Jemma Garrard – Actress – Interview

I’m Jemma Irene Garrard, born in Chatham on the 18th July 1985… making me Cancer the crab, or the Year of the Ox, or whichever animal makes me and everyone else born that month go crazy on a full moon!

It kinda started when i was kid, ive always been into cartoons and animation, using your imagination and bringing characters to life!

Acting developed from there, I suppose its the feeling of becoming someone else, putting everything into it to make the character believable for others. Its a very fulfilling experience – bringing your imagination to life!

I went to school with Rob Allison (the director) and when he told me about Eightball I invited him and Jack Vine along to see a show I was in at the time (playing Rizzo in Grease). After that we met for a few script readings, and the rest, as they say is history.

We would arrange days for shooting, which was quite hard, as a lot of the cast were studying, there had to be a lot of commitment with the whole cast and crew.

Hmm…. the most challenging aspect was coming up with ways to get things done (if that makes sense!?). Because it was a low-budget film, we would often have to shoot scenes again because of technical stuff or change location last minute!

Literally, i’d turn up on set and it would be like “Right, well we can’t do that, let’s just shoot this and see how it goes!” Makes the day a little more exciting… spontaneous decisions!

I guess it would have to be my first day of shooting. The first scene I ever did was the car park scene (where I get shot at continuously!). It was a day of running and diving… oh and speedy getaways with the stunt driver!

They threw me in the deep end those guys! But it was great fun, working with Rob, Jack and Rich, we had a laugh, and that’s important!

Well after Eightball, I attended Art school, as I’m passionate about many different areas of film. I took some time out to learn more about film-making and animation.

I cant wait to get back into acting – I’m actually going over to Vancouver to study, it’s a beautiful place and its been a dream of mine for years… to go out there and work in film.

Ooooohh… that’s a good one. There’s so many people I admire and would love to work with. I’m a big Tim Burton fan, so working with him would be a dream come true. But honestly there are so many that i dont think we have time!

Damn, that’s a tough one. I tend to add films to my favourites list all the time, so ‘of all time’ i dont think i can say, but excellent films I’ve seen recently? ‘Garden State’ and ‘Finding Neverland’ – brilliant!

Well, it’s just something I live by, and something that we probably all hear a lot but it’s so true – if you want something, work hard for it and don’t give up!

But most importantly – enjoy what you do, no matter how hard the struggle, try to have fun….man that sounds so much like a cliche, but you know what? I don’t care.

Jemma Garrard, thankyou very much for this interview.

You’re very welcome.