Zawe Ashton interview
Zawe Ashton talks about returning as Vod for one final time...
This is going to be the last series of Fresh Meat. How does that feel?
It feels so much sadder than I could have ever imagined. We are a gang, a total gang. We've gone from co-actors to family in the space of five years. We've shared something really special in creating these characters together and our wonderful experiences in Manchester, it's been so much more than a job for all of us. It's been like being at school!
Who knew episodic television could be so emotional! I had no idea, not only are you having to saying goodbye to five close friends you've shared formative experiences with after five years but also to five characters that you love. And saying goodbye to your own character too of course. I haven't really worked out how I'm going to say goodbye to Vod... How did the cast of Friends do this after ten years? It's brutal. I've already been watching re-runs on Netflix at home. I've lost days. It's embarrassing.
The day we came home from Manchester after the shoot, I just sat in my pyjamas and worked my way through Series 1. I don't even feel like it's people I know on the screen when I'm watching it. I'm a fan of the show completely objectively which is so odd... However I still turn it off when anyone walks in just in case they assume I'm an incurable narcissist.
How do you feel about Vod?
It's very hard to answer that at the moment. I know, it's like - 'grow up!' But it's hard to approach the idea of talking about her in the past tense. I love her deeply for so many different reasons and so thankful to Sam and Jesse and our incredible team of writers for creating her and forever in debt to our makeup and wardrobe teams who were instrumental in breathing life in to her from the very beginning - at very short notice! I was cast with a couple of days to go before shooting.
Where did we leave Vod at the end of the last series?
Vod had been married to her Mexican lover, had a hugely emotional goodbye with her abusive mother and sabotaged her Union Presidency in order for Oregon to live out her fantasy of being a political leader. So - divorcee, family councillor, future President.
Has she grown up during her time at Uni?
Vod's probably the one who came in with the oldest head on her shoulders in many ways but she's definitely blossomed. She's blossomed in her friendships with the housemates and in her passion for reading and writing.
I think the gang at Hartnell are the first group of people she's really opened up to and trusted - probably ever - and that's huge for her. I think she never expected to love and trust anyone other than her Nan! But I think, in her words, she'd take a bullet for each one of the housemates now. She's probably going to end up writing a thesis ten years down the line that changes the course of literary history and make Professor Shales insane with envy right at the end of his life.
How did the series compare with your own experiences at university?
They are brilliantly similar, as I was a student in Manchester - I was at drama school there. There was already lots of experience to call upon when I was cast, but equally, I still love eavesdropping on conversations students are having in the Arndale or Afflecks Palace and being a fly on the wall in the city.
Students constantly evolve and it's great that our show has a nostalgic feel to it because none of us are actual students anymore, but at the same time - it's great to come back year after year and get fresh research done. See student gigs, theatre, hang out in the centre of town and watch the Howards, Vods, Oregons, JPs, Kingsleys and Josies mingle and feel old and creepy sat there with your hot chocolate.
Do you think there's pressure on students to enjoy their time at Uni because it's meant to be the "time of your life"?
I think that's a pressure that should be ever present for students! It's literally all downhill after uni. Enjoy yourselves while you can. Make yourself enjoy it if necessary!
How was it on the last day on set?
It was really emotional. I think playing the final scene of the series a few weeks before was actually even more intense than the last day. It was really quiet in the car as we were driving over to the real house. A few of us were crying and the tears just didn't stop! It was hard doing the Vod and Oregon goodbye moment because although you feel really emotional as the actor, you can't really put that on to the character. But then I was thinking that Vod might be surprisingly emotional leaving the house but then perhaps she would revert back to the 'rolling stone gathers no moss' protective mode that she's always used at times when she's had to move on. I hope I've got the balance right.
My real life memory of leaving Uni is an overwhelming excitement to be going home but also a weird numbness. Also the panic that you were going to be made to pay the deposit because you hadn't cleaned up well enough.
Which one of the gang is the most likely to succeed in the real world? How will Vod do? What do you think the future holds for Vod?
I've said it before, I'll say it again, Vod could be head of Google or probably any another global organisation. Sam Bain came up with a brilliant idea - it could be called Voogle!
Vod is always going to attract brilliant and bizarre opportunities because she's so fearless. She's genuinely anti-establishment and there's something about that that the establishment loves! I can see her being wined and dined by people in suits, all falling over themselves to snag her while she drinks them all dry. I loved it in Series 2 when Vod was listing her ideal jobs to apply for and one of them was CEO of the Discovery Channel. Maybe it'll be that that she ends up as. She can and should do absolutely anything.
I'm not really sure what defines 'success in the real world' to be honest! It's so objective once you graduate, some people work, some people start families some go looking for themselves up mountains in Peru. These six characters all have such contradictions in them, it's impossible to predict because by their nature and how they're written - when you think you've nailed them down, they wriggle away. They always surprise you.
What do you think have been Vod's high and low points at University?
I think killing Frobisher was a real low for about 30 seconds until she had a spoonful of one of Josie's amazing crumbles. Discovering that sex is the cure for love - definitely a high.
What do you have coming up next?
I'm doing a play at Trafalgar Studios with The Jamie Lloyd Company - The Maids by Jean Genet, with Uzo Aduba and Laura Charmichael, directed by Jamie Lloyd. It's one of my favourite plays by one of my favourite playwrights. It's an exciting new translation, I'm really looking forward to it. Intimate all-female three-handers like this don't come along all that often.
Are you writing anything at the moment?
I'm working on my first ever book and working on two feature film scripts which I'm developing through my production company Asylum Features. I'm also workshopping my play next year, For all the women who thought they were Mad, through a commission at The National Theatre which is a co-production with the brilliant Mob Culture (Jo McGuinness the director and producer Nina Lyndon) and Hackney Showrooms, an exciting new theatre in the heart of Hackney.