THIS COUNTRY’S DAISY TURNS HER
TRASH spilled out of a binbag dress and there was a pigeon on her head as Daisy May Cooper provided the laughs once more.
The writer and star of mockumentary This Country was happy to play it dafta at the TV Baftas last year.
Her outfit went down a storm. So you’d think playing up to the crowd, putting on a performance in front of people really was Daisy’s bag.
But the truth is just the opposite as Daisy admits her self-confidence really is rubbish.
Self-doubt and nerves trigger such “horrendous anxiety” that the 34-yearold no longer attends live auditions.
And during lockdown, she opened up about her struggles with confidence in a series of honest and expletive-laden videos on social media.
Daisy, who is expecting her second child with husband Will Weston, said: “I don’t do auditions any more, I can’t. There will be parts that I really want, but I will only do it on tape. I can’t be in the f***ing room.
“The anxiety I feel, it’s horrendous. I would much rather do it at home and not have to meet anybody... I crumble to s**t, I am terrible.”
Her fear may have been sparked by one particularly bad audition for a role on Call the Midwife.
AWFUL
She added: “It wasn’t that I didn’t know the script, it was the fact that I f***ing hate auditions. I always say I am going to be really s**t on the first go, just give me time to warm up.
“I felt f***ing terrified. My agent called me the next day and said ‘Yeah, that was a really, really bad audition. Are you OK? Do you need help with audition lessons?’ That absolutely killed me. It’s just awful.”
Daisy and brother Charlie have won an army of fans with This Country.
They play bored cousins Kerry and Kurtan Mucklowe, who are filmed for a supposed documentary on workingclass people in the Cotswolds. The show has won four Bafta TV Awards.
Yet Daisy only created the character as a way of avoiding casting sessions.
She said: “The way I dealt with all those awful auditions was to take control – that’s why I started writing something where I was the lead.
“I was in control of it, so nobody could f***ing tell me what I can and can’t f***ing do, so I didn’t have to walk in to another audition where I felt like f***ing s**t.”
Even then, she wasn’t immune to self-doubt – fearing people would think she was ripping off Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant’s The Office.
She said: “That’s what we were worried about with This Country being a mockumentary.
“We thought, ‘Well that’s what The Office has done and Charlie looks like Gareth (actor Mackenzie Crook) from The Office, the same hair, it’s going to look like we are just plagiarising the show’.” She couldn’t have been more wrong. This Country was commissioned by the BBC and recently completed its third series. So it’s not surprising Daisy’s name is mentioned in the same breath as Phoebe Waller-Bridge, the creator and star of Fleabag,
– and nominated for best female comedy performance at this year’s TV Baftas, next Friday.
This Country and Fleabag were commissioned on the same day, but rather than being flattered by the comparison, Daisy admits she is still struck by bouts of jealousy.
She said: “I get really jealous. I got so f***ing jealous of Phoebe WallerBridge. She is the nicest person I have ever met but I can’t let it go.” As well as opening up about herself on social media, Daisy has tickled her 500,000 followers with hilarious TikTok dances and a mock whirlwind romance with “the Sea Captain”.
SKINT
He is an internet scammer posing as a soldier and screenshots of their chats have gone viral. Thousands of fans now follow their daily adventures.
Daisy’s social media feed is a window into her naturally funny take on the world. She based much of her script for This Country on her own experiences. She’s made no secret of the fact she and Charlie, 31, were skint before their show was commissioned.
Speaking previously, she said: “It was such a bleak time. I’d come out of drama school and thought, ‘Well, it’ll be fine, I’ll get loads of commissions’.
“And I didn’t get anything. I moved back in with my parents and did a