Jennifer makes the cut
New Midwife star’s hair-raising sacrifice.
LANDING a role in one of the biggest programmes on telly shows you’ve made the cut as an actress.
But new Call The Midwife star Jennifer Kirby really made the cut – she had to have her long hair shorn before she got the part.
Jennifer is latest Nonnatus House nurse Valerie Dyer in the BBC’s smash-hit Sunday night serial.
And she’s told iN10 how it made for quite a change of appearance.
“I don’t think I quite took in the news I’d got the part when my agent called,” said Jennifer, 28.
“I went a bit quiet and then they said, ‘Oh, and they want to cut your hair off. Is that OK?’
“I just said to cut away, take all my hair, shave my head if they wanted!
“I had elbow-length, thick brown hair which I’d obviously been growing for a while.
“But I’ve had all different lengths and styles over the years, so the fact they wanted the character to have short hair really wasn’t a problem.
“You try to find an ‘in’ into a new character and often something like a new hairstyle makes you look at yourself in the mirror in a different way.
“I was ready to get rid of it, so I’ve no regrets at all. And when it was cut we donated it to Locks Of Love, which makes wigs for people with cancer.
“It felt nice that it was going somewhere useful.”
Jennifer had been in New York with the Royal Shakespeare Company during the interview process, with audition tapes flying back and forth across the Atlantic.
The day she arrived back in the UK she met the producers and found herself offered the coveted role just 24 hours later.
“I started filming very quickly after that, so it was a mad, brilliant, whirlwind really,” she said.
Although an acclaimed stage actress with high profile roles with the RSC and elsewhere, Jennifer’s only previous TV experience was a small part in Holby City.
“It’s such a huge job and such an amazing opportunity that I couldn’t really let myself think of what might happen if I got it,” Jennifer added.
“I don’t quite know how, but I expect this will change some things for me.
“I might get recognised, although I look different on screen. I’m open to whatever happens and I’m definitely not daunted.
“I’m looking forward to it. What I am bearing in mind is that it’s all about the show, really.
“It’s huge and it’s more popular than any actor or character.”
Stepping on to the set for the time among so many established favourites and household names would set the nerves jangling among even acting veterans.
But London-based Jennifer says the warm welcome from the likes of Jenny Agutter made it much less of an ordeal.
“It was surreal on the first day as I grew up watching a lot of these people and suddenly they are there in front of you,” Jennifer smiled.
“You go from seeing them on the telly to being their colleague.
“What was really lovely about it was that they all treated me so warmly right away that I didn’t feel intimidated at all.
“I was so grateful for that. I don’t think the series would have so much loveliness on-screen if that wasn’t how it was behind the scenes, too.”
The birthing scenes are central to so many of the show’s most memorable and emotional moments.
Jennifer found it wasn’t long before Valerie was thrown in to her first delivery, and she admits it was quite an experience.
“I really enjoyed it,” Jennifer, who loved wearing Valerie’s less-girly 1960s outfits, said.
“I was a bit nervous at first because everything has to be so accurate.
“You feel a great responsibility to do it just as it would have been.
“We went over it a lot in advance, so by the time I actually got on set I felt relatively calm.
“It wasn’t like any other filming day and felt really exciting.
“And we had the babies on set, of course, which was a plus.”
Call The Midwife, BBC1, tonight, 8pm.