» Alison Steadman interview
Andrew Kay caught up with Alison Steadman to talk about her career whilst she is touring in a new production of Alan Bennett’s Enjoy
Alison Steadman is one of Britain’s most prolific actors. Her most famous performances are perhaps Abigail’s Party and The Rise and Fall of Little Voice. She is a versatile TV actress, having appeared in many comedy and drama series such as The Worst Week of My Life, Fat Friends and more recently appearing as Pam in BBC Three’s award-winning comedy Gavin and Stacey. Latest 7 caught up with the actress on a headlong course for ‘national treasure’ status as she starred as Connie Cravern in Alan Bennett’s Enjoy.
You’re here in Brighton to perform in Enjoy and later in the run at Chichester Festival Theatre. Have you done an Alan Bennett work before?
I have yes, I was in a play in the late eighties called Kafka’s Dick at the Royal Court in London and that was the first outing for that play. Since then, I’ve also been in a film of Alan Bennett’s, A Private Function.
“I’ve never had to resort to working in a bar or working in an office, I’ve always earned my living by acting”
You started your career in Liverpool, is that right?
Not really… I was born and grew up there, but, I went to drama school in London, to East 15, and then I was in ‘rep’ for four years, moving about, and one of those years I was at the Liverpool Everyman. I’d already done several seasons before I went there, it certainly wasn’t my first job. I was there in 1971, I think. The years of the Canterbury Tales and John McGrath’s Soft, or a Girl. I was Ella, the girl that wanted the house on the Wirral.
That’s become a recurring theme in your career in a sense, the lady with upwardly mobile aspirations. Do you feel you sometimes do get typecast after those iconic performances like Beverly and Candice Marie?
I suppose so, yes. They were so different. I hope I’ve tried to play a variety of roles over the years. But of course you do get a similar type of role. I mean Gavin and Stacey, which I’m doing at the moment; Pammy, she’s not upwardly mobile, but she’s certainly an Essex girl. Who’s… you know, she’s full of fun, she’s a good laugh but material things are very important to her.
Do people seek you out constantly? Looking through your CV it looks as though you’ve not been out of work since those days at the Everyman.
Well, obviously I’ve had a few weeks off here and there. I’ve had holidays, but, I’ve never had to resort to working in a bar or working in an office, I’ve always earned my living by acting.
It seems to me that you never play the celebrity card. Do you avoid it on purpose, or are you too busy to do the usual round of celebrity nonsense that so many others do?
I don’t know what I would do. I mean, if I’m in the West End for a play, I’ll go for the occasional meal, but I don’t seek out going to the Ivy. I don’t like all that. I like to go out, if it’s an award do or whatever, I’ll go, but I hate all that. I hate the walk up the red carpet, it’s not me really. No I don’t go for all that. I don’t see the point. I mean, if I come out the stage door, people want your autograph and want a chat and I’m quite happy to do that, but I wouldn’t court all that.
Over the years, you’ve worked considerably with your ex-husband Mike Leigh, he works in a very different way, in which the company of actors and himself generate the material that you perform. Is that a method of acting that excited you?
Oh yeah… It’s a quite scary way of working. You haven’t got anything when you start, but it certainly gives the actor a great opportunity to be creative. More so than you would get with a scripted play. It’s a wonderful way of working.
Was it difficult then to differentiate between your working life and your home life?
No… That was never a problem, because there was a sort of unspoken rule that work was work, and we never talked about work at home, never discussed it at home, it sounds extraordinary but it was true. It was never difficult, because that’s what it was.
Are there any great roles that you’ve longed to have been asked to do? You’ve got no great craving to play Hedda Gabler or Lady MacBeth?
No, not really. If they came up I’d consider them, but I’ve always been someone who just bowls along and sees what comes up. This particular part I’m doing at the moment, it’s very different from anything I’ve ever done before, a real departure. I don’t know if you’ve seen any of the photographs?
I’ve seen the production photographs, I was very surprised when I opened the files and saw you looking like one of my aunties. It has to be said, the costume is less than flattering and the wig is absolutely ghastly, isn’t it?
It depends what way you look at it, if you look at it from the point of view of glamour, then yes. The wig is absolutely brilliant, it’s one of the best wigs I’ve ever had. It’s exactly what I wanted, and I insisted that this wig… because often wigmakers make you wigs with twice as much hair as anybody actually has, and they don’t look real and you’re messing around with it. I said specifically what I wanted and the wigmaker did exactly what I said, and we’ve got a very good assistant who dresses the wig and it’s just brilliant.
Don’t forget this play is set in 1980, so a woman in her mid-sixties in 1980, looked very different. I mean, I’m 62, and I dress in jeans, but my mum didn’t, she dressed for her age. It’s great for me to immerse myself in this woman and to look completely different. I always like to play a role where people say, “oh, I didn’t recognise you”, and that hasn’t happened in a while, because I’m quite well known.
Do you worry that you might turn into a national treasure?
I hate that phrase. It’s lovely that people like me and admire what I do, but I don’t like that phrase. It was quite nice, on my birthday, I was walking around a park and this girl was walking around on her mobile and she suddenly came over to me and said, “I’m sorry to bother you, but my mum would like to speak to you,” and she gave me the phone and her mum said, “Oh, Mrs. Steadman, I’d just like to wish you a happy birthday”. I thought that was really nice.
Enjoy, 27 October – 1 November, Chichester Festival Theatre, Oaklands Park, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 6AP.
Box office 01243 781312.
www.cft.org.uk
January 11th, 2010 at 10:38 pm
I saw Alison play Ella in “Soft or a Girl” on 1971, at the Everyman Theatre. I have never forgotten her performance – I can’t remember a lot about the play but to this day I can still picture Alison sat at a dressing table doing her hair. She was SO funny! In the interval we met up for a drink with Drew Dawson who I believe was Stage Manager there at the Everyman – my boyfriend Mike had been ASM at the Neptune Theatre, so they were friends. I heard Alison talking to a cast member about the characters in the play. She said something like, “There really are people just like that you know!”
I have taken an interest in the work of Alison ever since. She makes me smile.
Lovely to read this page.
Eva Stevens nee Coppock.