We spoke to young actress Amy James-Kelly about her upcoming short film

I met up with actress Amy James-Kelly to talk about going from Maddie to Martha, life as a young actress and her upcoming short film, ‘Last Summer’.

You’re best known for playing Maddie in Coronation Street and Martha in ITV’s period drama Jericho. How did you get into acting?

Acting was always my dream, well, since I was nine. I started the Manchester School of Acting (MSA) when I was 14. I was faced with a rather difficult decision when it came to my A-levels: I had to choose between a more scientific path or an artistic one. I wanted to go into radiotherapy, and work with cancer patients. I was good at the sciences but maths was more of a problem and I loved acting, drawing, writing… So I went down the art route, continued acting and absolutely loved it.

I was very lucky to take part in a showcase at MSA for our parents to watch, and there were a few people there, scouting new actors, that’s how I got signed with my first agent. She got me an audition for Corrie, and that’s how I was cast as Maddie. I got the news on the bus back from college and I wasn’t allowed to tell anybody for so long.

I was barely 18 and juggling it with my A-levels and driving lessons. I had to be away from school for a long time but nobody knew why, and there was this guy who started a rumour about how I was in hospital. I adored being on Corrie, it was an amazing first experience and I loved learning on the job. I left after 18 months because I wanted to see more of the TV world and I was still trying to see where I fit in the industry. I also worked behind the scenes after Jericho finished.

So, Last Summer, your upcoming short film, it’s your first ever writing project. Where did you get the inspiration for it?

My mum told me about this play she performed in when she was 16, and it fascinated me, especially the last scene – I always loved how it sounded. I never intended to write my own screenplay from scratch. I started looking for the original script: I went to the archives centre, searched birth, death, and marriage certificates to look for the writer, but never found her or her script. I was ready to give up but my friend Elliot [Barnes-Worrell, ‘Easter’ in Jericho] gave me the motivation to keep going and write my own script with the knowledge I already had. That night I stayed up until 3am.

The first thing I thought of was the very last shot; I wanted everything to build to that. I got together some scenes for the film, I knew exactly how everything would look. I had the music in my head, the exact costumes. My adrenaline was going insane; my hands felt like they weren’t writing fast enough. I got really emotional when I finished.

I sent it to a few friends and they loved it, told me they had found it funny in places, and in contrast some of them had cried. And then it was lots of meetings: I got a crew together with people from past jobs, met with the Director of Photography to talk about how to film it… I’ve learned so much.

Can you tell us more about the plot itself?

It’s hard to say anything without spoiling it, because it’s that last scene that really ties everything together. But it’s about this couple, Emma and Ben, and how they maybe aren’t all they seem to be… A story about how being in the right or wrong place at the right or wrong time can change your whole life. A lot of the story takes place on a park bench, and that sequence will be filmed in Glossop which is near the Pennines.

That’s going to be the present tense, filmed with the whole crew, and then there will be flashbacks via home videos recorded with our phones and personal cameras. I really want the viewers to feel an intimate connection with Emma and Ben, a bit like they’re peeking through the curtains of their kitchen. I’ll be playing Emma, and Alastair Michael is playing Ben. He’s an amazing actor; he’s just come back from the Edinburgh Fringe Festival actually. We’re in the same class at MSA. I can’t wait to work on this project with him.

Talking about being at the ‘right place’, did you ever feel like you were missing out on the university experience, which is what most people your age are doing?

To be honest, I did apply to uni with everyone else while in 6^th form. I applied to acting courses at universities and drama schools but then Coronation Street renewed my contract. I’m very “hands-on” with learning and I picked up so much on set so it stood me in good stead.

Plus, my boyfriend is studying in Oxford and I get along so well with everyone there, and my best friend is at Queen’s University Belfast, so it’s almost as if I am a student because I go and stay with them all the time and help them revise in exam term!

Is there any advice you would give to the Tab’s readers for success, having performed in the oldest series in the UK at 18?

I know it’s really, really, cliché but you need to keep trying, keep going until you get what you want. Because the day that you give up is the day everything could actually start working out. You WILL have down moments but you NEED to pick yourself up and just keep going at it. A lot of people say that you can’t make a career out of acting, but if everyone thought so, there would be no actors at all.

Somebody has to make it, so who says it can’t be you? Some think that you will only be successful once you become a Hollywood millionaire. I say if you can wake up every morning and think “I love my job”, then you have made it. My two favourite quotes are, “She believed she could, so she did”, and, “Your life is an occasion – Rise to it” from the film ‘Mr Magorium’s Wonder Emporium’.

And I try to live by those: I hadn’t had an acting job in a long while so I created a role for myself, and through that I was also able to create opportunities for friends and ex colleagues: some of the crew are very experienced, and for others it’s a first. That’s why we have our kickstarter.

So the role of Emma was written by you for you. But the two characters you played for ITV, first Maddie then Martha, seem very different from each other. Do you enjoy playing roles that vary? How do you connect with your characters?

Maddie was a very loud-mouthed, cocky character; very street-wise; she had this big air of confidence. But Martha was a young lady in the Victorian times, very shy, the epitome of demure, forcefully immersed in this new environment where she has to learn how to cope with everything. I loved playing those two roles because I was able to show my range through them, but I also identify with them a lot: at times I can be a lot like Maddie, very direct and spontaneous, but with Martha I learned that it’s okay to be shy, to be reserved, and she felt like a little sister; I wanted to protect her, make sure she was safe.

Whereas Maddie sometimes needed to be left alone to do her own thing, she was a ‘shot at life’.  I’m a strong believer of “less is more” when it comes to playing my characters. I go with the script and don’t bother answering questions like “What is her favourite colour? What is she scared of?” In my opinion it just distracts from the relationship and energy between characters. When shooting a scene, I like to look at my cast mates like human beings, not actors, not performers. It makes it more energetic and real when I let it flow like everyday life, rather than overthink it. There’s a difference between words ‘meaning’ and ‘doing’ something; the writer creates the meaning, the actor makes them do something.

What are some of your best memories on set?

Night shoots always provide funny stories to share. At 2am everybody starts laughing at everything, and then at 4am everyone goes insane… So when we were filming my exit story on Coronation Street, we were in between scenes and everyone was talking, it was a very loud, excited atmosphere and all of a sudden everyone goes silent. And then Beverley Callard (Liz MacDonald) out of nowhere goes: “Eating is just THE best thing in the world, isn’t it?” And we all burst out laughing, it wasn’t even that funny but with exhaustion everything sounded hilarious. You had people sleeping on the floor or eating tonnes of Maltesers or Jelly Babies to try and stay awake.

On Jericho, we were in the middle of some random hills in Yorkshire at 4am on a tea break. You had a weird mix of 19^th century lads and ladies with camera crew and we were all going insane, talking about aliens and dinosaurs and conspiracy theories. It would have been a funny picture for someone walking by, too!

Amy is planning to start filming Last Summer in mid-September. She’s relying on pledges via a Kickstarter campaign.