The actor looks back over a four-decade career balancing ‘serious’ drama and improv comedy, describes the making of her wholly improvised new film, and explains why we don’t see her on TV so much any more
“I hope they don’t want me to look wacky,” frets Josie Lawrence on the way to the photoshoot for this interview, because she’s here to talk about a serious film. On the other hand, she’d love a plug for her regular Sunday night slot at London’s Comedy Store, where she has been improvising on and off for 38 years. The contradiction is a fact of life for a performer whose gift of the gab on Friday night TV bagged her a permanent place in the heart of the nation, eclipsing the parallel career in which she was excelling as a classical actor of Shakespeare and Stoppard.
The interview is over lunch, at Lawrence’s request, though she looks momentarily horrified when a plate of long, chewy pasta arrives, dripping with the sort of sauce you really don’t want down your front for a photoshoot. She has arrived early, as she always does, and killed some time in a vintage shop close by, where she has bought herself an elegant coat dress. She jumps enthusiastically from her seat to show it off, exclaiming, at head-turning volume, “I’m terrible at buying clothes – my wardrobe is full of old things that I like to wear. But it’s funny how things turn up when you’re not looking.” Far from deliberately drawing attention to herself, she seems oblivious that other diners might recognise her.
Her new film neatly marries the two sides of her career. It is the story of a pair of middle-aged sisters who return to their childhood home after the death of their charismatic but difficult mother, and decide to make their clear-out into an art installation. Directed by Jon Sanders and titled A Clever Woman, the film was shot over 10 days in an old curiosity shop of a house on the Isle of Wight, and is an entirely improvised exploration of bereavement, memory and the bonds of sisterhood.
