Joanna is famous for such shows like The Thick of It and Doctors and Nurses
It is a common illusion to believe that Film and TV are incredibly similar to each other, and it is understandable to see why: They are both visual mediums, they use the same skills to play it out and they use the same technology to bring the whole creation to life. Despite this, it is still not easy to take the stories and characters of a film, and stretch them to accommodate for a TV series. This would suggest that although they share the same medium, films and television have a different style to creating them, and by default it would mean that they share different acting styles.
So what does this mean for actors? Is it true that Film and TV require them to utilise different acting skills and if so, is it worth it for them to be versatile in both fields instead of prioritizing one? To answer this question for me, I caught up with Film and TV actress Joanna Scanlan. You might know her from TV shows such as The Thick of It or films like Notes on a Scandal or The Invisible Queen, still viewable in cinemas now. However, believe it or not, she used to be a drama lecturer in De Montfort University, 20 years back when it was known as Leicester Polytechnic. Eventually she left and pursued a career in acting, after suffering depression and being told by a doctor, ‘Unless you continue acting, you will be ill for the rest of your life.’ Doesn’t get any more fateful than that.
However without further delay, here is the interview between Joanna and me about the versatility of actors: