Nottingham-born actress Vicky McClure is best known for playing the feisty and effortlessly cool character Lol in Shane Meadows' TV series and films. Here she talks about playing female roles and inspirational kick ass role models...
"After playing the character of Lol, a lesbian role will often come my way. And there’s also plenty of tough, hard roles that come up. I’m not actually that tough in real life. I read scripts and I can understand why they've been sent to me – some are more obvious than others, but I do believe that as an actor you can never rely on being in work forever. You do have to play to your strengths, and I enjoy playing a strong female character. I’ll only ever work on something that I believe in and am passionate about; I don’t want to sell out and do something just for the hell of it. Recently I was sent a script that was very glamorous and sex orientated, and it didn't feel right. It was a great script and had a strong cast, but I don’t want to flaunt myself on screen in that way. I’ve done nudity and sex scenes, and they are not by any stretch easy to do, just as it’s not easy to attempt a rape scene.
The era I grew up in was full of films with female actresses such as Julie Roberts, but I wouldn't say she was a role model. I would say Julie Walters, especially her character in Educating Rita, was a huge inspiration to me. She’s a kick ass woman – she’s real and she’s extremely talented."
Nottingham-born actress Vicky McClure is best known for her work in the films directed by Shane Meadows. In A Room for Romeo Brass (1999) McClure played the title character’s sister Ladine and more recently in This Is England (2006) and the follow-up television series This Is England ’86 (2011) she played Frances "Lol" Jenkins, which won her the BAFTA for Best Leading Actress and Best Female Actor Royal Television Society Award. In the original film – which centres on skinhead subculture in the Midlands in the 80s – McClure’s hard and feisty portrayal of Lol won her critical acclaim and led to her being cast as the lead role in the four-part spin-off. Lol is a confident tomboy – "she doesn’t take any shit” explains McClure on her character. A leader of the girl gang with her Doc Martens and signature punk style shaved head with fringe – which was then updated into a bleached blonde mohawk for ’86 – Lol embodies all in female attitude and toughness. With the ’88 edition set to air over Christmas and This is England ’90 in the pipeline it is no wonder that McClure can’t escape the typecast. She was speaking here as part of Behind the Screen with BAFTA as part of Film4 Summer Screen at Somerset House.
Text by Lucia Davies
