"The Ticket" : (The Mirror Magazine) 29 November-5 December 2002  
   

 

Anna's secret heartache

Anna Friel, who stars as the War Bride, talks exclusively about love, work and a terrifying experience

by Garth Pearce

She should be enjoying the fruits of her phenomenal success. The toast of Broadway and Hollywood. Anna Friel counts Al Pacino as an admirer. But for the stunning actress, there is something more pressing on her mind.

Anna, who plays the mother of a young daughter in her new film The War Bride, has revealed how she is dealing with a personal time bomb of having to get pregnant in the next four years. The 26-year-old suffered a burst ovary nearly two years ago and she has been warned to get pregnant before she is 30, or face not being able to have a family.

"It is far from an ideal situation", the former Brookside star says. "But I just have to face the fact that there is nothing I can do about it. If I allowed myself to become down and depressed, then there would be no time for real life. I really want children, but ideally would have liked to have a choice on timing. In this case, my mind is made up for me. Although I am not ready at this particular moment, there is clearly some careful planning ahead."

"I also have a consolation that it could be much, much worse. It was all very frightening and came out of the blue. I just have to get on with things, in the same way as everyone else who is faced with this choice".

The illness happened while Anna was working on the film, "Me Without You" last year. "My stomach suddenly filled with blood", she explains. "I lost two litres of blood and had two transfusions. So it was all very dramatic and frightening. But I was more concerned about stopping filming. I was told I had something called endometriosis. It is when the lining of the womb grows over your stomach lining and can block your fallopian tubes. So I was told to have a family sooner rather than later."

Anna is determined to make light of her situation. "A lot of women get this", she says. "It means having heavier periods than normal and it is an inconvenience and concern".

She has never been happier in her private life, currently enjoying a two-and-a-half-year relationship with 39-year-old actor David Thewlis. They live together between his flat in London and her house in Windsor, Berkshire.

"We met originally at Cannes Film Festival about four years ago", she says. "There was a whole crowd of young British actors, including Kate Winslet and Jude Law, who were trying to promote British film. So it was not love at first sight. We just got on well, as two Northerners. We were taken around various films and did not have a chance to talk very much. But it was completely different when we met up again. "

"We both attended a dinner with mutual friends and from that night onwards we've not been apart. There were five of us at the table and we were engrossed with each other. He was out of a relationship and I was single, so there was no reason not to be together from that moment. We both get plenty of invitations out, but appreciate the joy of nights in, just the two of us."

Anna has been know as something of a party animal in the past, but says those days are now curtailed. "David is well beyond that", she says. "He just says, 'No thank you, if you don't mind'. And that's the end of it. We don't want to become a celeb couple and I don't want to influence him on that score. He is a very classy, well-respected actor who has never been into the gossip celeb scene, He is a no-nonsense, down to earth guy and I am happy to spend as much time as possible with him.

"I say we have not been apart, but we have - for four days only. I had already bought the house in Windsor and he was just about to exchange a contract on his London place. So we have either been at each other's houses or he has been with me on a film location. We just can't get enough of each other."

Anna, whose past relationships have included a long-term romance with singer and actor Darren Day and a well-publicised fling with Robbie Williams, is clearly enjoying the more mellow company of Naked star David. They also met each other's parents within a week - David's in Blackpool and Anna's in Rochdale.

"When mum and dad met him, they said 'What a great guy'", reports Anna. "Dad was staying with me one night in Windsor and the two of them ended up playing the guitar together. Although David is a fine actor, he has many talents. He has written a novel. he is incredibly good at dialogue and it reads truthfully. He has also written a film script, called Cheeky, which he's about to direct".

Despite making a string of movies, Anna is still perhaps best known for her Brookside role as Beth and the lesbian kiss which is always high on any list of the nation's favourite 100 telly moments. But stage performances in New York in Closer and at London's Almeida in Lulu have raised the stakes on her acting talent, while her performance in The War Bride is possibly her best yet on the big screen.

She plays a seamstress called Lily in the war-torn London of 1940, who falls in love with a Canadian soldier called Charlie (Aden Young), and they marry after a whirlwind romance. But she becomes pregnant almost immediately and struggles to bring up her baby daughter, amid the bombing of London. The Canadian government offers her the chance to emigrate to the safety of Canada, to live with in-laws while their soldier husbands fight on in Europe.

She takes the chance of a new life, encouraged by her husband's boasts of a huge ranch on the Canadian prairies. But, after the long journey, she finds a bitter mother-in-law (Brenda Fricker) and crippled sister-in-law (Molly Parker) living in little more than a shack.

"I loved the film's story", says Anna. "Lily can either cry for her misfortune or she can try to put some life in to the place and make the best of things. That is exactly what she does. I liked her spirit, even reading the script, and she was a great girl to play. I like to think I've got a bit of spirit about me, too, and would react in the same way."

Anna has since been working almost non-stop since her Brookside role. She played Hermia in A Midsummer Night's Dream and one of The Land Girls, alongside Rachel Weisz and Catherine McCormack. She was an American in Sunset Strip, an Australian single mother in Mad Cows and South Londoner Lisa Leeson in Rogue Trader. The films have not always been successful, but Anna consistently delivers strongly.

"I love to work", she says. "This is why I have taken on so many film roles - all of them different. It was amazing to look at some old scenes in Brookside and see how much I've changed since them. I had such a tiny voice. I am still only 26 and have a lot to learn. I am packing in as much experience of life and work as I can".