| Welcome to Nikki And Helen. We hope you enjoy your visit. You're currently viewing our forum as a guest. This means you are limited to certain areas of the board and there are some features you can't use. If you join our community, you'll be able to access member-only sections, and use many member-only features such as customizing your profile, sending personal messages, and voting in polls. Registration is simple, fast, and completely free. Join our community! If you're already a member please log in to your account to access all of our features: |
| Kiki Mirylees interviews | |
|---|---|
| Tweet Topic Started: Dec 30 2006, 06:07 PM (1,041 Views) | |
| ekny | Dec 30 2006, 06:07 PM Post #1 |
In love with a prisoner
|
Was anyone able to catch (or capture) this? I'd've liked to have heard a sensible interview with her, she's gotten so little attention over the years & was so wonderful when given the chance to expand her role a bit. |
![]() |
|
| ekny | Feb 9 2008, 06:07 PM Post #2 |
In love with a prisoner
|
Well Hi there, e, long time! Yeah, it's amazing how you can just pick up some threads again after so long and it's as if... nothing's changed! Well, that's alright then isn't it, you can just pick up from where you left off. Huh. True, you have a point. Although calling it a thread is a bit much, I mean, it's like, whoa, barely a strand. Well, NOW it's a thread then, eh? Gerrof, I'm typing. Mo-om! She's BUGGING me...! (Am not...) (Are too...) <mmpphh!> *** So... I stumbled *again* over this site, but this time it looks like they made their formatting a little more accessible. Also in the year that's elapsed, people have gotten more able to save streaming media, so maybe they figured they'd just put up the interview: as I recall, you couldn't hear it without signing up, before. Anyway, whatever: this may or may not be the same interview that was a sound file in 2006 (there's no date on the page), but it's been transcribed so here you go: http://www.thesoapshow.com/interviews/kikamirylees.htm Soap week UK UK soaps Bad Girls Soap actor interviews Image: Kika Mirylees Kika Mirylees (Julie J, Bad Girls) For eight years Kika Mirylees was one half of British TV's best loved drama duo - the two Julies in ITV1's Bad Girls. As Julie J, Kika was one of the few actors to stay with the show throughout its entire run, involved in storylines that were at times comic, at other times very dramatic. When you auditioned for the role of Julie J you dressed in character to convince them you could do it, because it would have been cast against type for you, wouldn't it? Yes, they wouldn't see me initially. The head of the agency said “Oh, they won't see you for that”, but the girl who was later to become my agent was right behind me. Fortunately, I used to have my own theatre company and I'd done a three-hander with a really good soliloquy as a girl who was like Julie J and someone had filmed that. So I said, send the video in and if they won't see me after that, well okay. So, they saw the video and then they had me in. I went in and I never changed my accent all through the short-listing, until I'd signed the contract, so as far as they were concerned I had a south east London accent! That's the thing about telly, you see. Once you've proved yourself you're all right, but unless you're a celebrity you won't get cast as anything other than the person they see and know you as. I'd been in Darling Buds of May and had played a very upper class lady – very, very different. So what was it that attracted you to the role of Julie? Well, it was a job and I wanted to do it!! It sounded great because it was all women and we never get that many women all on screen at any one time, do we? When I had my theatre company it was for women mostly – I'm not a separatist, but it was set up to promote women in the business. I'm basically feathering my own nest because I'm a woman and I need to get work! Did you audition with Victoria Alcock? Only when we were short-listed. Obviously they had a lot of people going in, then they whittled them down to, I think, six of us. So when I turned up again she was there and you had to go in with each person and swap the roles. I actually went in as Vicky's character – I'd always played very dominant people so it was a really good chance for me to play someone very different. We were the last pairing to go in and I think they'd made their minds up before we got home. It had to have a chemistry and it just did for some reason. It's very rare for two characters in a series to be in most of their scenes together, unless it's a marriage or relationship. So, it had to work between you, didn't it? Yes, absolutely. Ultimately, Vicky and I would always laugh a lot together. I said to her just the other day, what I don't understand is why people don't play – I like playing! And Vicky was a good person to play with. As Bad Girls progressed, although it could be grisly, I think it got a bit light and a bit camper, didn't it? As someone there from the beginning, did you notice a change in the tone as things went on? Yes, I did. Obviously in the beginning there are loads of things you can explore, but I think there does come a point when you think how much more can you explore? But then, if it is character-led you watch the character develop and change as opposed to following the storylines too much. You have people like Natalie Buxton and Jim Fenner and I think people were watching to see what they would do next, rather than thinking what was the next plot line. Did you prefer doing comedy or the more dramatic scenes? To be honest, doing the cancer storyline was really important for all sorts of reasons, not just from the acting side. It was also a good opportunity for the two Julies to become really serious so you could see the connection between them. But it was heartbreaking to do that because I knew some of those lines were real because it was Chad's [Maureen Chadwick, the writer] sister. She lost her sister to breast cancer and she wrote it because her sister said “write this for me, I want people to know what happened to me.” It was deeply, deeply distressing and I remember rehearsing and breaking down because I knew those were words they must have said to one another. It was very distressing but also extremely important because I know her sister wanted it done. Of all the TV series that have covered breast cancer this had the biggest response and a wonderful knock on effect, with people finding help and support. How did you feel when you heard that Julie would go mad and kill Fenner? I was delighted! It was a great opportunity to be the one to kill Fenner! I'd never done horror before, like the Christmas special. When I had to imagine I was seeing things, you really do get caught up in that – well, you've got to feel these things or it doesn't work. I think it was a surprise for the viewers that it was Julie that did it. Yes, I do like the fact that [the producers] always went for the thing that you didn't expect. That's what was so great about Bad Girls, it was never predictable. Were you and the rest of the cast and crew surprised when you heard it wasn't coming back? I think we were surprised that ITV had dropped it when we got the demographic each time. Advertising had gone down anyway, for everybody. On top of which they always put us out in the summer, usually against the World Cup so what did they honestly expect? But, we held our own and it's puzzling to me, I don't know why you get rid of a successful series. For us, it had become a way of life, after eight years. Everyone was very sad because we all got on so well. It was a wonderful group of women of all different ages and a fantastic crew. It would have been easier if we'd had a final series so we could all have said goodbye and put it to rest. So what's next? We're playing, me, Vicky Alcock andd Vicky Bush, some dance numbers in gay clubs up and down the country – so if anyone would like to book us, there are a couple of numbers we thought we'd do together! |
![]() |
|
| Jeanna | Feb 11 2008, 04:50 PM Post #3 |
|
I said SIT IN THAT CHAIR
|
Thanks so much for your indefatigability in finding that! What a fascinating tidbit. |
|
H&N Music Vid by me and ekny Something To Talk About YouTube My BG Music Vids On YouTube My vids You Tube removed Click Here OR HERE BAM for Beginners BAM Channel | |
![]() |
|
| ekny | Feb 16 2008, 12:03 AM Post #4 |
In love with a prisoner
|
Well, the Compulsive One found another KM interview, this time at a Red Dwarf site! It covers some of the same ground, but I thought what the hey so I copied the parts that were about BG for here. If you want to read the entire interview, it's at: http://www.reddwarf.co.uk/index.cfm?frames...=interview.html --------------- [...] Finally, tell me how you got the role you're most famous for, Julie J in BAD GIRLS... I like character acting. When I went for the job, I didn't go as me, I went as the character, because I knew there were people who hadn't met me and I had to really, really push to get the audition. So I went in with a very short skirt, chewing gum - I looked disgusting! I think somebody rattled his change at me in Soho thinking I might be up for it! And I remember all these people looking at me when I went in, so I used the accent when I walked in, because I felt I couldn't risk going in as me and saying, "Oh yes of course I can do a south-east London accent." So I did it like that and had to come back for another go with about four other girls and we swapped all the parts around and they reckoned that it was me and Vicky [Alcock] who gelled. It wasn't really until I turned up for the readthrough and signed on the dotted line that I stopped talking like that! The relationship of the two Julies is really important - how have you found that chemistry with Victoria Alcock? It's been quite an interesting thing to do. It's two people sitting there and you have to be aware of the other person all the time. You just get so used to each other. We're fairly easy with one another, so I suppose that has a lot to do with it, but you just slot in anyway because you're together all the time. It would be a nightmare if you loathed one another. It really would be, you just couldn't do it. You have to be giving. And now you're working on a fifth series of Bad Girls... Well, you don't bounce out on the streets and they go, 'Oh Kika's free, let's give her a job!' You take what's there. If they do another one [after this], which they probably will, I will have the whole of the summer off, so I can do stuff then if it's available. But I'm a real horse woman - not in the sense of (snooty accent), "Oh let's all go out and have a jolly good time", I'm not one of those at all. I do a very, very alternative, more Western-style of training, and that's my passion. So I'm lucky at the moment as I get to do that and I get to do my acting. It's not bad, but it's taken a hell of a lot of time to get there, and I imagine it will only be for another year and then it's back on the streets girl! But wouldn't it be great if they did a [Bad Girls] film...? |
![]() |
|
| richard | Feb 16 2008, 11:42 AM Post #5 |
|
Enhanced
|
Thanks ever so much for those two interviews, ekny. It does draw attention to the fact that the Julies are known as light hearted , daft characters, the actresses got to handle more of a range of drama than is generally thought. The backstory on the breast cancer storyline is of definite interest and Kika must be given full marks for her handling of the bipolar mental condition. I found it frighteningly accurate and convincing. |
![]() |
|
| « Previous Topic · The Comfy Sofa · Next Topic » |







8:49 AM Jul 11