Anneka Harry blog
Published: Monday 6th October 2014
Anneka Harry discusses why she was happy to take on the Bad Bridesmaid acting challenge...
The thought of hen weekends has always given me the willies. The pink plastic, L plate adorned, forced fun kind of willies. The amusingly attached-to-head boppers that send you cross-eyed and give you a migraine type. This invite to a hen do however was one I knew immediately I wouldn't have to find an excuse for.
No neon sashes, no fear of the stripper arriving and asking you to do amusing things with his g-string. No hilariously shaped balloons. This one needed no quickly made up virus. And anyway, there's only so many times you can say you're ill before people begin to think its terminal.
Bad Bridesmaid was an invite like no other. The prospect of going undercover as an actor and causing a four-day hen do riot was like a golden ticket. To this hen night I wouldn't be going as me. I had to create a character. At the time, nothing was annoying me more than ironic, t-shirt wearing, shisha smoking, self-proclaimed 'hipsters' of East London. After a few trips to Shoreditch and a cycle down Brick Lane for inspiration, 'Phoebe' was conceived. Phoebz is 'creative' - a tutti, kooky-woooky kookster who lives in a warehouse, plays the synth, roller skates and makes up words like tutti, kooky-woooky and kookster.
Staying in character for four days was surreal and unique to say the least. People have since asked how I managed it, and if I got tired. I basically saw it as 'do or die'. If I let the ball drop for even the slightest moment Phoebe would die. And probably quite theatrically.
Your mouth sometimes speaks quicker than your brain thinks and every time I was asked my name my head was saying 'Anneka' but I was squawking 'Phoebe.' The only respite came once I was securely back in my hotel room and the chain lock was on. Although, that said, the girls could knock on my door at any moment. I was sometimes so paranoid they were lurking, I'd jump at my own reflection.
My wondrous producer and co-writer Amy Dallmeyer and I had adjoining rooms and spent every second we could steal coming up with plans of attack. There was much plotting and rolling around the floor hysterically reliving the day's events.
There were many moments when I wanted to LOL. I don't know why this particular one stands out now but I accidentally whipped the Series Producer in the face with my bra. You're probably wondering why my bra was off, but what's funnier was that I couldn't apologise to her. Anneka would have been mortified by the underwear sabotage but Phoebe laughed in her face.
I remember thinking as I roller-skated around a disused warehouse, played the synth, and dressed up to the 80's, that my next job was going to have to be pretty special to beat this.
Bad Bridesmaid is on ITV2 on Thursday at 9pm.