Amelia Bullmore interview
Amelia Bullmore plays Lauren in Ballot Monkeys, a communications expert on Donald Trump's team hired to secure more female votes.
Tell us about your character...
I play Lauren, who has been hired to assist the Trump campaign by looking into why many women don't like Trump, and getting more women to like Trump.
That's not what you'd call an easy job, is it?
No, but I think she's a very experienced campaigner, and I think she would think that if she could pull it off, that it'd really be quite something on her CV. There's quite a widely held belief that 'anything goes' in the early days of an election, when people are just drumming up the tension, and that candidates can refine their views as time goes on.
It may be that they're just using broad brush strokes as strategy, and when you spend a bit more time with a candidate, and things settle down, and the White House is closer in their sights, their true, more measured philosophies come to light. So she's hoping that will happen.
So she's what you'd call an optimist, then?
I think she's, more than anything, a realist, but she's decided to be optimistic. She must have taken a gamble about what her chances are, and thought "It's a pretty amazing job to be offered" and if she pulls it off it'll be fantastic. It'll be very well paid anyway, and I think she's normally very effective. I don't think she thinks it'll be plain sailing.
Is she American?
Yes.
How's your American accent?
I hope it's okay! I have played American characters in the theatre, and I've played an American character on telly a while ago, and in sketches and various things.
Much of the series is being shot on the day of transmission. Have you filmed anything like that before?
I've definitely filmed things that have had this fresh paint feel - sometimes sketches are like that, particularly when you're improvising, or trying things out. But I suppose it's a feeling that you get quite often in the theatre - it's now or never, and a take always feels like that anyway. I like the feeling. I definitely like the buzz of it.
Is there a nervousness that goes with that?
Not really. I just like it. I think everybody who's doing it must like it. I didn't audition in this instance, because I've worked with Guy and Andy before, so they gave me a ring, but people who have auditioned said they only picked up their pages of script on the day. In other words, they weren't allowed to prepare, so Andy and Guy are checking that people are up for that as much as anything else. I think they've gathered a group of people together who don't mind being scared - or who are prepared to be scared as long as Guy and Andy are in the room.
So what have you worked on with Guy and Andy before?
I worked with them on a film called What We Did On Our Holiday. That had a very go-with-the-flow feeling, because there were young children in it, and bits of it were improvised, and so it had a fresh quality to it.
What made you say yes to Power Monkeys?
Guy and Andy. It's that simple.
Have you seen any of this show's predecessor, Ballot Monkeys?
I've seen clips of Ballot Monkeys. When it went out I was working, and I haven't been able to get hold of the whole lot, but you can watch almost the whole lot if you watch enough clips.
Has that given you an idea of how it was all put together?
It's a very, very clever system they've worked out, that they refined doing Ballot Monkeys. They've got it down. So you know that somebody's thought about it all. They know they can get those rushes over there, and those minutes filmed and all the rest of it.
Is there something quite liberating about not having too much time to agonise over every aspect of your performance?
What you're being asked to do, without preparation, is a relatively small proportion of the series. We've got scripts, we know our characters, and what they want and what their mission is, and what they're trying to do to the other characters and where they're at. So it's not as tall an order as it might sound.
And there is something liberating about not sitting on the thing too long. I think probably there's some really good work that happens early on in the process, and then there's some really good work that happens very, very late on in a protracted, detailed, long, long process. But I think there's something to be said for first goes at something. They have something. A lot of the time filming is about that.
There will be episodes the day before and the day after the referendum - how do you feel about that?
I think what's good is we'll be run in by then. I think it'll be fun. There will be a lot to do, but it'll be exciting. The only other thing that I've done that was closely connected to a real event was Twenty Twelve, and as the real event got closer, there was a growing pace and pleasure, because the fictional world and the real world were meeting. And I think that is quite unusual and fun.
The news has emerged that Trump is going to be visiting the UK the day after the referendum. Presumably that's put the cat among the pigeons a little bit?
Well, I think the pigeons are quite sanguine - the Guy and Andy pigeons are very sanguine. And the pretending pigeons aren't in any danger of being invited to meet him, anyway. I think we might be persona non grata by then!
What are your own thoughts regarding the Donald?
Well, he's totally fascinating, isn't he? I think Guy and Andy have really pinned something down, which is the mixture of the jokes, and there are lots of jokes to be had, and the troubling nature of this too. I think they've got the mixture of joke and danger very well balanced.