Cold Call
Keeley Hawes, 24, star of Wives and Daughters and Our Mutual Friend, returns to the small screen to play Desdemona in a modern-day Othello on ITV on December 23. She lives in Surrey with her boyfriend, Spencer, and their 16-month-old son, Myles.
Alan Jackson: A graduate of the Sylvia Young school of wannabe showbiz stars. Who, in your eyes was the fellowpupil most likely to?
Keeley Hawes: Emma Bunton. Nobody could have deserved it more. She worked so hard. Had a lovely voice. Was a great dancer. And totally likeable.
AJ: Bah, humbug! Don’t give me all that heartwarming stuff. Tell us life there was a total bitchfest.
KH: Well, I suppose there was a bit of under-the-surface rivalry if you kept on being put up for castings, but generally it was a very supportive environment.
AJ: Emma was Baby Spice. Had you been in the same line-up, you’d have been…?
KH: Lazy Spice! I just don’t have the drive to have followed that path. And I’m not confident enough in my own abilities to make a convincing pop star.
AJ: Too lazy for a musical career, so you thought you’d have a stab at journalism. Right!
KH: Sorry! I did love my limited experience of the magazine world. Were I not doing what I’m doing. I’d be more than happy to be involved in your area instead.
AJ: But a work experience girl at Cosmo. How much fun can that have been?
KH: It does sound as if you’d be kept chained in a corner, with very thin young women in black dresses forever throwing last season’s shoes at you. But I loved it. As I did working at Just 17 and at She. Occasionally I would be let out of the office, to hover nervously on the edge of a seat at a Fashion Week show and make illegible notes.
AJ: She! “The magazine for women who juggle their lives,” as it used to be billed. Which you actually do these days. Actress, mother… An easy trick to pull off?
KH: I’m helped enormously by the fact that Spencer works from home. So if Myles isn’t with me — and I take him on set when I can – he’s with his dad. That’s such a happy situation. I’d feel too guilty to palm him off on to a nanny.
AJ: A happy situation with Spencer?
KH: Extremely. He’s really grateful to be able to spend time with his son. Not a lot of fathers get that opportunity.
AJ: Are you still reading those girlie fashion mags?
KH: Myles put an end to all of that. Once you’ve got a baby, there isn’t much time for sitting around plucking your eyebrows. I’m into homes and interiors glossies these days.
AJ: You’re cast as Desdemona, opposite Christopher Ecclestone’s (sic) Iago, in this new TV updating of Shakespeare’s Othello; his fatal flaw is jealousy; Iago’s is envy. Which of the seven deadly sins are you most susceptible to?
KH: I’d like to say none but, if I’m honest, like Othello, it would be jealousy. Also, there’s a touch of sloth about me. As I said before, I’m naturally quite lazy.
AJ: You’re a Surrey girl these days. Does suburbia suit you?
KH: I’m finding it very nice indeed, thank you. Yes, it’s quiet compared to anywhere I’ve been before, but that’s good to come home to. And no one’s noticed that I’m there. Why would they? Chris Tarrant lives locally. Absolutely no competition!
By Alan Jackson for The Times Magazine.
(Source: keeley-hawes.co.uk)