Cassie is depicted as being eccentric and suffering from several mental disorders — most notably, anorexia nervosa — and multiple issues, including low self-esteem, suicidal ideation, and drug addiction. Murray described her character as...

...very interesting because she has a lot of problems, and she's very troubled, and she's anorexic and completely lacking in self-esteem and self-belief, but along with that she's sort of quite smart. I think that she has quite a good reading on a lot of the other characters about what they're like and how they work and stuff, and I think she's a very clever girl, and she's also kind of silly and dreamy and quite fun at the same time as being a very tragic character.

The titular second episode of the first series and the penultimate episode of the second series focus on Cassie; the former focuses on her mental state and the latter focuses on her relationship with roommate Chris Miles (Joe Dempsie). The show's producers and writers described her centric episode in an interview with The Independent as being about "how she gets through her day without eating ... how she feels and what her tactics are", and campaigned to prevent any announcement of any counselling helplines during the episode's credits because they "didn't want a little preachy drama where everyone hugs at the end"; instead, the producers hoped that people would recognize their own faults in Cassie. One reviewer described Cassie as being "as pale as Hamlet's Ophelia and arguably twice as mad".

The viewer is reintroduced to Cassie five years after series two in Pure, in which she is shown to have changed in many ways. Where before she was bubbly, cheerful and unashamedly quirky, she is now a shadow of her former self, appearing tired and withdrawn, living in a shared flat in London and working as a waitress in a café to make ends meet. She avoids social contact with her co-workers and flatmates, and refuses to take drugs when offered them (as opposed to her affinity towards them in the past), and secludes herself in her room. There is (season 4 episode 2) a drawing which strongly resembles Cassie posted at the front of Sophia's room. This could be a joke made by the producers of the show.