Lisa Palfrey interview
Lisa Palfrey is a Welsh actress, but she plays a Moldovan woman in Family Tree...
Hi Lisa. Could you describe who you are playing on the show and a little bit about your character?
I play Luba who is Keith's second wife. She is from Moldova. They've been married for about five years, so I am Tom and Bea's stepmother.
And she's a pretty extraordinary woman isn't she?
I think so yes. She's from a very small village in Moldova and we think they probably met on the Internet. She was born the day that England won the World Cup so that was a bit of a clincher for Keith I think. They have a lovely relationship and are very happy and in love.
Luba has quite a look - tell us about your costume.
Well, I think Luba has been starved of clothes shops in Moldova. There is just one shop in her village and it sells tractors so she just went a bit mad when she came to London. Keith enjoys spending money on her and she wears comfy, bright pink velour tracksuits - I don't think she's really worn anything quite this colourful before. She's easily pleased and loves her house and her exercise and keeps an exercise bike in the garden but her sense of balance isn't the best.
Tell us a bit of how she fits into this world of Family Tree and how she interacts with Tom?
Luba is a great homemaker and, as such, loves cooking a vast array of Moldovan recipes which usually involves pig meat of some kind and which Keith, by now, is used to eating. However, they are not so popular with Tom and Bea but you can't really go to Luba's house without eating a lot of food, which is nice on one hand but not on the other as it's not very nice food.
How did you get involved in this production?
It was one of those lovely moments where I had just completed a theatre press night in Bristol when I got a call from my agent, (the call that you always want), saying that Christopher Guest is auditioning people for his new TV show. I'm a great admirer of his work and everyone involved in his projects so I was really determined to do my best audition ever.
When you say you are a huge fan, are there any particular films or characters that jump out?
I love Waiting For Guffman and Chris's Corky St Clair is a wonderful creation. I've seen all his films and absolutely love them all. I can even recite Jennifer Coolidge's scene in Best In Show where she is talking about all the things she enjoys doing with her very old husband. Though she is much better at it than me.
Christopher Guest works in a unique style of improvised filmmaking. How has it been working this way? Do you enjoy the challenge of improvising as opposed to working off of a full script?
Some actors love working like this and I happen to be one of them. It was really exciting not to have to learn lines and to turn up for work and really not know what's going to happen. When we started on the first day we had a nice dinner scene to do, so there was some safety in numbers, but literally the camera goes on and there's no rehearsal, you're just thrown right into it.
I admit it was a little bit daunting to begin with, but once you get into it, it's just so enjoyable and very liberating. There are certain bits of information that Chris will ask you to get out during a scene, but other than that anything could come out and the most difficult thing of all is trying not to laugh at the other actors. That's the hardest bit but it's just a joy to work like that. Sometimes you come up with an idea and it's not needed and that's fine too.
How did you create the character of Luba?
I did quite a lot of research on Luba because she's from Moldova and I had to know quite a lot of Romanian because her English isn't brilliant, but you know you can get an app for everything these days. I learnt some quite fruity Romanian sayings and a lot about food in Romanian but I found that was always good to fall back on. When I got a bit tongue-tied I would just say really rude things in Romanian!!
Did you have any guidelines to work from?
Yes, Chris and Jim provided us all with a character biography before we began work and it gave me a background and some knowledge as to what kind of a person Luba was. But other than that, you can embellish and add to it which was very exciting if not a little dangerous perhaps. Then as the process continued and you interacted with the other characters we saw all our relationships grow too.
Tell us about a particular scene, as an example where you've surprised yourself.
There's a particular scene when the family go to visit the Derbyshire Chadwicks in the countryside. They are strangers really but there's a village fete and Luba regales a poor housewife about a Moldovan festival and Chris gave me free reign on that. It's a risk and I didn't know if it was going to work or not but I did base it on a real Moldovan fete involving virgins and eggs, but then I put my little twist on it and I was quite happy with the way that one turned out. It was fun to do.
Do the other actors react to whatever you are saying and then you get to a point where you wonder when you are going to stop?
Yes, you really sometimes don't know where you are going to go with it and neither does anyone else in the room especially the actors that are with you. Inevitably what tended to happen was that someone would react to what you have said and that's what makes you crumble and fall about laughing.
When you're performing for the Director and Writer, who have made a career out of this kind of comedy, is that helpful or does it make it even more nerve wracking?
What was the most exhilarating thing was the sheer amount of trust Chris gave to us. He would give us free reign to say whatever we wanted. He's brilliantly patient. He's got the whole picture in his head and we just come in and do our bit, but obviously we trust him just as much because he knows better than anybody.
Is genealogy something that has interested you and do you have any specific stories that came out of looking into your own family background?
When my great grandmother was very young her family moved to Patagonia in Argentina. A lot of Welsh speaking people did that to make a new life for themselves. My grandmother then wrote a few novels about her story in Welsh and, about five years ago, my entire family went over to Patagonia and made a drama documentary about the history of all that - it was an incredibly touching experience.
The farm that my great, great grandfather had built was still standing and we actually filmed there. What was extraordinary was that everyone there knew the story of my ancestors' lives and to travel thousands of miles to go somewhere where people know your family story better than you was a bit weird. Even more extraordinary is that they still speak Welsh there so that was an incredible experience.
This show aims to be a very funny comedy but also have a lot of heart. What themes are explored in the series?
For me it is about a need to know where you belong and in Luba's case she's come from thousands of miles away and yet she has an enormous feeling of family and belonging in this little unit that she's found.
Nina Conti who plays Bea told us there is some friction between Luba and the Monkey?
Monk is just rude. I don't think Luba fully understands Nina's relationship with the monkey. She doesn't dislike the monkey but she doesn't quite understand everybody's acceptance of it. To Luba, Monk is just a dirty monkey puppet, which is really rude to her. She loves all the family but Monk is a bit much. She puts up with it, but in some countries people eat monkey brains - just saying!
What was it like to work with Michael McKean?
Well, when I heard that Michael McKean was playing my husband, I was in my friend's kitchen and did this dance where my knees nearly went up to my ears. That's how happy I was to hear it was him playing Keith. It's been such a joy to work with him and that's just happened organically. Some people are just absolutely wonderful to work with and Michael is one of those people so it was very easy to love him.