Anna Friel | Page 10 | the Fashion Spot

Anna Friel

Forums New posts

Anna Friel is back. The ex-Brookside star is set for the bigtime again with a starring role in America's latest TV blockbuster, Pushing Daisies, in which she plays a murder victim miraculously brought back to life.

The Golden Globe-nominated drama hits ITV1 next month. Now the 31-year-old says she loves her new life in LA - and that perceptions of her in Britain were getting really "boring".

"People talking about the same things: Brookside, Darren Day, Robbie Williams, party girl," she tells Esquire. "I do feel it's a bit of a shame, though that [success] had to happen in America, rather than here. In America they just take me in a different way."

The Americans didn't like her British teeth, though, digitally altering them for TV. "But they went too far," she adds. "Unfortunately my first line is 'Ned! Ned!' and I looked and sounded like a horse. I pleaded, 'you've got to take them down'. They did but I went and got my teeth bleached after that."

She also reveals how her departure from Brookside - in which she played lesbian Beth Jordache - was less than amicable after she said she wanted to leave. "I got a message to go and see the producer. He said, 'Get your things. You're going now'. So I got in my car and drove home. I never saw anyone again, never even had a goodbye party. Nothing."

* The full interview is in Esquire, out today.

source
source


Anna Friel 'hated soap star label'

Anna Friel has revealed that she was tired of being known as a soap actress and party girl in the UK.

The 31-year-old, who moved to LA with actor David Thewlis two years ago, said the British media constantly brought up her stint in Brookside and her failed romances.

She told Esquire: "It was getting to be a joke here. Even if I was 80, my epitaph would be 'Brookside. Used to be in a TV soap.' How long is it now? Thirteen years.

"It's just really boring. People talking about the same things: Brookside, Darren Day, Robbie Williams, party girl. I just think it's time to let it go."

source
 
Anna Friel @ 25th annual Paley Television Festival in Hollywood, March 15 - CU.

 
^yes that is little chuck!

more pics :D
wireimage
 
Last edited by a moderator:

[FONT=Arial,Helvetica][SIZE=+1]Brookside to Hollywood: Anna Friel’s incredible journey
[/SIZE][/FONT]She shot to fame as Brookside’s teenage lesbian, before wowing Broadway as the stripper with a heart in Closer. In real life, she’s been playing happy families with fellow actor David Thewlis. But now Anna Friel is back in the limelight as the star of Pushing Daisies, one of the year’s hottest new TV shows.

It was when she was driving along Hollywood Boulevard the other day that Anna Friel realised that she really had made it big. "I looked up and I saw a huge billboard by the road. There was my face, several metres high. It made me feel very proud. Especially," she adds with a chuckle, "as they hadn't had to give me any Botox!"

There seems little danger of this particular interviewee having to resort to the plastic surgeon's box of tricks any time soon. At the age of 31, she could easily pass for 10 years younger. Friel, who has lived with fellow actor David Thewlis for the past seven years, owns a set of cheekbones that many less naturally beautiful stars would sell their cosmetic consultants for. Indeed, when we meet in the chintzy bar of a central London hotel, heads turn immediately towards her. I notice the conversation at the next table grinds to a halt as the business executives – male and female – strain to get a closer look at my companion's effortless pulchritude.

Friel laughs off her sex-symbol tag. "David knows just what I look like first thing in the morning," she grins, as she pours the first of many cups of tea (she says she is addicted to the stuff and drinks at least seven cups a day). "I find the image flattering – as long as it's natural sexy. I don't like posed sexy. Quirkiness is sexy."

I first interviewed Friel 13 years ago on the rain-soaked set of Cadfael in Budapest. ITV's drama about a medieval monk-cum-sleuth (played by Derek Jacobi in a very fetching tonsure) was the young actress's first job after leaving the Channel 4 soap Brookside earlier that year in a firestorm of publicity. She seems hardly to have changed since then, either in looks or manner, and retains a defiantly down-to-earth demeanour – why, she's even held on to her strong Rochdale vowels. Friel has reportedly employed a nanny from her home town so that while she is in Hollywood, her two-year-old daughter Gracie – named after Rochdale's other famous native, Gracie Fields – does not lose touch with the accent, either.

The actress is keen to emphasise that however long she is based in the land of perpetual sunshine, she will never forget what she loves about her home turf. "I miss our grumpiness. Everyone's very sunny in LA. But it's OK to be moody here because it's grey all the time. We've got a right to be miserable – and I really value that!"

A lot has happened to Friel in the years since we first met, however. It's certainly a long way from Brookside Close to Hollywood Boulevard, and sometimes it's been a bumpy road. There have been occasions along the way, she admits, when she thought she would never escape the shadow of the Liverpudlian soap. Brookside catapulted Friel to fame while she was still in her teens, as well as winning her a Most Popular Actress gong at the National Television Awards, and the tabloids became fixated on her portrayal of the "lipstick lesbian" Beth Jordache.

"To them, I'm still 'Brookside's Anna Friel'," she says, with a smile of resignation. "When I'm 90 and have done 97 movies and 22 plays, they'll still call me 'Brookside's Anna Friel'! Can I just be plain Anna Friel now, please?"

Away from the red tops, however, Brookside seems several lifetimes away. Friel is now starring in Pushing Daisies, currently the hottest show on American television, which is coming to ITV1 next month. She is plastered all over the aforementioned billboards and has been nominated for a Golden Globe. "You need this strong belief, deep down, that you'll succeed," she says.

And she is clearly more comfortable in her own skin these days. In the past, Friel twice sought medical help after stress-related illnesses. But now she seems to have achieved a serenity, which she attributes to finding the right partner. She met Thewlis, the 45-year-old star of Naked, Gangster No 1 and the Harry Potter films, at a dinner party seven years ago. "He came back that night and never went home," she recalls. "I'm in a really good place. It's to do with maturing. I'm calmer now – I used to be a right worrier. But being in a very settled relationship has made a massive difference. I was on my own for three years before meeting David. Although there was lots of speculation, I didn't have a boyfriend. I'm just really happy. David is a fantastic man."

Lest she appear too starry-eyed, Friel adds that, "any relationship is a challenge – especially in this business. Anyone who says it isn't is a liar. You can only hope that you find your best friend – and David and I both have. We try not to spend any time apart now. Three years ago, we had to spend six months apart because of work – that's just not right and we won't do it again."

Friel reckons that being in the same business gives her and Thewlis a great understanding of each other's needs. "We both absolutely understand what the job entails. When one of us comes back and says, 'Hi honey, I'm home. I've been sleeping with so and so all day,' it doesn't cause jealousy. It's just another day at the office."

So is this glamorous couple the Posh and Becks of the acting world? Friel snorts derisively at the idea. In fact, Thewlis is credited with steering Friel away from the "wild-child" lifestyle she pursued before meeting him. "People invite us out, but we just look at each other and say, 'No, let's stay in.'"

Friel, who in the past dated Robbie Williams, has long since put her party days behind her. "I used to hang out with Kate [Moss] and friends a bit and, you know, they're lovely people, but I don't see them any more. I don't have time to see anyone any more."

One reason for this is, of course, that she is also now the doting mother of a two-year-old girl. "I love my daughter so much," beams the actress, eyes brightening with pride, though clearly the pressures of combining motherhood and TV stardom has its moments. "At times of immense stress, I just have to think of her and I'm OK," she says, before adding, "It also helps that David knows this is a very key period in my career, and he's happy to take on the majority of the parenting for the time being.

"When I'm working on Pushing Daisies, he brings her to see me on set every day. It's magical for Gracie. The other day, there were two monkeys on set and a giant sweet shop. It was like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory!'"

Of course, it all sounds idyllic and slightly unreal but Friel stresses that she's anxious not to encourage diva-ish tendencies in her daughter. "She's not precocious," says the actress, whose parents are both teachers. "I want her to remain unspoilt – I certainly don't want her in heels at the age of seven. She doesn't have a nursery filled with lots and lots of toys; I think it's vital for a child to have a wild imagination. Nor do we let her watch TV – I don't want her to be bombarded with ads. Manners are incredibly important. I was brought up not to expect anything without a 'please' or a 'thank you'."

Anna Friel made her screen debut as a 12-year-old playing Michael Palin's daughter in Alan Bleasdale's GBH. After Brookside, The Tribe and Cadfael, she took to the stage in 1999, starring as Alice the stripper in the Broadway production of Patrick Marber's Closer. The show was a smash hit and attracted such celebrity stage-door johnnies as Madonna and Al Pacino. After seeing Friel on stage, Jack Nicholson, in typically decorous fashion, said he could not rest until he had slept with her.

Hollywood beckoned, but Friel resisted for a while. "They put together packages for you – 'If you do two teen movies, then you can have the lead in something more weighty.' But I didn't go down the route of doing Teen Wolf 4. I have pride, and after Closer, I thought I could do better than that. If you want to progress, you have to be more picky."
It was worth her while holding out because last year Friel was offered the plum role of Chuck in Pushing Daisies. Created by Bryan Fuller, who made his name as executive producer on the sci-fi hit Heroes, the series centres on Ned (played by Lee Pace), a pie-shop owner who has the power to bring people back from the dead and who rescues his childhood sweetheart Chuck (Friel) from an early grave after she has been murdered. What develops is a sweet "will-they-won't-they?" romance given added piquancy by the conceit that the couple can never touch – the slightest physical contact from Ned will condemn Chuck to death once more.

Friel believes the series has struck a chord because it is so good-natured. "There is so much cynicism these days," she says. "You turn on most TV dramas and think, 'God, that was so depressing'. There is a lack of things that are just sweet and light-hearted like Pushing Daisies. I liken it to Moonlighting. It's so romantic. When was the last time you cared so much about a couple and wanted them to be together this much? You're just rooting for these two."

To help her stay in character, Friel maintains her impeccable American accent throughout the day on set – even during the lunch break. "I've done that on every job since I was 16," she explains. "My dad is a linguist, and I speak French and take great pride in my accents. I start a characterisation with the voice and I don't want to lose it. It's a form of superstition for me – and it helps me concentrate. A lot of people out there don't know I'm English. Now when I speak to the American crew in my normal voice at the end of the day, they say, 'Will you stop doing that funny accent?'"

Pushing Daisies, which attracts huge audiences in the States, has grown into a monster hit all over the world. But there was a time when Friel's career wasn't looking so rosy. Rogue Trader, anyone? She also points to 1999's Mad Cows as something of a train wreck. "It's true that the story was a little bit all over the place," she concedes. "Also, it was hyped as 'the next Full Monty' – it was built up so much, it was bound to crash."

But Friel has always been positive – her motto is "there's always tomorrow" – and is determined to learn from her mistakes. "Everyone has days where they reckon, 'I'm rubbish, I can't do it.' But then the next morning, something great comes through the post and you're fine again."

She is about to star opposite Will Ferrell in the dinosaur flick Land of the Lost, a major Hollywood production that she hopes will represent the next step in her remarkable upwards journey. "I think I've got better over the years," she reflects. "Everything I've done has taken me to the next stage, like stepping stones. I've always had perseverance, and I'm proud that I'm holding on and still here.

"Anyway," she adds with a smile, "what else would I do? Open a juice bar? I don't think that would satisfy my creative instincts. I don't think I want to press apples every day."

No, she's better off sticking with Daisies.
source
 

British actress Anna Friel, star of ABC's hit dramedy Pushing Daisies, says she's happy with her life the way it is – and that includes remaining blissfully unwed.

"It just seems to work as it is right now and there doesn't seem any point," Friel (cover girl for U.K. InStyle) told the June issue about her relationship with actor David Thewlis, who is also the father of her daughter, 2-year-old Gracie. "If he'd have said he wanted to marry me, maybe I'd have said yes, but I don't know if we're both marriage-phobes."

Friel is also more than content with motherhood, telling the magazine, "When you're a mother, life just changes."

Her daughter, she adds, is "the most loving child ever. I just tell her how beautiful and lovely she is and how much Mummy loves her."

Friel also opens up about her fitness regime, admitting that some of the things her personal trainer requires of her leave her looking like a "prize idiot."

"He comes Saturdays and Sundays and once or twice in the week, and he makes me run," she laments. "I hate running. We go from my house all the way to the bottom of the hill, then fast walk up with weights in my hands pushing up, looking like a prize idiot."

One healthy change she would like to make: Quitting smoking.

"I said by the time I'm 30, I'll have stopped smoking," the 31-year-old told the magazine while taking a puff on a cigarette.
source
 
 
Last edited by a moderator:
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar Threads

O
Anna Friel kissing Joseph Cross?
Replies
5
Views
5K
dajrekshn
D
L
Chloe Grace Moretz
44 45 46 47 48
Replies
941
Views
484K
carolisque
carolisque
Yohji
Vanessa Kirby
2 3 4 5 6
Replies
103
Views
44K
Yohji
Yohji
A
Valeria Golino
Replies
3
Views
2K
alicia753
A
Yohji
Nathalie Emmanuel
2
Replies
24
Views
7K
puresoul
puresoul

Users who are viewing this thread

Total: 1 (members: 0, guests: 1)

New Posts

Forum Statistics

Threads
214,473
Messages
15,263,006
Members
88,490
Latest member
goodw

Share This Page

Back
Top