February 17, 2022 • 38 mins
Arden and Julie Anne continue their conversation (started during the chat with rock icon Joan Jett) with Adjoa Andoh - Lady Danbury of Bridgerton herself! They chat about her early years as a young punk living in the English countryside, making history with putting on an all women of color production of Richard II, the magic of playing the Lady Danbury, finding and owning her voice, and more!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
Hello, that's no need distress. She's lad. Hello, and welcome
to another episode of Lady of the Road. My name
is Arda Marina and I am coming to you from
(00:31):
my garage in Los Angeles, California. You may know me
from the Netflix show Insatiable, from Chelsea Lately, from my
Bachelor theme podcast Will You Accept This Rose? Or my
book little Miss Little Compton. Joining me is my co host,
superstar director producer Julianne Robinson. Tell the people where they
may know you from Julianne. I recently directed Bridgetin for Netflix.
(00:55):
Hell yeah, you did, Hi, Julianne, how are you? I'm good.
I felt very excited. For those of you didn't listen
to our first episode, you should definitely listen to it.
Other we got to talk to Joan Jet. Yeah, and
what I liked was that Joan was giving me some
really really solid self help advice. Yes, which that's why
(01:15):
a really good reason to listen to it, because we
all need that. And what better mental could you have
than than Joan Jet. I don't think there is anybody
on earth that you could put your trust and like
a sort of your guiding beam in that's better than
Joan Jett. I think she's she's number one, and then
maybe like way down below is like Oprah, but it's
(01:37):
got to be number one Joan Jet. I also have
to say, coming up a little bit in this podcast,
we have part two. We have if you guys didn't
listen last time, not only do we have Joan Jet
on the podcast. Not only do we have Carrie and Brinkman,
who is the head of black Heart Records, we also
had joined in a surprise super fan of Joan Jet,
(01:59):
who also happens to be a superstar in her own right,
Adua and Oh, who plays Lady Danbury on Bridgertain And
we were so excited about her that we are going
to have a full interview with her later in the podcast.
Should I list off her credits right now? I feel
like I should write go ahead, go ahead, you guys.
To say that we're thrilled to talk to this woman
(02:20):
is an understatement. She is a legendary British actress and
Oh she is an actress of stage, film, television. She
truly does some scene stealing work as Lady Danburry on
the worldwide Netflix smashed Bridgertain which has streamed in over
sixty three million households and counting. She's also known for
(02:40):
her work on the cult hit Doctor Who, as well
as a beloved British show, Casualty. She also did an
all female production of Richard the Second playing Richard the
Second at the Globe Theater that got rave reviews. She's
also one Awards for her voice over work. She reads
audio books and she has one audio book of the Year.
She's a human sanitarian. Her ted talk is a musty.
(03:02):
So later on coming up, we have and oh, all right, Julian,
I know that we're both big dreamers, were ambitious people,
but we both get nervous. We both get like social
anxiety and a little bit shy going into situations. Yeah,
what did you take from Adua? Like coming up? Like,
what what inspired you that you might put in your
(03:24):
pocket and bring with you in the next situation that
you get nervous in. I think it doesn't matter. It
just doesn't matter if you're feeling a bit anxious or
you're getting in your own head. And when I see
my kids doing that to themselves, I just recognize it
and I really feel for them. But I think if
you can catch yourself in that moment of anxiety, or
(03:46):
getting in your own head. It doesn't matter. Just keep going,
keep going anyway, and that is that's literally all you
can do. And that's really what I got out of
talking to both Joan and at DUA. I know it's
interesting that Joan still gets not staged right, but some
nerves and I do think there's something to the idea
of it may not go away, so that to expect
(04:07):
that you have to be perfectly cooked, so this magical
day when you won't feel the fear, but that it's
almost like you have to feel the fear and do
it anyway. Yeah, yeah, I think that's very true for
our our listeners out there. There's a woman who has
really helped to give birth to this podcast, and she's
our producer and we would love for her just to
sort of join in. She's a young woman who you know,
(04:29):
she's a young businesswoman. She's a producer at I Heart Radio,
and she's a very good friend of mine and I
always love hearing her perspective. Please welcome Anna host Na.
Hi Anna, Hi, how are you guys? So good? It's
nice to have you on the program. Thanks for having me.
You know one thing that Julianna and I were talking
about earlier this week, and again I don't know exactly
(04:51):
sure when this is going to air, but we were
talking about just the idea of visibility and being seen,
and you know, with the worldwide success of Bridgerton. There
was this big article about Julianne in Deadline, which was
this beautiful article, but it was interesting saying maybe you
could explain to our listeners, which I related to. And
it actually made me feel so much better that you
(05:12):
have this too, that your body had a physical reaction.
Was it when you were actually getting interviewed or was
it when it came out? You know, because the thing
is I never read reviews and I never read previews,
so I've been in a bit of a bubble and
that's just a very strict rule of mine. I just
don't do that. And somebody told me, no, you really
(05:33):
should read this article, and so I took a really
deep breath and I was reading it and I thought,
I just really really really liked it. That's what you
really listened. And yes, it was so meaningful to me
that I was kind of shaking when I was reading it.
I was like, Oh, somebody cares enough to write this. Yeah,
(05:55):
it's been interesting even just like I love the idea
of doing this podcast with you of somebody who has
been behind the scenes, who is such an interesting person,
and it's like Anna, like, but both of you do
you have visceral reactions. The more visible you get in
the world, like has is it hard for you to
feel like it's like, I know you all our workhorses,
(06:17):
and you put in the work, but to step into
your light and like shine a little bit and to
be visible. Is there any part of your brain that
sort of like reacts to that in a certain way. Well,
I'm you know, I was raised by Persian immigrants, so
a lot of cultural issues I have is to not
stand out, like keep my head down, do the work,
(06:37):
and not you know, kind of be the showy person
of look at what I'm doing, Look how well I'm doing.
And that's always kind of been a struggle for me
because I don't know how to promote myself in any way.
I don't know how to stand up for myself. Is
that true for the boys in your family? It's complicated
because you know, men and women are treated somewhat differently
(06:58):
in Middle Eastern cultus, and that's a bit of a generalization.
But like each culture is somewhat different, but the main
idea is that the boy is the kind of golden
child and the woman is kind of there to make
sure everything works behind the scenes. And that's kind of
how I've always lived my life and that's why I'm
a producer now, is I always make sure everything is
running behind the scenes and that everyone else sounds and
(07:19):
looks great, which is hard to break out of when
you've kind of been raised in that cultural atmosphere. It's
an interesting thing, like I I know that I'm a performer,
but there is always there's almost like I could only
get to a certain place, like my brain, my programming
was like a certain amount of visibility or success was acceptable,
and then past a certain point was almost like who
(07:41):
do you think you are? Like look at you like that.
There's almost felt dangerous to be visible in a certain way.
And I think there was periods of my life where
I pulled my punches a little bit, where it felt
safer that somehow if I was too visible, it would
somehow hurt other people in my life, and um, you know,
there was just some shaming that happened around like I
(08:03):
wasn't outwardly bragging about something. But there is something about
that just felt like it made me feel a little
bit like a target. And I think that that really
relates to the conversation that we had with Ada and
her childhood and how she grew up. Well, she would
get into that. Now. Yeah, let's do it, so part
two with the wonderful lady Danbury Adua and oh enjoy.
(08:31):
Should I just dive it. I've got a question for you.
We touched on it a little, but I was going
to ask you, so we know what Joan was doing
when she was twelve. She was already going to clubs
and pretty out there clubs. So was I really Yeah,
there was a club in Bristol. So my mother married
my father, who's going in and she had a friend
(08:51):
called Yvonne. And Yvonne also married again, and they were
both called Frank and Yvonne and my mom both ends
up getting divorced from their Frank's but they stayed friend
for the rest of their lives. In fact, Vonne became
a white witch as an older lady. Wow. Interesting, Yeah,
it was so anyway, if one had two kids and
(09:12):
mom and dad had me and my brother and they
were like the other mixed race conn kids that I knew,
and they lived in Bristol, which was like the Great
Metropolis as far as I was concerned, because we had
two busses a week and a lot of sheep what
I was. So I would go into Bristol and I
would stay at Ivan's and I would go clubbing with Larco,
her daughter, Larco Jinja, and because at that time Vonn
(09:35):
was going out with this guy who was a banter
at this club. His name was Chips and he was
about nine ft twelve tall, black guy, shaven head, big
goddeer in which so this is ninety five, and there
was a club called the dug Out in Bristol. If
you go online, there's a whole bunch of people who
always had to dugout. And so I started going to
dug Out when I was twelve. I had a big
(09:59):
afro high waister Oxford bags. We used to wear little
Denham waistcoats, and I had half a bottle of Charlie
on you know, Oh yeah, I know, Charlie Charlie Girl,
Charlie girl, because you'd be more sophisticated if you felt
like half a bottle of Charlie Ei. There as photos
of you as a Charlie girl, because you sound amazing.
I don't think that. I don't think people we didn't
take photos, then you just kind of got it. But
(10:21):
I was allowed to go to this club at twelve
because Chicks was on the door, and you know, nobody
was going to mess with me because I was connected
to Chicks. And the Dugout was the club in Bristol
that everybody went to who was slightly out there. So
if a punk band was in town, they would always
end up down at the dug Out. If there was
a scar band in town, if there was a reggae
(10:41):
band in town, everybody would always end up at the
dug Out. The dug Out burnt down eventually it was
a death track. There was a tiny, narrow door and
it literally was set lots of rooms in a cramped basement.
Help the safety. When I was fifteen in the northeast
of England in a place called Cramling Town which is
north of Newcastle, we used to travel into town and
(11:05):
we used to go to this place called Tuxedo Junction.
And Tuxedo Junction was do you remember it was the
height of sophistication, Well was it? There were all these
tables around dance floor. Was there one of these in Bristol? Yeah,
it was called the Locano in Bristol, exactly the same,
and it was organized This is amazing. It was organuys
by the school. So you would go and you'd sit
(11:28):
on the tables, and then the guys would be on
tables and they would phone your table and they go
the one in next to you. I want to meet
her on the floor, tell her, tell her that I fancier,
and then I want to meet her on the floor.
It's a great idea. And then I was always just
sitting there like this. Nobody would ever phone for me.
(11:51):
Julianne I actually said that about them, saying I want
I'd be like my heart just fell into my guts,
because that would be that gives me hot, hot fluffed.
At the end of the disco. They all used to
play nights in white Satin, and that would be the
moment where I would always go to the toilet. I'm
not standing here like this, humiliated, bearable, all the dancing
(12:17):
all night and then we get night like a telephone.
Oh my god, isn't it awful. That's I don't know
whether it's specifically Jordy or what you know, But how
big was the town that you grew up in? You
I grew up in a town with three thousand people
in cows in Rhode Island. I know. Julianne said she
(12:38):
thinks that we grew up in similar kind of villages.
Mine was a thousand, okay, you v there were there
were sixty kids in my whole school. I had nine
nine people in my ninth grade class, three boys, six
girls and look at us now, girl, we were fighting
to get dodge. It's like, it's got to be more
(12:59):
to life with I know Juliana and I were talking
about that last night. I actually feel like it was
sort of a gift in that when you're so isolated,
if you have that burning drive, there's no B plan.
You cannot have a B plan because it's so far away.
And like, I think it made me extra determined because
I grew up with a general store and no stop
lighting cows. Like it was like no, I was on
(13:21):
a mission to get out of there. Did you feel
the same way? Absolutely? Absolutely. It's really interesting because you know,
obviously I went to Bristol and then directly to London.
Do not pass go, do not collect two hundred pounds.
And then you know, all my kids in London kids
and my my eldest daughter. She's a linguist, so she's
lived in Chile, and she lived in Spain, and she
travels all over the world. And I remember she was
(13:42):
in Madrid. She did teacher training there for a year,
and then she was there for and after about eighteen
months she went, yeah, I'm kind of done Madrid. And
I was like, what do you mean, because I'm like, oh,
mad She's She's like, Mom, the thing is if you
come from London, you know I've done Madrid. It's right, yeah,
And I just think my kids don't have that thing
(14:03):
I have where I drive every day. At the moment,
I'm recording loads of audiobooks in North London, so every
day I have to drive to North London. And I've
I've found a group where I drive past bucking and
Palace every day and every day I drive past the
Babby that goes, yeah that you never lose that small
(14:25):
town thing. I will get that driving past Warner Brothers
and Paramount. I drive Paramount, I go look at the
Paramount gates and look at the Warner Brothers Watertown like
look at it. I can't believe it. You know, I
have the same thing, and I think I get it
from my mom. My Mom's American, but she lives has
lived for a very very long time up in the Northeast,
(14:45):
and she's the sort of person that enjoys an English
scan because it's got like raisins in it, and she
enjoys the raisins. And I think that's what it is.
It's like just finding pleasure in those things. It's really
im eaton. And you know, my kids have grown up
all over the world and there is a privilege to
(15:06):
just looking the world with wonder. So I appreciate what
you're saying. May I fan girl for a moment for
our listeners are out there who don't know. We'll only
do this for a short time because you must be
so fed up with it. It's just julian directed The
Pilot of Britain and Julianne was an executive producer on it,
and as we sat up top, miss Ada plays Lady
(15:27):
Danburry on Bridgertain and I just wanted to ask you
guys about the filming of the pilot, like when when
did you guys film the pilot? Is it the summer
of twenty nineteen. Yeah, it wasn't really a pilot. They
don't call them pilots, so it was the first episode. Yeah,
was it clear to you like this is something extra special?
Did you get that feeling while you were making it
(15:49):
that this was different than your typical job when we
met in the costume department that time and I came
in to say hi the costumes. Yeah, I think that
you felt that it was at that point already, didn't you.
You you felt quite strongly that it was going to
be something unique. I mean, I obviously I didn't know
(16:09):
that it was going to be this bonkers, but but honestly,
what is going on. It's beautiful and it's fun, and
it's cool, and it's sexy, and it makes you feel
and it's an escape and there's connection and anybody could
see themselves in it, and it's and it's a version
of Jane Austin that this never looked like this in
(16:30):
any area. Yeah, I guess I felt I don't know
if I should say this, and I may edit it out,
but I did feel it could go horribly wrong. I
totally meet too, Julianne. In what way I think I
felt it could go horribly wrong in any possible direction, frankly,
because it decided to embrace all those things you've just enumerated,
(16:51):
and that could be the thing that was like I
threw everything into the pot and it tastes like it
was too much. Yeah, I actually didn't know even right
till the end. I'm not sure right, you know, really
right to the end, which is terribly awful of me.
But because it was being so ambitious, and I think
(17:13):
the thing is when you risk all like that, then
you're you're always going to risk falling on your ask,
you know. That's why it's tremendous when it goes well. Yeah,
But I think I was always excited because I felt
it had the potential to be interesting because it's quite
a traditional form, you know. I work reading Jean Claydy
and Georgette Hayer loved, loved georget loved all that, loved it,
(17:35):
loved it, And I love the fact that I was
learning about history. I love things that sort of do
a stealth thing where you're you're watching one thing, or
you're reading one thing, or you're listening to one thing,
and you're actually learning something else at the same time.
So I always loved historical romantic things because it was
also something about the history as well as I like that.
So this one was doing that, but it was also
(17:55):
doing other bits of like the whole gossip girly angle.
It's so far. Yeah, so you have that, but you
also had the fact that there was a feminist trope
that was saying, you know, we are more than chattels
of women. And then you know the fact that there
have been people who have loved each other in bisexual
and homosexual relationships for as long as human beings have
(18:15):
drawn breath, and it was willing to acknowledge that, and
then on top of that to say, and actually, we
know we're doing it with bells on, but here is
the London that actually looks more like regency London than
any other drama you'll ever. You know, when you've got
twenty thousand three black people in London in this period,
and the fifth of the British Navy under Nelson, which
(18:35):
is the late seventeen hundreds of African descent, and it's
a big trading country, trading in you know everything that
we know it traded in. There's no way an all
white costute drama is going to make any sense, and
it's twenty one, so it doesn't make any sense. And
my god, after the year that we've had, you know,
the murder of George Floyd and all of that, as
(18:56):
well as the pandemic and all of the Trump nonsense,
this show, when it dropped, it felt healthy. It felt
like a healthy corrective in a fun, absorbable genre. And
I was so relieved that all those elements were in it,
because all those elements went fuck you his love, Yes, yes,
(19:16):
Julian Andrew's. I rewatched the pilot again last night, and
the balance that you struck with the beauty and the
light touch and the fun and everything's a little candy
color and everything do you handled it so beautifully and
everyone's performance was so great and it just worked. When
I came in. That was my mission, was the tone,
(19:37):
you know, It was to make sure that one element
didn't overwhelm the other elements so much as I'm a
Basilerman fan and I am genuinely, but I wanted the
emotions and the characters to sing out past the costumes,
past the settings, and from my main thought to myself
(19:58):
was always just what's the tone. What's the tone? You know,
and in terms of everything, every aspect that I was
involved in, and it was so much a collaborative experience.
It really was. Honestly, wasn't just down to me. And
obviously the scripts were great to begin with, but that
was what I think if I brought something to it,
(20:19):
that was what I tried to keep the mission. And
then obviously Chris was there with me doing all of
that as well. So just speaking of the visuals for
one second, did you have a hand in like the outfits,
the outfits for Lady Danbury, the collars and the hair.
You should talk about the hair as well. The hair
was amazing. I also here's here's some of there's some
(20:41):
fan appreciations. These are some tweets from people from her
first moment on screen with her glorious ruby red top hat.
I knew she was going to be something special, Like
there are so many Lady Danbury smoking with her hair
down and reading the gossip papers equals icon. That was
your idea, right, that was your idea. So my mother
(21:04):
is nearly six ft. She was my games mistress at school.
I'm just practic. It was bad and she's a history
teacher and she was the choreographer and she is still
my mom has swagger. Yes, So there was a little
bit of Lady Danbry, which is just a little homage
to Mummy. I love that. I think because of the
character in the TV series. She's widowed, and I wanted
(21:28):
to have the element of masculine and feminine in her.
So men of that period are canees and top Hat
the cane. The cane is supposed to represent her age,
I guess, but I wanted it to have a bit
of schwang to it as well, so it did. And
the thing about her smoking with her hair down, I
just wanted you to see her off duty. I loved it,
a lady of a certain age smoking a charut. I
(21:51):
think it's always fun. Just even just talking to you
now about this about it reminded me of just Joan
and carry An. I don't know if you heard up
top when we were speaking with them. She was saying
how John was almost like her second mommy, and that
John was actually stricter than her real mom. And that
scene in the second episode with you and that little
boy was so moving. What was that like filming that
(22:12):
scene with him? The thing he was writing, I still
have it on myself he gave it to me. He
was perfectly cast, perfectly cast. Well, I suppose part of
it was I really liked the writing of that scene.
I liked what Lady Danbree had to say because I
think that that's quite true for lots of lots of us,
the shouty, shy kids, you know, who are like, just
(22:33):
look at me, I'm going to be really a loud
because I don't want to see that. I'm quite scared, actually,
But I think that's true for lots of people in
the world, so it's certainly true for me. And I
think that sort of protective performative thing that people do.
So I would look at this little boy, and you know,
when you're actually playing scene with a flesh and blood
little little person in front of you, that's always really moving.
(22:56):
But I would look at him and I was saying
those things, and I was also saying, it's a four
year old me. Okay, you're going to go to school now,
you know, all that sort of thing. Because I look
back on some of my childhood moments and I go,
I just steal money out of my mother's purse to
go and buy bars of chocolate from the chocolate machine
that was directly next to the one store opposite our house,
(23:17):
and I would give this chocolate two kids at school.
I understand now that I was doing it is a
form of protection for me. And I remember thinking, and
I had this bright red dressing gang with a penguin
patch pocket that my Nana admitted for me. And I
was convinced that one of the neighbors must have seen
me and recognized me from my dressing gang and grasp
me up to mom that I've gone across rather than go, yes,
(23:40):
you're the only black girl in about twenty miles rockets,
you know. So I was flashing on all of that
when I was talking to this little boy. So that's
what that seems like for me. Did you always want
to be a performer? Did little you? Did she always
know that? That's what I'm fascinated to know. Well, I
remember my Nanna coming to stay with a woman called Daphne,
(24:04):
her friend, Daphne, who was wearing a lemon knitted twin set.
I remember that and had her hair, you know, perm
just so. And I remember Daphne looking at me from
these b d eyes, and I thought, I have to
make her like me. I kind of knew that, and
I remember going upstairs to my bedroom and getting my
copy of Mrs Tiggy Winkle Beatrix Potter at which I
(24:25):
could read. I was about three and a half and
coming and plumping myself on her lap, not Nana's lap,
and reading her Mrs Tigy Winkle, because that would make
her like me, because she would see how good I
was at reading. So I think I understood the power
of performance from that age. But I was the annoying
kid who would get my friends and we would do
performances in the front, you know, draw the curtains, be
(24:47):
a lot of net curtain involved, and we would charge
our parents to sit watch interminable crap from small children
running around. I did Shakespeare when I was like eight,
and I forced my sister to be in it as well.
Henry the Fifth I can remember particularly. I was McDuff
at age nine. I had a sword fight. I was mcdarth. Well,
(25:09):
that's so ambitious. I remember choreographing the planet Sweet, the
whole good stuff holds the planet Sweet. But I came
to Shaspeare much later. But I was in every school
play there was going. And in my village a girl
called Katherine Johnson, who went on to write Mama Me. Yeah, yeah,
I met her. Yeah, well, Katherine ridiculously. I lived at
(25:30):
number eighty one, she lived at number seven. My god.
So she was writing plays even in the junior she
wrote to play about the brainies. So there were always
school plays going on. I was in every school play
there was at primary school and at secondary school. And
we were only allowed to do drama if you're in
the sixth form doing a levels because it wasn't a
(25:50):
proper subject, so you could do it as a sort
of copy little hobby. So I always loved performing, but
I didn't know that you could do it. It's just
the seventies in the middle of rural England. Don't be
camp actors. You know, you go and work in the bank,
or you work for the civil service, or you go
to university, or you get a job in the hairdressers
or the garage. It just wasn't in the conversation. So
(26:11):
I was a good African daughter, and after several hiccups,
I went into a law degree and lasted two years
because I hated it. It's quite a long time, actually
two years. Yeah, I did very well and then I
packed it in. It made my father cry. Jos finished,
just finished. I can't finish it that I hate. I
(26:34):
don't care about landlaw, I don't want to do it.
Oh gosh. Contract. So I packed it in and by
this time this is too and I joined a black
women's group. I went to Greenham Common with my Black
women's group and encircled the base and did all of that.
And a woman and my Black women's group was in
(26:54):
the San Francisco Mean Troup. She was in England and
she was running classes. So I took up the hello
and I went to her drama classes. And then she
got funded to do a show in London and told
me to come up in audition trip. So I did,
and I just never went back to Bristol and I
lived in the squad and that was my life. It
was clearly your destiny. I mean just watching you on screen.
(27:16):
You in a show of scene stealers. You are the
scenes like you're the show stealer. So there are scenes steelers,
you're the show steeler. She's very generous as a performer. No, no,
not in a anyway. It's her essence, her essence, her voice.
It just jumped through the screen and grabbed me I
couldn't take my eyes off of you. It was amazing.
(27:37):
We're going to stop right here, We're going to go
to a quick ad break. Yeah, and we're back. Could
I ask it seems to me that I'm just really
curious about from this woman's group performance too. You know
(27:58):
all the leads that you played, was what was the
middle bit like between the women's collective and then to
playing leads in made a National Royal Court. Was there
a middle bit there? I think it's mainly been middle
bit to be honest you yet, No, Yeah, you know,
(28:19):
there's about six or seven years when I first started.
That's what I'm interested in because there's not much written
about those that I could find, No, because he recorded
that stuff. So my first professional job was an all
black women show and it's called where Do I Go
From Here? And it was this show was written by
this woman from the San Francisco Mean Troupe to Bora
John Wilson, and it was at a place called the
(28:40):
Drill Hall. And the Drill Hall was literally an old
the Drill Hall on Cheney Street, but the Drill Hall
was the place where it became this haven for socialist
feminist performance, for lesbian and gay work the drill hall.
We had a crash at the drill hall for the workers.
(29:00):
So when I wasn't working as an action, I was
working behind the bar at the drill hall. Jesse was
in the crash upstairs, and I used to take her
on the tube but nearly midnight in her buggy and
she's like, because I've finished my shift. You know. It
was just one of those radical brilliant I could cry
about how wonderful the drill Hall was and the work
was exciting, and you know, we did a panther one year.
(29:22):
My friend known as Shepherd wrote it. Who is she?
Sort of head of acting at Radan now called in
the Bunker with the Ladies, And it was set during
an air raid in the Second World War. So you'd
go from the bar downstair of it if you want
to get down in a bombs of cap fun and
you'd go downstairs. And then the show was a medley
of like the Andrews Sisters and will Meet Again and
(29:44):
all these beautiful songs in the Second World War, and
the audience was a combination of lesbians who'd come to
their panto and old people who lived through the Second
World War. I can't tell you. It was the most
beautiful show. We did dance routine, so trumpet players close
harmless with an inch of their life, and I didn't.
I did magic routines. Wow, I can't tell you. It
(30:07):
was probably one of my favorite things I've ever done
in my life was that show. The audience is only
about sixty people, but it was so nuanced, it was
so brilliant. So that was the sort of work that
I was doing then. And it's such a training ground
as well. And because I hadn't gone to drama school,
I would just shut up and watch, and I've done
all my life. It's like to steal from the pros.
(30:28):
So you know, when I first started doing radio, I
hadn't done any radio training, and I would just have
to watch people to see how do you turn the
script over and come back to the microphone online all
that sort of stuff. I remember I did a film
with Albert Finney and he was telling me things like,
you know, when you're talking to me, you look at
the my eye that's closest to the left. Pull your
face round, Pull your face round. That's amazing. I'm like, okay,
(30:52):
So my whole career was like what what do have? Okay,
I'll do that. I'll do that, you know, because I
was always waiting for the tap on the should went.
Did your train get off my set? Right? And then
I did three years on Casualty. I've got to tell you,
I did the whole city. I know, I know that
Julianne was excited to talk to you about Casualty. Yeah.
(31:12):
I did a crossover episode once, Oh my god, listeners
about Casualty. Casualty was a series that was set up
in the mid eighties. Came as a pushback against the
way the Conservative Party in this country was undermining the
health service. I'm still friends with mal Young, by the way,
(31:33):
are you? Because mat was he was my head of
drama person. Now I just go and have chats in
his office with him. And then it became this institutionist
e r was based on Casualty. Wow. Yeah, how bizarre
is that? Anyways? You know, somebody comes in the wheeled
in on the trolley, they have some life trauma. You
(31:53):
fix their body and then you fix their relationships. Come
behind this curtain into my little room for a minute,
and you know, five mistades are sort of but the
thing that's true. But during three years on Casualty. You
go into the recess room and the ways that had
been built on the Bristol sets of Casualty. There was
a concrete floor with a sort of square liner over top.
It was so brutal on your feet. I can't tell
(32:16):
you standing on concrete. It's pathetic, But you know, here's
an act of griping standing on concrete for three days
doing these little Now we're just going to intubate and
we're just we're just put the new You know, for
three days you'd go bonkers. But what three years on
Casualty taught me again? Watching the actor who plays Charlie Derek.
(32:36):
He's been on the show since the start. Derek was
a child prodigy in Northern Ireland with his twin sister.
He's the most stunning musician that you can imagine, and
he and his twin sister with these child musicians. So
he's done tiny things, he's done student films, he's done
this long continuous drama, he's done big movies. He's done everything.
But what I got from Derek is you come to
(32:57):
work every day and you have to discover the wonder
and the newness. It doesn't matter how long you do
it for so the discipline of something like casualty was
how do you refresh what you're doing, how do not
phone it in. I have a big thing about not
phoning it in. So when I was sixteen, I was
doing this drama. You can do a drama, but it's
a hobby really, and one of the things you have
to do is you have to go to the theater
(33:19):
and watch a show and make notes on the show
and then come up and write an essay about the
stage in the product blah blah blah. So the show
I went to see was David Hare's Plenty with Kate Nelegan,
and I was very depressed at the time. My parents
in the middle of the horrible, sad divorce and I
was anorexic, you know, like lots of teenage kids are.
(33:39):
I went to see this play and Plenty, set during
the Second World War, a woman is a secretary in London.
She goes over to France on special ops and she
discovers she's absolutely brilliant at special ops. She falls in love,
and then at the end of the war she has
to come back to England and now she's back in
gray post war London, being a secretary again, and it's
like there was a moment where she was her most
(34:01):
wonderful self, her most brilliant, her most capable self. And
I remember sitting watching this show that had nothing to
do with my sixteen year old life in the seventies
and weeping, and I understood that something had happened to
me in that moment from that show that had nothing
to do with my life, that resonated at a really
deep level with me. So whenever I've directed, or are teaching,
(34:23):
or when I'm performing, I'm always doing that thing of going,
don't phone it in, because there will be a sixteen
year old out there somewhere who needs you to save
their life today. And you know, it doesn't matter if
that's radio or TV or theater or whatever it is,
Bridget and there'll be somebody watching Bridge and somewhere in
the world there will be a moment in it and
it were a light bulb will go on in their
(34:43):
heart or whatever is going on for them, and you
will transform them in some way. And so I suppose
that's the thing that I've wanted to hone and that
Casualty said to me, practices for three years and you
never phone in. How are you going to do that
for three years? Because essentially you're going to be pushing
a trolley down the Corrida Latin at about what they've got.
(35:03):
How do you do that and make it feel like
it's urgent every time? Yeah? I always am curious about Like,
what would you say to little you dreaming upon a
star in your small town? Like what advice would you give? Actually?
Do you know what I saw that you did that
with the Bush? I saw a great piece that you
did with the Bush Theater. What would you say to
your younger self? Yeah? I suppose it's just that thing
(35:24):
if hold your nerve, trust your instinct, and if it
doesn't feel right, if it doesn't smell right, it's not right.
I love that. And when you find the thing that
is right, hang onto it and chase it down and
just pursue it because it will serve you well for
your whole life. I love that, and I love I've
seen a lot of your interviews, and I watched your
beautiful Ted Talk, which if if you guys haven't seen
(35:44):
her Ted Talk, it will bring you to tears. And
your message comes through so clearly of like your essence
of what you are inside of being true to yourself
and just honoring what's in there, and you're such an
example of that. And it has been an honor and
a pleasure to have you on as our guest. We
show appreciate your time across many time zones. And oh,
(36:07):
I should say one thing just to chime in at
the end here. I did Holby City, which was a
spinoff of Casualty. I directed that, and I was watching
my dailies the other day and horrified, No wonder, everybody
was so cross at me. But I directed that and
then I went and I did well. I did a
few other things. First I did something Viva Blackpool and
(36:28):
that was where Shonda saw Viva Blackpool, Love Viva Blackpool.
But I went on to do Gray's Anatomy, and it
was so weird because I've done all of that medical
drama stuff already. You had yours, I did, I got
my ten thousand. I was able to hit the ground
running with Holby City. It's really particular stuff, isn't that
(36:49):
you do that technically stuff, because you know all the
medical people are like they're watching it, like they do yeah,
but you know there is something interesting in that in
the U kay, they made all these prosthetic innards for
the operations. Sorry if there's a big gross, but but
for the insides of the actual operations, they would make
all these very expensively, make all these prosthetic organs that
(37:13):
were accurate. I don't know if you ever had to
deal with that on casualty, but on grays they would
throw in a heart or a bit of pig. All right,
I don't believe it. I was like, wow, okay, that's
so funny. Actually I was. My son was watching Saving
Private Ryan the other night. He hadn't seen it before,
(37:34):
and he was watching it and I was doing something
else and I just looked up and and you know,
somebody's intestines were like everywhere, and then we'd go, oh,
so gross. And I was like, what they've done them
really well. And it's just it's like, yeah, a casualty,
you're just like, oh no, that's really good. Oh well, listen,
thank you. We've used so much of your time. And
(37:55):
I'm really really grateful, been really not it's nice to chat. Actually, yeah,
this has been such a pleasure, and thank you so
much for joining us. Now, thank you for joining us
with Joan and uh you're just the best. We so
appreciate National Treasure, International Treasure. Thank you for joining us
ADUA and oh you're the best. Thank you, thanks for
(38:17):
having me. Yeah, thank you. Love to you. Oh, I
hope this guy is brilliantly it's amazing already, so far,
so good. We could keep this up. We should be
hard to top these. Thank you so much for your time.
Thank you, bye bye. Oh Julianne left,
Hello, that's no need distress. She's lad. Hello, and welcome
to another episode of Lady of the Road. My name
is Arda Marina and I am coming to you from
(00:31):
my garage in Los Angeles, California. You may know me
from the Netflix show Insatiable, from Chelsea Lately, from my
Bachelor theme podcast Will You Accept This Rose? Or my
book little Miss Little Compton. Joining me is my co host,
superstar director producer Julianne Robinson. Tell the people where they
may know you from Julianne. I recently directed Bridgetin for Netflix.
(00:55):
Hell yeah, you did, Hi, Julianne, how are you? I'm good.
I felt very excited. For those of you didn't listen
to our first episode, you should definitely listen to it.
Other we got to talk to Joan Jet. Yeah, and
what I liked was that Joan was giving me some
really really solid self help advice. Yes, which that's why
(01:15):
a really good reason to listen to it, because we
all need that. And what better mental could you have
than than Joan Jet. I don't think there is anybody
on earth that you could put your trust and like
a sort of your guiding beam in that's better than
Joan Jett. I think she's she's number one, and then
maybe like way down below is like Oprah, but it's
(01:37):
got to be number one Joan Jet. I also have
to say, coming up a little bit in this podcast,
we have part two. We have if you guys didn't
listen last time, not only do we have Joan Jet
on the podcast. Not only do we have Carrie and Brinkman,
who is the head of black Heart Records, we also
had joined in a surprise super fan of Joan Jet,
(01:59):
who also happens to be a superstar in her own right,
Adua and Oh, who plays Lady Danbury on Bridgertain And
we were so excited about her that we are going
to have a full interview with her later in the podcast.
Should I list off her credits right now? I feel
like I should write go ahead, go ahead, you guys.
To say that we're thrilled to talk to this woman
(02:20):
is an understatement. She is a legendary British actress and
Oh she is an actress of stage, film, television. She
truly does some scene stealing work as Lady Danburry on
the worldwide Netflix smashed Bridgertain which has streamed in over
sixty three million households and counting. She's also known for
(02:40):
her work on the cult hit Doctor Who, as well
as a beloved British show, Casualty. She also did an
all female production of Richard the Second playing Richard the
Second at the Globe Theater that got rave reviews. She's
also one Awards for her voice over work. She reads
audio books and she has one audio book of the Year.
She's a human sanitarian. Her ted talk is a musty.
(03:02):
So later on coming up, we have and oh, all right, Julian,
I know that we're both big dreamers, were ambitious people,
but we both get nervous. We both get like social
anxiety and a little bit shy going into situations. Yeah,
what did you take from Adua? Like coming up? Like,
what what inspired you that you might put in your
(03:24):
pocket and bring with you in the next situation that
you get nervous in. I think it doesn't matter. It
just doesn't matter if you're feeling a bit anxious or
you're getting in your own head. And when I see
my kids doing that to themselves, I just recognize it
and I really feel for them. But I think if
you can catch yourself in that moment of anxiety, or
(03:46):
getting in your own head. It doesn't matter. Just keep going,
keep going anyway, and that is that's literally all you
can do. And that's really what I got out of
talking to both Joan and at DUA. I know it's
interesting that Joan still gets not staged right, but some
nerves and I do think there's something to the idea
of it may not go away, so that to expect
(04:07):
that you have to be perfectly cooked, so this magical
day when you won't feel the fear, but that it's
almost like you have to feel the fear and do
it anyway. Yeah, yeah, I think that's very true for
our our listeners out there. There's a woman who has
really helped to give birth to this podcast, and she's
our producer and we would love for her just to
sort of join in. She's a young woman who you know,
(04:29):
she's a young businesswoman. She's a producer at I Heart Radio,
and she's a very good friend of mine and I
always love hearing her perspective. Please welcome Anna host Na.
Hi Anna, Hi, how are you guys? So good? It's
nice to have you on the program. Thanks for having me.
You know one thing that Julianna and I were talking
about earlier this week, and again I don't know exactly
(04:51):
sure when this is going to air, but we were
talking about just the idea of visibility and being seen,
and you know, with the worldwide success of Bridgerton. There
was this big article about Julianne in Deadline, which was
this beautiful article, but it was interesting saying maybe you
could explain to our listeners, which I related to. And
it actually made me feel so much better that you
(05:12):
have this too, that your body had a physical reaction.
Was it when you were actually getting interviewed or was
it when it came out? You know, because the thing
is I never read reviews and I never read previews,
so I've been in a bit of a bubble and
that's just a very strict rule of mine. I just
don't do that. And somebody told me, no, you really
(05:33):
should read this article, and so I took a really
deep breath and I was reading it and I thought,
I just really really really liked it. That's what you
really listened. And yes, it was so meaningful to me
that I was kind of shaking when I was reading it.
I was like, Oh, somebody cares enough to write this. Yeah,
(05:55):
it's been interesting even just like I love the idea
of doing this podcast with you of somebody who has
been behind the scenes, who is such an interesting person,
and it's like Anna, like, but both of you do
you have visceral reactions. The more visible you get in
the world, like has is it hard for you to
feel like it's like, I know you all our workhorses,
(06:17):
and you put in the work, but to step into
your light and like shine a little bit and to
be visible. Is there any part of your brain that
sort of like reacts to that in a certain way. Well,
I'm you know, I was raised by Persian immigrants, so
a lot of cultural issues I have is to not
stand out, like keep my head down, do the work,
(06:37):
and not you know, kind of be the showy person
of look at what I'm doing, Look how well I'm doing.
And that's always kind of been a struggle for me
because I don't know how to promote myself in any way.
I don't know how to stand up for myself. Is
that true for the boys in your family? It's complicated
because you know, men and women are treated somewhat differently
(06:58):
in Middle Eastern cultus, and that's a bit of a generalization.
But like each culture is somewhat different, but the main
idea is that the boy is the kind of golden
child and the woman is kind of there to make
sure everything works behind the scenes. And that's kind of
how I've always lived my life and that's why I'm
a producer now, is I always make sure everything is
running behind the scenes and that everyone else sounds and
(07:19):
looks great, which is hard to break out of when
you've kind of been raised in that cultural atmosphere. It's
an interesting thing, like I I know that I'm a performer,
but there is always there's almost like I could only
get to a certain place, like my brain, my programming
was like a certain amount of visibility or success was acceptable,
and then past a certain point was almost like who
(07:41):
do you think you are? Like look at you like that.
There's almost felt dangerous to be visible in a certain way.
And I think there was periods of my life where
I pulled my punches a little bit, where it felt
safer that somehow if I was too visible, it would
somehow hurt other people in my life, and um, you know,
there was just some shaming that happened around like I
(08:03):
wasn't outwardly bragging about something. But there is something about
that just felt like it made me feel a little
bit like a target. And I think that that really
relates to the conversation that we had with Ada and
her childhood and how she grew up. Well, she would
get into that. Now. Yeah, let's do it, so part
two with the wonderful lady Danbury Adua and oh enjoy.
(08:31):
Should I just dive it. I've got a question for you.
We touched on it a little, but I was going
to ask you, so we know what Joan was doing
when she was twelve. She was already going to clubs
and pretty out there clubs. So was I really Yeah,
there was a club in Bristol. So my mother married
my father, who's going in and she had a friend
(08:51):
called Yvonne. And Yvonne also married again, and they were
both called Frank and Yvonne and my mom both ends
up getting divorced from their Frank's but they stayed friend
for the rest of their lives. In fact, Vonne became
a white witch as an older lady. Wow. Interesting, Yeah,
it was so anyway, if one had two kids and
(09:12):
mom and dad had me and my brother and they
were like the other mixed race conn kids that I knew,
and they lived in Bristol, which was like the Great
Metropolis as far as I was concerned, because we had
two busses a week and a lot of sheep what
I was. So I would go into Bristol and I
would stay at Ivan's and I would go clubbing with Larco,
her daughter, Larco Jinja, and because at that time Vonn
(09:35):
was going out with this guy who was a banter
at this club. His name was Chips and he was
about nine ft twelve tall, black guy, shaven head, big
goddeer in which so this is ninety five, and there
was a club called the dug Out in Bristol. If
you go online, there's a whole bunch of people who
always had to dugout. And so I started going to
dug Out when I was twelve. I had a big
(09:59):
afro high waister Oxford bags. We used to wear little
Denham waistcoats, and I had half a bottle of Charlie
on you know, Oh yeah, I know, Charlie Charlie Girl,
Charlie girl, because you'd be more sophisticated if you felt
like half a bottle of Charlie Ei. There as photos
of you as a Charlie girl, because you sound amazing.
I don't think that. I don't think people we didn't
take photos, then you just kind of got it. But
(10:21):
I was allowed to go to this club at twelve
because Chicks was on the door, and you know, nobody
was going to mess with me because I was connected
to Chicks. And the Dugout was the club in Bristol
that everybody went to who was slightly out there. So
if a punk band was in town, they would always
end up down at the dug Out. If there was
a scar band in town, if there was a reggae
(10:41):
band in town, everybody would always end up at the
dug Out. The dug Out burnt down eventually it was
a death track. There was a tiny, narrow door and
it literally was set lots of rooms in a cramped basement.
Help the safety. When I was fifteen in the northeast
of England in a place called Cramling Town which is
north of Newcastle, we used to travel into town and
(11:05):
we used to go to this place called Tuxedo Junction.
And Tuxedo Junction was do you remember it was the
height of sophistication, Well was it? There were all these
tables around dance floor. Was there one of these in Bristol? Yeah,
it was called the Locano in Bristol, exactly the same,
and it was organized This is amazing. It was organuys
by the school. So you would go and you'd sit
(11:28):
on the tables, and then the guys would be on
tables and they would phone your table and they go
the one in next to you. I want to meet
her on the floor, tell her, tell her that I fancier,
and then I want to meet her on the floor.
It's a great idea. And then I was always just
sitting there like this. Nobody would ever phone for me.
(11:51):
Julianne I actually said that about them, saying I want
I'd be like my heart just fell into my guts,
because that would be that gives me hot, hot fluffed.
At the end of the disco. They all used to
play nights in white Satin, and that would be the
moment where I would always go to the toilet. I'm
not standing here like this, humiliated, bearable, all the dancing
(12:17):
all night and then we get night like a telephone.
Oh my god, isn't it awful. That's I don't know
whether it's specifically Jordy or what you know, But how
big was the town that you grew up in? You
I grew up in a town with three thousand people
in cows in Rhode Island. I know. Julianne said she
(12:38):
thinks that we grew up in similar kind of villages.
Mine was a thousand, okay, you v there were there
were sixty kids in my whole school. I had nine
nine people in my ninth grade class, three boys, six
girls and look at us now, girl, we were fighting
to get dodge. It's like, it's got to be more
(12:59):
to life with I know Juliana and I were talking
about that last night. I actually feel like it was
sort of a gift in that when you're so isolated,
if you have that burning drive, there's no B plan.
You cannot have a B plan because it's so far away.
And like, I think it made me extra determined because
I grew up with a general store and no stop
lighting cows. Like it was like no, I was on
(13:21):
a mission to get out of there. Did you feel
the same way? Absolutely? Absolutely. It's really interesting because you know,
obviously I went to Bristol and then directly to London.
Do not pass go, do not collect two hundred pounds.
And then you know, all my kids in London kids
and my my eldest daughter. She's a linguist, so she's
lived in Chile, and she lived in Spain, and she
travels all over the world. And I remember she was
(13:42):
in Madrid. She did teacher training there for a year,
and then she was there for and after about eighteen
months she went, yeah, I'm kind of done Madrid. And
I was like, what do you mean, because I'm like, oh,
mad She's She's like, Mom, the thing is if you
come from London, you know I've done Madrid. It's right, yeah,
And I just think my kids don't have that thing
(14:03):
I have where I drive every day. At the moment,
I'm recording loads of audiobooks in North London, so every
day I have to drive to North London. And I've
I've found a group where I drive past bucking and
Palace every day and every day I drive past the
Babby that goes, yeah that you never lose that small
(14:25):
town thing. I will get that driving past Warner Brothers
and Paramount. I drive Paramount, I go look at the
Paramount gates and look at the Warner Brothers Watertown like
look at it. I can't believe it. You know, I
have the same thing, and I think I get it
from my mom. My Mom's American, but she lives has
lived for a very very long time up in the Northeast,
(14:45):
and she's the sort of person that enjoys an English
scan because it's got like raisins in it, and she
enjoys the raisins. And I think that's what it is.
It's like just finding pleasure in those things. It's really
im eaton. And you know, my kids have grown up
all over the world and there is a privilege to
(15:06):
just looking the world with wonder. So I appreciate what
you're saying. May I fan girl for a moment for
our listeners are out there who don't know. We'll only
do this for a short time because you must be
so fed up with it. It's just julian directed The
Pilot of Britain and Julianne was an executive producer on it,
and as we sat up top, miss Ada plays Lady
(15:27):
Danburry on Bridgertain and I just wanted to ask you
guys about the filming of the pilot, like when when
did you guys film the pilot? Is it the summer
of twenty nineteen. Yeah, it wasn't really a pilot. They
don't call them pilots, so it was the first episode. Yeah,
was it clear to you like this is something extra special?
Did you get that feeling while you were making it
(15:49):
that this was different than your typical job when we
met in the costume department that time and I came
in to say hi the costumes. Yeah, I think that
you felt that it was at that point already, didn't you.
You you felt quite strongly that it was going to
be something unique. I mean, I obviously I didn't know
(16:09):
that it was going to be this bonkers, but but honestly,
what is going on. It's beautiful and it's fun, and
it's cool, and it's sexy, and it makes you feel
and it's an escape and there's connection and anybody could
see themselves in it, and it's and it's a version
of Jane Austin that this never looked like this in
(16:30):
any area. Yeah, I guess I felt I don't know
if I should say this, and I may edit it out,
but I did feel it could go horribly wrong. I
totally meet too, Julianne. In what way I think I
felt it could go horribly wrong in any possible direction, frankly,
because it decided to embrace all those things you've just enumerated,
(16:51):
and that could be the thing that was like I
threw everything into the pot and it tastes like it
was too much. Yeah, I actually didn't know even right
till the end. I'm not sure right, you know, really
right to the end, which is terribly awful of me.
But because it was being so ambitious, and I think
(17:13):
the thing is when you risk all like that, then
you're you're always going to risk falling on your ask,
you know. That's why it's tremendous when it goes well. Yeah,
But I think I was always excited because I felt
it had the potential to be interesting because it's quite
a traditional form, you know. I work reading Jean Claydy
and Georgette Hayer loved, loved georget loved all that, loved it,
(17:35):
loved it, And I love the fact that I was
learning about history. I love things that sort of do
a stealth thing where you're you're watching one thing, or
you're reading one thing, or you're listening to one thing,
and you're actually learning something else at the same time.
So I always loved historical romantic things because it was
also something about the history as well as I like that.
So this one was doing that, but it was also
(17:55):
doing other bits of like the whole gossip girly angle.
It's so far. Yeah, so you have that, but you
also had the fact that there was a feminist trope
that was saying, you know, we are more than chattels
of women. And then you know the fact that there
have been people who have loved each other in bisexual
and homosexual relationships for as long as human beings have
(18:15):
drawn breath, and it was willing to acknowledge that, and
then on top of that to say, and actually, we
know we're doing it with bells on, but here is
the London that actually looks more like regency London than
any other drama you'll ever. You know, when you've got
twenty thousand three black people in London in this period,
and the fifth of the British Navy under Nelson, which
(18:35):
is the late seventeen hundreds of African descent, and it's
a big trading country, trading in you know everything that
we know it traded in. There's no way an all
white costute drama is going to make any sense, and
it's twenty one, so it doesn't make any sense. And
my god, after the year that we've had, you know,
the murder of George Floyd and all of that, as
(18:56):
well as the pandemic and all of the Trump nonsense,
this show, when it dropped, it felt healthy. It felt
like a healthy corrective in a fun, absorbable genre. And
I was so relieved that all those elements were in it,
because all those elements went fuck you his love, Yes, yes,
(19:16):
Julian Andrew's. I rewatched the pilot again last night, and
the balance that you struck with the beauty and the
light touch and the fun and everything's a little candy
color and everything do you handled it so beautifully and
everyone's performance was so great and it just worked. When
I came in. That was my mission, was the tone,
(19:37):
you know, It was to make sure that one element
didn't overwhelm the other elements so much as I'm a
Basilerman fan and I am genuinely, but I wanted the
emotions and the characters to sing out past the costumes,
past the settings, and from my main thought to myself
(19:58):
was always just what's the tone. What's the tone? You know,
and in terms of everything, every aspect that I was
involved in, and it was so much a collaborative experience.
It really was. Honestly, wasn't just down to me. And
obviously the scripts were great to begin with, but that
was what I think if I brought something to it,
(20:19):
that was what I tried to keep the mission. And
then obviously Chris was there with me doing all of
that as well. So just speaking of the visuals for
one second, did you have a hand in like the outfits,
the outfits for Lady Danbury, the collars and the hair.
You should talk about the hair as well. The hair
was amazing. I also here's here's some of there's some
(20:41):
fan appreciations. These are some tweets from people from her
first moment on screen with her glorious ruby red top hat.
I knew she was going to be something special, Like
there are so many Lady Danbury smoking with her hair
down and reading the gossip papers equals icon. That was
your idea, right, that was your idea. So my mother
(21:04):
is nearly six ft. She was my games mistress at school.
I'm just practic. It was bad and she's a history
teacher and she was the choreographer and she is still
my mom has swagger. Yes, So there was a little
bit of Lady Danbry, which is just a little homage
to Mummy. I love that. I think because of the
character in the TV series. She's widowed, and I wanted
(21:28):
to have the element of masculine and feminine in her.
So men of that period are canees and top Hat
the cane. The cane is supposed to represent her age,
I guess, but I wanted it to have a bit
of schwang to it as well, so it did. And
the thing about her smoking with her hair down, I
just wanted you to see her off duty. I loved it,
a lady of a certain age smoking a charut. I
(21:51):
think it's always fun. Just even just talking to you
now about this about it reminded me of just Joan
and carry An. I don't know if you heard up
top when we were speaking with them. She was saying
how John was almost like her second mommy, and that
John was actually stricter than her real mom. And that
scene in the second episode with you and that little
boy was so moving. What was that like filming that
(22:12):
scene with him? The thing he was writing, I still
have it on myself he gave it to me. He
was perfectly cast, perfectly cast. Well, I suppose part of
it was I really liked the writing of that scene.
I liked what Lady Danbree had to say because I
think that that's quite true for lots of lots of us,
the shouty, shy kids, you know, who are like, just
(22:33):
look at me, I'm going to be really a loud
because I don't want to see that. I'm quite scared, actually,
But I think that's true for lots of people in
the world, so it's certainly true for me. And I
think that sort of protective performative thing that people do.
So I would look at this little boy, and you know,
when you're actually playing scene with a flesh and blood
little little person in front of you, that's always really moving.
(22:56):
But I would look at him and I was saying
those things, and I was also saying, it's a four
year old me. Okay, you're going to go to school now,
you know, all that sort of thing. Because I look
back on some of my childhood moments and I go,
I just steal money out of my mother's purse to
go and buy bars of chocolate from the chocolate machine
that was directly next to the one store opposite our house,
(23:17):
and I would give this chocolate two kids at school.
I understand now that I was doing it is a
form of protection for me. And I remember thinking, and
I had this bright red dressing gang with a penguin
patch pocket that my Nana admitted for me. And I
was convinced that one of the neighbors must have seen
me and recognized me from my dressing gang and grasp
me up to mom that I've gone across rather than go, yes,
(23:40):
you're the only black girl in about twenty miles rockets,
you know. So I was flashing on all of that
when I was talking to this little boy. So that's
what that seems like for me. Did you always want
to be a performer? Did little you? Did she always
know that? That's what I'm fascinated to know. Well, I
remember my Nanna coming to stay with a woman called Daphne,
(24:04):
her friend, Daphne, who was wearing a lemon knitted twin set.
I remember that and had her hair, you know, perm
just so. And I remember Daphne looking at me from
these b d eyes, and I thought, I have to
make her like me. I kind of knew that, and
I remember going upstairs to my bedroom and getting my
copy of Mrs Tiggy Winkle Beatrix Potter at which I
(24:25):
could read. I was about three and a half and
coming and plumping myself on her lap, not Nana's lap,
and reading her Mrs Tigy Winkle, because that would make
her like me, because she would see how good I
was at reading. So I think I understood the power
of performance from that age. But I was the annoying
kid who would get my friends and we would do
performances in the front, you know, draw the curtains, be
(24:47):
a lot of net curtain involved, and we would charge
our parents to sit watch interminable crap from small children
running around. I did Shakespeare when I was like eight,
and I forced my sister to be in it as well.
Henry the Fifth I can remember particularly. I was McDuff
at age nine. I had a sword fight. I was mcdarth. Well,
(25:09):
that's so ambitious. I remember choreographing the planet Sweet, the
whole good stuff holds the planet Sweet. But I came
to Shaspeare much later. But I was in every school
play there was going. And in my village a girl
called Katherine Johnson, who went on to write Mama Me. Yeah, yeah,
I met her. Yeah, well, Katherine ridiculously. I lived at
(25:30):
number eighty one, she lived at number seven. My god.
So she was writing plays even in the junior she
wrote to play about the brainies. So there were always
school plays going on. I was in every school play
there was at primary school and at secondary school. And
we were only allowed to do drama if you're in
the sixth form doing a levels because it wasn't a
(25:50):
proper subject, so you could do it as a sort
of copy little hobby. So I always loved performing, but
I didn't know that you could do it. It's just
the seventies in the middle of rural England. Don't be
camp actors. You know, you go and work in the bank,
or you work for the civil service, or you go
to university, or you get a job in the hairdressers
or the garage. It just wasn't in the conversation. So
(26:11):
I was a good African daughter, and after several hiccups,
I went into a law degree and lasted two years
because I hated it. It's quite a long time, actually
two years. Yeah, I did very well and then I
packed it in. It made my father cry. Jos finished,
just finished. I can't finish it that I hate. I
(26:34):
don't care about landlaw, I don't want to do it.
Oh gosh. Contract. So I packed it in and by
this time this is too and I joined a black
women's group. I went to Greenham Common with my Black
women's group and encircled the base and did all of that.
And a woman and my Black women's group was in
(26:54):
the San Francisco Mean Troup. She was in England and
she was running classes. So I took up the hello
and I went to her drama classes. And then she
got funded to do a show in London and told
me to come up in audition trip. So I did,
and I just never went back to Bristol and I
lived in the squad and that was my life. It
was clearly your destiny. I mean just watching you on screen.
(27:16):
You in a show of scene stealers. You are the
scenes like you're the show stealer. So there are scenes steelers,
you're the show steeler. She's very generous as a performer. No, no,
not in a anyway. It's her essence, her essence, her voice.
It just jumped through the screen and grabbed me I
couldn't take my eyes off of you. It was amazing.
(27:37):
We're going to stop right here, We're going to go
to a quick ad break. Yeah, and we're back. Could
I ask it seems to me that I'm just really
curious about from this woman's group performance too. You know
(27:58):
all the leads that you played, was what was the
middle bit like between the women's collective and then to
playing leads in made a National Royal Court. Was there
a middle bit there? I think it's mainly been middle
bit to be honest you yet, No, Yeah, you know,
(28:19):
there's about six or seven years when I first started.
That's what I'm interested in because there's not much written
about those that I could find, No, because he recorded
that stuff. So my first professional job was an all
black women show and it's called where Do I Go
From Here? And it was this show was written by
this woman from the San Francisco Mean Troupe to Bora
John Wilson, and it was at a place called the
(28:40):
Drill Hall. And the Drill Hall was literally an old
the Drill Hall on Cheney Street, but the Drill Hall
was the place where it became this haven for socialist
feminist performance, for lesbian and gay work the drill hall.
We had a crash at the drill hall for the workers.
(29:00):
So when I wasn't working as an action, I was
working behind the bar at the drill hall. Jesse was
in the crash upstairs, and I used to take her
on the tube but nearly midnight in her buggy and
she's like, because I've finished my shift. You know. It
was just one of those radical brilliant I could cry
about how wonderful the drill Hall was and the work
was exciting, and you know, we did a panther one year.
(29:22):
My friend known as Shepherd wrote it. Who is she?
Sort of head of acting at Radan now called in
the Bunker with the Ladies, And it was set during
an air raid in the Second World War. So you'd
go from the bar downstair of it if you want
to get down in a bombs of cap fun and
you'd go downstairs. And then the show was a medley
of like the Andrews Sisters and will Meet Again and
(29:44):
all these beautiful songs in the Second World War, and
the audience was a combination of lesbians who'd come to
their panto and old people who lived through the Second
World War. I can't tell you. It was the most
beautiful show. We did dance routine, so trumpet players close
harmless with an inch of their life, and I didn't.
I did magic routines. Wow, I can't tell you. It
(30:07):
was probably one of my favorite things I've ever done
in my life was that show. The audience is only
about sixty people, but it was so nuanced, it was
so brilliant. So that was the sort of work that
I was doing then. And it's such a training ground
as well. And because I hadn't gone to drama school,
I would just shut up and watch, and I've done
all my life. It's like to steal from the pros.
(30:28):
So you know, when I first started doing radio, I
hadn't done any radio training, and I would just have
to watch people to see how do you turn the
script over and come back to the microphone online all
that sort of stuff. I remember I did a film
with Albert Finney and he was telling me things like,
you know, when you're talking to me, you look at
the my eye that's closest to the left. Pull your
face round, Pull your face round. That's amazing. I'm like, okay,
(30:52):
So my whole career was like what what do have? Okay,
I'll do that. I'll do that, you know, because I
was always waiting for the tap on the should went.
Did your train get off my set? Right? And then
I did three years on Casualty. I've got to tell you,
I did the whole city. I know, I know that
Julianne was excited to talk to you about Casualty. Yeah.
(31:12):
I did a crossover episode once, Oh my god, listeners
about Casualty. Casualty was a series that was set up
in the mid eighties. Came as a pushback against the
way the Conservative Party in this country was undermining the
health service. I'm still friends with mal Young, by the way,
(31:33):
are you? Because mat was he was my head of
drama person. Now I just go and have chats in
his office with him. And then it became this institutionist
e r was based on Casualty. Wow. Yeah, how bizarre
is that? Anyways? You know, somebody comes in the wheeled
in on the trolley, they have some life trauma. You
(31:53):
fix their body and then you fix their relationships. Come
behind this curtain into my little room for a minute,
and you know, five mistades are sort of but the
thing that's true. But during three years on Casualty. You
go into the recess room and the ways that had
been built on the Bristol sets of Casualty. There was
a concrete floor with a sort of square liner over top.
It was so brutal on your feet. I can't tell
(32:16):
you standing on concrete. It's pathetic, But you know, here's
an act of griping standing on concrete for three days
doing these little Now we're just going to intubate and
we're just we're just put the new You know, for
three days you'd go bonkers. But what three years on
Casualty taught me again? Watching the actor who plays Charlie Derek.
(32:36):
He's been on the show since the start. Derek was
a child prodigy in Northern Ireland with his twin sister.
He's the most stunning musician that you can imagine, and
he and his twin sister with these child musicians. So
he's done tiny things, he's done student films, he's done
this long continuous drama, he's done big movies. He's done everything.
But what I got from Derek is you come to
(32:57):
work every day and you have to discover the wonder
and the newness. It doesn't matter how long you do
it for so the discipline of something like casualty was
how do you refresh what you're doing, how do not
phone it in. I have a big thing about not
phoning it in. So when I was sixteen, I was
doing this drama. You can do a drama, but it's
a hobby really, and one of the things you have
to do is you have to go to the theater
(33:19):
and watch a show and make notes on the show
and then come up and write an essay about the
stage in the product blah blah blah. So the show
I went to see was David Hare's Plenty with Kate Nelegan,
and I was very depressed at the time. My parents
in the middle of the horrible, sad divorce and I
was anorexic, you know, like lots of teenage kids are.
(33:39):
I went to see this play and Plenty, set during
the Second World War, a woman is a secretary in London.
She goes over to France on special ops and she
discovers she's absolutely brilliant at special ops. She falls in love,
and then at the end of the war she has
to come back to England and now she's back in
gray post war London, being a secretary again, and it's
like there was a moment where she was her most
(34:01):
wonderful self, her most brilliant, her most capable self. And
I remember sitting watching this show that had nothing to
do with my sixteen year old life in the seventies
and weeping, and I understood that something had happened to
me in that moment from that show that had nothing
to do with my life, that resonated at a really
deep level with me. So whenever I've directed, or are teaching,
(34:23):
or when I'm performing, I'm always doing that thing of going,
don't phone it in, because there will be a sixteen
year old out there somewhere who needs you to save
their life today. And you know, it doesn't matter if
that's radio or TV or theater or whatever it is,
Bridget and there'll be somebody watching Bridge and somewhere in
the world there will be a moment in it and
it were a light bulb will go on in their
(34:43):
heart or whatever is going on for them, and you
will transform them in some way. And so I suppose
that's the thing that I've wanted to hone and that
Casualty said to me, practices for three years and you
never phone in. How are you going to do that
for three years? Because essentially you're going to be pushing
a trolley down the Corrida Latin at about what they've got.
(35:03):
How do you do that and make it feel like
it's urgent every time? Yeah? I always am curious about Like,
what would you say to little you dreaming upon a
star in your small town? Like what advice would you give? Actually?
Do you know what I saw that you did that
with the Bush? I saw a great piece that you
did with the Bush Theater. What would you say to
your younger self? Yeah? I suppose it's just that thing
(35:24):
if hold your nerve, trust your instinct, and if it
doesn't feel right, if it doesn't smell right, it's not right.
I love that. And when you find the thing that
is right, hang onto it and chase it down and
just pursue it because it will serve you well for
your whole life. I love that, and I love I've
seen a lot of your interviews, and I watched your
beautiful Ted Talk, which if if you guys haven't seen
(35:44):
her Ted Talk, it will bring you to tears. And
your message comes through so clearly of like your essence
of what you are inside of being true to yourself
and just honoring what's in there, and you're such an
example of that. And it has been an honor and
a pleasure to have you on as our guest. We
show appreciate your time across many time zones. And oh,
(36:07):
I should say one thing just to chime in at
the end here. I did Holby City, which was a
spinoff of Casualty. I directed that, and I was watching
my dailies the other day and horrified, No wonder, everybody
was so cross at me. But I directed that and
then I went and I did well. I did a
few other things. First I did something Viva Blackpool and
(36:28):
that was where Shonda saw Viva Blackpool, Love Viva Blackpool.
But I went on to do Gray's Anatomy, and it
was so weird because I've done all of that medical
drama stuff already. You had yours, I did, I got
my ten thousand. I was able to hit the ground
running with Holby City. It's really particular stuff, isn't that
(36:49):
you do that technically stuff, because you know all the
medical people are like they're watching it, like they do yeah,
but you know there is something interesting in that in
the U kay, they made all these prosthetic innards for
the operations. Sorry if there's a big gross, but but
for the insides of the actual operations, they would make
all these very expensively, make all these prosthetic organs that
(37:13):
were accurate. I don't know if you ever had to
deal with that on casualty, but on grays they would
throw in a heart or a bit of pig. All right,
I don't believe it. I was like, wow, okay, that's
so funny. Actually I was. My son was watching Saving
Private Ryan the other night. He hadn't seen it before,
(37:34):
and he was watching it and I was doing something
else and I just looked up and and you know,
somebody's intestines were like everywhere, and then we'd go, oh,
so gross. And I was like, what they've done them
really well. And it's just it's like, yeah, a casualty,
you're just like, oh no, that's really good. Oh well, listen,
thank you. We've used so much of your time. And
(37:55):
I'm really really grateful, been really not it's nice to chat. Actually, yeah,
this has been such a pleasure, and thank you so
much for joining us. Now, thank you for joining us
with Joan and uh you're just the best. We so
appreciate National Treasure, International Treasure. Thank you for joining us
ADUA and oh you're the best. Thank you, thanks for
(38:17):
having me. Yeah, thank you. Love to you. Oh, I
hope this guy is brilliantly it's amazing already, so far,
so good. We could keep this up. We should be
hard to top these. Thank you so much for your time.
Thank you, bye bye. Oh Julianne left,
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