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academy profile
renaissance woman
She’s appeared on C4, ITV, BBC1 and Room 101. She won Best Actress at the 2001 Comedy awards for her roles in Spaced, Bob and Rose and The Royle Family. She was co-nominated for the Situation Comedy BAFTA last year and an International Emmy. Now she’s tackling a scriptwriting career and feature films to boot. You may not know her name but here’s betting you recognise that face. Ruth Grenville talks to Jessica Stevenson, an actress writing her own imaginative ticket.
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Photo above: Jessica Stevenson in The Royle Family and right (photo: Ben Blackall)
QYou’ve said you don’t work enough but you’re on television all the time! Are you a bit of a renais- sance woman?
JS: Well, I’m interdisciplinary in my arts and one informs the other.
Q: Have you always written or did that come about when you met Simon Pegg (co-writer and co-star in the cult hit Spaced)?
JS: Yes, always. Everyone who works on a sketch show ends up writing. Actors, particularly come- dy actors, are more inclined to write their own material. A lot of them have a stand-up back- ground and are great at impro- vising, so it’s kind of natural.
Q: Coming from this team- based background, do you see yourself as a collaborative writer?
JS: I think it depends on your intentions for the writing and your subject matter. I mean, the bulk
of the writing I’ve done has been a collaboration with Simon. But that collaboration is a very speci- fic union, a very specific product of Spaced. I didn’t immediately find myself, when I was thinking about doing other projects, look- ing for a partner. That wasn’t my inclination. I thought, all right, I’ve got to sit down and get on with this alone. But if you collaborate with different people, it’s going to be whatever that is.
Q: You had BAFTA & International Emmy nominations for Best Comedy Series with Spaced. Obviously someone was picking up on the quality and the uniqueness of the programme.
JS: I think that was absolutely it. I mean Edgar Wright (Director on Spaced) worked something close to a miracle with the money and the time. We were so focused during the filming,
we were all like... taut ropes. We were just utterly aware that every second was so valuable because it was so limited. And people noticed it. It was part of our intention as writers to create something that was visually chal- lenging and utterly different. It had some really faithful follow- ers. A significant minority just absolutely loved it and watched every programme.
Q: The whole focus of Spaced seems very British to me.
JS: That was completely inten- tional. The British slant was in the conceptual stage. What’s so suc- cessful about American sitcoms is they’re slick, well-written, very funny, and there’s lots of them. But how do you make a British sitcom that doesn’t try and emulate that? I always get very uncomfortable watching British sitcoms that have American production values.