I intended to post this on Sunday, to give other UK fans the chance to go out and buy a copy of the Sunday Times. In the magazine section there was an interview with Julia and her father Nadim Sawalha in the "Relative Values" column. In this part of the magazine they get two relations to talk about each other. One of the relations is usually in the public eye. I thought I'd relay the main points of the interview, for those people who will be unable to get their hands on a copy. Julia on her father: Couldn't wait for her friends to meet her dad, because he's "just so cool" "He's my complete guru" and a natural philosopher. She says she had a perfect balance of Arab and British in her upbringing. (Her dad is Jordanian and her mum is English). When Julia was little her dad would object to her watching too much telly by walking in and unscrewing the plug ! She describes herself as being a complete split between her mum and dad - her mum is organised and efficent and her dad is scatterbrained and dreamy. She wonders whether having such a "wonderful father" has hampered her relationships with men. A lot of her boyfriends have "disliked him intensely" because she goes to him for advice and not them. She says she was first attracted to Keith Allen (her husband in Martin Chuzzlewit) "because his hands are like my father's" She says she lost a lot of confidence "after Dexter" Her dad said to her "The only problem I saw with Dex is that he didn't like you very much." She says that, "Dex adored me- but he didn't like me." She talks of how hard it was to understand the character and create her performance as Saffy in AbFab. Nadim Sawalha on his daughter Julia: He says he is often extremely surprised by Julia, "She is a mixture of us both (mum and dad): a cool English rose from Surrey, with the harshness of the desert." He says that Julia went through agony to create Saffy, "I nearly took to my bed with worry when I saw her terror." He says that he couldn't believe it when he saw the first series of AbFab, "I didn't know who she was or where she'd come from." "No way is she like Saffy. Saffy is a reaction to excess, and Julia loves life and food and drink and to dance and to party. She's a great bon viveur." He says that he thought "she was more like her character in Press Gang than any other character she's played." Quotes taken without permission (sorry!) from The Sunday Times Magazine. 13/4/97 ------------------------ I am sorry that I didn't get round to writing this on Sunday so that those of us in the UK could nip down to the shop to buy a copy. I hope that this was of some interest to those who didn't see the article itself. ------------ Regards Vince Deehan Wembley London http://www.deehan.demon.co.uk - * THE PRESS GANG MAILING LIST * * To unsubscribe from this list, send mail containing the * word "unsubscribe" to "pressgang-request@yoyo.org". * * By default, replies are directed back to this list, * not to the author of the message you're replying to. |