Between the fact Nathan Barley was supposedly based on Shoreditch and the name drops from Noel fielding in the Mighty Boosh, Shoreditch always had this air of mystery, a sort of unstable geographical trend that I really wanted to be a part of. I thought that only people who didn’t live there would criticise it. So I moved there, a poor actress I went a little far out of my financial comfort zone and started living with the most amazing and inspiring people, Sarah, Izzy, James, Aoife and Astrid. It was a 3 story Victorian house and it was stunning. Just off a buzzing market street, we had an Aga oven, we grew rhubarb and had amazing house parties. The cost of the area made me doubt my choice of careers. Acting is uncertain and you get a lot of knocks so I felt I had to make a choice between this east London lifestyle or the poor struggling actress.
One. Then one day I had an audition for a film with the UK Film Council, it was shooting in an amazing Shoreditch warehouse just down the road from me. It was a paid job, leading role, hugely talented crew and I got the part. I was living, working and earning money in Shoreditch and it felt amazing.
For me east London is a beacon of creativity and opportunity, as an actress it’s easy to pull from experiences and characters in the area that can fuel a performance and I honestly can’t get that inspiration anywhere else.
