0:00

Welcome, welcome, welcome. This is the

0:02

Distraction Pieces podcast episode 545. And

0:06

I'm not going to give a long intro here because

0:09

this one's been a long time coming. If

0:11

you're just tuning in, if

0:13

you've not heard the Rosie Marcell episode on

0:15

Wednesday, go back and listen to that or

0:17

listen in any order actually. In

0:19

that episode we discussed how

0:21

we recorded an episode back in 2019 and

0:25

we spoke about some really important stuff

0:27

but we couldn't release it for a

0:29

few different reasons. But

0:32

we're releasing it now and here it is. As

0:35

ever we're brought to you by speechdevelopmentrecords.com

0:38

where you can get all

0:40

your Christmas goods. patreon.com/scroobiestpip

0:43

yo and twitch.tv/scroobiestpip yo.

0:46

So how do patrons

0:48

just patreon.com/scroobiestpip. My apologies.

0:51

Check out Pip's Twitch clips on

0:53

Instagram and YouTube for

0:55

free. But let's get on with the episode. As I

0:57

said this was recorded way back in 2019. I

1:02

felt this conversation was really important. The

1:04

discussions on mental health, the

1:06

discussions on dogs. A

1:08

lot of things discussed here made it

1:10

feel like a genuine classic Distraction Pieces

1:13

episode and then we never got to

1:15

release it. But that's all changed now

1:17

so get comfortable and have

1:19

a listen. This is the lost

1:21

episode. Distraction Pieces podcast episode 545 with

1:23

Rosie Marcell. Right

1:47

and we're rolling. I'm here today with Rosie

1:50

Marcell. How are you? I'm very good. Very

1:52

good. How are you? I'm good. We've

1:54

just had to start recording because we were having too much

1:56

of a catch up just casually beforehand. So I was like

1:58

right we need to get Absolutely.

8:00

Yeah, which is a massive thing, but it's still every now

8:02

and then I'll mention that and someone will be like, Oh,

8:04

right. No, I just got my, my kids a

8:07

puppy from a breeder and things like

8:09

that. And again, it's that simple thing

8:11

of when there's so many dogs that

8:13

need adopting, there's no need to breed

8:15

breeders in general, even if they're certified,

8:17

I'm kind of against, but there's a

8:19

lot that aren't certified. And therefore, particularly

8:22

with again, partly the dawn of Instagram

8:24

because of cute dogs that then get

8:27

overbred and have really bad, bad health

8:29

issues. Yeah. So is that

8:31

something that you've always

8:34

been kind of passionate about? Because again, all of

8:36

your dogs, I mean,

8:38

I've tried to, you know, yeah, their

8:40

rescues of sorts. You know, Eric, Eric was the

8:42

product of a divorce, you know, so he needed

8:44

a home. So we had him, you know, Henry

8:46

was the run to the letter that nobody wants

8:48

because he had a broken tail and he was

8:50

a funny shape. So we had him. Yeah. The

8:52

Hebrews owner was dying of cancer and he needed

8:54

a new home. And so we gave him a

8:57

home. Subsequently, she didn't die and she went on to buy

8:59

two more dogs. So that's quite interesting. And

9:01

then, you know, Arthur is from Romania. He's

9:03

in the pap project and he was a

9:05

litter found in a plastic bag in the

9:07

woods behind the shelter. And

9:10

originally called Aramis, but couldn't leave him with that name

9:12

because it was the art of shave my dad used

9:14

to wear. And so

9:16

he actually became Arthur. Yeah. You

9:18

know, I'm a big believer in adopting. I

9:21

think breeding is about money. Yeah. I

9:23

think a lot of things come down to money these

9:25

days. I really, really do. You know, we have to

9:28

pay to get the dogs out of the shelter. You'd

9:30

think it would be free, but it's not. And I

9:32

just think it's very sad. And I think, you know,

9:34

we could be a little bit more like America, although

9:36

America does have, you know, kill shelters and things like

9:38

that. And they're, they're put to sleep policy is pretty

9:41

rife as well. I think they've banned selling

9:43

dogs in shops now or selling dogs

9:45

together. It's all about rehoming now. And

9:48

I think we could certainly follow suit

9:50

and also certainly have a tougher punishments

9:52

for animal abusers as well.

9:54

100%. And I think people

9:56

misinterpret rehome

9:59

dogs. or rescue dogs and

10:01

thinking that they're dangerous or more

10:04

likely to be dangerous

10:06

or attack in some way. In

10:08

many ways, it's kind of the opposite.

10:10

Because number one in general, most rescue places

10:13

will go through a lot of training and

10:15

talk you through all the problems.

10:17

Whereas a puppy, you've no idea. You've

10:20

not, but it's all gonna be down to how you nurture it.

10:23

And again, I kind of part of me

10:25

wishes that you had to get

10:27

a license to get a dog and things like

10:29

that. So because again, most of the

10:31

problems with dogs is the owners, not the dog.

10:33

All of the problems is the owners, not the

10:35

dogs. There are no bad dogs, there's only bad

10:37

owners. Yeah, and there's, I've known

10:40

a load of different staffies over the

10:42

years and Rotties and all of these

10:44

dogs that are seen as these dangerous

10:46

scary dogs. And then the ones I've

10:48

met have been the most adorable, friendly,

10:50

loving, cute dogs. They just happen to

10:52

be built. Yes, the way they are. Really

10:54

muffly in the way they are. And that means that

10:57

there's a lot of people who will say, well, they

10:59

should have muzzles, they should have this, they should have

11:01

that. No, the owner should know. How

11:03

to train. Should have a harness for them rather than a

11:05

lead and should know all the different things to be

11:08

able to actually control them rather than just

11:10

sort of sling them out in the world.

11:12

And then the dog gets the blame for,

11:15

yeah. It's always the humans. Dogs come to

11:17

you like babies do. You know, you're just, it's

11:19

about how you treat them and how you train

11:21

them and all that, all of that kind of

11:23

stuff. You know, there are no bad dogs, there

11:25

are only bad owners. It's really

11:27

easy to screw up a dog in a really

11:30

short amount of time. And then people panic and

11:32

they're like, I don't want it anymore, I don't want this hassle

11:34

anymore. And they hand them over. You

11:36

know, and it's a really sad fact,

11:38

but like Staffordshire Bull Terriers, they were

11:40

originally bred to look after children. They were called nanny

11:42

dogs. Yeah, they're nanny dogs, yeah, completely. Which I just

11:44

find fascinating. And now, you know, people use them

11:46

for fighting. It's crazy, isn't it? Again,

11:49

all of the ones I've met have been

11:51

the biggest idiots you've ever met of a

11:53

dog. They're such stupid little animals. They're so

11:55

soppy and loving. It's like, this is

11:57

meant to be a scary. This is what I grew up knowing.

12:00

is one of the scariest. Yeah, stay away

12:02

from that dog. Vitedia is scary. Yeah. Anyway,

12:06

let's talk about acting as well, rather

12:08

than just a whole podcast about dogs.

12:10

Another thing that we were discussing before

12:13

we got started was the constant appearance

12:15

in your life or the constant presence

12:17

in your life of acting if you

12:19

are an actor, even when you're not

12:21

acting, if that makes sense. Because as

12:24

you were saying, particularly if you've been in a

12:26

series for a long time, even if you've got

12:29

a day off, you might not have a day

12:31

off. You might find and again often quite

12:34

late because if shooting wraps late

12:36

in the evening and

12:38

they've overrun or something else, you might find out

12:41

late that night that you're in tomorrow or you're

12:43

not in tomorrow and you thought you were. How

12:46

do you find that as a person

12:49

with a family and with animals and with

12:51

all sorts of other stuff? How do you

12:53

find that? How do you do this? I

12:55

guess at this stage, we'll go through the

12:57

rest of your life, but at this stage,

12:59

it seems like the best

13:01

point to yeah, it's really hard.

13:03

I mean, there really isn't any

13:05

balance for someone who's quite OCD,

13:08

and loves the list and loves to

13:10

plan. It's really, really, really difficult. The

13:12

job I do is 52 weeks a year, you're

13:17

paid to be there every single day. It's

13:19

six o'clock in the morning till seven in

13:21

the evening and then as you know, you're

13:24

learning lines for the next day. So it's

13:26

a really, really, I think people don't actually

13:28

realize what a big job it is and

13:30

how long the hours are. They sort of

13:32

tend to focus on what you get paid or what's

13:34

in the news that what you get paid and they

13:36

go that's outrageous. And then when you tell them you're

13:38

doing 80 to 90 hours a week, all

13:41

of a sudden it makes sense. But you

13:43

know, like today, for instance, having today off,

13:45

I've been up since six, I've walked three

13:47

dogs for an hour, then one dog for

13:49

half an hour because he's got a slip

13:51

disk. You know, I thought my house

13:53

is a tip. So I quickly cleaned the house. I

13:55

quickly washed my hair. I thought he's going to want

13:57

to have a picture. So I better wax and make.

14:00

up on. You know, and the

14:02

rest of my day is planned out. Yeah, you

14:04

know, I've got to see the doctor this afternoon, I've

14:06

got to go and get a dentist appointment. And then

14:09

but then you know, I don't have

14:11

a dog walker today. And then there was a possibility

14:13

the other night that I was going to be working

14:15

tonight. I was like, No, I don't want to work

14:17

today. I've got this plan, this plan, and this plan.

14:19

And it's chaos. It's absolute

14:22

chaos. It's completely handing over any kind

14:24

of scheduling or routine

14:26

that you might want to have and go

14:28

in here you go. Mess

14:31

that up however you wish. Yes. And

14:33

it happens frequently. And it's

14:35

really hard, I suppose as well when you have

14:37

a kid because she's nearly five

14:39

now. And when she was a baby, you

14:42

know, she didn't notice though, I wasn't there,

14:44

or I wasn't putting her to bed or

14:46

whatever. Now she really notices,

14:48

you know, and she can talk about how she knows that your

14:50

mommy, you're never there. And you never take me to school

14:52

and you never bring me up from school and things like

14:54

that. And I think that's

14:56

the reason I sort of comes the decision

14:58

to exclusively tell you that I decided to

15:01

leave Holby. Right. So yeah, I just

15:03

signed my last six month contract and I'm going

15:05

to leave in May and it's time for me

15:08

to spend some time with her. Oh, wow. That's

15:10

huge. And again, that's been a huge part of

15:12

your life for such a long time. So that

15:14

must have been a big, it was 14 years.

15:17

I've been there. Yeah. And I think

15:19

it's a culmination of things, you know,

15:21

had a restressful storyline recently that I

15:23

wasn't particularly keen on doing, but

15:26

I did in the end. And it was sort of the nail in the

15:28

coffin for me, because I think, you know, you know,

15:30

this as an act, you give so much

15:32

of yourself to the job. And

15:34

I think we're all guilty of giving far too

15:37

much and having nothing left. And that's what I've

15:39

been doing. Yeah. And it's time to

15:41

be a housewife. There you go.

15:43

I mean, it feels

15:45

like a perfect point to

15:47

make that decision as well. Not only

15:50

because of the toll it will

15:52

have taken a view, but the storyline itself

15:55

has been, you know, a really

15:57

praised one and an important one in the

15:59

press. what

18:00

I was doing and I felt

18:02

for weeks that I wasn't right and something

18:04

was wrong and I felt like something was

18:06

coming and I didn't know what was coming

18:08

and then I just had this meltdown on

18:10

set and I was subsequently sort

18:12

of walked off set by a lovely director called

18:14

Steve Ritt who said just go and get some

18:16

help and I did. I went to my doctor

18:19

and he signed me off with stress and

18:21

I was supposed to start therapy like two days

18:23

later but that night I walked out the

18:26

house in my pajamas without my

18:28

phone, without any shoes, didn't know where I was

18:30

going. Thankfully ended up at a friend's house a few

18:32

miles away who then called my partner to come

18:34

and get me and it turns out I

18:36

was suffering from depersonalization and depression and

18:39

so having been through that and sort

18:41

of coming out the other side and

18:44

doing sort of intensive therapy and you

18:46

know Holby knew about that because I

18:48

was obviously off from work. All the producers knew

18:50

about it. Abruptly as well. And abruptly you know

18:52

they had to write me out and it was

18:55

very important to me that they knew that

18:57

and then all of a sudden three years

18:59

later they sit me down in office and

19:01

they say so Jack's gonna have a nervous

19:03

breakdown and I literally just went what?

19:06

Excuse me. What? Why?

19:08

And they were like well

19:10

we think it's important you know and she's been going to

19:12

all of this stuff and I was like

19:14

but you know that I've been through this so

19:17

why would you choose the person who's been really

19:19

sort of out there shouting about mental health the

19:21

last three years and has mental health issues. Why

19:23

would you choose me to do this when

19:26

you know that this is an issue for me? And

19:28

they didn't really have an answer and that really bothered

19:30

me and it made me very angry. Yeah.

19:33

And I sort of went out of that room

19:35

and called my agent instantly and just said I'm

19:37

not doing this. I think this is too much

19:39

to ask of me. I don't want to put

19:41

myself in that situation again and it got pretty

19:43

heated actually. It got to a point where I

19:45

nearly quit. Right. Wow. And especially when they told

19:47

me that I was going to be sectioned and

19:50

my mother's been sectioned many years ago and I know

19:52

how hard and awful that is.

19:55

And in the end it was Kate

19:57

Oates who called me up. She's the new head

19:59

of Continuing drama. That's the BBC. She called

20:01

me up and she was the first

20:03

person to actually go, I had no

20:05

idea. I'm really sorry. If you don't

20:08

want to do this storyline, we will

20:10

absolutely pull it. And I sort

20:12

of talked through all the reasons why I didn't want to

20:14

do it, etc, etc. And she was pretty amazing. She used

20:16

to be a Samaritan. I don't know if anybody knows that,

20:18

but I did. So she was kind of talking me down

20:20

in some ways. And she, you know,

20:22

she gave me the options. She said, look, I

20:25

get all the reasons that you don't want to

20:27

do it. We can completely pull the whole storyline.

20:30

We can make the storyline much

20:32

less than it is so that you don't

20:34

put yourself in any danger. Or you can

20:36

take a look at all the scripts in advance. And we do

20:38

it the way you want to do it. And

20:40

you know, you'll get your weekly therapy sessions that

20:43

we will pay for, which they did, because obviously

20:45

I needed it at that point. And

20:47

she gave me a couple of days to think about it.

20:49

And I was a no up until about 10 minutes before

20:51

the next conversation with her. And then I decided that I'd

20:53

do it. And the reasons

20:55

I decided to do it was because I'm

20:57

a woman who has a very impactful job

20:59

in some ways to a lot of people

21:02

and a lot of have a voice that

21:04

I can use. And it's a

21:07

very hard job. It's very long hours.

21:09

And I wanted to go out there

21:11

and I wanted to show women and

21:13

men as well that this can happen

21:15

to the strongest people. And

21:17

it's very hard to be a wife

21:20

and a mother, and to bring

21:22

money home and do all of those things and

21:24

not have anything left for yourself. And

21:26

it can you know, it can affect your mental

21:29

health. And I thought, well, if this reaches some

21:31

people, and if this does some good, then is

21:33

it worth doing? Yeah. And it was

21:35

in the end. And it was

21:37

really, really bittersweet for me, because I

21:39

did have to go to therapy every week. It

21:41

was such importance that I went

21:43

and I had those sessions to talk myself

21:46

down out of what I was doing. And

21:48

then to see the episode go out last

21:50

Tuesday night. And apparently we trended

21:52

number one on Twitter for something

21:54

like six hours or something. I mean, I don't

21:56

know anything about Twitter. So apparently that's good. But you

21:58

know, I have no idea. Yeah, and

22:01

the BBC Commissioner sent me an email and Kay

22:04

Oates sent me an email I've got the

22:06

most amazing messages from people and probably about a

22:08

thousand messages on Instagram And

22:10

I sort of dipped into them because you can't

22:12

read them all and they were all from people

22:14

saying I'm gonna go and get help And you

22:16

know, I watched your stuff tonight And it made

22:19

me realize that I've been ignoring how I'm feeling

22:21

and in been ignoring what I'm Going

22:23

through and thank you for being so

22:26

strong and getting out there and doing it

22:28

Even though you didn't want to and that makes

22:30

it worth it. Yeah me, you know, so

22:32

yeah again It's

22:34

horribly bittersweet because I don't want to say I love

22:36

doing it and I'm really glad I did it Because

22:39

I didn't yeah love doing it, but

22:41

I'm glad I did it for the people that

22:43

it will help It's

22:45

a really interesting thing that I think it's over

22:49

Looked a lot, but there's certainly a

22:51

certain area of society who will be

22:53

able to be reached through drama Who

22:56

wouldn't be reached through documentaries or through

22:58

if you wrote an amazing article about?

23:02

What you've been through personally or even if

23:04

you did a documentary about what you've been

23:06

through person There's certain people who would go

23:09

unless that's not my kind of

23:11

thing, but we'll watch a drama on us The subject

23:13

is why I think a lot of the the

23:16

great true life stories The

23:19

what was when they see us

23:21

I've recently on Netflix again They've

23:23

been documentaries about that but that

23:25

could be in dramatize reached

23:27

that many more people and I think it's

23:29

a similar thing here and as horrible as

23:31

it was for you to go through it

23:35

Will have reached people that couldn't have been reached

23:37

by you doing pieces about mental health and doing

23:39

all these different things that So many of us

23:41

try and do and try and get out there

23:43

that they are things that will be Scroll

23:46

past as they can. Yes, whereas a

23:48

storyline in something that they're Invested

23:50

in and watch week in week out and

23:52

I want to scroll past they have to

23:54

watch and take it in and accept anything

23:57

kind of the reasons

24:00

that can have a bigger impact than people

24:02

might realise when they're writing it or

24:04

making it or people who don't watch

24:06

that particular show might realise, might not

24:08

realise if you know what I mean.

24:10

So yeah, I think that's an amazing

24:12

thing. Yeah, it's the silent thing, isn't

24:14

it? I think again, it's the reason people

24:16

don't, it's not got enough attention because it's

24:18

the silent, it's a silent killer,

24:21

it's a silent problem. You know, people

24:23

just don't understand it. And

24:25

again, there's so much, as a female

24:27

British character, there's so many reasons

24:30

it's important to address that because

24:32

for a long time, women were

24:35

told to write all their trials in a diary

24:37

and never let anyone see it and have a

24:39

lock on your diary and it's hidden away. All

24:41

your writing, all that kind of, it's all this

24:43

personal hidden thing. So there's that to get over.

24:45

And then there's the British specifically.

24:49

We don't complain things to get over.

24:51

So there's two big hurdles there, which

24:54

makes it that the right character and

24:56

you the right person to kind of

24:58

have told that story. But again, something

25:00

that people overlook as

25:02

acting has become content and

25:04

entertainment more than are, which

25:07

again, I think is a shame, but

25:09

that's how it's viewed so much. Because

25:11

we have so much of it, you

25:13

take for granted what may go into

25:15

it. Absolutely. Again, particularly like me and

25:17

Brett Goldstein, who does a great podcast

25:19

as well. He always talks about how

25:21

he never likes to talk negatively about

25:23

a film. Because even if he watches

25:25

it and hates it, he knows how

25:27

much work I went into that and

25:29

no one was planning on because he's

25:31

been there. He's like, oh, that's and

25:34

because as he will admit, he's been in some

25:36

bad films. And he's gone, well, we all

25:38

worked really hard on that. And it's

25:41

really bad. That wasn't expected. So I

25:44

think they're not realizing the art side

25:46

of it. It's weird timing because I

25:48

saw Honey Boy last night. Oh my gosh, I

25:50

really want to see that it blew me away.

25:53

And it's about that. It's written by

25:55

Shia LaBeouf. And you realize at the end that it's

25:58

essentially the story of this fuck-up

26:00

childhood that made him such a good actor.

26:02

And there's a point where there is some

26:05

therapy there where he's saying, you can't fix

26:07

me because I won't be good at my

26:09

job anymore. And it is that weird thing

26:11

of, one of the most

26:14

emotional and amazing performances are because

26:16

of some really tough things in

26:18

the past. And that really rings

26:21

true with that Holby storyline is

26:25

the brave choice that you took to take on, because again,

26:28

it would also have been fine if

26:31

you had said no, because well, your

26:33

real life is more important than any

26:35

of that. But the choice of going

26:37

through that, it then made you the

26:40

perfect person to play that storyline because

26:42

you had so much that you could

26:44

tap into and draw upon, I guess. But again,

26:46

that doesn't mean it's taking you back to that

26:49

place. It's not just turn up, do

26:52

your thing and cut. And all right, guys, I'll see

26:54

you all tomorrow. No, no. That

26:57

was fun. Definitely not. It was a good 20

26:59

minutes after that scene where I was finally able

27:01

to sort of pull myself off the floor. Yeah,

27:04

yeah. And again, it's

27:07

what gets those amazing performances. Yeah, I guess that

27:09

was kind of the point there. It's easy to

27:11

watch that. And I think that

27:13

we've all filmed on TV these days. It's so

27:15

easy for us to watch it and move on.

27:17

I really enjoyed when Gaspenau

27:21

was doing interviews after Irreversible. And

27:23

it got a lot of stick

27:25

because there's a really uncomfortable and

27:27

unpleasant and unflinching, a

27:29

rape scene in it. And

27:31

people were saying it's horrific to watch. It's

27:34

rape. Yeah, it's

27:36

basically. It should be horrific to watch. Right, you

27:38

meant to, I don't want you just continue

27:40

to eat your popcorn again. All

27:43

right, I wonder how they're gonna get revenge because

27:45

it's where everyone's like, no, it should be horrific.

27:47

And it was put

27:49

perfectly. And that can, again, it's a

27:51

fine line. Yeah. And kind of grief

27:53

porn or any of these other things

27:56

is a weird one, but yeah,

27:59

it's exactly. It's meant to have

28:01

these impacts and it feels like that, particularly

28:03

from the reaction online that storyline had

28:06

that impact and caught people off guard

28:08

a little bit. So yeah, it's an

28:10

amazing one. Well, let's rewind

28:13

that and kind of, because as

28:15

you said, you've been, I mean, you've been in Holby

28:17

for 14 or 15 years. 14

28:19

years. I'm on my 14th year.

28:23

And you've been acting pretty

28:25

much your whole life. So what was kind

28:27

of the starting point in that? Both your

28:29

parents were in the industry in one way

28:31

or another, right? Yes. So my dad was

28:34

a director and my mom was an

28:36

actress. Yes. And my mom never

28:38

did a huge amount of work. My

28:41

dad was sort of, you know, directing weird, crazy 80s

28:43

films like Hawke the Slayer and things like that, and

28:45

then sort of went on to do, you know, the

28:47

bills and all that sort of stuff. Cat's

28:49

Eyes, great series like that. And I

28:52

think, you know, mom was a housewife and it

28:54

just seemed like a natural thing for her to

28:56

kind of push us into acting. And it certainly

28:59

was, I don't remember having a choice. Yeah. And

29:01

I know that all three of us did it for a

29:03

certain period of time. And she was our chaperone.

29:06

So yes, since three. So three, 39

29:08

years. Yeah.

29:11

Where's my OBE? Yeah. So yeah, it's

29:13

a really, really long, long, long, long

29:16

time. Yeah. But again, the weird part

29:18

there is it's, I guess it's all you've

29:20

ever known as well. Yeah. Because from such

29:22

an early age, it not being an option.

29:24

It's just, well, this is, this is what

29:26

I do. And my life is, and this

29:28

is what I do when I draw from

29:30

these. Yeah. I go out there and perform.

29:33

Was it exciting at first or was it?

29:35

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think

29:37

one of the first jobs I did when I was

29:39

about three was play a fairy at the National Theatre

29:42

for Gavin Miller and a Midsummer Night's Dream. And, you

29:44

know, no three year old is going to be like,

29:46

I don't want to wear fairy wings and prance

29:48

about on a stage. So I remember all

29:50

of that stuff being really, really fun,

29:52

you know, and doing the Bergeracs and

29:54

weather in the streets and what the

29:57

dickens and working with amazing people like

29:59

Joanna Lumley. Ben Cross

30:01

and people like that. And, you

30:03

know, not going to school and

30:06

going to a set and dressing up

30:08

and getting gifts and things like that and

30:10

doing stuff like that was really fun. And

30:12

getting praise. Again, it's something that I talk

30:14

about on the podcast a lot because I

30:16

always remember really early episode

30:18

when I had Riz Ahmed on, he said he

30:20

did a play at school and it was just

30:23

another thing at work. And then he got an

30:25

email of one person to say it was good.

30:27

And he realized that at that point as a

30:29

kid, he wasn't told he was good much. You

30:32

know, he didn't get loads of people always saying, Oh,

30:34

you're wonderful. Someone told him he was

30:36

good in that one play and it's changed his whole

30:38

career. Because he's like, all right, I want more of

30:40

that. I want people to tell me this more often.

30:43

It's a rewarding thing, particularly

30:46

for a young mind. So yeah, I can completely

30:48

see how and the kid on set is always

30:50

going to be the one that people are like,

30:52

Oh, isn't she wonderful. I get to

30:54

be that person. I go on there and everyone adores me. Yeah. So

30:57

I've got that horrible stigma and I believe in that stigma, you know, I'm

31:00

a middle child. I'll get no attention. So this is about me. No, I

31:02

mean, I just loved it. I just remember just having a great time. Shiree

31:05

Shiree, one of the coppers. She played Adrian, right? Oh, wow. And

31:07

all the rest of the film is about the best. And I think that's a

31:10

great thing. I think that's a great thing. I think that's a great thing. I

31:12

mean, I just loved it. I just remember just having a great time. Shiree

31:15

Shiree Shiree, one of the coppers. She played Adrian, right? Oh, wow.

31:17

In all the Rocky films. Yes. And

31:21

I played an alien and we shot in Canada for

31:24

two months. What age was that roughly? I was eight.

31:26

I was eight and it was incredible. And

31:29

I was like, Oh, wow. And I was like, Oh, wow. And I was

31:31

like, Oh, wow. And

31:33

it was incredible. just us having

31:35

fun. bow on it. at

31:39

the Sun Silly 80s film. And we'd like play baseball games against them. And

31:41

we all had t-shirts and hats made in court. And we had a lot

31:43

of fun. And we were like, Oh, wow. And we were like, Oh, wow.

31:45

And we were like, Oh, wow. And we were like, Oh, wow. And we

31:47

were like, Oh, wow. And we were like, Oh, wow. And we were like,

31:49

Oh, wow. It

32:01

was like working on a

32:03

film as well that had a really good budget and

32:05

things like that. It was really interesting at that

32:07

age too. Yeah. I've been

32:09

putting on stuff actually since I was

32:11

three. Yeah, constant, right? But obviously

32:14

having to go to school and doing GCSEs and

32:16

trying to find something to fall back on that

32:18

I was good at as well was pretty

32:20

tough. How were you at school in

32:23

study rather than performance? Not

32:26

good. No. I mean, I was very

32:28

good at art. I was good with

32:30

English. A lot of everybody in my family is pretty

32:32

erudite. I mean, look at my sister for

32:34

God's sake. Previous guest, Kelly Marcel. Yeah,

32:38

overachiever of the family. And

32:41

she's terribly well-read and well-written and everything.

32:46

And so we've always had that. My mother's a

32:48

very intelligent person. My father's very clever as well.

32:51

But no, not good at school. Didn't

32:54

have a lot of friends because I was apparently up my own

32:56

ass because I was good at school. I

32:58

was constantly not there and sure I was wonderful

33:01

and all of that stuff, which was not true

33:03

at all. It's a fascinating one. How

33:05

often do you hear that? I remember on

33:08

hearing on Vicki

33:10

McClure on on the How to Fail

33:12

podcast talking about because again, I assume

33:15

anyone who's a successful actor as a child, they're going

33:17

to be the cool kid at school. But

33:20

that seems to really be the case.

33:22

And so as Zari Ashton's book is

33:24

amazing and it addresses that,

33:26

that she was a complete outcast

33:29

because she was on TV.

33:31

And it's a weird one. But

33:33

also it's fascinating hearing there,

33:35

the becoming articulate and

33:37

well-read through being around articulate and

33:40

well-read people rather than through the

33:42

school system. I've got a lot

33:44

of issues with our school system

33:46

and how so much of it

33:48

is memory based rather than

33:51

education based and things like that. And

33:53

that's a great example because both you

33:56

and Kelly, the most articulate people

33:58

I talk to and. and

34:01

all sorts of things. And it's like, to hear

34:03

you didn't do great in school is

34:06

fascinating because it's like, right, so what's the importance

34:09

of that shift when if you're around people who

34:11

are talking and growing your

34:13

brain in a way that can't be

34:15

marked on a list and say you're

34:18

this level, then that's the important part.

34:20

Absolutely. You know, you're in rooms with very grown up

34:22

people and you have responsibility at a very, very young

34:24

age and you learn very quickly and you grow up

34:26

very quickly as well, which is kind of the sad

34:29

part of it, but you have to learn to hold

34:31

your own in a room, pretty

34:33

early on. And while

34:35

that stands you very well when you're

34:37

in a classroom of other 12 year olds, you

34:40

know, and you're the brave one and the one

34:42

who can stand up and go, I know, and

34:44

have ideas and it

34:46

doesn't stand you well as you know,

34:49

with friendships and with actual GCSE. I

34:51

got one GCSE. Wow. You

34:53

know, that's it. Yeah. And then I

34:56

worked hard and I went to college and I,

34:58

you know, I retook and I got A levels

35:00

and things like that. And all the while, if

35:02

a job came up, I'd be going for that

35:04

job. The acting always

35:06

came first because it was a

35:08

way of earning money. I did

35:10

enjoy doing it. I don't think I'm similar

35:13

to other actors in that it's what drives

35:15

me and it's what I live for. That's

35:18

not the case for me at all. I

35:20

enjoy what I do and I love what I do and

35:23

that's great, but it's not, or never has been

35:25

the be all and end all for me. It's

35:28

fascinating to think of, I mean,

35:30

we started off kind of talking about

35:33

life now, how you have to draw

35:35

up everything in the role comes up, but it's

35:38

fascinating to think of that in school years

35:40

because of course you're not going to be

35:42

able to make many friends or

35:45

maintain friendships because at

35:47

the drop of a hat, you're in Canada. Yeah. Doing

35:50

a film and you're missing

35:53

Claire's birthday and all

35:55

these other things. And again,

35:57

there will always be that jealousy. as

36:00

if you're thinking you're not there because you're better

36:02

than these people or whatever else. No,

36:04

I've got work. But as kids,

36:07

you can't comprehend someone saying I've

36:09

got work with kids. Absolutely. Work

36:12

isn't a thing for kids. It's not

36:14

something that we understand yet. So having

36:16

that from such an early age, that's

36:18

such an unusual and unique juxtaposition, I

36:20

guess. Yeah, absolutely. So one

36:22

of the things on my list, I wrote

36:25

three exclamation marks and big question marks because

36:27

as I mentioned earlier before we got rolling,

36:30

it hadn't twigged, but press gang. How

36:32

was that to be part of? Oh,

36:34

God, it was so good. Because I remember that

36:36

as watching that

36:38

and it being so exciting. And

36:41

Dexter Fletcher again, and another

36:44

previous guest, he's in both of

36:46

the ones I looked to, but Bugsy, Meline

36:48

and press gang were the two things

36:50

that his kids went, I know, I

36:53

know. That's people like us. That's

36:55

not these growing up actors or

36:58

cartoons. It's us and

37:00

our generation. What was fascinating as

37:02

well, I talked about press gang the other day and hadn't

37:04

talked about it in years. And I was good

37:06

because I was in Romania with this film crew and one of

37:08

the guys was about 37, 38. And for some reason I said,

37:11

I mentioned press

37:14

gang and he went, what's that? And I was just like, oh,

37:17

it's like an audible gasp. That only sort

37:19

of a such a small period of three or four

37:22

years and people don't know what press gang is. And

37:24

it was groundbreaking. It was visceral

37:28

and it was intelligent and it was about

37:30

this school paper and it was addressing issues

37:32

that we hadn't talked about on telly and

37:34

it was kids talking about it. And

37:37

to be involved in that as this

37:39

kind of naughty school girl, if I

37:41

say that now, it's fine.

37:44

But as a young girl

37:46

who got to play tricks

37:48

on everybody and work with Paul and

37:50

people like that, it was such

37:52

a great job. And we were

37:54

at Pine with Studios doing it, Memphis Bell

37:56

was shooting there. So people like Eric Stoltz

37:59

walking about. It was just

38:02

probably the time of my life actually working

38:04

on Press Game because every episode we

38:06

were doing something stupid, every

38:08

episode we were doing something fun

38:10

as his lackeys. You know,

38:12

I've got pictures of me dressed up as a giant turtle. That's

38:16

what I think is great about it

38:18

because again at that point anything the

38:20

kids were in, they were playing quite

38:22

straight playing school children. And

38:25

although you were school children and if you

38:27

weren't straight playing school children because it was

38:29

more than just a student magazine

38:31

or wherever it was. So

38:34

much bigger and so much grander and

38:36

so many bizarre situations to get in

38:38

that, yeah, I

38:41

hadn't seen that before. Again, you'd always

38:43

had your Grange heels and your stuff like

38:46

that, but that was, well, that's school.

38:48

That's what we were at. That's so

38:50

familiar. Yeah. So yeah, that

38:52

must have been an amazing one. And everybody was amazing

38:54

as well. There wasn't like, you know, you often go

38:56

onto a job and there's sort of this one bad

38:58

egg. There's always one bad egg.

39:00

But on that, I just don't remember anybody not

39:03

just having the best time of their lives. You

39:05

know, and Dexter was wonderful and Julia was wonderful

39:07

and everybody was just welcoming

39:09

and lovely and sweet. And it was

39:11

just, it was one of those

39:13

jobs and they're very, very rare where you look

39:16

forward to going to work, you know, and you

39:18

look forward to what you're shooting that day and

39:20

you go home with a big smile on your

39:22

face. Yeah. And that's what was great

39:24

about Press Gang. I love it. I love

39:26

it. So, I mean, again, we've discussed

39:29

the constantness of working in acting, of

39:31

it being this constant thing. Having

39:34

started at such a young age is

39:36

kind of telling that the only real

39:38

time off you've had over your career

39:40

has been for health issues.

39:42

Yeah. So, so kind of how's that

39:45

been to kind of, because it has

39:47

been stopped starting that way. It's

39:49

actually a long career, but there's been a few different

39:51

points along the way that you've had to stop for

39:53

extended periods. So how's that been for you

39:57

in having to have those things that pull

39:59

you away from. and put you back and

40:01

pull you away and put you back. It's

40:03

frustrating. There aren't a kind

40:05

of, I'm choosing to have a break from this

40:07

now. It'd be different if it was like, oh,

40:09

I took a couple of years off because this

40:11

happened, or I did this or did that. It's

40:13

like, no. It's frustrating. Yeah. I

40:15

think, you know, health problems obviously is not

40:18

something any of us can control, you know,

40:20

and I had a really amazing career up

40:22

until that point as well. You know, I'd

40:24

never ever stopped working. It was absolutely

40:27

brilliant. And

40:29

to suddenly get sick and sick

40:31

for no reason with no sort of warning

40:33

is frightening and frustrating and,

40:35

you know, blew the bank balance.

40:37

Anything I'd ever saved was gone,

40:39

you know, and that's hard. It's

40:41

a hard thing to deal with, you know, because

40:44

you can't really support yourself or anything like that

40:46

as well. So, you know, I think it's very

40:48

difficult for anybody who gets sick in any

40:50

industry, not just the acting industry, to

40:53

lose your, you lose your sense

40:55

of being and your sense of self-worth.

40:57

And, you know, I remember being on

40:59

disability for a couple of years and

41:01

to get that check

41:03

was, they made it

41:05

so difficult. It's difficult,

41:08

you know, to be someone who's on disability. You're

41:10

looked at like you're a piece of rubbish.

41:13

Yeah. And more and more so in

41:15

recent years, with so much

41:17

going on in the government, it became in this harder

41:19

thing. And again, there was a period, I think, when

41:22

there was the media propaganda

41:24

of benefit cheats and all this kind

41:26

of thing, that then just it made

41:28

the general public okay with how hard

41:31

it is for people who need these

41:33

things. It's like, yeah, well, we need

41:35

to, we don't want these fictional people

41:37

scamming all these men. It's like, no,

41:39

it's people who need the support and

41:41

you're making it, humiliating

41:43

and challenging and

41:45

horrible in any way. It ruins

41:47

you, you know, and it's so debilitating

41:49

and it's so bad for your mind and

41:51

so bad for your body. And you just

41:54

feel, you know, you

41:56

feel terrible and it's really, really hard to,

41:58

you know, sort of get help. It's interesting,

42:01

and it's a funny thing to sort of throw

42:03

it to. But when I post about the dogs

42:05

in Romania, I had a lot of people say to me, what

42:07

about dogs in England? You shouldn't be promoting dogs

42:09

in Romania. And I never respond

42:11

to anybody on Instagram. But I put, oh,

42:13

what? Remaining dogs coming over here and stealing

42:15

our jobs. And

42:17

that's how you're sort of similarly looked

42:20

at when you're an ill person who

42:22

needs money from the government for you

42:24

to survive. And I've always been, you

42:26

know this from me and Kelly

42:28

and Luke, you know, we're very

42:31

independent people. We have, although

42:33

we've had, you know, a father figure

42:35

throughout her life and a mother figure up to a certain

42:37

point until she decided to leave,

42:40

which was obviously the best thing for her, we

42:42

have grown up extremely strong,

42:44

independent people. And

42:46

to my own detriment sometimes, as well, you know, because

42:48

I'm incredibly good at putting walls up. But

42:51

to be such a strong person through your entire

42:53

life, to be so

42:55

sick to the point of nearly losing your

42:57

life, you just felt

43:00

like such a weak human being. And

43:02

it's just, and it's really, really hard.

43:04

So most of my spare time now

43:06

is spent trying to stay healthy. Yeah.

43:08

You know. Yeah. I mean,

43:10

there's a couple of interesting things there

43:13

of the naturally putting walls

43:15

up. And I think that, you

43:17

know, that can be a family

43:19

thing at times. Not

43:21

specific to your family. No, anybody.

43:24

In general, if you've had such

43:27

a unique life in that way, again,

43:30

I talk a lot about how the weird

43:32

intensiveness of friendships on set that

43:34

are then over, that they're gone, and you invest

43:36

yourself and then bear on to the next role

43:39

and you've not got a next role. I've lost

43:41

that many things that we were really close to.

43:44

And fitness. So, I

43:46

mean, how have you found all that in recent

43:48

years in having, you

43:50

know, a partner and a life? And

43:53

the reason it came to mind is

43:55

he's in fitness. He is. That's

43:57

kind of handy. It means that there's that extra,

43:59

that someone helping you along. Because I think that

44:01

on fitness a lot, for some people, for me,

44:03

it's very much I need to get my mind

44:06

in place. And I've not been one that I'd

44:08

rather work out alone than with other people and

44:10

so on and so forth. But also, I'm also

44:12

aware that it's also quite common and quite natural

44:14

that if you've got someone else kind of going,

44:17

let's keep this up and keep that. So it's

44:19

like helping your relationship as

44:21

part of life, rather than you both being

44:23

again, rather than like, I have problems at

44:25

times with me and my partner that will

44:27

be like, or if we go on an

44:29

unhealthy binge, it will be a really unhealthy

44:31

binge for a really extended time. And we

44:33

won't stop until we're apart. And then we're

44:35

apart, and we'll both go, right, I'm going

44:37

to eat healthy again. Yeah, but if we

44:39

go into that, and yeah, so it's kind

44:42

of it's those weird things that can be

44:44

positive and negative, I guess. Interestingly,

44:46

when I first met Ben, here

44:48

I am a horrible cliche that ended up getting together

44:51

with my personal trainer. And I'm

44:53

much older than him. So I could get a boot. I

44:56

was very, very into the workout.

44:58

Yeah, I was like, you know, this

45:00

guy's hot, I'm going to impress him, you know,

45:02

work my ass off for him in those sessions.

45:04

You know, I do anything he told me, he's

45:07

like, give me 20 birthdays. I was like, yeah,

45:09

you know, and I get down and give him

45:11

20 birthdays. And now we're married and been together

45:13

such a long time. If he, if I work

45:15

out with him and he tells me to do

45:17

something, I'm like, No, why? Yeah, just because

45:19

you're married to me doesn't mean you can boss me about. Now

45:22

it's oh, it's completely different. He's like, no,

45:24

because it's part of the work. And I'm

45:26

like, No, I don't feel like doing that.

45:29

So actually, I find it easier not to

45:31

work out with him now. You

45:33

know, and also he's rather lovely to look

45:35

at. And if he starts sweating it, you

45:37

know, it's very exciting to me. So

45:40

I try to do as much exercise as I can.

45:42

But again, with the schedule that I have, it's

45:45

nigh on impossible, even with a gym

45:47

sitting at the bottom of our garden.

45:49

Yeah, I'm not in there. Yeah, you

45:51

know, I've hovered the kitchen and exercise

45:53

for the day. But I

45:55

take a huge array of

45:57

vitamins every day. Because with

46:00

my various diseases, it's very hard for me to hold on to

46:02

any sort of vitamins in my body.

46:05

So I do that and I have every

46:07

intention to find myself a treadmill at some

46:09

point or going running with one of the dogs. But

46:12

when I do have extended periods of time

46:14

off, I had three weeks off after the

46:16

big storyline and I just got straight back

46:18

into exercising and I was exercising three to

46:20

five times a week. And doing

46:23

CrossFit, which you do as well, actually

46:25

your body stays in relatively good shape

46:28

even when you're not working out because it's

46:30

so intense. And because it's all functional. Exactly.

46:33

So it's preparing you for what you're gonna be

46:35

doing day to day, therefore if you're just active

46:37

day to day, it's keeping it topped up. Exactly.

46:40

Now as long as you're healthy with it and stuff like that. Yeah, and you can

46:42

get back into it quite easily as well. And the other thing

46:44

about CrossFit is, you know, you go and you do a class

46:46

and it doesn't matter what level you're at. There's

46:49

people at, you know, super high levels in those

46:51

classes and there's people like me who are the

46:53

last finishers, but everybody's standing around me going, go

46:55

on Rosie, you can do it. And

46:58

clapping you along. And I think that kind

47:00

of exercise is really good for you. And

47:02

mentally as well, it's my

47:05

go-to. If I'm not gonna go and have therapy, I'm gonna

47:07

go and do some exercise. Yeah, I think those

47:09

two things comes so hand in

47:11

hand or can do. Again, I think there's also

47:13

a problem with people shaming

47:16

people into exercise and at the moment, and I

47:18

don't agree with that either. I think there

47:20

is a balance, but do you

47:22

think the health issues that you've had in the

47:24

past are something that have

47:26

motivated you to be healthy

47:29

and live to your best? I mean, I know you've

47:31

done some martial arts over the years and stuff like

47:33

that. Do you feel any

47:36

of that is from that period where it was

47:38

kind of taken away from you for an amount

47:40

of time? You couldn't do these things? Yeah,

47:42

absolutely. I mean, again, very determined

47:45

and very stubborn and won't admit

47:47

I'm hurt at any point, have

47:50

had to take these periods of enormous

47:52

rest. And it has kind

47:54

of galvanized me to do better for myself,

47:56

but also I think having a child as

47:58

well. several of my

48:01

diseases have probably cut my life short by about 10 to

48:03

20 years. Yeah. You know,

48:05

and so I'm going to lose that time. And so I

48:07

need to do whatever I can to extend my life as

48:11

such. So yes, I do try and

48:13

stay healthy for those reasons. And

48:16

I simply won't be told I can't

48:18

do something either. It really,

48:20

really irritates me, you know, and

48:22

Ben is very similar in that sense, you know,

48:24

he won't work out for months, and then he'll

48:27

go and do a competition. And he's so annoyingly

48:29

determined that he'll win. And then

48:31

he'll have like rhabdo or something for

48:33

two days. Yeah,

48:35

I think I think I just

48:38

have to I'm just one I simply refuse to

48:40

lie down. And yep, I'm

48:42

sick, and I have several diseases and

48:44

problems with my body. But I'll be asked

48:46

if I can't carry on with my life.

48:48

Yeah, and do what I want to do.

48:51

And I don't have a choice. Yeah, that's

48:53

the other part. I don't have a choice. Yeah,

48:55

you know, I have mental health issues.

48:57

I have health issues. I have

48:59

a choice. I make a choice every day

49:01

to not be depressed.

49:04

Yeah. And get up and do something

49:06

about it. And that's it. It's sink or

49:08

swim. And I have my low days like

49:10

everybody else does. But it really

49:12

is about making choices. Yeah. And

49:14

that's where your control comes in. I think completely

49:17

right. A breakthrough I had on on

49:20

the fitness front is the easiest example

49:23

was removing choice from

49:25

stuff. So rather than do I want to work out

49:27

this morning. So I've got to do that. So now

49:29

and then once that's out the way I can get

49:31

on with the rest of my stuff. So rather than

49:34

it being our figure just psychologically going right, it's not

49:36

a choice I've got to and again, people say that's

49:38

not as easy to do. But you

49:40

will do that for some job that you're

49:42

in that you don't love. And you

49:45

don't like the manager and you're not getting any of

49:47

your you're earning someone else money. You will do stuff

49:49

in that that you've not got a choice. Yeah, equally,

49:51

you've got a choice now you could not do it.

49:54

But you've been told you have to. So I think

49:56

so much like it's hard. It's psychological. Yeah, I tend

49:58

to think about the end result. as well.

50:00

So I there

50:02

are mornings where I'm like, I don't want to go to that. I hate

50:04

going to them. Even putting on my trainers and

50:07

my trousers. I'm like, no, no, find a reason not

50:09

to go. And then I think

50:11

about that feeling you have afterwards where

50:13

you're just like, I'm so glad I did that. I

50:15

feel so good after that. And you have that rush

50:17

of endorphins. And that's what gets me

50:20

to go knowing I'm going to have that feeling at the

50:22

end of it. It's going to

50:24

sound mad, but my biggest motivation these

50:26

days about over a year ago now,

50:28

I got into ice cold showers. Oh,

50:30

yeah. After a workout. I had Wim

50:32

Hof on the podcast and he's this

50:34

jigz on it all. And now there's

50:36

points where I don't want to do

50:38

my workout, but the feeling of an

50:40

ice cold shower after a workout is

50:43

just amazing. Now, previously it was this horrible thing, but

50:45

now and I had someone on the podcast and talked

50:47

about it. He said the way he puts it is

50:50

he's never felt worse after

50:52

a cold shower. He's

50:54

not saying it's a soulful and will always

50:57

be never felt worse after one. And yeah,

50:59

it's exactly that has now become my I

51:01

don't want to do my work. But if

51:03

I get a real sweat on and then

51:05

have this cold shower, just the feeling is

51:08

this euphoric thing. Well, before we break things

51:10

up, I want to jump back into acting

51:12

because no matter what actors

51:14

I've had on that are British, from

51:17

your Michael Fassbenders to

51:19

your James McAvoy's or whomever else in

51:22

America, you've got all these acting schools

51:24

and all these different ways of training.

51:27

In England, you've got the bill

51:29

and casualty and whole v city

51:31

like literally everyone it makes me

51:35

sad that they're vanishing.

51:37

Yeah, because literally you there'll

51:39

be an act of that you'll think is the

51:41

most method and all this telling you, I was

51:43

in the bill for three episodes. And things like

51:46

that. It's this a

51:48

key part of our diet

51:51

training, I guess. And you've done

51:53

the big three essentially in

51:56

the bill and casualty and of course, a little

51:58

bit of whole. And So

52:02

how were they to be part of? Because

52:04

again, that must have felt like almost the

52:06

going from school to college. As

52:08

acting had been your school, did

52:11

that feel like, oh, right, I'm now in this

52:14

next area of it all? Yeah, absolutely.

52:16

I mean, the bill and casualty and

52:18

whole, we have always been an active

52:20

staple. So

52:22

when anybody, when they were all around,

52:25

thankfully, two of them are still around,

52:27

just about, you'd always say to your agent

52:29

when you had a period of no work,

52:31

you'd be like, well, can't you get me a bill?

52:33

Or can't you get me a casualty? Or can't you

52:35

get me a whole? But something just had tied me

52:37

over. And to have those great shows that have always

52:39

been there, to bring you that little

52:41

paycheck and give you that little job that you need

52:44

is so comforting. And

52:47

to go into an episode of the bill is

52:49

just was amazing. And I think I did my

52:51

first one with my dad, I think, my dad

52:53

was directing the first one I did. I think

52:56

I auditioned like everybody else because there's absolutely no

52:58

nepotism in my family whatsoever, which

53:01

is absolutely right and how it should be. I do

53:03

agree with it. And yeah, so to do

53:05

a job with him was amazing. And to be around all

53:07

of these kind of like big actors and you know,

53:09

because the bill was a big thing, you

53:12

know, in those days. And sadly, you know,

53:14

whole being casualty of kind of, you

53:17

know, just dropped off that list a little bit,

53:19

you know, we do sort of tend to start

53:21

people's careers. Joy McAvoy was on

53:24

an episode last last week. I mean, she was shooting

53:26

the episodes that won't be on for a few months,

53:28

you know, it took me forever to realize who her

53:30

brother was. And so that was such an idiot. And

53:33

not that her career is just starting, but it's

53:35

a really great place to get your

53:38

profile up and get your profile out there because

53:40

it's watched by an inordinate amount of people. I

53:42

think you can completely right in that

53:45

it's a shame that it seems to

53:47

be losing that part of itself, not

53:49

that it's losing anything in general, but

53:51

I think because there's now so many

53:54

channels and so many outlets

53:56

and just online types of

53:59

things as well. on

56:00

Holby another actor taught me about

56:02

cut points and it was something I'd never thought about

56:04

and I was always like why is he always doing

56:06

that? You know he'd do

56:08

that, he'd put something down, he'd do something

56:11

funny or move something and I was like

56:13

he's giving them a cut point so he's

56:15

making sure that the scene ends on

56:17

him. This is Luke Roberts by the way

56:19

and he played Joseph Ben and I learned from him

56:21

and the really funny part was for the last year

56:23

that he was there we were always doing cut points

56:26

and so he'd do a cut point and then I'd

56:28

do a cut point and he'd say who's going to

56:30

win? Who's going to get it to end on them?

56:32

It's fascinating because that's the stuff that

56:35

you can't see until it's been

56:37

shown to you. I was on set

56:39

as we recorded earlier this week and we

56:41

were doing a scene and it was going

56:44

well and the director came up after a

56:46

couple of takes and said to Sarah who

56:48

was obviously after this

56:50

particular line if you can do it naturally could

56:52

you blink because he had a little bit he

56:54

wanted to flash in. He knew in the script

56:56

he needs to flash this in. He's like if

56:59

you could blink that's all I need. To get

57:01

the edit in. Other than that it's

57:05

going to feel false. So hearing

57:07

just such a small little instruction it's

57:09

like all I need is a blink

57:11

and then probably watching you'll barely

57:13

notice that that was where the edit is but it

57:15

will have led you there and will allow that to

57:18

flow and stuff like that. That's the fun

57:20

stuff. That's where you're learning. That's the best.

57:23

That's the fun stuff too because you can

57:25

be in the background of a scene and

57:27

you can steal it just by dropping

57:29

something in the scene or falling over or going

57:32

one way and going the wrong way and going

57:34

the other way. I mean the amount of times

57:36

I've seen people do that. We had an essay

57:38

do that the other day who totally stole

57:40

the scene from me and Guy Henry

57:42

just by walking past us in the

57:45

background. It's just brilliant stuff like

57:47

that. That's what makes it fun and that's what

57:49

makes you find the reason to go

57:51

in because you know you're going to do something interesting or

57:53

fun that day. I love it.

57:55

My third acting gig was

57:57

on taboo and thankfully I've paired up with Stephen.

58:00

Graham and he just took me under his wing so much.

58:02

But we've been doing this scene and we've been going on

58:05

for ages and then he leans over to me and we're

58:07

about to start and he pulls me

58:09

over like two steps. I was like, I've always

58:11

done that but all right, I'm doing as I'm

58:13

told. And then when we could, he was like,

58:15

we're finally doing the close up and

58:17

because I've got the dialogue, if you

58:19

move over two steps, you're going to be in the background

58:22

and it's going to look great. If you're there, you're not

58:24

in it. You'll be in a few of the wides, but

58:27

they probably won't use a lot of wides on them. So,

58:29

it's a good job. He knew that although

58:31

we've been doing the scene for ages, this was

58:33

the one that counted to be in the background,

58:35

on the key line, in the key moment. And

58:37

he just kind of edged me over and I

58:40

was like, oh, that's mad because I was so

58:42

much as like, all right, I need to, as I'm in

58:44

the background, I need to make sure I'm losing myself

58:46

in the world. I'm not trying to be in the background.

58:49

I'm trying to go, look, here I am in the background. I'm

58:51

like, no, I'm in the world. I'm just sitting on with stuff.

58:53

And he's like, no, it's a balance of that. You

58:56

are in the world just getting on with stuff.

58:58

But at this point, you should be here because

59:00

then you're part of it and you're on screen.

59:03

That's so nice. It's so nice as well when

59:05

you work with people like that as well

59:07

who don't have ego and are

59:09

willing to teach and willing to help people.

59:12

And I love that. That's part of

59:14

my favorite, favorite thing. And having

59:16

been at Holby for such a long time now, I've

59:18

kind of become the matriarch and Hugh Quashy

59:21

is the patriarch and people come to

59:23

him and I for different things and different

59:25

reasons. And a young

59:27

actress, she was just struggling with sort of finding

59:29

what she was doing with her character. And she

59:31

was like, I don't know what my character is going and they're not really telling

59:33

me. And I said, make it up. So do

59:35

your own thing. I said, because if you put it

59:38

in there, they'll think it's their idea and

59:40

that then suddenly they'll start writing you like this.

59:42

And unfortunately, you know, that sounds a bit rude,

59:44

but with Holby, because there's 52 episodes a year,

59:46

you have to put things in that are

59:49

going to make sense and are going to galvanize

59:52

you to want to go in and do that work. And it's

59:54

completely true in a massive lesson

59:56

because the writer, no matter how great they are,

59:58

has to worry about it. about everyone's

1:00:00

storyline. Exactly. If you worry about yours,

1:00:03

then you can give more focus than

1:00:05

the writer could possibly give a more

1:00:07

background. Again, it's going back

1:00:09

to Stephen Graham on my

1:00:12

first day on the set, he walked

1:00:14

into makeup, introduced himself and

1:00:16

said, right, how do we meet? And I was

1:00:18

like, but we met once a few years back, but I don't think

1:00:20

you remember that. He was like, no, how do you make characters meet?

1:00:22

And he was between us, we

1:00:24

came up with this huge backstory of how we met.

1:00:27

And it meant that the first time

1:00:29

we're on set, we're all mates. And

1:00:31

there's all of

1:00:33

this there. And it's, yeah, I love the

1:00:35

little things like that, rather than I'm here

1:00:38

to do my scene. Exactly. Yeah,

1:00:41

I love it. Well,

1:00:44

I'll wrap things up as we've gone over an

1:00:46

hour now. What's

1:00:49

the plan? I mean, is there anything, 14 years

1:00:52

in a huge

1:00:54

show like Holby is a massive

1:00:56

achievement? But also, it's a massive

1:00:58

restriction. There's going to be a lot

1:01:01

you won't have been asked to either professionally

1:01:04

or personally. Have

1:01:06

you got stuff in mind already? Or are you

1:01:08

kind of a, well, no, when this is done,

1:01:10

and I've now set my date, I'll then start

1:01:12

to think of what I

1:01:14

want to do next? Or is there already a kind

1:01:17

of I'd love to do something in this area? Or

1:01:19

I'd love to do nothing and just not act for

1:01:21

a bit and have some time off from acting where

1:01:23

I'm not ill for the first

1:01:25

time in my life. Yes, exactly. All of

1:01:27

that. Everything you just

1:01:29

said, I'm a big faith list. So I am, you

1:01:32

know, what will be will be if someone

1:01:34

offers me an amazing job, and I feel like it's the

1:01:37

right time to go for it, then I will. I'm

1:01:39

very lucky they're putting me up for a

1:01:41

BAFTA for this performance, which is very sweet.

1:01:43

They put me forward. It doesn't mean I'll

1:01:46

make the shortlist at this point, you know,

1:01:48

we'll see what happens. We might know by

1:01:50

January whether I've made the shortlist or not

1:01:52

having seen Glenda Jackson's performance the other day,

1:01:54

though, I'm highly unlikely. So,

1:01:57

you know, if I am lucky enough to make a shortlist, that will

1:01:59

make a huge difference. to my career, but taking

1:02:01

this break was about getting healthy and spending

1:02:03

time with my daughter. So my intentions

1:02:06

at the moment are to take a couple of

1:02:08

months at least where I'm not doing anything. I

1:02:10

can get my health back on track, you

1:02:13

know, down the suffragettes just for five minutes and take

1:02:15

us back 10 years, you know, women's rights and all

1:02:17

that. And I want to be a frickin' housewife. I

1:02:20

want to take my kid to school. I want to walk my

1:02:22

own dogs. I want to clean my own house. And I want

1:02:24

to make dinner for my kid and my husband when they get

1:02:26

home. That's what my plan

1:02:28

is to do for some time. Is

1:02:30

there any fear in the excitement of

1:02:33

that? Because again, having

1:02:35

been the one out at

1:02:37

work for the first few

1:02:40

years of your

1:02:42

daughter's life, it's

1:02:44

going to be a new thing. It's exciting. But again,

1:02:46

it's going to be a new situation. Yeah,

1:02:49

I mean, I'll probably hate it. I'll

1:02:51

be like, God, get me out of this

1:02:53

situation. Especially seeing as I'll

1:02:55

have the entire summer with her as well. So

1:02:58

there is fear in it. But

1:03:01

I've spent so much of my life being

1:03:03

afraid and not understanding who I am

1:03:05

and sort of finally getting to a point

1:03:07

where I do know who I am. And

1:03:09

I'm actually quite like myself, you know, after

1:03:12

many, many, many years of disliking myself intensely.

1:03:14

And of course, being in an industry where

1:03:16

you're told you're not good enough constantly. And

1:03:19

I think one of the great benefits of being

1:03:21

in Holby for 14 years is I haven't had

1:03:23

to be a jumping actor and I haven't had

1:03:25

to put myself out there for rejection for such

1:03:27

a huge amount of time. So nothing really frightens

1:03:30

me now. And in

1:03:32

that 14 years, I've really honed my craft.

1:03:34

And I know that if I

1:03:36

got offered a spotty dream spotter

1:03:39

or any other random role, I could

1:03:41

play it now better than I could

1:03:43

have done 14 years ago. So

1:03:45

fear isn't really a factor for me. He

1:03:48

will be a factor. But

1:03:50

I have a very wonderful husband who's looked

1:03:52

after our daughter and holds down two gyms

1:03:56

The entire time I've been working. He's been

1:03:58

incredible. And I Know he will. My rough

1:04:00

and that would be absolutely fine. And he's

1:04:02

doing that says I get the. Opportunity to

1:04:05

finally take the rest the

1:04:07

I need here So. No.

1:04:09

Fear and anything really for has declined. Clean houses

1:04:11

again. I will. Automobile the May I

1:04:13

love it but a very excited for over

1:04:16

his ahead and thank you very much as

1:04:18

a for your service Been an absolute pleasure

1:04:20

think he thinks is. A

1:04:37

few days since his

1:04:39

Scabies pets distraction pieces.

1:04:42

They we go. That was the last

1:04:44

episode. Hope you enjoyed that. I'm so

1:04:46

glad he got to be out. There

1:04:48

remains so many poor things discussed in

1:04:51

my opinion. So yeah, I'm once again

1:04:53

I love Rosie daily. So great to

1:04:55

sit down and have these two conversations

1:04:57

stretched our over time. So yeah, amazing

1:05:00

stuff and I'll be back next week

1:05:02

for my final guest of the year

1:05:04

before we hit drunk cause season. So

1:05:07

worm sesame to be excited about! You

1:05:09

know I'm going to end on. A

1:05:11

good and this is a guest star.

1:05:13

Think I've been season since the first

1:05:16

or second year of the podcast and

1:05:18

have never made the own until now.

1:05:20

So yeah, tune in next week for

1:05:23

that. I'll see you then. Until then,

1:05:25

stay safe and stay sane thicker.