Sophie Simmons speaks about her role as Emma.
Next in the series of cast interviews is Sophie Simmons who plays the dry witted but troubled Emma.
Q: Who is Emma? What can you tell us about her character? A: Emma is a young girl who has already been through so much in her short life, she is grieving the loss of her mother and has had a rocky relationship with her father. She struggles to come to terms with her father's new relationship with Sarah and although she wants him to be happy deep down, she fears losing him once more. She is witty, sarcastic and more caring than she wants to let on.
Q:How did you get involved with the project? A: At the start of the year, I set myself a couple of goals for my acting career: work with more Midlands-based filmmakers and get my first feature film credit. Then BAM, in mid-January I came across the casting call for the Shimian on social media. I actually originally auditioned for Claire (before some changes we made to her character) but James asked me if I was interested in auditioning for Emma instead. I did, of course, and the rest is history!
Q: How did you approach playing Emma? Were there any aspects of her character that were challenging? A: I am fortunate that I can't relate to her too much in terms of her difficult past and present challenges too, I obviously had to handle those elements of the story with sensitivity which can always be quite nerve-wracking. To be honest, I think James' casting was pretty spot on as I can see a lot of Emma in myself personality-wise.
Q: What was the experience of working on “The Shimian” like? A: Don’t get me wrong, there were moments when we were sitting in the freezing cold, pitch black forest in the middle of the night where I may have thought to myself that I'd rather be in bed, haha - but honestly, working on The Shimian was an incredible experience. All of the cast and crew became one big family, it was so odd not to see them every day once we had wrapped! We're all very proud of what we have achieved together and can't wait to see all our work come together on the big screen.
Q: Any favourite memories from the set? A: The whole process was such a laugh, we all got along so well and it was such a great atmosphere. I must say though that probably my most fond memory was one scene where I got the giggles and just totally lost it! I won't say which scene in case you try to spot it, but I'm hoping we got at least one take for the film where you can't see my smirk or hear my voice wavering from trying to hold it together.
Come and see Sophie in the role of Emma on the 29th September, 18:30 at Millennium Point Birmingham. Book tickets HERE