Monday, July 23, 2018

30 MINUTES WITH Juno Temple / ‘Blackpool is like Reno, not flashy like Vegas, there’s a sense of Arcadian gambling’

Juno Temple

30 MINUTES WITH

Interview

Juno Temple: ‘Blackpool is like Reno, not flashy like Vegas, there’s a sense of Arcadian gambling’

The actor stars alongside Timothy Spall in Away, a new drama set in the seaside town. Did the Lancashire resort’s ‘magic’ help her get over HBO cancelling Vinyl?

Rebecca Nicholson
Thu 25 May 2017

Juno Temple: ‘I try to hold on to my English accent as much as humanly possible, but I do find that you can’t help but stretch into characteristics of what you’re surrounded by’. Photograph: Jared Siskin/Patrick McMullan via Getty

Hello Juno. How are you feeling?

I’m good. I had tonsillitis.

Are you better?

I am now but I’ll be honest, it’s really difficult when you can’t do anything because you can’t swallow or talk. I had to go and see a doctor and get some antibiotics to keep going.

You’re calling from LA. Are you one of those people who flips between accents?

I’ve lived here on and off for about eight years. I find that I try to hold on to my English accent as much as humanly possible, but I do find that you can’t help but stretch into characteristics of what you’re surrounded by. So it’s the cellphone, and the freeway – things like that are inevitable. If I said motorway here, everybody would be like, “what?”

Juno Temple

Do you think English people are obsessed with other English people losing their accents? (1)

I get given shit for it every time I come home. My friends in America think my English accent is so English, but I come home and my friends are like, “you’re in England now …”

You said last year that you might leave the US if Trump got in, but you’re still there.

I’m still here. What made me reconsider is that also Brexit is a bloody nightmare.

Your aunt was the general secretary of the Communist party. (2) Has that filtered down into your own leanings?

I really don’t like talking about my family, it’s private. But you are always a product of what you grew up from. You can only really do things that come from your heart and what you believe in – that was engraved in me from a very young age.

You shot most of Away (3) in Blackpool. How long were you there?

About six weeks.

Do you know the best arcades? Could you show me the sights?

Absolutely, that I could do. For sure.

How do you talk about a place like Blackpool to your American friends?

It’s a bit like Reno, in the sense that it’s not flashy like Vegas, but there’s a sense of Arcadian gambling and that sort of thing going on. It also has as a copy of the Eiffel Tower that was a gift. It’s a very bizarre place and it’s kind of magic. And you’ve got this incredible seafront with these extraordinary sunsets, and some of those hotels on the seafront are beautiful buildings.

I’m not entirely sure Away is going to be much of a tourist board ad. (4)

No, I don’t think so. But if people are heading up north they should stop by.

Will you do more TV? (5)

Yeah, if I enjoy what I’m reading. I was so heartbroken when [Vinyl] ended. We were all very shocked – it was weird to have a TV show that was picked up after one episode, and then we worked hard for so many months, and then suddenly they just pulled the rug from under your feet and that sucked. So I’m a bit nervous to have my heart broken like that again.

Do you have any thoughts on what went on?

No, not really.

So how do you make sense of it?

I say it sucked! Some days I hate that it happened and some days I don’t think about it as much because I’m auditioning for other things. Doing more would have been really killer for that show. I loved my character, I thought she was a badass. I had the best time. Everybody got on and it was my first time experiencing that.

You’re 27, but your filmography is absolutely huge. Is anything you’re yet to do?

I’ve dipped my toes in a fair amount, but dipping your toes doesn’t mean you’ve taken a full dive. It would be fun to do a Judd Apatow comedy. It would be fun to do a biopic and really have to transform yourself into somebody the rest of the world knows. I’ve always wanted to play Marilyn Monroe, but Michelle Williams nailed that. (6)

What’s next?

I’m waiting for a couple of films to come out. I did a film that Woody Allen directed (7), which was an amazing experience.

Away is in cinemas and on DVD now

Juno Temple

Footnotes

1) See the “Joss Stone at the Brits 2007” fiasco.

2) Nina Temple was the General Secretary of the Communist party of Great Britain until its dissolution in 1991. Her father is the documentary maker Julien Temple.

3) Temple plays Ria, a troubled young woman who flees her pimp boyfriend in London to start a new life in Blackpool, where she befriends Timothy Spall’s Joseph, who is suicidal and largely mute.

4) It is likely to be referred to as “gritty”.

5) Temple played Jamie, an assistant at a record label, in the first and only season of Martin Scorsese’s much-hyped HBO 70s music industry drama. It was renewed for a second season but was unceremoniously scrapped after a poor reception from viewers.

6) In 2011’s My Week with Marilyn, though Temple did get to play her in episode of Drunk History in 2016.

7) Wonder Wheel, a 1950s drama set in New York, co-starring Kate Winslet, Justin Timberlake and Jim Belushi.

THE GUARDIAN