‘ You have to make the most of every opportunity’
Multiple Olivier- nominated Emma Williams reveals her precarious life in musicals
WHEN tears trickle down the faces of reality TV hopefuls while declaring, “I want it so bad”, you really want them to read about Emma Williams.
The Bradford- born actress, set to star in the stage musical An Officer and a Gentleman when it hits Glasgow next month, shows how success isn’t just about “wanting it”.
It’s also about doing whatever it takes to survive while waiting for a break to come along – and then assuming any role may be your last.
“You have to accept the temporariness of the life as an actor, otherwise it will eat you alive,” says Emma, who stars as Paula Pokrifki in the show.
“But at the same time you have to make the most of every opportunity. ”
“Yet, at the same time you have to make the most of it. Otherwise you’d be a bundle of nerves.”
Williams is a bona fide West End star, with three Olivier nominations for Zorro ( 2008), Love Story ( 2010) and Mrs Henderson Presents, another film- to- stage musical adaptation. ( 2015).
But the accolades that have come her way have been tempered by cold reality.
“I’ve had nine years- worth of West End contracts,” she says, “but I’ve only worked for four years in total.
“The shortest job lasted just four weeks. That’s the danger of working in new musicals – they are not always a success.”
Mrs Henderson was a case in point. A clever, funny, poignant version of the 2005 movie, it didn’t achieve a long West End run, though it did transfer to Toronto.
“I was so proud of that show,” Emma says. “I didn’t get to go to Canada with it because I was already signed up to do Half A Sixpence.
“It was really hard to see the production go on elsewhere and not be part of it.
“But this is a lifestyle we choose. I’ve been doing this for 17 years now, and sometimes shows land and everything’s good, and sometimes they don’t.”
Williams once described herself as “an Olivier- nominated temp” because, when acting work dries up, she takes to the office. “I’ve always temped, in between every job,” she says. “I’ve worked as a temp for Cameron Mackintosh – except last year when I took time off to spend with my husband.”
Her other half also hails from Bradford – “15 minutes round the corner” – yet they met while working on a stage adaptation of White Christmas four years ago.
Williams has a strong work ethic – but also immense talent and a voice that can raise hairs on the back of the neck.
Glasgow audiences will hear it for themselves when she plays the factory girl Polly who falls for trainee US Navy Pilot Zack Mayo.
Does the story transfer easily from film to stage play?
“You know, I think it does. The adaptations have stayed true to the film but the music [ 80s classics such as Girls Just Wanna Have Fun and Family Man] is cleverly woven in.
“You don’t feel you’re stepping out and doing a song, it all feels like extensions of the dialogue.”
Could it be seen as dated in terms of the narrative, considering the original story features a factory girl who dreams of marrying a pilot?
“What we’ve done with the show is give Paula better intentions,” she reveals.
“In the film she’s maybe a little two dimensional, which you don’t see because she is played by the wonderful Debra Winger.
“But we reveal she is actually training to become a nurse.
“And, when she says at the beginning, ‘ I don’t want to marry a man’, now she genuinely means it. She wants to be a person in her own right.
“We’ve also expanded upon the women’s story in general.
“What we see in the factory now is the women fighting against the patriarchal nature of society, as opposed to accepting it.”
Audiences will remember the iconic moment at the end of the movie when Zach comes in and sweeps Paula off her feet.
“Yes, but what they don’t remember is that for two hours and 20 minutes he’s being encouraged to become a better man by his friends – and the woman he falls in love with.
“So what we are really left thinking is, ‘ Who is rescuing who?’”
Despite being a West End success, Emma didn’t set out to become an actress.
She explains: “My dad is an engineer, my mum’s a teacher. When you come from a workingclass family you don’t think of drama school.
“I sort of fell into acting, very gratefully. As a teenager I was going to stage school evening classes in Bradford, and the principal saw potential in me and sent me along for an audition.
“I landed Heartbeat when I was 14. But at 17 I was all set to become a linguist. I was on a gap year – my parents couldn’t afford to send me and my brother to university at the same time – when I landed a movie. And it all fell into place from there on in.”
Emma didn’t stop learning, however. She took an Open University degree aged 24, and is now taking a writing course.
“I needed to continue to learn,” she says. “But at the same time I’ve always had daydreams.”
She breaks into a wide grin. “I guess my daydreams seem to have come true.
“But I never take it for
‘‘ Sometimes shows hit, sometimes they don’t