Sarah Campbell blog
Published: Monday 29th September 2014
In Episode 4 of Bad Bridesmaid, Sarah Campbell was tasked with playing an eccentric tomboy who joins a hen party at the last minute. She explains more here...
Bad Bridesmaid. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. The first day was probably the hardest and scariest day of my life, but the second third and fourth I had the best time ever, a total and utter ball.
When I first met the producers I pitched a few ideas for characters at them, and the one they liked most was Bobbie - her main traits are enthusiasm and a heart of gold combined with naivety and dodgy social skills meaning she'll often say inappropriate things. I spent a few days with Amy the producer fleshing out the character. At first I had imagined her as a member of the Territorial Army, funnily enough this was based on a girl I met on a hen do, then she became a Brown Owl who treated Brownies as seriously as the TA, then finally we settled on a youth leader as it fitted best with her caring side. Bobbie is a combination of the weekend warrior, my friend's mum, and my old history teacher, and I would find myself morphing into each of them.
Being in character for four days and nights was like being high, or in a trance. It was sort of magical but also totally exhausting. Even when you're not being filmed you have to be in character, and it was hard trying not to waste funny stuff off camera, but not be suspiciously suddenly funny on camera. So, to get round this, while off camera I would do funny stuff about the crew, stuff I knew we couldn't use in the show anyway.
When people do improv comedy for very long periods of time - you get "improvathons" that go on for days on end - performers talk about getting "lizard brain", which is a nirvana-like state where you're not thinking but just doing and I definitely reached this. By the Greek Night, I was so immersed in the character that I was saying things without realising it, and it was only when the hens burst out laughing that I realised what I'd said.
An example of how mentally exhausted I was by the end: on the last morning I was wondering for hours why the light in my room was so weird. I was wandering round my hotel room all morning thinking "I must be exhausted because it seems really dingy in here today for some reason." It was only after lunch that I realised it was because I had forgotten to open the curtains. I knew then that it was probably time to get back to reality...
I spent so long in the character that I was worried I'd forget what I was like before Bobbi. I was particularly worried that I'd forgotten how to laugh out loud, so I was going round to the production team after we'd finished desperately asking them to tell me a joke so I could laugh out loud, which I did, to my endless relief.
However one aspect of Bobbie has stayed with me - her burgundy puffa gillet. I remember absolutely cracking up with Amy at how naff it was when we were shopping for Bobbie's clothes, but that thing is so damn warm and comfy that I now wear it in my normal life. It's totally ruined my style.
If I had one piece of advice to give from all this it would be: never try on a puffa gillet. They're like crack, you'll get hooked and never take it off even though it's ruining your life.
Bad Bridesmaid is on ITV2 on Thursday at 9pm.