BBC1 "Clive Anderson All Talk" - 21 October 1999

Clive Anderson: My next guest's recent success on Broadway has added the theatre-goers of New York to her legion of admirers which already features fans of British soap operas, film buffs and magazine and newspaper readers up and down the country. And her achievements have come at an age when most of us have yet to think of a career, let alone succeed in it ! Please welcome Anna Friel.

[ Anna comes onstage ]
Clive Anderson: Hello….. hello welcome, nice to see you….excellent….

Anna: [ says something undecipherable as she sits down] ….I'm scared of you !

CA: No you're not !!

Anna: I was more nervous walking on that bloody stage and coming on those steps than I was walking onto Broadway for the first time !!

CA: No ! I don’t believe that !!

Anna: I swear it's true !

CA: [putting on his barristers voice] Well I put it to you - you're lying…

Anna: I'm not lying !!

CA:…. For the purposes of the interview….

Anna: I'm not - I've not been in England for like a year.

CA: But that must have been scary for you, cos that must have been pretty well the first time you'd acted on stage.

Anna: It was the first time ever on stage.

CA: And you were on Broadway on a proper full blown production.

Anna: I know. Yeah. I was absolutely petrified but I thought, well we do it your way and if your way isnt right then you wont work again.

CA: Well you did very well. You're the toast of Broadway !

Anna: I did well. I got 2 awards. I was, what was I called ? "the pint-sized powerhouse of Broadway" or something.

CA: Yes

Anna: Yes, it's quite nice.

CA: Well that's quite good isnt it

Anna: Yes its alright - good - but now I've gotta keep that going. I'm only 23. Am I the youngest guest you've ever had ?

CA: Pretty well, er, I think Kate Winslet was on, she's….

Anna: She's older than me !! So youngest guest ?

CA: Well that was a couple of years ago, so she was probably younger then though.

Anna: Oh alright then. OK

CA: Kirk Douglas I think is slightly older than you, but there can't be much in it. (Anna laughs) er…. But was that a surprise to you that you’d go out and do a play ? It's called Closer by Patrick Marber which was a big success in London, but you hadn't done it here.

Anna: It was a surprise because I auditioned for it when it was on in London. I auditioned 2 years prior to that. They said you've got to go away and live and then 2 years later they call me back and say you’re ready now.

CA: You're ready now ? Cos it's quite a harrowing play and it's quite sexually explicit and you’re playing a lap dancer and all her, sort of, personal relationships..

Anna: I'm playing a stripper

CA: Playing a stripper, yeah. Was that scary being onstage in front of….

Anna: It was 'cos I didn’t feel very sexy. He said that’s your biggest problem and as soon as you realise that you're sexy then you'll be good in this part.

CA: Oh right. So when did you realise you were sexy ?

Anna: (smiling) When did I realise I was sexy ? When I heard the audience's reaction when I kind of had my legs spread and I had someone's head between my legs [Anna laughs] and there was continual reaction !!

CA: Yes - especially from the person with their head between your legs [ Audience laughs]

Anna: And I had to - yeah exactly !! I didn't take my clothes off for it !!

CA: No but anyway, you were OK on the stage in New York and you've had all sorts of people saying how wonderful you are. And Al Pacino wants to put you in a film and Jack Nicholson said he wants to sleep with you which is … I don't think if it’s a compliment or a bit tacky !!

Anna: Yeah. I don't - but he didn’t even come and see the play !!

CA: No. Just from the poster !

Anna: I don't know. I just saw like this headline in an article I did, and er, sayinghe wanted to sleep with me. He didn't come and see the play.

CA: No. Is this gonna lead to more stage acting do you think ? Or are you….

Anna: I've said U wanna do…. I learnt more being on Broadway in the last 9 months than I have in my entire career….

CA: Yeah.

Anna: and I've said I wanna go back to stage every 2 years.

CA: But you hadn’t been to drama school, so you…

Anna: No.

CA: Well that's a bit unusual to be able to do so well in a play.

Anna: It is and it's a bit of a pity that you know I've come back for the first time and I've been in England now for 4 days and there's been an incredibly different reaction from the press. It’s now you feel, oh, that you want to listen when I talk and it took me going to America and getting the seal of approval from America and saying "Yeah, she's good for England", to be now truly interested.

CA: Yeah

Anna: And they were always very nice. I was always England's darling and they wanted to know my love life was incredibly interesting to them.

CA: This was the press in England ?

Anna: Yeah, exactly. As was my soap past and now they go "Oh you're a 'real' actress now", you know, and I'm like why can't England think me a real actress ? Why did it take me leaving my country, which is Great Britain, which is all I ever wanted to work for. And went to thousands of auditions that I never got. Auditions for theatre and auditions for all these things and they went "No you're… she's Northern and she hasn't been to drama school and she was in a soap", and they bracket you and I think as soon as we stop doing that and look at what Britain actually has to offer and back them up and look at the good side of things, then we will become "Great" Britain again [ gives exasperated look to camera]

CA: In America, of course, you weren't "ex-Brookside actress" cos they don’t, I assume they don't, have Brookside in America.

Anna: No !

CA: Seems a shame. I'm sure they'd enjoy it obviously, but….

Anna: Did you - you'd never seen it ?

CA: I've been watching it recently and you…. Your sister is pregnant by your ex-boyfriend. Did you know that ?

Anna: I left like…..

CA: And they're gonna sell the chippy !!!

Anna: I have to admit, I've not seen it you see..

CA: But you were in that sort of period of plotting…

Anna: Mild !

CA: ….. when your mother killed your father and put him under the patio…

Anna: The patio…. And kissed a girl !

CA: And you kissed a girl. Now that had a huge impact. Did you realise at the time "Ah, now this will have a big impact and that will be sort of a kick-start to my career" or did you think…?

Anna: No. I had it in my contract that they weren't allowed to do the lesbian storyline just for the sake of shocking and being controversial. I said if you're gonna make her a lesbian, she has to be a lesbian until the day she leaves. It's not just a "phase" she's going through.

CA: Right, but they do have to put things like that in soap opera.

Anna: Of course they do. You know it's a business. That's why they call it show business and not show fun ! (CA laughs). You know it's a game, you just decide how much you want to participate. Do you want to go to jail, or do you want to get to Mayfair ? Or do you just want to know how Monopoly is to be played ?

CA: Right - erm (laughs). Or..

Anna: I'm sure it's not as good a metaphor as you could give being a barrister.

CA: Well I'm picking up community chest to see what I'm going to do now (audience laughs).

Anna: Are you a friustrated actor ?

CA: I'm not a frustrated actor, I'm a frustrated barrister and you, you wanted to be a barrister.

Anna: I did want to be a barrister. I got on TV by ..erm..doing what I do, which is acting. You know Kathy Lette don’t you ?

CA: I do and she wrote a book called "Mad Cows" and it's been made into a film and you ..er… star as ..

Anna: Mary Wolfe

CA: Yes

Anna: An Australian.

CA: An Australian. Was that fun putting on an Australian accent ?

Anna: I enjoyed it. I watched every Australian film there was to watch. I studied the culture. Do you watch that.. - should I tell you that, where an Australian accent, where it comes from ?

CA: Yes.

Anna: Apart from Aborigines, the first quintessential accent that came was, er, that of London, "awl tawking like thaat" and then you take that, and they got off the ship and they had a fucking (bleeped out) long journey . Oops ! (realises she swore and audiences laughs). They had a really, really long journey and they got off this ship and then suddenly you've got this like, you've got this huge space and you've got lots and lots of sun, And so you start to squint your eyes and you start to use different muscles here…

CA: Yeah

Anna: And so even if an Australian is really, really angry, it still looks like they're smiling.

CA: Yes

Anna: And it does, and that's where it actually comes from.

CA: You start with a cockney accent like that.

Anna: Start like that.

CA: And you squint your eyes with the sun.

Anna: Right do it.

CA: And now the next bit you've got to do is there's a lot of flies in Australia.

Anna: There's a lot of flies.

CA: So you keep your mouth shut while you're doing it.

Anna: So you gotta keep your mouth shut (going into Australian accent), and you've got the sun, you squint and you've got different muscles and you've got this huge space, and you really cant be bothered with anything apart from Fosters (audience applauds)

CA: There you've got it.

Anna: Thank you. You get the accent

CA: I go over there, squint my eyes - Clive James. You see !! (audience laughs)

Anna: It is ! But don’t do that you get too many wrinkles.

CA: In the film, you play ..er..

Anna: Mary Wolfe !

CA: … a mother.

Anna: Have you watched it ?

CA: I have watched it.

Anna: Did you like it ?

CA: I'm explaining a clip here at the minute.

Anna: Oh I'm sorry.

CA: You're very good in it. And er…

Anna: Oh "I'm very good in it" !!

CA: You're an unmarried mother… you're an unmarried mother and you've got a baby and unfortunately due to a mix-up early on in the story…

Anna: … and big breasts !

CA: ..you're in prison and you need somebody to help you out and you're trying to persuade your friend, played by Joanna Lumley…

Anna: Best woman in the world.

CA: Best woman in the world indeed, and this is the clip

[Film Clip from "Mad Cows"]
CA: Was it good working with Joanna Lumley? Was that a…

Anna: It was fantastic ! I think she's… I think she's too humble and she puts herself down too much but erm… you know that’s quite endearing about a person.

CA: Right. Apart from this film which you've got out, you recently had out "A Midsummer Night's Dream".

Anna: Yep

CA: Which is a very star-studded Hollywood..

Anna: It was.

CA: … cast.

Anna: I didn't work with many of the stars but I was there on the set, but I wasn’t in the scene's with them.

CA: Oh weren't you ?

Anna: No

CA: But you must have been there with Calista Flockhart ?

Anna: Oh I was with Calista.

CA: There was a fantastic scene where you mud-wrestled with her. Now I don’t remember that in my version. (audience laughs)

Anna: Now the thing is…. Have you not seen it ?

CA: Yes, but when I did it for O-Level there was no mud-wrestling scene between 2 beautiful actresses.

Anna: But she's small… have you seen how skinny and small she is ?

CA: She's small.

Anna: She's smaller than me.

CA: (laughs) and Kevin Kline is er.. Bottom

Anna: Kevin's the best man. I love him. He came to see Closer in Broadway and wants to work with me again. I was quite flattered considering I didn’t do a scene with him. He just liked me.

CA: So you didn’t even bump into him , or Michelle Pfeiffer who was also in it.

Anna: No I bumped into him. Of course I bumped into them. I worked with them. I just wasn’t on set with them. You know with a lot of Americans they have a kind of …erm….gauze in front of them and it's always this like kind of "Hi, how are you, everything's always like great" and you’re like "How are ya ? Alright I'm Anna !! How ya doin' Nice to meet ya !!".

CA: What about the whole thing about being famous because having shot to that sort of national celebrity , then you seemed to always be in the papers, you're either… pictures of you on..

Anna: Imagine how horrible that is. My love life 3 years ago and my soap past is more interesting than anything I have to offer now. It's like you know they're still talking about Robbie and Darren and it's like - It's 3 years ago !! How can you still be interested in that ?

CA: But you've always been around with a sort of glamorous group of peoples, since you…

Anna: Not always.

CA: But if they can do a picture of you and Kate Moss, that's gonna get into a paper rather than…

Anna: Of course it is and you go out one time a month or one time a week and you're in this "London scene", you know. And you know that those pictures are gonna be in the paper the next day which gives people a wrong perspective of actually who you are. But erm…

CA: Alright so apart from…

Anna: I've been reading too many help, self-help books I think !! "A road less travelled" !! (audience laughs)

CA: Right well I hope you travel around here and do some more plays and films and TV and things like that. Thank you for joining us - Anna Friel. {Anna smiles). Didn’t it go well !