20 Questions With … Amanda Drew

In 2003, Amanda Drew was nominated for Outstanding Newcomer in the Evening Standard Awards for her performance as Gertrude in Eastward Ho!, part of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s highly acclaimed Jacobean season which transferred to the West End’s Gielgud Theatre.

But even before being hailed as a ‘newcomer’, Drew had built up an impressive line of stage credits at the Almeida (Dona Rosita The Spinster), the National (John Gabriel Borkman), the Royal Court (Mr Kolpert), the RSC (Love in a Wood, Jubilee, The Roman Actor, The Malcontent), Chichester Festival (The School of Night) and for renowned touring company Shared Experience (The House of Bernarda Alba).

Since her Newcomer nomination, Drew has gone on to appear in the West End opposite Richard E Grant and Anthony Head in Otherwise Engaged and with Penelope Keith in Blithe Spirit, as well as Enemies at the Almeida and as Emma Bovary in Shared Experience’s spin-off of Madame Bovary, Breakfast with Emma.

In addition, this year she’s become well known to television fans after 87 episodes playing Dr May Wright on BBC soap EastEnders.

Drew is now returning to the stage to star along with Michael Gould in the UK premiere of German playwright Marius von Mayenburg’s The Ugly One, which launches the Royal Court’s annual International Playwrights Season in the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs. Lette thought he was normal. When the extent of his ugliness is revealed, he turns to a plastic surgeon for help. But after the bandages come off, Lette soon learns that there is such a thing as too beautiful.

Date & place of birth

Born 21 December 1969 in Boston, Lincolnshire.

Lives now in

Earl’s Court, west London.

Training
Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA).

What made you want to become an actor?

I was always very shy, but I remember at six playing a flower in a play based on an Oscar Wilde story. The imaginative trick of that was so exciting. I also remember inventing and playing stories in the playground. So I always enjoyed storytelling and cloaking myself in characters. My parents moved us to Leicester for work, and I felt lonely there so I joined the youth theatre there and played Charity in Sweet Charity. It was then I started thinking it was something I might be able to do professionally.

It’s funny because this play is very much about identity so I’ve been thinking about this. I think my wanting to be an actor had something to do with feeling that my own identity was fairly insubstantial and there was something so powerful about being a different person. I felt more alive on stage. As I’ve gone on, I’ve learnt that when acting works at its best, it’s actually about revealing yourself – you’re not hiding, you’re exposing. So in fact becoming an actor has had the reverse effect of what I expected.

If you hadn’t become an actor, what might you have done professionally?

Anything to do with animals. I love animals and enjoy their company immensely. I get very distressed when I hear about cruelty to animals. I adopted my dog Ron from the Retired Greyhound Trust. I’m so glad that awareness is being raised about the thousands of dogs who are discarded each year.

First big break
I don’t feel I’ve ever had one. It feels just like a slow continuation of work, which is what I want. I just aim to keep working and doing things that interest me.

Has being on EastEnders changed your life at all?

Very much but not in a way that I find invasive or unpleasant. I was worried about it at first, about having a level of recognition when you’re walking down the street. I left the show in June and I do get recognised about four or five times a day. People might say “hey doctor”, but they’re always nice and pleasant. I mean, obviously there are a few more people that watch EastEnders than go to see a play at the Royal Court Upstairs! I’m not going back into EastEnders though. I don’t want to stay in anything too long, I don’t want to cement my image with one character, and I don’t want to lose my sense of anonymity.

Favourite productions you’ve worked on

When I was at the RSC, I did a Jacobean play called Eastward Ho!, and I loved that because my character was just so extraordinary, so varied and extreme. It was a wonderful release from mundanity to have this journey to go on every night. Sometimes characters come along at the right time to allow you to explore something about yourself that you need to. That happened with my character on EastEnders who went a little crazy, they called her “Mad May” by the end. She was very different from me. She was desperate to have children. I’ve never had a broody desire, but that was interesting to explore and playing May allowed me to come to a better understanding about my own mother.

Favourite co-star
I’ll have to say Michael Gould, who I’m working with at the moment – because he’s fantastic kisser! (laughs) He’s a married man with children, but we do have to snog each other in the play and we have a laugh about it. The director (Ramin Gray) keeps telling me, “go on, get your tongue down his throat”. It’s a little embarrassing. He’s also a fantastic actor – humble but so talented – and that’s very exciting to work opposite.

Favourite directors
Ramin Gray is one of a kind. He doesn’t have an ego so to speak and he’s incredibly open. It feels like this production is evolving incredibly democratically because he allows all of the actors to have a voice. I’ll also say Richard Wilson, who directed me in Mr Kolpert here at the Royal Court, because as an actor he has an understanding of the actor’s language and that makes the work very enjoyable.

Favourite playwrights

My mind’s just gone blank. All I can think about at the moment is The Ugly One. But I do think Marius von Mayenburg is an extraordinary writer. I’ve never worked on a form this subversive before. I was familiar with him before this play. I saw Fireface at the Court in 2000 and I’d done a reading of another piece of his. In Germany, he’s highly acclaimed. I find him very impressive and original. He has a strikingly unique tone of humour. It’s not easily definable.

What’s the last thing you saw on stage that you really enjoyed?
Dominic Cooke’s production of The Pain and the Itch here at the Royal Court – wasn’t it good? The comedy was brilliant, and it’s fantastic to see plays about the liberal middle classes because they’re the type of people, myself included, that go to the theatre in the main. We should be examining ourselves, it’s good to throw the mirror up sometimes.

Favourite books

I was thinking the other day about how beautiful but sad Tess of D’Urbervilles is. I read it when I was 13, and it was one of the most impactful books of my life. I love all of Thomas Hardy’s books. There’s an inherent tragedy to them that’s just so powerful and moving.

Favourite holiday destinations

The last holiday I took was to Marrakech. At first I was completely overwhelmed, it was just too weird for me, but you do get into it eventually. My favourites though are all in England. I love Cornwall, I love the Lakes. England has so many fantastic places. I also hate flying so the best holidays are when I don’t have to.

Why did you want to do The Ugly One?
I worked with the director Ramin Gray before in readings at the Royal Court. He’s a bit off the wall, which I really like. The last play I did at the Court was a German comedy, this is a comedy written by another German – and it sounded interesting.

Tell us about your character.

I play three different women who are all called Fanny – so, yes, I’m playing all the Fannies! One is the wife of the title character, the other is the 73-year-old mother of another man and the third is a surgeon’s assistant. Of course, in German, the word doesn’t have the same meaning so it’s not really relevant – except that it is a vision of women as written by a man.

How do you tackle the characters within the structure of the play?
Because of the way it’s written, there’s no time for scene or costume changes. How to differentiate? I thought I’d have to make very clear vocal or physical distinctions, but they really do change so suddenly, sometimes virtually mid-sentence. And that unlocks the key in some way. It’s actually aspects of one woman. The way it’s written is very subversive to normal theatrical convention. Sometimes the audience will be on catch-up mode. But to make it too easy for them is going against what the writer intended. One of von Mayenburg’s ideas is find strategies to activate the spectators. The form here really is as interesting as the content. It’s just under an hour and I think it’ll be a very intriguing little experience for theatregoers.

The Ugly One opens this year’s International Playwrights season at the Court. Why do you think seasons like this are important?
I think the Royal Court has always been about encouraging international talent. They have a department that’s been dedicated to that for many years. Having the opportunity to have many voices from all around the world is so stimulating for English writers – for all writers.

What’s special about working at the Royal Court? Have you noticed a difference under Dominic Cooke’s regime?
The Court is special because it always tries to experiment creatively and it sets an agenda for that – to challenge on every level is, in and of itself, worth it regardless of the end product. I think Dominic is the best man for the job right now. I worked with him before at the RSC. He’s got an incisive intelligence and a real understanding of what’s relevant at the moment. It’s great to have someone steering the ship who has a clear vision and one, of new voices alongside classics, that suits the building’s history and traditions.

What’s your favourite line from The Ugly One?

It’s when Michael’s character says: “When I was a little boy and I couldn’t sleep, my mother used to stroke my cheek. That’s gone now.” It’s gone because he’s had a face transplant – I love that!

What’s the most notable thing that’s happened in rehearsals?
The more we discuss, the more we realise the deeper levels beneath the comedy. That’s made us rethink how to stage the play. Our initial idea was to recreate a rehearsal room aesthetic, with bits and pieces of the actors’ own identities on show in the space. As the play is about identity, we wanted to explore how the identities of the actors resonate in the lines of the story. My contribution was meant to be my greyhound Ron, who was there in rehearsals. But as we’ve become more conscious of the complexity of the story alone, we’ve been stripping back and minimising the production elements. So Ron is gone now and I think he’s happier for it. He’s more of a backstage dog. He only finished his racing career three months ago, when I adopted him, so to suddenly make his acting debut may have been one change too many for him in such a short space of time.

What are your future plans?

Now that I have Ron I’m wanting to buy a flat with a garden, somewhere near a big park. I haven’t got any acting jobs lined up so I think it’s time to concentrate on the move.

– Amanda Drew was speaking to Terri Paddock

The Ugly One runs at the Royal Court Jerwood Theatre Upstairs from 13 September to 13 October 2007.