In
2007 I was in Cardiff and there was a road traffic accident film on the tv called
COW, about a girl called Cassie Cowan.
There were a few familiar faces, Jonathan Owen was at the crash scene,
but I also recognised you as the Mum of Cassie.
It was a pretty shocking statement of what can happen if you’re texting
while driving, and it’s the brutal snapping of the necks of the passengers that
made me feel pretty sick. Have you
watched the film since appearing in it and has it made you more aware of the
dangers of texting or using a mobile when driving?
Adrienne: Yes, it has made me more aware of
texting/mobile use when driving. The film was made with Gwent Police and I
wanted to do it because I have lots of nephews and nieces who were going to see
it in their schools. The film was viewed more than a million times on YouTube
and attracted media attention worldwide.
How
did you get into acting and who was your inspiration for becoming an actress?
Adrienne: I wanted to be an actress from an
early age and was mad about period dramas such as Poldark, and of course Dr Who
was a must watch in our house. Angharad Rees, who starred in Poldark, had a
relative who lived up the road and I thought that if she could do it so could
I.
The
faeries were pretty scary in the episode Small Worlds and although a lot was
CGI, did you have an idea what the creatures looked like in order to give such
a terrified performance when Roy was facing his ordeal?
Adrienne: Yes, the special effects team showed
us the ‘working’ CGI to give us an idea of what we were up against.
Adrienne: Good question, I think we like to
explain the unexplained in digestible ways and creating mythical creatures is
an effective way to deal with the gremlins in life. Do they exist? Who knows?
And
do these stories hold a fascination to you?
Such as the story of Jasmine being a chosen one to travel through time
with the faeries?
Adrienne: Yes. I do think that sometimes you
meet people that you think have a very old soul and seem to have timelessness
about them
What
was the last book you read?
Adrienne: I have two small children so I am
slowly ploughing through Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. Will I ever finish
it? I hope so.
What
new projects are you involved in that you can share with us?
Adrienne: I have spent the last few years
concentrating on being a mum and my next goal is to develop a character as a
long running role in a drama or series. It would be lovely to do something that
is a comedy. I did a BBC Radio 4 play with Alison Steadman called Beyond Black
and really enjoyed working on a script that had laughs in it.
You
trained at RWCMD (Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama) was this before you
became an actress or since? It looks an impressive campus, with many actors
from the stage and TV on their list. Did
you meet any during your training who you later worked with on set of TV and
films such as Torchwood or Submarine or Holby City?
Adrienne: I trained as an actress at RWCMD and
got a theatre job straight after college. I’m good friends with several of the
actors that I was in college with. Rakie
Ayola was a year below me and is a close friend who did several years in Holby,
but wasn’t there when I did my episodes. I did the Merry Wives of Windsor with
Eve Myles at Ludlow Festival, so I knew Eve before filming Torchwood. Dougray
Scott of Mission Impossible and Xmen fame was a year above me. I could go on,
it’s a small network of actors in Wales and pretty much everyone knows each
other. I played Craig Robert’s mum in a short film called Oscar a few years
before filming Submarine and was so happy that he had got the role. A lovely
young actor.
Was
there a premise with Lynn Pierce, a background to her character?
Adrienne: Yes, there was an interesting
backstory about her and her partner. It
was about the tensions in a family between your children and new partner. Who
you love the most and what would happen if you lost them.
You’re
from Newport, same as Gareth David-Lloyd, what are your memories of childhood
growing up in Newport and has much changed over the years, when you spent 12
years in London had much changed when you returned to Wales?
Adrienne: I have many great memories of my
childhood, it was a time when as a group of young kids we spent most of the day
in ‘the dingle’ looking out for each other, caked in mud. Sadly as I got older
Newport became a much more violent place, with lots of pubs and nightclubs.
I thought returning home
to Wales was going to be so easy and when I came back it took me two years to
adjust to life back home. I missed my London life but loved spending more time
with my family and yes everything was different.
When
you were 12 what did you want to be when you grew up?
Adrienne: I was clear from the age of four that I would
be an actress. Strange really as no one in the family did anything to do with
the arts.
Who
was Doctor Who when you were 12 and which is your favourite Time Lord as an
adult?
Adrienne: Tom Baker. I loved his scarf and
fruity voice. It made the scary bits easier to watch.
As an adult, Christopher
Eccelston is my favourite Time Lord. He is a brilliant, charismatic actor.
Russell T Davies is a genius and brought Dr Who into the new millennium. Thank
you Russell.
What
was the last film you went to see?
Adrienne: We took our children, aged 3 and 18
months at the time, to a Sunday children’s film club. The new Tin Tin movie was
on and was too much for them to take. We lasted 10 minutes.
You
were a newsreader on Doomsday for the Tardisodes (1 min piece before the
episode) was it from this performance that you were chosen for Lynn in
Torchwood?
Fans
Questions:
Kirsty
Price: How did Adrienne O’Sullivan
manage to get her level of emotion to that level when Jack gave Jasmine away?
Adrienne: The challenge in acting is getting
the level of emotion accurate and you often have to do the scene lots of times.
You just get in to the zone and hope your ‘honesty’ comes through on
screen.
Pauline
Howard: Just wondered if you had any
funny moments working on Torchwood as I know John and Eve got up to mischief,
bet they made you laugh when you were meant to be sad?
Adrienne: It was a great laugh. You are
reacting to thin air; you have a large wind machine blowing you over and lots
of other people dealing with the same level of surrealness. It is hilarious and
all of the Torchwood team were a hoot.
Claudia
Lindner: It’s often heard from actors;
don’t work with children or animals, because you can only lose then. So how was it working with a child actor, how
different and in which way was it compared to working with adult colleagues?
Adrienne: I find that you have to be rock
solid on your lines and be really focussed when working with children as they
may not have done much acting or there will be a tight timescale to get the
scenes filmed. So I spend time getting to know them, making them feel that its
fine whatever happens.
Whether you work with a
child or adult it all depends on their personality, experience, the atmosphere
on set, scenes to be filmed and the relationship that the director develops
with you.
Jess
Emma Towey: In TW how easy or difficult
was it to act with the faeries considering they were special effects added
later, did they use props or were you just given directions where to look?
Adrienne: We were given directions, such as,
‘look at the last tree in the row follow your eye line across the tops of the
trees – when the faeries reach a certain point they will fly at you’. It is
trickier than acting with real people. The Dr Who tardisode was harder as I was
in a small room imagining that explosions were going off and I was about to
die. I did feel a bit silly between takes.
Special
thanks to Arts & Business Cymru for the use of their photograph of Adrienne in a stunning outfit that was
taken at the Arts & Business Cymru 2013 Awards. With thanks to Suzanne Packer, Simon Harris
and Glenn Edwards, the photographer.
BBC Torchwood
BBC Doctor Who
Google search
Gwent Police for Road Safety film
No comments:
Post a Comment