Set to return to ‘The Royle Family’', and with plans of another
series of ‘Spaced’, the sweetest girl on TV, Jessica Stevenson,
takes time out to talk with Paul Byrne about her new movie, ‘Confetti’.
Jessica Stevenson is one of those people who just never stops smiling.
It's a slightly embarrassed, slightly mischievous kind of smile, and
she's used it to wonderful effect in such TV outings as ‘The Royle
Family’ (playing the ever-ballooning Cheryl) and ‘Spaced’ (which
she co-created with fellow lead Simon Pegg). And now it's there
on full beam in the new Brit romantic comedy ‘Confetti’.
To be fair, the latter is full of shiny, happy people, ‘Confetti’
being a mockumentary following three young couples as they compete
in a magazine competition to find the most original wedding.
Stevenson's Sam is an MGM musicals-loving nut about to get hitched
to the similarly bananas-about-Busby Berkeley Matt (Martin Freeman,
better known as Tim from ‘The Office’). Competing with them for the
big prize of a spanking new house are ‘Peep Show’s’ Robert Webb and
Olivia Colman as a pair of naturists, and ‘Green Wing’’s Stephen
Mangan and ‘Man Stroke Woman’’s Meredith MacNeill as two highly-strung,
tennis-obsessed, yuppie go-getters. Some of you may feel as though
your remote control has gone on the blink here. "It did feel like
some kind of sitcom convention at times," nods Stevenson, that
trademark little-girl-lost smile breaking out across her face once
again. "We're all pretty much mates, and being able to hang out like
that, day after day, just play-acting, well, it was like we were all
going to the same school all of a sudden."
Shot over six weeks, from 8am to 8pm each day all of the actors remained
in character, creator/director Debbis Isitt (‘Nasty Neighbours’) shooting
over 150 hours of footage. So, improvising for 12 hours a day, for six
weeks solid - tough? Liberating? Joyous? A pain in the arse? "Oh, it was
a joy," says Stevenson, "it was an absolute joy to do. Because you're
totally submerged in your role, in your character, and you're basically
improvising in your character all day. Which, speaking for myself, and,
I'm sure, most actors, is just a joy."
Sweet. Still, given that Isitt spent six months locked away in her bedroom
along with her boyfriend editor, putting together the 100 minutes that
made the most sense, was Stevenson surprised at what actually ended up on
screen? "I was so surprised," she beams, "because she made us all look so
good. I was really surprised. She edited these amazing performances together,
and it made us feel like proper actors all of a sudden. Rather than just a
bunch of mates just messing around all day long."
For her part, Stevenson gets to deliver some tone-deaf singing straight out
of the Les Dawson School Of Music ("I can hold a tune really, even if it is
just in my bathroom"), whilst her preparation involved living the life of a
young, about-to-be-married couple along with Freeman in the movie's
semi-detached with mum Alison Steadman. Think Christopher Guest. Think
Fergus's Weddding, only funny. "Well, I'm a great fan of Christopher Guest,"
nods Stevenson. "Spinal Tap is one of my all-time favourite films, and I
think it's one of Martin's favourite films, actually. That style of filmmaking
is definitely done brilliantly by him. But when you're approaching a film
like this, you're focussing mainly on just the character, and you focus on
the relationships that are happening, because you're trying to make them as
real as possible. And Debbie was very keen to encourage us to create a real
environment, so she could just put the camera on us and see what happened.
She was very brave in that way. She didn't try to control us too much."
Given the crazy, crazy guys involved, there must have been a heck of a lot
of corpsing. "There was one day in particular, when Julia Davis - who has
won many awards for her amazing series 'Nighty, Night', and also, 'Human
Remains' - she came in to play the marriage counsellor, and I just couldn't
stop myself from laughing. And she was the same. We both just laughed
continually. Subsequently, and frustratingly, I don't think there's any of
that interview in the whole film, because we just laughed the whole way
through. Which, obviously, for us, was great, but for Debbie, it was quite
frustrating. I got a detention for that."
There's a telling line in 'Confetti', when Stevenson's good-natured Sam is
dismissed as a magazine cover contender because "well, she's a little dowdy".
It's something Stevenson has used well throughout her career, from early
sketch shows such as 'Asylum' and 'Harry Enfield And Chums', right up through
'Spaced' and 'The Royle Family'. Was there a decision early on not to chase
after the cheerleader roles, a recognition that playing dowdy meant more
laughs? "It's interesting. I think that, actually, the decision was made for
me, and, like most girls, I would have always preferred to go the cheerleader
route. I showed much more strength and inclination towards comedy when I did
my youth theatre stints in the National Youth Theatre, and all that; I just
fell into comedy. And I think I was just naturally more goofy as a child,
and as I kind of graduated and pursued it as a profession, it was just natural
for me to get into the comedy. I would do sketch comedy, too, and I would quite
readily don the padding, the wig, the limp. I enjoyed it more, so I guess
there was a choice, yeah."
It was during those early sketch show days that Stevenson first met up with
Simon Pegg, who, along with their 'Spaced' director, Edgar Wright, would go
on to make 'Shaun Of The Dead'. Pegg has spoken recently of returning to
'Spaced', last on our screens in 2001 - is that likely to happen soon? "Well,
we haven't had a chance to seriously sit down and discuss it properly,
because he's so busy, and so am I. But I do often have contact with him, and
we both say we must do something. And we both have so many ideas, so I think
that that will possibly come up soon, before we die of old age hopefully.
I'd like to do that, I really would."
The Greta Garbo of British sitcoms, Caroline Aherne, has resurfaced after a
few years in the wilderness by announcing that she wants to do a special
one-off episode of 'The Royle Family' later this year. Any definite word?
"There is definite word. I have heard, through my agent, that they're keen
to do a Royle Family special, and they want to know if people are interested.
So it's definitely on the cards, and I think that would be fantastic, to
revisit Cheryl. Definitely, I would love to do that...",/p>
Taken From: eventguide.ie