Conversations...with Actor, Director, and Artist, Julie Atherton.
Julie Atherton is really the sweetheart of London's West End. Starting her career playing the lead, Sophie, in Mamma Mia, her career has gone from strength to strength and she is infamous for playing Kate Monster and Lucy the Slut in the original London production of the hilarious hit show Avenue Q!
Julie and I trained together at Mountview Academy and have some great memories of that time, so I was thrilled when she agreed to sit down and chat about her career, the struggles of being in this business, the politics of drama school, the affects of Covid, and why you should never do the splits in an audition when you cannot do the splits!
Lindsey Bowden (LB)
Hello my love! It's been a long time since we've seen each other but are you keeping well?
Julie Atherton (JA)
Hello! I am keeping well yes, bit tired but very good!
LB
I'm not surprised with all the work you are doing, you're quite popular! So let's get cracking and chat about your career. Did you always want to be a performer?
JA
Basically yeah, I couldn't do anything else. Everyone seemed to know what they wanted to do for their G.C.S.E.'s and I was starting to panic. I was quite shy and had no confidence but I loved performing, but I thought it was maybe a pipe dream and something I dreamed about whilst singing in my bedroom to Miss Saigon.
LB
I used to sing to Cats and Les Miserables.
JA
Well, when I went to Sixth Form College, my drama teacher there really pushed me...although I still failed it, it was the written work, didn't like written work. My concentration was so bad, still is really! But he really encouraged me and I thought it was great and I knew I had to pursue it. I went into the library, which I had never set foot in before, you see just not academic, but I found a list of drama schools. There was no social media back then so I just had to look at them, not knowing anything about them. Then I'd heard that somebody in the year above me, Helen Latham (Footballer's Wives and fellow Mountview graduate), had gone to Mountview so that was top of my list. There were some others on my list but as soon as I got into Mountview I was like 'I've done it'!
LB
You mention Mountview there and of course we trained together. I don't know about you but I felt I needed the discipline at that point. Did you feel you needed that, and did you enjoy it?
JA (laughs)
I definitely needed discipline! But it was mainly my confidence that needed building, I was so insecure. I do think one of the lessons that should be in drama school should be counselling. Moving to London too with all these problems we all have, therapy was almost frowned upon back then, it's so much better in Britain now, but it should be standard really to have that.
LB
I agree. I had a similar conversation recently that there should be some kind of therapy or safe space, I don't know if there is now as we're talking 20 years ago, but there was nothing like that really.
JA
Yeah, and its quite brutal and personal because as an actor, you're showing a part of yourself, it's not like a piece of written work, you're showing you.
LB
Did you have any particular inspirations or people you looked up to?
JA
I was obsessed with Miss Saigon, I don't know if you remember that. Lea Salonga was just....
LB
She's a goddess.
JA
Yeah...
LB
Well if I remember correctly you landed your first professional job during the 3rd year of Mountview which was Charlotte's Web at the Polka Theatre. That must have been interesting to get a professional job whilst still training?
JA
It was very interesting and not really taken well. I was told I was going to miss my lead (in 3rd year shows), but I thought the right decision was to do a job that I had been training to do rather than carry on training.
LB
Well, that decision has clearly damaged your career! Then of course you landed the lead role of Sophie in Mamma Mia not long after that. How did it feel to land such a massive show when you had not long been out of drama school?
JA
It was the best feeling, and I don't think I've ever topped it. It's quite a funny story but I was doing a Pantomime in York at the time. I had been back and forth from London to York so many times because I had so many auditions for it. I just didn't think I'd get it. I was getting closer and closer and then I got a phone call from my agent saying I'd got the job, to which I said "what do you mean I've got it, you mean the understudy?", and she said no it was the lead to which I said I didn't understand! She had to tell me a few times before I realised! When I finished ringing everyone I suddenly realised I had been walking around York and was completely lost! I had to call the Company Manager to get directions back to the theatre as we had a dress rehearsal for the Panto that afternoon! Whilst in the rehearsal I was so happy that in the opening number I managed to fall and go over on my ankle. I'm crawling off the stage while people are laughing at me thinking I'm just being silly! My ankle swelled up so much they had to cut my shoe off and I ended up going to A&E in Pantaloons, with a small bottle of Champagne someone had given me, toasting myself in the waiting room!
LB
That's amazing! Part of me just wants to say "because it's you"!
Julie laughs and nods her head in agreement!
LB
So since Mamma Mia your career really hasn't stopped and you've been in some incredible shows, but we have to mention, of course, the production that catapulted you, and that's the dual role of Kate Monster and Lucy the Slut in Avenue Q. I saw you play that role twice and you were fantastic, you looked like you were having a blast up there. It was also lovely to see you up on stage with our friends Sion Lloyd and Giles Terera as well. So can you chat a bit about how you got that job and also the process of learning all the puppeteering, as, for those who don't know Avenue Q, the whole show is puppeteering. Dirty puppets, we like it!
JA
Well in the audition I sang a comedy song, and then they asked me to pick up a puppet and have a go, having never done it before. So I had a go and was trying to move the mouth at the same time as speaking and it actually really hurt because they are heavy. They agreed it was quite painful but I just had to do it which felt odd having to do something in an audition that you're not trained in when you're trying to get a job. But we had a little workshop and it was quite a lot of pressure as there were others in the room who were also after that part. It felt more like a public audtition than a workshop. But I knew there was another audition after that so I went home and practiced the movements, without a puppet, so when I came back I slightly knew what I was doing. So, a few of us got the job without really knowing how to puppeteer, but they just wanted to see our progression, which was absolutely fair enough. It was a 5 week rehearsal period and the first week was an intensive puppeteering workshop with one of the guys from The Jim Henson Company, who was absolutely amazing, just great. It was so hard, but it is like riding a bike. You just think you're never going to get it and then one day something clicks. For instance, the Lucy the Slut walk. I could not get that for ages, and every morning I'd grab the puppet and practice and practice, and then one day it just clicked and I shouted "Everyone, watch this!", and they shouted yes! It was great, everyone was having epiphanies at different times! After press night I remember I just cried! The director asked if I was ok and I said that I just didn't know how it went. Because when you're a person on stage you get a feeling whether you were good, but with this it was like, I think the puppet was looking the right way and doing the right things!
LB
It's hard though isn't it because you're not only trying to show the character through the puppet, you're also showing it through your face. I've worked with the Henson lot so I know a bit about it and it always amazes me how you're not drawn to the person, that the puppeteer is so skilled that all eyes are on the puppet. That's such a skill to transfer what's happening on your face to the puppet.
JA
It is, but again, it is like riding a bike, it becomes second nature. So, even in something goes wrong on stage you kind of physically go with it. The puppet just becomes a part of you. It was hard to let go when I'd finished the show, normally you give back the costume and say goodbye to the character and you're ok, but when you're saying goodbye to an actual thing and telling them someone else is going to put their hand up their bum now...I don't know how I feel like that!
LB
Lucky them. You went back into it though didn't you?
JA
Yes, they asked me to go back for the final 4 months, which ended up being 8 months. The only reason I left the show anyway was just because I don't think my body could have taken it anymore, the heaviness and repetitive muscle strain.
LB
Yes the puppets are deceptively heavy. Around that same time, 2006, you also released your first solo album A Girl of Few Words, and you have released two more solo albums to date. Did you always want to do solo work?