Glass had a lot of fun chatting to Georgia Henshaw, the animated 21-year-old who cut her teeth on Casualty, The Bill and Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging, before moving onto Skins and Waterloo Road. She loves calzone pizzas, Broadchurch, and documentaries; her reaction when we told her we’d recently interviewed Nick Broomfield was “No way. That is huge!”
She recently finished a run at the West End, where she appeared in Moses Raine’s Donkey Heart, and can currently be seen in Channel 4’s Banana, part of a series of multi-pronged programming that uses sitcom, drama and documentary to explore the lives of gay, bisexual and transgender people in modern Britain. Glass spoke to her from her hotel in Barbados …
So you’re on holiday in Barbados. Do you get to go on holiday often?
Probably once a year. I went on a wicked road trip last year, through France, Monaco, Italy, and finished off in Venice – a beautiful place to stop and have our last stay. Then we went back up through Switzerland, and took a camper van from the 1970s that broke down 250 miles from Calais. We ended up in Luxembourg, another country we didn’t intend to stop in.
What’s in Luxembourg? What does it have to recommend itself?
An airport, is all I can tell you. An airport and some really friendly people.
How long have you wanted to be an actor? Was it a childhood dream, or did you stumble into it?
I used to want to be a backing dancer, and then I wanted to be the head of the Bank of England. This is when I was about seven, when I was counting the coppers I’d made from cleaning the house. And I love money. Then I wanted to be a barrister, because I was quite a conversationalist, and I thought I could hold my own in court.
And then I just fell into acting, really. I went to a Saturday class when I was eight, in Swansea, and it was just – fun! We played lots of games, improvisation and stuff like that, and that was what I was good at. I was just such a confident, happy child, so this improvisation was wicked for me. And after being there for two weeks, I landed an audition for Casualty, and I got it. So that’s how I got into it: just because it was fun, and it was a wicked outlet for energy and creativity. I didn’t particularly think of it as a career; it was just something I fell into, and that I found I was capable of doing.
How old were you when you got your first agent?
Eight or nine. That’s when I got my role in Casualty. I do remember the brief – it was “tubby eight-year-old”. And I got the part. My mum took me up there; she’s just really chill, really nice. She printed out the script and said, “Leave it to me, we’ll have a day off school, maybe some lovely food.” We went there really relaxed.
When I walked away I didn’t even think about the job. That wasn’t what it was about; it was about the lovely experience. And I got it. I was a “tubby eight-year-old”, though I was totally oblivious – as you should be, as a child. When I questioned my mum [about why I got the part], she said: “All the other girls were too skinny.”
What’s been your most challenging role?
I’d have to say Rachel Grew, in The Crash. I did that a couple of years ago, on BBC Three. She was so sparky; she was full of soul, so energetic and fun, and would pull her whole group of friends together. And then things took a tragic turn, and she was involved in a car crash. So she was in a coma for six weeks, and had brain damage, two broken legs and a broken arm.
So once she woke up she was cold and angry, and never to fully recover. It was great to have that challenge, and to play such an interesting role, and to go on such a journey with someone, you know? I really enjoyed that.
What was the last book you read?
Some light holiday reading at the moment – Heavier Than Heaven, a biography of Kurt Cobain by Charles R. Cross.
So you’re a Nirvana fan?
It’s more the stories behind these wonderful, tragic, creative people. I’m really into documentaries and real stories, and biographies and autobiographies. I’ve read Russell Brand’s My Booky Wook and Booky Wook 2, and thought they were fantastic. And I don’t know, they just grabbed me. Real people’s lives just grab me. And I can’t get enough of that, really. So this book is really interesting. [So far in the book, Kurt is] 19.
He told journalists later that he lived under a bridge [over the Wishkah River] when he was kicked out of his house. What an image. This kid, whom no-one loves, literally lives under a bridge fit for a troll. [Editors’ note: it is widely believed that Cobain never lived under this bridge; according to those who knew him, it was part of a history he had constructed for himself.]
Your ‘on-set essentials’ include your music. Any hot tips? Do you have a favourite musician/group?
I love soul. I’ve got a couple of favourites; it depends on my mood. Erykah Badu, Lauryn Hill, Anthony Hamilton… D’Angelo’s wicked. I love dance music also – Mak & Pasteman, Bwana. Bwana’s fantastic. He’s from Canada, and the music he makes is like a soundscape. It’s such clever music. He takes a lot of influences from manga and things like that. It’s really cinematic; it’s like a score to my daily routine.
Another fantastic album is the soundtrack to Her. I’m into soundtracks. When I’m doing emotional scenes, I find music very important; it helps me get into it. Like Berlin Song by Ludovico Einaudi. When I was on-set for Banana, I had an emotional scene coming up. My other emotional song was Hurt by Johnny Cash, but Lewis Arnold, the director, came up to me and [showed me Berlin Song]. It’s just so epic, and moving, and orchestral. It’s actually just him on the piano, but it’s so moving. I listened to it just before the emotional scene. Lewis had to take it out of my ear, saying, “No no no, you’re not supposed to cry yet.”
You mentioned you’d read Russell Brand’s autobiographies. What do you think of his politics?
Gosh. That’s such a tricky one. I don’t particularly take any stance myself. I know that’s terrible, and I know we should. I quite enjoy seeing his interviews, and him on Newsnight. It livens things up, really. I really liked him as a comedian and a personality. It can be slightly boring when he goes on a chat show, and [politics] is all he talks about. But he’s just grown as a person, and he’s using his celebrity status to put across some political views. Which I think is great. Rather than just babbling rubbish, he’s trying to change some things. Whether you agree with him or not, at least he’s trying to change something.
I recently watched a documentary called We Are Legion, about Anonymous. I thought it was absolutely fascinating.
You’ve said before that your favourite documentarians include Nick Broomfield and Louis Theroux. Any others?
They’re the ones I really go to. I’m not sure – whoever did We Are Legion [Brian Knappenberger].
How’ve you fared in your stage acting career?
I just did my first run in the West End. It was a play called Donkey Heart, and it’s set in Russia, harking back to the Communist era. It’s funny, it’s touching. It’s also set in a living room, in a flat in Moscow. James Turner, the set – and costume-designer, did such a fantastic job. You really felt like you were in that living room. Nina Raine directed it, and Moses Raine wrote it.
They’ve got family in Russia, and were related to Boris Pasternak, and were totally the right for people for bringing this story to life. It’s interesting working with them, as they’re brother and sister; it worked really well. Very kind, thoughtful, intelligent people. They really left it to us to be creative, and brought such a great group of people together.
I played Clara, who’s a dramatic nouveau riche girl from Moscow, a little bit above my station. I’m dating the son, Petya, and we have a really turbulent relationship. I was kind of the comic relief of the show, and could turn up, have a barney with the son, and then storm off. We had an off-stage argument as well, which would change every night. It was a lot of fun. It was at the Old Red Lion in Angel, and then it transferred to the Trafalgar Studios.
That was my West End debut which was a great achievement for me. I now believe I’m capable of doing, and I’m certainly wanting to do, bigger things. I haven’t trained at drama schools, so theatre was really quite a hurdle. I had so many misconceptions, based around the training, the [vocal] projection, the movement.
Everything’s much bigger. My friends who are training have such amazing classes; their schedules are jam-packed with amazing stuff. As I hadn’t done those things, I thought I wouldn’t be able to get away with it; but look, I have. I chanced it again.
What do you find most interesting about Sian in Banana?
The fact that she’s no different from me. I got her. It was in the writing. There’s a scene where I’m with my girlfriend, and I’ve had a couple of glasses of wine, and I’m actually opening up. And it just flowed. It was something I could totally relate to: it was about falling in love. But she was falling in love for the first time, and I thought that was wonderful: to take someone who’s not really that open to it, and find those moments where she opens up.
It’s delightful. And she struggles with her relationship with her mum. It was almost like counselling her: I wanted to be there for those moments when she changed slightly, and fell in love, with all its highs and lows. It’s such a knotty journey to go on. And yet the moody stuff is fun. You don’t really get to do that in your everyday life, so it was quite fun to sulk about for a bit.
Speaking honestly, do you prefer Cucumber or Banana as a TV programme?
I think Cucumber’s wicked; it’s more of a slow-burner, of course. It doesn’t just focus on a different character each episode. But that’s the reason I love Banana. I love how youthful it is. The energy’s fantastic, and I like that it focuses on one character [per episode], so you can go through a journey with someone in half an hour. It’s a satisfying watch. I’m looking forward to seeing the whole series of Cucumber, but I would have to say Banana [is my favourite].
Do you appear in Tofu at all?
No, I don’t. I wasn’t so up for chatting about my personal life.
If you had to choose one real-life person to play, past or present, who’d it be?
Right now, as I’m reading Heavier Than Heaven, I’d have to say Courtney Love. Just because it’s so present in my mind. And what a wild, fucked-up woman! She’s so manipulative, and she puts on such a front, yet she’s so charismatic. I think she’d be awesome to play.
Do you prefer playing heroes or villains?
I like rogues, to be honest. Lovable rogues. So somewhere inbetween.
There are plenty of masculine gendered nouns for that kind of character – rakes, cads, rogues, knaves, scoundrels – but not so many feminine ones. Maybe that’ll be rectified soon.
Yeah, there’s “cheeky chappy” too. I’ll rectify it. I’ll think of a new word today when I’m on the beach.
In Skins, you played the 17-year-old Lara when you were 16. How did you prepare mentally and otherwise for that role?
I was pretty relaxed about it, to be honest. At that time in my life, it was just a lovely opportunity and experience. I didn’t particularly do any research or anything. I’d never held a baby before, and I’ve never had [pets]. I can’t really do babies or animals, because I like to have conversations with people, I like to discuss things. That’s how I get to know people. And I’d always feel patronising to babies if I had to do baby-speak. So it was quite funny having to do these things. Hopefully, I got away with it!
The first day on set, I had this baby on my lap. It was about one year old. I was 16, really slight, and this baby looked huge. It made me look tiny. It looked ridiculous. So on the second day, I was in the car park, and this guy came over to me, and said “Georgia!” And I looked at him, and I slowly realised it was Mr. Evans, my form teacher from school.
I’d just left school, and he’d been my form tutor from Year 7 to Year 11, and for the last few months of Year 11, he was off, because his wife had just had twins. And one of his twins was playing my baby! And that was amazing – he knew I was a nice girl, and I was trying my best. So that was that pressure off. That really lightened the load.
What was your Celebrity Mastermind special subject?
At first I was going to do [celebrity prisoner] Charles Bronson, because I love that film, and years ago, after watching it, I spent two days in my room doing research on the real Charles Bronson, from Broadmoor Asylum for the Criminally Insane [sic], and on the other inmates there. I just found it absolutely fascinating.
Then I was working on a hot-dog stand in London, and one of my mates asked me four questions about [Bronson], and I got them all wrong. Didn’t have a clue.
And then I was working on a film called The Hatching, about crocodiles in Somerset. And the director [Michael Anderson] had actually studied Zoology at Swansea University, so he suggested I do crocodiles… but it kind of never happened.
But two weeks before the date of filming [Mastermind], they called me up and said, “Georgia, we really need a subject. Is there a TV show or something that you like?” And I just said “Sherlock”, not thinking about the information I’d have to process. But I watched each episode twice, and ended up making 37 A4 pages of notes. And I really surprised myself with how capable I am of learning things quickly. I guess I got some good practice with learning my lines; I can learn my lines really rather quickly.
The day of filming was the most nervous I’ve ever been. I woke up in the morning, put on my Mak & Pasteman. That morning and the night before, I had a fillet of cod and salad, for brain food. I went outside, had a cigarette, and started to feel the nerves. My hands were going numb but when I got there, I was just laughing at the ridiculousness of the situation. Mastermind? Of a subject I chose two weeks ago? I laughed the whole way. And I actually smashed my specialist subject round. I was really happy with that.
What’s next for you?
It’s back to the drawing board: auditioning. I love Broadchurch; four-part and eight-part British dramas are the ones for me. But on the flip side, I’d love to do a sitcom. I had such a good time doing Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps, which was kind of straddling theatre and TV. So that would be great. But I can only hope.
by Arjun Sajip
Photographs by Justin van Vliet
Banana can currently be seen on 4OD