Lancashire actress Jenna Coleman opens up about her career so far
Blackpool born actress Jenna Coleman has opened up about her career so far in an exclusive video interview.
38-year-old Jenna has taken part in a Harper’s Bazaar series called ‘How I got Here’, in which stars answer a series of questions about their career .
In her video, the expectant mother reveals some never before heard facts about her two decade long career.
At the start of the video, Jenna explains how her first real job was an acting job, getting a role in ‘Summer Holiday’ at the Blackpool Opera House alongside Darren Day when she was just ten.
However the former Arnold School pupil then goes on to talk about things her fans may not already know, such as how she had to audition for the role by singing Happy Birthday to herself or what it felt like skipping school to act.
Jenna said: “It ended up being the most amazing summer and I always remember like everyone else had to do gym class on a Wednesday afternoon, and I got to be like, ‘bye guys’ and I’d go to like the theater for the day, so that I remember, quite strongly in my memory, as like this is a cool a cool job -Cliff Richard came to the premiere with Anthea Turner, it was a big deal.”
Later on, although Jenna says she always knew she wanted to be an actress, she does admit that she thought about changing career paths “many times” and even makes the surprising revelation that when she was younger, she wanted to be an archaeologist for a while after studying the Egyptians at school.
Reflecting on her chosen path, Jenna said: “But the really amazing thing about being an actor is that it's like you get to temporarily, like live these other lives for... pockets of time so you get to live like 1000 lifetimes all at once.”
Jenna also revealed how the moment she first thought she had made it was when her friends sent her a crossword puzzle she was in, or when she was able to take her grandmother to the royal box at Wimbledon.
She then added: “I don't really think you ever properly have a ‘I've made it’ moment because, I mean, the whole career is such kind of snakes and ladders, and it's more about the experiences that you have.
“What I love about the job is that you meet incredible people and share these experiences so each job is a little bit like running away to a circus, and you have those real kind of pinch me moments all the time, whether it's like the location that you go to or a person that you meet.
“I don't think you ever feel like ‘I've made it’ because you do one job, and then you always, always, always feel like you're back to the drawing board, and each job you begin, I find is very much that … September feeling like with your new pencil case back at school, and you never, ever lose that, never - nor would I want to either.”
On the topic of feeling vulnerable, Jenna also opened up about how, when she was young, “it was very hard to arrive feeling like you had a voice, or that your voice was just as valid and equal as everybody else's”.
The now 38-year-old explains that her confidence has since grown with time and she credits one particular actress, called Lindsay Marshall, for helping her do that just by giving her the simple advice “claim your space.”
Later, when asked what success looks like to her, Jenna replied: “when you come home from a day of work and you feel like you gave it your best.”
In a similarly blunt way, she tells Harper’s Bazaar that her advice for people coping with rejection is to remember “it’s not personal” and that as “one one door closes, another one opens.”
Jenna also revealed that she is motivated by “curiosity”, studying the psychology of characters, and “different people that you want to work with”.
For the final question, Jenna is asked for her biggest obstacle in life and she candidly responds: “I spent a lot of my 20s at war with myself, which… now makes me feel really sad.
“So much in the world is like making you look inward all of the time, whether that is social media or the way that you look and what you're doing, how you measure success - and actually, the most interesting thing is when you don't look inwards and you look outwards.
“If you think of all that time that you spend tearing yourself apart, or being cruel to yourself, or being your biggest self critic, when actually you could spend that time looking outward and looking at other things.
“I think if there's anything I would ever say to my 20 year old self, it would be that probably”