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Interviews
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"If I don't get boos and hisses, I haven't done my job." Simon Sladen talks to Patsy Kensit, who plays the Wicked Queen in this year's pantomime at the Churchill Theatre, Bromley. Next year Patsy Kensit celebrates forty years in showbusiness, which is unbelievable considering she is only 43 years old. "The Great Gatsby was the first thing that I did," she tells me, "I was four." Since then Kensit has appeared on both small and big screen and played a wide variety of roles, from comedy flatmate in Bo' Selecta! to sexy secretary Rika van den Haas in Lethal Weapon 2. "I've been lucky," she says humbly. "It's my job. I've had a career and I've always worked. There've been some great high points, there've been some not so great points, but I've constantly worked." To sustain a career in the entertainment industry is no easy task. Nevertheless, the past four years have been particularly fruitful for Kensit and I ask her what the secret to her success is? "I work because I have to work," she replies, unsure of whether there really is a magical secret to achieving success. "I've been doing it my entire life," she says simply. "It's what I do." Entertaining others is the only trade Kensit knows having spent her childhood, teenage years and adult life in the media spotlight. She has two sons from her marriages to Jim Kerr and Liam Gallagher and is proudly a mother first, before an actress or celebrity. I ask her whether it's ever difficult juggling gruelling filming schedules with family life? "The work isn't so gruelling. What makes it gruelling for me," she explains "is that I am constantly out the door and then when I'm finished I'm in a car to be home with my kids. They're my first priority," she says passionately. "The actual 'doing' the job, that's fine. But I'm a strong horse, very focused and I get on with it." Kensit lights up when mentioning her family. She is incredibly close to her two boys and you get the impression that she would give it all up for them at the drop of a hat. Wanting to spend more time with her sons was the reason she left Emmerdale. It was also one of the reasons behind her departure from long-running hospital drama Holby City last October. "I had to have full time child care when I was doing that job, and on Emmerdale," she explains. "I don't have that anymore now that I've left. I'm a very hands-on mother, which I love. It's wonderful." Holby City and Emmerdale are just two chapters from Kensit's extensive acting career, which also includes Lethal Weapon 2 with Mel Gibson and Kill Cruise with Elizabeth Hurley, not forgetting the now cult classic Bo' Selecta! in which she played a parody of herself alongside Lee Francis' bespectacled caricature of Spice Girl Mel B. I ask her if it was slightly scary doing something so different from her usual roles? "No! That was just great," she laughs. "Lee is just great. He's a really good mate of mine and I think we'll probably be doing something else together next year. It was actually a real gift doing that because people saw me in a completely different light. He's such a laugh." Kensit recalls her time filming the show with great fondness. "I remember we were filming it and we'd only been working a couple of weeks. It was one of those situations where I had to get home for something, the nanny was leaving or whatever, and we couldn't shoot; I was just crying with laughter. Hilarious. I've got really good memories, I loved doing it. And people loved it as well." Kensit is prepared to give anything a go and doesn't take herself too seriously. From comedy on screen to comedy on stage, she's appeared in her fair share of pantomimes. In 2000 she famously played the Princess in ITV's Christmas panto Aladdin, but how did that come about? "I was doing a movie in Galway in Ireland," she explains "and I got the call that ITV wanted me to do it and I went and did it. It was great fun. Great, great fun." Having fun seems to be important to Kensit and possibly influenced her decision to audition for Cinderella when she was only fourteen years old. She was cast in the title role at the Richmond Theatre and since then has managed to tick off nearly all the stock female pantomime parts. In 2005 she returned to the theatre to play the Slave of the Ring and Genie of the Lamp in First Family Entertainment's Aladdin with Christopher Biggins and Simon Callow. I ask her what it was like appearing with two of the finest actors on the pantomime stage? "Oh, you know, heaven!" she replies. "Biggins is a legend. He's just brilliant. I used to stand at the side of the stage and watch him every night when he did his number. He was just incredible. It was a real lesson in how to do it. And Simon Callow's just a genius. It was a really fun show." 2011 will see Kensit experience a different kind of fun when she plays her first ever pantomime Villain: the Wicked Queen. "If I don't get boos and hisses, I haven't done my job," she says seriously. Kensit has a lot of respect for the dramatic form and will go about preparing for the part the same as she would for any other. "It's a really great role," she says, before going into the character's motives and background. "I really have got to bring some danger to this. She's the embodiment of everything ugly in a human being; this woman who's desperate for the elixir of youth and beauty. It's such a vile combination of character traits." Kensit gets excited thinking about her character, the enthusiasm takes over and she can't get her words out quickly enough. "I'm going to read the book again and I want to do some research on pantomime because it's been going for hundreds of years, so I'm really interested and I want to find out what makes the best Villain. I don't want to just be vamping around, I really want to try and make this interesting." Whilst she contemplates her character, I ask her whether audiences can expect to see some of her Strictly Come Dancing moves, having come 7th in the 2010 series partnered with Robin Windsor. "I think there'll be some sort of number with some boys, but I'll be acting it rather than dancing. I don't think I'll be doing an Argentinean Tango!" What about some singing then, seeing as her diverse career includes vocals on a top-ten record produced by the Pet Shop Boys? "No," she answers quickly as a look of horror spreads across her face. "I won't be singing because I can't. People will be running out of the theatre!" I remind her that she sang as the Princess in the ITV pantomime. "Yeah, badly! Badly!" she laughs. Kensit is passionate about the theatre and thrives off the liveness of performance. Although she says a career in musicals is not on the cards, might theatre be something she'd like to do more of in the the future? "Yes. Definitely. Definitely," she says, rather excited at the prospect. "There was a job at the Soho Theatre recently. It was close; I didn't get the part. I would love to work there. I think Steve Marmion is just a genius. I think they are doing such great interesting shows and I'm very enthusiastic; that's something I'd really like to do. I haven't done much of it, so I think it's something I'd really love to do more of." But what is it about theatre that sets it apart from the worlds of film and television? "It's a nice routine, but also it's just the challenge of it and learning something new. I'm always learning, always learning to get better. I see everything as trying to improve my job. To do something that's quite jarring, you know? I love the Royal Court and plays and I love going to the theatre. I love to see things that are thought provoking and touch you in a way." With such a passion for performing, theatre looks set to form the next chapter in Kensit's life and will enable her to spend as much time as possible with her sons. Having accomplished so much in her first 40 years of show business, who knows what the future will bring? Her Wicked Queen might just be the start of an illustrious stage career, heralding the beginning of yet another 40 years in show business... Patsy Kensit plays the Wicked Queen in "Snow White at the Seven Dwarfs" at the Churchill Theatre, Bromley from 2nd December 2011 - 8th January 2012.
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