SISTER ACT
GET TO KNOW THE WOMAN BENEATH THE WIMPLE
Jenny’s labour bears fruit!
Jenny Agutter stars in one of Britain – and New Zealand’s – most popular TV shows, but when she visited these shores a couple of years ago, she was able to get on with her holiday without being recognised.
That might be because unless people directly approach the English actress – who plays Sister Julienne in Call the Midwife – and say, “Aren’t you her from the TV?”, it doesn’t always dawn on her that she’s being stared at because she’s famous.
“I tend to think people are looking at me strangely because I must have something stuck to my face or perhaps my hair looks odd,” admits Jenny (66).
Another reason why she might have been able to fly under the radar during her visit here – which was absolutely wonderful, she says – was because she looks so different in real life to her on-screen character. Sister Julienne is never seen out of her nun’s habit, with her hair hidden underneath the wimple and her face bare of make-up.
“Sometimes I look at the other actresses in their lovely 1960s clothes and I think, ‘Oh, what a shame, can’t I wear something different for once?’ But there is something terrific about going to work in the morning and knowing exactly what I am going to put on.
“I go into make-up and it’s a five-minute powder job. Then the wimple goes on and that helps to totally transform me into a nun.”
The wimple is also responsible for the dreamy look Jenny has.
“The thing with the wimple is that you don’t hear very well through it, so often the expression on your face is a slight kind of puzzlement. You think, ‘Did I hear that right?’
“You can’t be going, ‘What?’ all the time so you respond with a kind of half smile because you haven’t actually heard what the other person has said.”
Chatting on the phone from England, Jenny is a lot less serious than her TV alter-ego, often breaking into a delightful, tinkling laugh. But she is quick to point out that while Sister Julienne is mostly rather strait-laced, she does have a sense of humour. “I think she has a naughty side and there’s definitely a twinkle in her eye.”
Sister Julienne is based on a nun called Sister Jocelyn, who featured in three memoirs by midwife Jennifer Worth. Those books were then turned into the hugely successful TV series.
Call the Midwife is now in its eighth season and Jenny believes the success of the show is largely due to writer and producer Heidi Thomas, who has continued to craft episodes in keeping with Jennifer’s experiences, long after all the stories from the books had been used.
“Heidi keeps coming up with wonderful scripts, looking at social changes of the era and telling great stories about the community of Poplar. She does tackle very challenging subjects… domestic abuse, abortion, disabilities, female genital mutilation, homophobia, racist behaviour. I am always surprised when people say it’s comfortable Sunday-night viewing because it’s not. It is really quite hard stuff.”
The greatest challenges of Call the Midwife are the birth scenes, reveals Jenny. A midwife is always present on set to ensure the actors are doing everything properly and along with prosthetic babies they also use real ones.
“We usually have babies that are a week to 10 days old and, of course, the mother is very much present. We film lots and lots of shots, which are later edited together. Hopefully it makes everyone watching feel as if a woman really is going through childbirth! It can get rather emotional.”
Jenny, who’s been acting since the age of 12, adds that one of the nice things about working on the show is when people do recognise and approach her, they want to talk about the show and not about her or her acting career.
After parts in a couple of movies, she was discovered by Walt Disney, who cast her in his TV series The Magical World of Disney. She went on to appear in movies such an Logan’s Run and more recently, The Avengers, as well as TV shows such as Spooks.
But she’s probably best known for her role as teenager Roberta in both the TV and movie versions of The
Railway Children.
“It had a huge impact; it gave my career a very big boost. It is rather odd to still be known for something you did when you were 16 when you are now in your
60s, but that’s fine.
“And it’s like Call the
Midwife in that people want to talk to me about
The Railway Children and not me. They get so involved in the stories. It’s nice to know that what we’ve done has affected people. I love that.”