Post by Katrina on Feb 22, 2010 12:29:06 GMT 1
I found this on a random internet and thought I would post it here.
Doctors star Charlie Clemmow on life without an agent, gun sieges and lesbian kisses
Jan 24 2010 by Roz Laws, Sunday Mercury
ACTRESS Charlie Clemmow is proof that persistence does pay off.
She’s highly unusual in the world of TV, as she managed to land a plum role in a soap – without any help from an agent.
After two years writing more than 100 letters to TV companies, it was Charlie’s own hard work which won her an audition for the Midland-made drama Doctors. And now she doesn’t have to hand over 10 per cent of her salary to anyone else!
Netting the role of Imogen Hollins in the soap was the perfect excuse for the Warwickshire girl to come home.
Charlie grew up just outside Stratford-upon-Avon and got the acting bug at Bromsgrove School. At 16, she beat off 6,000 hopefuls to win a place with the National Youth Theatre.
At 18 she moved to London to study at Guildhall drama school. Unlike her classmates, her first priority on graduating wasn’t to sign up with an agent.
“I kept being told that you can’t get a TV audition without an agent, it’s unheard of,” she says.
“Some people offered to represent me but I thought I’d see if I could do it by myself.
“I wrote so many letters to TV companies and kept my ears open about teenage roles. I’m 23 but I’ve always looked young.
“It was very frustrating trying to get into clubs at 18 and I still get asked for my ID now, but in my career it’s an advantage, as I have more experience than teenage actresses going for those roles.
Depressing
“I was watching Doctors one day when I noticed receptionist Karen Hollins mentioning her teenage daughter. I wondered if she was going to appear, and wrote to the BBC to ask if they were casting her.
“After two letters and three emails, I was called for an audition.
“If you keep working hard, at some point you will be in the right place at the right time. It was depressing for me, taking waitressing jobs and small theatre roles, but I never gave up hope. It never crossed my mind to give up.”
Now Charlie’s castmates are jealous she doesn’t hand over part of her salary to an agent.
“I bought a new car and when I drove it in to work, they said, ‘That’s what happens when you don’t have to pay an agent!’”
Charlie is busy on screen this week in a dramatic five-part Doctors’ storyline, in which student Lewis Cutler, a friend of Imogen’s older brother Jack, holds several people hostage.
Armed with a gun, he lures them to an empty classroom at Letherbridge University and shots are fired.
Charlie says: “Imogen knows there’s something not quite right with Lewis and we can’t trust him, but no-one listens to her. It’s very frustrating for her.
“We shot it over 10 days like a film, with night shoots at Aston University. It’s bold writing and a risky idea for daytime TV, but I hope it works.”
Imogen barely has time to draw breath after that drama when she is plunged into another big storyline. She gets close to a classmate, Elise, and decides she’s a lesbian.
“After what happened with Lewis, she doesn’t trust men. It’s a great storyline, although I was nervous that my first screen kiss was going to be with a girl!”
Off-screen, Charlie looks very different from Imogen. She still has the striking hair she bleached white blonde – “It made me stand out at the auditions, though I have to get the roots done every three weeks” – but she takes out Imogen’s pink and blue extensions.
“Plus I don’t wear make-up, her bright clothes or have a Birmingham accent!”
Charlie moved back in with her parents, a physiotherapist and IT worker, when she won the role last summer but she’s about to move into a house in Harborne, Birmingham with her screen family.
“I’m going to share with Nick Woodman, who plays my brother Jack, and Chris Walker who plays my dad Rob.
“So we’ll be living and working as a family. We have a lot of fun together, they make me laugh so much.”
But Charlie has an unbreakable bond with her real sister – her twin, Hannah.
“We’re non-identical. She calls me The Gnome as I’m only five feet tall.
“We are absolutely in tune with each other in everything we think and feel and when she’s not around, it’s like losing my left leg. We finish off each other’s sentences and pick up the phone at the same time to talk to each other. We spend our lives going ‘I was just about to say that’.
“She’s my absolute rock and the key to any of my success. She kept me going and made sure I believed in myself.”
~
I think it's sweet that three of the Hollins' are actually living together. Also am pleased she gives her age.
Doctors star Charlie Clemmow on life without an agent, gun sieges and lesbian kisses
Jan 24 2010 by Roz Laws, Sunday Mercury
ACTRESS Charlie Clemmow is proof that persistence does pay off.
She’s highly unusual in the world of TV, as she managed to land a plum role in a soap – without any help from an agent.
After two years writing more than 100 letters to TV companies, it was Charlie’s own hard work which won her an audition for the Midland-made drama Doctors. And now she doesn’t have to hand over 10 per cent of her salary to anyone else!
Netting the role of Imogen Hollins in the soap was the perfect excuse for the Warwickshire girl to come home.
Charlie grew up just outside Stratford-upon-Avon and got the acting bug at Bromsgrove School. At 16, she beat off 6,000 hopefuls to win a place with the National Youth Theatre.
At 18 she moved to London to study at Guildhall drama school. Unlike her classmates, her first priority on graduating wasn’t to sign up with an agent.
“I kept being told that you can’t get a TV audition without an agent, it’s unheard of,” she says.
“Some people offered to represent me but I thought I’d see if I could do it by myself.
“I wrote so many letters to TV companies and kept my ears open about teenage roles. I’m 23 but I’ve always looked young.
“It was very frustrating trying to get into clubs at 18 and I still get asked for my ID now, but in my career it’s an advantage, as I have more experience than teenage actresses going for those roles.
Depressing
“I was watching Doctors one day when I noticed receptionist Karen Hollins mentioning her teenage daughter. I wondered if she was going to appear, and wrote to the BBC to ask if they were casting her.
“After two letters and three emails, I was called for an audition.
“If you keep working hard, at some point you will be in the right place at the right time. It was depressing for me, taking waitressing jobs and small theatre roles, but I never gave up hope. It never crossed my mind to give up.”
Now Charlie’s castmates are jealous she doesn’t hand over part of her salary to an agent.
“I bought a new car and when I drove it in to work, they said, ‘That’s what happens when you don’t have to pay an agent!’”
Charlie is busy on screen this week in a dramatic five-part Doctors’ storyline, in which student Lewis Cutler, a friend of Imogen’s older brother Jack, holds several people hostage.
Armed with a gun, he lures them to an empty classroom at Letherbridge University and shots are fired.
Charlie says: “Imogen knows there’s something not quite right with Lewis and we can’t trust him, but no-one listens to her. It’s very frustrating for her.
“We shot it over 10 days like a film, with night shoots at Aston University. It’s bold writing and a risky idea for daytime TV, but I hope it works.”
Imogen barely has time to draw breath after that drama when she is plunged into another big storyline. She gets close to a classmate, Elise, and decides she’s a lesbian.
“After what happened with Lewis, she doesn’t trust men. It’s a great storyline, although I was nervous that my first screen kiss was going to be with a girl!”
Off-screen, Charlie looks very different from Imogen. She still has the striking hair she bleached white blonde – “It made me stand out at the auditions, though I have to get the roots done every three weeks” – but she takes out Imogen’s pink and blue extensions.
“Plus I don’t wear make-up, her bright clothes or have a Birmingham accent!”
Charlie moved back in with her parents, a physiotherapist and IT worker, when she won the role last summer but she’s about to move into a house in Harborne, Birmingham with her screen family.
“I’m going to share with Nick Woodman, who plays my brother Jack, and Chris Walker who plays my dad Rob.
“So we’ll be living and working as a family. We have a lot of fun together, they make me laugh so much.”
But Charlie has an unbreakable bond with her real sister – her twin, Hannah.
“We’re non-identical. She calls me The Gnome as I’m only five feet tall.
“We are absolutely in tune with each other in everything we think and feel and when she’s not around, it’s like losing my left leg. We finish off each other’s sentences and pick up the phone at the same time to talk to each other. We spend our lives going ‘I was just about to say that’.
“She’s my absolute rock and the key to any of my success. She kept me going and made sure I believed in myself.”
~
I think it's sweet that three of the Hollins' are actually living together. Also am pleased she gives her age.
