To celebrate the release of hit TV series Pushing Daisies, we sit down with Anna Friel and talk accents, daisies and babies.
You must be very excited about the success Pushing Daisies is having both in the US and here:
Anna Friel: I’m really proud of it! We have such a great time making it. I’m loving it.
How do you account for the show’s success?
AF: It’s nice for people to go home at the end of the day and see something uplifting, and yet it is still for the intelligent mind because there’s the procedural to work out.
How would describe your character Chuck?:
AF: Apart from being very funny, she holds on to every wonderful childlike quality there is, particularly now she has a second chance at life. She embraces every single thing in life and appreciates every beautiful sky and sunset and smile. She’s incredibly loving and an old romantic, but she’s also very intelligent because she reads, like, 100 books a day and speaks I don’t know how many languages and plays instruments. That said, she’s lived quite a sheltered life with two mad, eccentric aunts so she’s a mixture of everything. You can never not be surprised by Chuck.
How easy is the American accent for you?:
AF: I stay with the accent all day long when I’m filming. It makes thing much easier. To an English ear my American accent might sound perfect, but on the set I have my dialect coach and I get 10 or 12 notes a day about my pronunciation. Using the accent even between scenes is a discipline, it makes me concentrate that much harder at work – when I’m American I know I’m at work.
Do you have any similarities with Chuck?:
AF: My daughter has. I base quite a lot of it on Gracie. She’s two and a half now and she has that excitement and that glee. I’d like to think I’m similar to Chuck, too, although she’s a lot more positive than me and doesn’t worry. She isn’t as anxious as I am but her spirit has rubbed off on me – I play her 17 hours a day so it can’t help rub off.
Pushing Daisies gets darker as it progresses. Do you have a dark side?
AF: I wouldn’t use the word “dark” when I’m thinking of myself, to be honest. I have a side that worries. Even when things are going really well I’m thinking “I hope I don’t mess it up”. My conscience is really loud so I over-think things, but as I’m getting older I’m feeling much more comfortable in my own shoes.
How are you finding living in Hollywood?
AF: I’m really liking it. It’s come at exactly the right time. I kind of had the opportunity to go there in my early 20s and I don’t think I was quite ready for it back then. Now it feels right. I’ve bought a house near the Hollywood sign, I have a great group of friends, my lifestyle is much healthier.
Are there any downsides to living in LA?AF: At first I was dreadfully homesick. The worst thing about it is I’m not near my family. I always love England and I always come home whenever I can, but right now it’s the right place to be. I have to say it’s so nice not having the Brookside chain around my neck – which is fine but surely after 16 years people can just say Anna Friel not “Brookside’s Anna Friel” all the time. It’s nice I’ve been embraced in Hollywood and am doing really well. To be nominated for a Golden Globe after only nine episodes was pretty good going.
Were you gutted the ceremony was called off because of the writers’ strike?
AF: [Laughs] It is a good year to lose. I would have hated winning and not be able to collect the award.
Is there a message to the show?
AF: I don’t think there’s one particular message – I think the overall feeling is that it’s a world you want to become a part of. Plus there’s the question of morality: Should you bring people back to life? What would you do at the cost of love? Quintessentially it’s a beautiful, romantic love story. We used to be satisfied with old black and white movies where you’d wait for a kiss at the end and actors didn’t take their clothes off and run around naked. Pushing Daisies makes you smile and say “Aah” a lot.
Pushing Daisies is released on 23rd June 2008. Season 2 has been picked up and will hit TV screens in 2009.
