Zoe Telford: Work ethic

Interest in Islington actress Zoe Telford is growing fast, but as Jenny White realizes, it's not all about fame for her

Zoe Telford has kept her word. Having promised us during our first interview that she would inform us of her next project once she could talk about it, she gives us a ring and arranges a second meeting in a local Islington pub to fill us in. Despite a summer cold, Zoe still looks fresh faced and as soon as she begins to talk about her current role, her face positively lights up. “I am working on a three-part TV programme called Place of Execution,” she grins. “It’s part thriller, part morality tale and it is really fantastic. Dan Percival is directing it and I really wanted to work with him. I think as time goes on you get to know yourself a bit better and you can see who you are going to work well with, and I felt instinctive about working with Daniel.”

Having starred in the recent ITV programme The Palace, and with two new films on their way, Zoe is proving to be a regular feature on our screens. It will undoubtedly bring attention, but Zoe is in no doubt about her own view on fame. “I tend to avoid celebrity parties,” she says. “I just don’t have any interest in them. At the end of the day, all I am interested in is working with the best people who turn up do their work brilliantly. I am a stay at home kind of person. I have friends that are massive social butterflies and I live vicariously through them.”

Zoe’s choice to avoid the media attention that is part and parcel of life as a successful actress clearly stems from a distaste of the paparazzi. “I would love there to be better privacy laws like they have in places like France because I think it’s disgusting how much power the paparazzi have,” she says with conviction. “I couldn’t live with the paparazzi there 24 hours a day. That is why I like to keep things private because once you start allowing people into your life, they feel like they have free reign over you. Just look at the whole Britney Spears saga. Someone should really step in and stop it because I don’t think they are going to stop until she is dead.”

So, if Zoe is not out every night falling out clubs and bars close to her Islington home, what is she doing? “I like baking!” she laugh. “I am going to sound like such a bore, but I ordered this book called The Bread Bible and I got it in the post today – I was so excited! I am going to make Italian bread and pretend that I live in Tuscany.” Having been on location in Newcastle (Place of Execution), Lithuania (The Palace), as well as on set for her two current films – The Waiting Room and Bono, Bob, Brian and Me – you can understand why Zoe prefers to stay at home. “With The Palace, I initially thought that we would be filming in some amazing place in Lithuania, but instead we filmed in a tobacco factory,” she grimaces. “It wasn’t much fun unless you liked pork – that was all there was to eat! I hate being away from home for so long. It’s kind of unnatural to be away from loved ones, but you have to do these things as it’s part of the job.”

A homebody she may be, but Zoe is still determined to get work in the best films, and if that means venturing across the pond to Hollywood, then she is more than happy to go. “I wouldn’t mind working in Hollywood because there are a lot of good films that come out of there,” she considers, “ but I wouldn’t live there even if you paid me all the money in the world… Of course, if Quentin Tarantino came knocking at my door offering me a role in his new movie as his leading lady, then I might be able to find the time.”

With no second series of The Palace commissioned, it leaves Zoe with more time to concentrate on films as well as theatre, something she hasn’t done for the last five years. She admits she doesn’t miss the stage – “It scares the hell out of me” – but does feel she should take the plunge soon. Talking about The Palace, which we covered within these pages with the great Rupert Evans on our cover back in February, you sense an element of regret. “We started out with something very different than what it turned out to be,” she looks back. “I think people wanted and expected something else of the show and what we ended up with was a hybrid, and that is perhaps why it didn’t work. I really love doing film at the moment because, in my experience, the director has much more creative control and I think sometimes in TV that is lost.”

Having already worked with Woody Allen in Match Point, which she claims was “a fantastic experience” and that the director was “lovely”, it seems as if Zoe is already getting used to working with the best people in the film industry. That film also matched her up against Scarlett Johansson, then she starred with Edward Norton in The Painted Veil, and now she will be opposite Stephen Mangan and Rhys Thomas in the comedy Bono, Bob, Brian and Me. The latter follows a documentary film crew who track the first carbon neutral/organic/vegetarian expedition ever to attempt to cross the North Pole. Simultaneously saving the planet and getting into the Guinness Book of Records, Brian (Thomas) and Mark (Mangan) hope to kill two birds with one stone. Zoe plays Mark’s girlfriend, who we see later in the film having done something rather naughty. “It’s such a brilliant film, but I have a tiny part,” Zoe says modestly.

We decide to chat, therefore, about the eco-friendly theme to the film. “I try and do my bit,” she says. “I have a kind of war-time ethic when it comes to recycling – tins, glasses and papers… I recycle them all. However, I am literally rubbish when it comes to those reusable bags that you can buy because I just leave them at home. I have a mountain of plastic bags stashed away at home, but I guess at least I don’t throw them away!”

At the time of writing, Bono, Bob, Brian and Me is awaiting a confirmed release date, so first up in cinemas will be The Waiting Room. Starring Anne-Marie Duff, this British film opened the recent East End Film Festival and will also be seen at the Edinburgh Film Festival. It’s all about love, fate and being ready to meet the right person, and boasts a fantastic British cast. “I am happy to promote things like The Waiting Room because it’s so good,” Zoe adds, “although this is the part of the job that really makes it feel like a job. The acting isn’t hard work, especially when you are working on a film like The Waiting Room, which was low budget so everyone enters into it with such good spirits because it is not about anything else other than making a really good movie.” She may be a little under the weather today, but the future is looking bright for Zoe Telford.

The Waiting Room will be on general release on June 6. See more on the film at www.thewaitingroomfilm.com