Jodie Whittaker: Yorkshire rose

She has played ball with Peter O'Toole, won over director Michael Attenborough and now she is set to become a part of the St Trinian's set. Jodie Whittaker talks to Mark Kebble about sticking to her roots, her break and working at the Almeida Theatre

It has been a long day of rehearsing for Jodie Whittaker, but that doesn’t stop her flying into a photo shoot with gusto. She looks like a natural in front of the camera, belying the fact that it was only two years ago that she graduated from The Guildhall School of Music. With the camera clicking for the last time, it’s time for the pub. What’s she having? “Sauv Blaaannnnccc.” Ah yes, there’s the strong Yorkshire accent too…
“I feel very passionately about Yorkshire,” she says, looking right at home outside a north London boozer with white wine on the table. “I think that’s why I keep my accent, but I never felt at home there. It’s nothing to do with family, but my mum says that, as a kid, I always had itchy feet. I never really did homesick – I went away for a year when I was 18 – and I like speed, so to be in a city suits my neurotic personality!”
She ended up in Muswell Hill and studying at the aforementioned school, before graduating and almost immediately landing herself a juicy film role opposite Peter O’Toole in Venus. The first we see of her – clothes too small, food in mouth and a look of disdain on the face – cries out ‘chav’, but the real Jodie is anything but. The conversation is energetic and intelligent, especially when she talks about her new stage role in Awake and Sing!, due to open soon at the Almeida Theatre.
This will be Jodie’s third performance at the iconic north London venue. We saw her there earlier this year in Chain Play, which was performed for one night only as part of the theatre’s major 2007 fundraising event, and she starred as Nadya in Michael Attenborough’s sell-out production of Enemies last year. “I keep fooling Michael into giving me a job,” she grins about Awake and Sing!, which will be helmed by the theatre’s artistic director.
“When I did Enemies last year it was during the summer, and so is Awake and Sing!, and there is something so addictive about Upper Street at this time of the year. Also, and this sounds cheesy, but it does feel like a family when you work at the Almeida – you feel at home straight away. Michael is amazing too because he was one of the first directors who gave me a theatre job outside of my accent. I went in with a really broad Yorkshire accent and I had to play English aristocracy, but he just let me find it out and gave me the opportunity.”
Now it’s Clifford Odets’ dramatic and vividly comic play that tells the story of the Bergers, a lower middle class, three-generation Jewish family living in a Bronx apartment during the 1930s who yearn for a better world for themselves. “It’s quite a profound piece because it predicts a lot of things that went on to happen politically in America at that time,” Jodie continues the story. “Odets managed to predict things. One of the characters, Jacob, is really philosophical and you could understand it if it was written ten years after it was. It’s also a really unique language – very poetic. It’s really great to get your teeth stuck into it.”
Jodie has had to dye her hair for the role – “I am still sulking – I like being blonde!” – but it has also given her a chance to lose that Yorkshire accent for a touch of the Bronx. “I think I have quite a good grasp of accents,” she says, wrapping her knuckles against the wooden table. “I have to otherwise I would have a really, really boring career. I have probably lost my Yorkshire accent a bit because I am down in Lon-Don [she accentuates dramatically], but Venus was amazing because it all worked around where I was from.”
Venus was a curious beast, but one that did receive the plaudits. Jodie plays Jessie, the niece of elderly Ian (Leslie Phillips), who is best friends with fading actor Maurice (O’Toole). An unlikely bond develops between Jessie and Maurice that takes slightly sinister turns as the movie progresses. It has been described as tough to watch by some, something that elicits a playful slap on the arm from Jodie. “Loads of people say that,” she says with a tut. “It’s such a brilliant film because it doesn’t gloss anyone. Jessie is not gorgeous and Maurice is in his 70s and at the end of his life. Peter is absolutely beautiful, but in some scenes in Venus Maurice is not a particularly handsome guy. It’s not very flattering and that’s so much more fascinating than it being sugar-coated.”
With Venus also being written by Hanif Kureishi and directed by Roger Michell, and featuring actors of the calibre of Richard Griffiths and Vanessa Redgrave, it was one hell of a part to walk into fresh from graduation. “It takes a lot for a director to cast you if they know you have got basically no experience,” Jodie reflects. “It’s not about acting when you get to the third audition – it’s down to if you look right, sound right, and your take on it is right. In my final audition Peter was there and that was just terrifying! Then you realize that when you’re reading with another actor, half of your work is done. When you are at home learning your lines, you are also reading their lines and you think you’ve got to do so much. The audition itself was a great experience – if I hadn’t got the part, it would have been a really treasured moment anyway. To audition with an actor, whoever it is, is just a blessing.”
She must have done something right, though, as Jodie became Jessie, who gradually turns into Maurice’s Venus as the film goes on. “To be sat around someone all the time, who has more experience than you can possibly imagine, was just so exciting,” Jodie speaks of the experience. “Two months hanging out with Peter O’Toole? OK, fine, I will take that! Had it not been someone as big as Peter playing that role, I’m sure Venus wouldn’t have done as well,” she continues. “We got on really well thank god – I think I wouldn’t have had enough experience to disguise that on film. It would have been apparent in the chemistry that something wasn’t working off set. To think that Peter is 73… It’s brilliant to know that someone still works their heart out to get a part and is still willing to learn new things.”
Considering the film’s success (O’Toole was even up for an Oscar), Jodie’s life must have changed dramatically since. “Not at all,” she takes a sip of wine. But what about the pictures of Jodie at awards with famous people (blurted out rather too dramatically it has to be said). “I have been to two awards!” she laughs and brushes aside the rubbish spurting coming at her. “On a Saturday I work in a pub.” Really? “Sometimes when you are filming you can do loads in a chunk, then you have got lots of time free. I could sit at home and think, ‘Oh I have had a really amazing year’ or be busy – and I prefer to be busy. And I really enjoy being in a pub. My grandparents ran a pub, my dad was brought up in a pub, so if I wasn’t an actress I would run a pub.
“It’s funny – when people come in I say ‘Hiya’ and about ten minutes later they come back and insist they know me. ‘Are you that girl in Venus?’, to which I nod and they all go, ‘Ah, are things not working out?’…” Jodie has a chuckle to herself about that, before continuing: “Work-wise things have been amazing. I have had a really fantastic response, and I have got seen for things that I would never have got seen for had I not been in Venus. But lifestyle-wise, absolutely no change. In January my dad had to pay my rent because I was so poor. He was like, ‘You are in a bloody magazine, so why am I paying your rent?’!”
It can’t be long before the tide turns, however, as her next screen role sees a part in the return of the St Trinian’s girls, out at Christmas. Starring the likes of Rupert Everett and Colin Firth, it certainly doesn’t hold back with names for the girls themselves – the likes of Talulah Riley, Lily Cole and Juno Temple will be donning the uniforms. “Honestly, it was such a good laugh,” Jodie beams. “Someone told me filming comedies can be the most stressful work you do because you are trying to make it funny, so there’s no sense of humour on the set. Whereas here, Olly Parker and Barnaby Thompson [the directors] really trusted us with the work. I rocked up, chavved up to the nines, playing Beverley the school secretary and I was really naughty. It was a case of do it and see what happens. I was gutted, though, because the other girls were in school uniform and I was playing a grown up.”
Even if films do start calling, she insists she won’t leave behind her first love: the stage. “If film roles get offered left, right and centre that means I can afford to do theatre,” she claims resolutely. “I don’t want to be chased down the street, I don’t want anybody to know who I am, but I would love the luxury of being entrusted to play really random roles. That only happens if you have got a body of work behind you, but there are far too many theatre roles I want to play to ever think I would go ‘I don’t want to do that right now’. Career-wise, as an actress, I couldn’t imagine not doing a play.”
Whatever she thinks, though, Jodie Whittaker is red hot property following on from Venus. Another performance at the Almeida Theatre certainly won’t hurt her career prospects, playing a part that she admits she can’t wait “to get my teeth stuck into”. Whatever befalls her in the years to come, it will have to wait – it’s way past 7.30pm and Jodie is late for her tea… It’s nice to have a touch of Yorkshire in Muswell Hill.
Awake and Sing! runs from August 31-October 20 at the Almeida Theatre, Almeida Street, N1. For tickets please call 020 7359 4404. See more exclusive pictures of Jodie at www.thisisanton.co.uk