Acting up
Fulham resident and rising star Olivia Grant tells Vicky Smith how she went from being a St Paul’s school girl to sharing a make up artist with Michelle Pfeiffer
Above: Actress Olivia Grant
There’s not too many who can claim to have studied at Oxford University, be professionally trained in both singing and ballet and have co-founded their own production company by the age of 24. But Fulham-based starlet Olivia Grant has accomplished all of this – and has turned her hand to acting too. Her first big break saw Olivia gracing the big screen alongside Michelle Pfeiffer in celebrated movie Stardust and, more recently, she bagged a part on the small screen in the latest BBC costume drama Lark Rise to Candleford.
Despite already gaining such impressive film and television credits, acting did not initially appeal to Olivia. Her performance career began as a Junior Associate with the English National Ballet, appearing on stage at prestigious venues such as Covent Garden and Saddlers Wells. Dancing was, she says, essential in shaping her for her current occupation: “Ballet formulated me, and fed into me becoming an actress, as it makes you very aware of performance.”
During her time at St Paul's Girls' School in Hammersmith Olivia juggled her academic studies with her tasks at the Royal Ballet as well as studying at Guildhall School of Music and Drama; where she played both flute and voice. But academia eventually took over and Olivia headed to Oxford University to read English. It was here that her acting skills were realised. “Initially I had planned to do a post-grad at the Royal College and become a professional opera singer, but I got into acting at Oxford where there is an amazing drama scene,” says Olivia, “You can become involved in two or three plays a term which I did, though possibly to the detriment of my academic studies!”
Not deterred by stereotypes of ‘struggling actors’ (she recalls one Oxford academic stating that “Thesps are worse than boaties because at least boaties know they’re wasting their time!”), Olivia secured a part in Stardust alongside Pfeiffer and Claire Danes. It was, she says, an incredible experience and a great opportunity: “I arrived at Pinewood (studios, where filming took place) and found myself milling around with film stars, sitting next to Michelle Pfeiffer in make up and being thrown into the mix like it was normal! Working with such an established actress was a learning curve. I tried to absorb as much as possible while I was there.”
Watch the trailer for Stardust (2:25)
The triumph of the movie has obviously given Olivia a taste for success, and if you tune into the BBC’s adaptation of Flora Thompson’s memoir of her Oxfordshire childhood, Lark Rise to Candleford, before the series ends at the end of the month, you will see her in full swing. Olivia plays Lady Adelaide Midwinter, a young London-born aristocratic wife who resides in the Manor with her unfaithful husband. So, how has she found the transition from film to television? “TV is a much speedier process than film – one scene in film can take two days to shoot, but Lark Rise was much faster. I loved the solidarity of filming on location, and really got to grips with the atmosphere at Chavenage House (where Lark Rise was filmed), which was picked deliberately so my character felt out of place there,” explains Olivia.
Spending time with the other actors on set made the experience all the more enjoyable. “There was a group of us – including Olivia Hallinan and John Dagleish – who hung out together a lot, which meant there was a very nice vibe,” she says. “In a way it was a bit like a theatre company, and speaking with the experienced directors about their careers made it feel like an apprenticeship. It used to work that way in repertory theatre, which is where young actors used to start off and craft their learning, but TV is now the way they learn, so it’s nice that process continues to exist.”
Olivia’s experiences on Lark Rise have left her keen to do more work on-screen – so she certainly is one to watch. “TV is exciting and alive. I particularly like the finesse and subtlety of working on screen and don’t really miss the live audience you get with theatre, as you get to know the crew really well and the live element is created by them being there,” she says.
However, when not performing herself, it is with theatre that Olivia’s heart lies: “I very much prefer going to the theatre than watching a film. I love the Donmar, though it is very difficult to get tickets and the Cottesloe Theatre at the National. I tend to like smaller, studio spaces as they are very immediate.”
Aside from theatre trips, Olivia’s (rare) free time is spent preparing for auditions, enjoying tea at Megan’s delicatessen in Parsons Green and the occasional trip to the Hurlingham Club. And there’s also Imperial House Productions, the production company she co-founded with a friend at university, to think about. “We are currently in negotiation with the Globe hoping to revive a script for performance. As an actor it is nice to have creative control over a project, and directing is something I would certainly be interested in doing in the future, you know, like a bit of a Kenneth Branagh figure." Quite an ambitious task – but with such an impressive track-record so far, anything seems possible.