Gregory’s Girl’s on film: Clare Grogan salutes a few of her favourite big-screen women
Star of Scotland’s best-loved coming-of-age movie explains why
It has been 40 years since Clare Grogan made her acting debut in Scotland’s best-loved high school movie.
But despite now being closer to 60 than 16-year-old Susan she played in Gregory’s Girl, she can still identify with movies made for young people.
Which is why, when asked to curate the Reel Women season of films for the historic Bo’ness Hippodrome cinema, her list was filled with plots about teenage dreams and strong, young female characters.
Grogan, 59, who has a 16-year-old daughter of her own, said it’s important that adults watch them too – so they can remember just how tough it was growing up themselves.
She said: “There’s something about being 16 and being almost 60 that isn’t so different. The messaging becomes different when you’re an adult, but it’s just as important to understand because as a parent you can really learn from it.
“We are all guilty of forgetting what it was like to be a teenager, and going through lockdown together with my daughter, Elle, brought me to the conclusion that being 16
is really tricky and we just need to be a lot kinder to teenagers.
But I also realised that a lot of things she feels I still feel myself, like slight insecurity and anxiety of not knowing what’s coming next.
The Altered Images singer, whose acting work includes Red Dwarf, Eastenders and last year’s Scots rom-com Lost At Christmas, is proud to have been in one of the most beloved teen films of all time, and believes Gregory’s Girl has definitely stood the test of time.
“It was great seeing it a few years ago at the BFI in London. I took Elle along, and I loved seeing how much fun people were having, they were really laughing and it really deserves its glorious reaction that still continues today.
“As a coming-of-age movie, they don’t come much better.”
For the Reel Women festival at the Hippodrome, Clare has recorded video introductions to the special screenings which run throughout August. Her selection includes coming-of-age comedies including ’90s classic Clueless, inspired by the Jane Austen classic Emma, and Oscar nominated hit Lady Bird, starring Saoirse Ronan as a highschool outsider. She also picked hard-hitting Syrian documentary For Sama, about an 18-year-old student becoming a young mum during the civil war, and The Piano, about a mute Scots mum and her daughter struggling in Victorian rural New Zealand.
A massive fan of a diverse range of movies about teenagers and young women, here Grogan chooses some of her favourites.
Reel Women runs at the Bo’ness Hippodrome until September 23. Info at hippodromecinema.co.uk