INTERVIEW: ANNA FRIEL

Interview

Anna Friel

Chris Sullivan first met Anna Friel when the crew of Brookside moved in next door, and they went on to become firm friends. He caught up with her recently to find out how the actress’s career has progressed since her soap opera days

never want people to forget that I come

Ifrom Rochdale, but I’d like them to forget I did Brookside,” declares actress Anna Friel adamantly, her Northern accent still most evident as she sits opposite me in a pub. “Looking back, all that controversy with Brookside was a good start, it made people know who I was but hopefully – and not just because I kissed a girl on telly – for all the right reasons.”

I first met Friel when she was acting in the longrunning Liverpool-based soap opera Brookside. In a series of episodes her character, the controversial Beth Jordache, had run away from home to London, where she ensconced herself in a Kentish Town council flat. The flat they used for filming happened to be right next to the one I was living in at the time. When Anna saw me dressed in a

“American TV is like nothing I’ve ever seen before. Everyone was saying, you’ll never believe how much hard work it is and I’d say, ‘I’m used to it, having been in Brookside!’ But my God, were they right! You run off the set from one scene, get changed and run back on set. It’s all so fast and well organised”

Friel with Susan Sarandon in Monarch

1940s blue suit, bow tie and a beret, she didn’t think I looked like I belonged in the rather rough council estate, so she asked me if I was part of the crew. Subsequent conversations developed, then a few years later I started bumping into her at all the groovy London parties, and she always remembered me. Then she went out with my great friend Rhys Ifans, so further encounters occurred.

Even though Anna Friel’s career has skyrocketed, she is still very much an ‘ordinary girl from Rochdale’ who is so down to earth it is sometimes disarming.

Friel’s latest project, Monarch, has nothing to do with the royal family but is the tale of a family called Roman who are the fictional first family of American country music. Described as a ‘Texassized, multigenerational musical drama’, the family is headed by the tough-as-old-boots and incredibly gifted Dottie Cantrell Roman (Susan Sarandon). Dottie is the universally acknowledged Queen of Country Music and rules the powerful dynasty she has created with her husband, Albie, with an iron hand, though its very foundation in authenticity is compromised by falsehood. The family’s place at the top of the country tree is endangered, while heir to the crown Nicolette ‘Nicky’ Roman (Friel) knows no bounds in her attempts to protect the empire, while paving her own path to mega stardom in gold. It’s an incredible role for a girl from Rochdale but, for Friel, American long-format TV has always been taxing.

“American TV is like nothing I’ve ever seen before,” she says. “Everyone was saying, you’ll never believe how much hard work it is and I would say, ‘I’m used to it, having been in Brookside!’ But my

With Steve Coogan in The Look of Love

“As well as the outer shell changing, everything else changes in a much more positive way. Wisdom, compassion, empathy, values, being parents – we’re learning that people want to watch people they can relate to, not just the unachievable. We’ve got enough of that with the superhero movies”

God, were they right! You don’t ever even see your trailer. You run off the set from one scene, get changed and run back on set. It’s all so fast and well organised.

“And they do it so well, especially with shows since The Sopranos. I think they can achieve such great results because they start off thinking ‘This is going to be a hit’ and throw money at it, but in the UK it’s more like ‘Let’s see if it’s popular, then we’ll put some money into it.’ The Americans are brilliant at episodic drama. It’s like, that was great, shall we watch another one? They are just so good at creating these hooks that keep us watching, and the writing is so good.

Friel in her early television days

“I think the US now makes better TV than movies, because I think all the great writers have moved into TV because it makes more money and is more accessible. A lot of big budget Hollywood movies just go for the obvious and are so formatted. A lot of them are also so miscast because of boxoffice potential.”

Friel’s first long-format US TV role was as Charlotte ‘Chuck’ Charles in Pushing Daisies, which ran from 2007 until 2009, although her acting CV goes back even further.

“I went to theatre workshop, because my drama teacher at school thought I had talent and should go and investigate it,” she recalls. “So I did these classes three times a week from age six until ten and it was pure improvisation. I think if you can do the improvisation, it will make you a lot more natural as an actor. My parents only allowed me to go if I studied hard at school, which was fine by me as I was good at school and wanted to become a barrister.”

Her first TV role, in 1981 aged five, was as Lum in the UK TV series Lum The Adventure Girl, and, after a scholastic sabbatical, was back in 1991 with parts in Emmerdale, Coronation Street, Medics and then Brookside from 1993-95. The latter made her a household – if not controversial – name, due to the aforementioned on-screen snog with another girl (the first lesbian encounter on British television).

The first big thing I did, when I was 13, was GBH; it was the first audition I went to and I got the part. Acting was something I loved and I was good at and I wanted to get better, so I stuck with it,” says Friel. “I was halfway through my A-levels and along came Brookside.

“My grandma said she hated me kissing that girl,” she chuckles. “‘Now I hope you won’t be doing that anymore’, she said, ‘none of that old nonsense’. My mum only said, ‘I don’t really like that, Anna.’ My family were all cool though, really. I stayed with my mum and dad while filming and drove to Liverpool every day. They were very concerned that I kept two feet on the ground and stayed the same. I was lucky in that I had a strong

Friel in Marcella

Irish dad and a Yorkshire mum who kept me in check and stopped me misbehaving.”

Even though Brookside launched Friel into the big league, it was the theatre that cemented her as a leading British actress.

“It was A Midsummer Night’s Dream that sort of changed things for me, especially for the Americans, as Kevin Kline and Michelle Pfeiffer were in it. So people were thinking, if she’s working with them she must be doing well.

“Going back to the stage to do Lulu [based on Wedekind’s two Lulu plays Earth Spirit and Pandora’s Box] in 2001 was really terrifying, as it was such a hard role. It was very dark subject matter. I got murdered and raped by Jack the Ripper every night. I had all these burst ovarian cists at the time and my periods had stopped for such a long time. I was not at all well and on hormone treatments, which made me even sicker, but I liked the play so much. I would love to get back on the stage again. I am determined to get better at stage work, as it really improves you as an actress, if you can be that dedicated to tell the same story night after night after night.”

Since then, Friel has honed her craft. She has starred in British TV series such as Without You (2011) and Marcella (2016-2020) and UK movies such as The Look of Love (2013) in which she played the wife of Soho property and porn King Paul Raymond (Steve Coogan), and she is about to star in The Perfect Girlfriend, the onscreen adaptation of Karen Hamilton’s novel. In the US, she starred alongside Kelsey Grammer of Frasier fame in Charming the Hearts of Men last year, was rather exceptional in Books of Blood the previous year, the adaptation of the Clive Barker novel, and last year she played Kansas City cop Sharon Pici in TV series The Box.

For many, lockdown was a trial but Friel looks on the bright side, as she spent more time with her

As Nicolette ‘Nicky’ Roman in Monarch

15-year-old daughter Gracie, whom she had with ex-partner, actor David Thewlis. “It wasn’t until I had to stop that I realised how I go from one job to the next. You don’t realise what you’re carrying with you and what you’re brushing under the carpet. I would have preferred not to have gone through lockdown as a single mother, but I’ve had time to work on myself, look after my skin, exercise and get fresh air, and realise how important it is to keep up with the people that you love, and make sure you tell them so all the time.”

“Being a mother really puts things into perspective. It reminds us of how we are meant to be. We see our kids and see how much stuff changes us. It’s not that I couldn’t care less about my career. It’s just that I now feel more confident, because if I coped with this gruelling schedule on three-hour sleep, with breast milk pouring out all over the place and being a good mum, then I can do anything. But I love and adore being a mum. Seeing my daughter’s lovely smile is the best way to start and the best way to end the day and, as soon as I go to her room, we will have a little cuddle.”

Now aged 45, Friel has had time to consider, consider and reconsider her career again, and has emerged all the more philosophical and entirely upbeat about her future.

“I did wonder about turning 40 and being thrown on the scrapheap,” she says. “But as well as the outer shell changing, everything else changes in a much more positive way. Wisdom, compassion, empathy, values, being parents – we’re learning that people want to watch people they can relate to, not just the unachievable. We’ve got enough of that with the superhero movies.”

Inevitably, the final question for Anna Friel from any interviewer is, what would you like to do next?

“I’d like to go out dancing to seventies disco music,” she replies. n