|
Part one Questions 1-8 ' A
New Beginning...'
1.JC: Can you tell us a little about yourself,
are you married, do you have children, where were you born?
I was born in Hertfordshire, in Hitchin. We lived in a little village
there until I was four then we moved to Redhill in Surrey where I spent
the rest of my growing up years. Then I left home at seventeen and went
to live in Richmond. That was when I went to study at the musical theatre
school. I'm not married but have been engaged for four years. My fiancé
works abroad so we'll organise the wedding until we're living in the
same country.
Kids? A couple of years time hopefully but I've still got a lot
of career things that I need to achieve before I'm ready for that. I
want to be a full time mum, so I feel the need to achieve a few more
of my dreams before then.
2. Have you always been an actress? You've
mentioned being in musicals. Do you consider yourself more a musician
or actress?
Well, I had a peculiar path really. At twelve I had an assessment
because I was doing so many things after school and I was rebelling
a bit. I didn't want to go to this academic school that I had been offered
a place at. They said; 'Send her to an arts educational school because
she'll get an all round vocational training there and a good academic
education.' They decided that I was a good actress who happened to be
able to dance. As it turned out I went to the arts educational school
and ended up doing a ballet course because the drama course didn't really
exist in the way that they had said.
I trained to do ballet for four years, although I've got completely
flat feet and which means that there's no way on earth I would ever
have been a professional ballet dancer. I also did a little bit of acting,
but no more than I would have done at any other school. Towards the
end of four years I started singing more prominently and then I finished
at sixteen and went straight onto a musical theatre course. Thinking
that I would get a nice combination of the three elements but it turned
out to be mainly dancing again. All the while this was going on I was
still saying 'I'm an actress. I want to act!' Then the singing took
over because that became much stronger.
My first job, luckily, was with Kenneth Branaghr and his renaissance
theatre company. I was understudying three main parts in Uncle Vanya.
Which was great classical theatre, Chekov. To me I felt justified, vindicated
for all the things I'd been saying. But if proved very difficult from
then on to get acting work because people in the business are lacking
in imagination. If they see that you've danced and that you sing they
assume that you can't act very well. I've had the curse of being a strong
all rounder and have been kind of waylayed by the kind of things that
I'm not all that interested in.
I love singing, I have lots of nice regular work and sing with
a lot of groups and that's a real privilege. I earn a living as a performer
but it has meant that I haven't been taken seriously as an actress and
that has been a constant frustration. It's always been the case that
when I have a little chance to show what I can do, with acting, I feel
like I'm in my element and I think; 'This is what I've been wanting
to do for so long.'
Doing something like the Tomorrow People is such a wonderful experience
for me. Doing any of the audio books is great. But the TP in particular
is good. Big Finish is one of the few people who really gave me a chance.
They recognised what I was good at. I had one tiny part in a Dr Who
and somebody picked up on it and thought I did well and that led to
somethig bigger and bigger until finally the Tomorrow People.
3. What other shows have you been in?
I had a good stretch in a lot of classical drama. Because I've
got quite an old fashioned look I tend to get cast in classical stuff,
in musicals as well as acting. I rarely get cast in modern roles. Mostly
Shakespeare and Chekov and things like that. I've done My Fair Lady
twice. I've done Romeo and Juliet twice. The Taming of the Shrew, Macbeth.
I just recently finished doing High Society. It was a wonderful experience
because I played the Grace Kelley part, which I wouldn't normally get
cast in, but it was a director that I'd worked with before. That was
a completely fulfilling job. I loved it in every way.
I sing with a big band called 'The Piccadilly Dance Orchestra'
at the moment. We play at the Savoy quite regularly. It is a 1940's
dance band. I also do some concerts with Sheridan Morley. He's a critic
first and foremost but he also tells anecdotes. He was Noel Cowards
protégé towards the end of Noel Coward's life and we do Coward concerts
where Sheridan talks about Coward's life. It's wonderful.
I was in a commercial. I wasn't wearing very much (laughs) a big
pair of pink pants. It's a little story where a girl peeks out of her
door to see if the post has arrived. She decides to risk it and runs
outside not wearing anything… (Both laugh) You've seen it hasn't you?
She ends up hiding in a cupboard and gets discovered by the man who
has come to read the meter. That was my claim to fame!
I've been very lucky and have had a very diverse career. I've always
tried to pick things that are challenging. I did a lot of understudying
and still get offered a lot. But I say no. I didn't come into acting
not to play the part. I have had years and years of incredible hardship
but it's bearing fruit now. No more than other actors, but occasionally
you really are on the breadline with not even enough money for food.
I've been there for years and finally, six or seven years ago, it suddenly
started to bear fruit. All the hard work that I put in and contacts…people
would ring me up and say 'I here you're good at this or that and do
you want to do it?' That comes from doing the hard slog.
4. Do you find working on audio cd's different
to plays/ TV/ theatre?
Yes. Because you can pull any faces that you want. And some strange
things do occur in the studio. If you watch people they are acting in
a way that they wouldn't act if they were on camera. I had a teacher
once in college who said something that has applied to a lot of things
I've done in my career. ' You can't lose truth from the voice.' I take
that to mean that as long as you know what your character is going through
and what their background it, you don't have to act it will come out
in your voice. As long as you know why they are there and why they are
saying it. I always trust that what I say will come out believable.
If you try too hard that's when it starts to sound contrived and it
doesn't work.
We laugh so much when we are recording. You do a bit of work then
go out into the green room and laugh for half an hour then go and do
the next scene. It's heaven! (Both laugh)
JC: I must say that you come across very
well as Elena. The fans all like the character. They warmed to her very
quickly. What they want to know now is a bit more about her background.
HG: Yes, I'm not sure they've thought it through in enormous detail
yet. The basics are certainly there and, with each script, new details
about her emerge. It's quite exciting discovering new things about her
with each episode and I'm sure she'll evolve even more as time goes
on.
JC: She stands up to John very well.
HG: Yes. I like that part (laughs) She's not scared…
JC: A woman of her time. Rather than being
like the characters back in the 70's, who were very different. Sammie
says the worse thing, and a reason why she left after the first series,
was that all her lines were 'Oh no John!' or 'Look out John!' The female
role was stereotypical and just accompanied the male lead. There was
no time for her to develop the character of Carol and give more to the
Tomorrow People.
HG: It would be fun and lovely to see more female characters. There
aren't many at the moment. There are in the next story actually. There
are a couple of strong women in it but not Tomorrow People.
5. What did you think when you first heard
the premise for the show?
HG: I thought it was exciting. It's always exciting on audio because
you can do absolutely anything. You don't need a massive budget. You
can create any huge fantastic imaginative story lines and make them
plausible. Where as you would have limitations if you were doing a TV
thing. What I love about audio is that when you listen back to the effects
that they've put on and the music and the atmosphere that they create
I think it's such an exciting medium. I've started buying audio books
myself. I just love creating my own images in my mind. I think it's
good for kids as well. For them to have a different medium to get into
and use their imaginations in a different way. You don't get many opportunities
to do radio plays there days. It's very difficult to get into so this
is a real privilege.
6. What do you think of Elena as a character?
HG: I think she's… Intelligent, I like the fact that she's feisty
and she stands up to John. And I like the slight flirtation there between
her and Paul. I don't think it's a big love affair potential at all.
I think there's just a little spark there. I've worked with a couple
of lads who were about ten years younger than me in my last theatre
job and I flirted outrageously with them. It was just fun and completely
harmless. I think the character of Elle is enjoying having that part
of having Paul on board. Plus she's been there longer than him and feels
quite superior. She's enjoying teaching him. She's fun to play and not
that dissimilar to me. (Laughs)
JC: How much of her is you and how much the
script?
HG: We don't have much say about what goes into the script. If
we come across a line that's not easy to say then we can adapt it. But
in general I don't have any input into what she says and how she reacts.
7. Had you seen the Tomorrow People before?
HG: I had. I remember that I loved it, but I was just a little bit
too young to remember why. I remember rushing home from school, and
loving the telepathy element of it and when I heard the theme tune it
brought back memories. But I can't remember any specifics about it at
all.
8. What is it like working for Big Finish?
HG: I absolutely love it. It's s group of people who are all like-minded,
intelligent, people with fantastic sense of humour. Every one is sincere,
everyone is genuine. I've been working in theatre for years and you
meet a lot of people who aren't sincere and who get what they can out
of you then forget you. Big Finish is faithful to the people that they
like and who work well for them. That is an exceptional atmosphere to
work in. I'm really thrilled to have met them.
JC: I've chatted to Jason and he comes across
as the ultimate businessman. He sees it as a serious thing.
HG: Yes but he's also a fan, of Dr. Who first and foremost. They
set it up as an amateur thing as they were all obsessed with Dr. Who.
And so it just happens that the combination of him being a fan and a
businessman is what has launched the whole thing. He's a genuine person.
JC: Very high praise… Do you think they are
going to make a success of the TP cd's?
HG: Oh yes. They are determined that it's going to go from strength
to strength and that the writing is going to improve. As it always does
when you become familiar with what works and what doesn't work as well
as the characters becoming more strongly defined. Hopefully there will
be people who were more into the Dr. Who that will say hey, here's another
cd perhaps we'll buy it. I'm looking forward to doing the next ones.
It's like a dream come true for me in a small way.
I had the first recording of the first episode on my 30th birthday.
For the first time in my life I had booked a cottage for me and ten
of my friends. I had saved up and booked it well in advance for a weekend
in Cornwall. Then the one day in the year that they had to record the
first episode was that Sunday. I went down and had a lovely Saturday
then had to fly up from Newqay to London to make it to the recording.
I called them up and said 'here I am in London' and my friends all sat
around the table and sang me happy birthday. Then when the cd arrived
with all our photos on the cover I thought; 'One day I'll show my children
and say that this was what I was doing on my 30th birthday.'
Back to Top
|
