Gemma Laurie

Scottish actress Gemma Laurie has performed Shakespeare on stage alongside David Tennant, starred in a commercial directed by Oscar winner Sean Baker and appeared in TV shows such as ITV’s Shetland and The Long Shadow. You might not know her name yet, but you will very soon.

How long have you been acting?

Professionally, only around 4 years. But I had been acting for fun since I was young. I actually tried to get on Doctor Who once, when I was maybe around nine or ten, by doing a self-tape for a Blue Peter competition. I was a runner-up and very jealous of the winner at the time. At least I got a Blue Peter badge out of it!

Did you go to a drama school?

I went to ALRA North (Academy of Live And Recorded Arts) from 2018-2021 studying Acting. Before that, I was at RCS (Royal Conservatoire Of Scotland) from 2014-2015 studying Musical Theatre, but I ended up dropping out after realising the course wasn’t for me.

People may recognise you from ITV's Shetland - what was your experience on that show like?

I really loved working on Shetland. My character, Rosemary, was a fun one. The working environment was relaxed and the whole cast and crew were so welcoming. There were lots of new people on board, with Ashley Jensen taking over as lead, so it didn’t feel like the first day of a new school. Ashley was lovely; I used to watch Extras back-to-back, so it was a funny experience being interrogated by her in the show. Plus, getting to travel to Shetland for the outdoor scenes was a perk! I’d always wanted to go, so I was soaking it up as much as possible. I’d love to go again. A Shetland spin-off maybe? Rosemary: Lost In The Big City?

Last year you performed in Macbeth at the Harold Pinter Theatre in London, alongside David Tennant - how was that? Are you particularly experienced with Shakespeare?

It was an incredible opportunity – one that I’m actually still absorbing! Part of that is because of the wonderful actors that were attached even before I came on board; David Tennant has and continues to be a big influence on me as an actor, which is practically a given for most of the actors in my generation who grew up watching him. Getting to share a professional space with him so early in my career was not something I thought could happen – though I certainly wished it would. And it did! He and Cush Jumbo were both so open and supportive to work with, and an absolute dream to share a scene with. If I could gush about every cast member, I would. I was basically getting a masterclass in Shakespeare from that team. It was my first professional Shakespeare production. I used to find Shakespeare very difficult to understand as a teenager with dyslexia. I always wanted to love it, but I felt like I was somehow getting it “wrong”. Because of my difficulty with it in school I sort of convinced myself that you either got it or you didn’t, and I thought I didn’t at the time. Then once I’d left school, I was working in a bookshop where my manager asked me to run a wee Shakespeare class with a local primary school. I ended up getting the kids to act out some scenes from The Tempest using a prop box and materials from our many past window displays. Writing the (very) abridged scenes and seeing how excited the kids were to reenact the storm (with a blue sheet for the sea and a cardboard box for the ship) ignited something about Shakespeare’s writing that made me want to do more. By the time I’d started at ALRA, I wanted to delve headfirst into it without fear of getting it “wrong”. And I really wanted to try Macbeth – which I told my tutor when she asked what speech I wanted to do for assessments. She agreed that Lady Macbeth was a great idea. I said, “no I mean Mr Macbeth.” So, I did the “Tomorrow” speech. It was a real full-circle moment seeing David perform it in our first Macbeth rehearsal.

Do you have any unusual or unique talents that you've been able to use as an actor?

I’ve been told I have a very elastic-y face. My first big professional acting job was in a Taco Bell commercial directed by Sean Baker. I somewhat resemble a bewildered Rupert Grint in certain shots. And I can move my ears - I don’t know if that’s a talent either, but it apparently caused quite a kerfuffle when I was being scanned for a video game, and they couldn’t figure out why my ears had changed position from scan to scan. That was accidental though.

Scotland obviously has a really great acting scene, with strong film and TV industries - would you have any advice to young Scots unsure of how to pursue an acting career?

I’d definitely want to say that moving to London in pursuit of this career is not the be-all-and-end-all. We can travel, or tape, relatively easily for auditions these days. As an aspiring actor growing up, I was surrounded by people who had the opinion that London is “The Goal”, which made me think my successes elsewhere weren’t good enough. Scotland has a vibrant history with the performing arts – many of the best actors and creatives have come from and still work in the homeland! There’s the Edinburgh Fringe for up-and-coming theatre, but there’s also great short films being made by students who need local actors. I did a number of shorts nearly 10 years ago with Edinburgh Napier University and Screen Academy Scotland after checking their Facebook pages for auditions. It helped me massively with understanding a film set, albeit a small one. Or you can create your own project. My friends and I made a short film with no budget in one afternoon, using only a smartphone, which ended up being picked for a Special Jury Mention at the Edinburgh International Film Festival 2018. All of this was before I went to ALRA, and I found it really helped me get a foundational understanding of this industry’s working environments and etiquettes, as well as making like-minded friends along the way. And drama school isn’t compulsory. I knew personally that it was right for me; that I wanted to use it to learn and grow more in the craft, but you can do that without getting a degree and taking out a student loan. Even by attending affordable local weekly classes – or just observing humans. I don’t know everything, but I think what matters is the work you put in, not the certificate. And maybe try to keep creative outside of the acting bubble, that’s something I’m trying to get back to. I’ve always been creative in different ways but can sometimes feel stuck on one ambitious track, while my other interests fall to the wayside. But I’m learning that those interests can still inform acting – a sketch can influence a character, and so on. I’d like to see how that might evolve.

What was the last thing you watched - film, TV show, play - that you really loved?

I recently saw a short film at the Manchester Film Festival called Two Places At Once, directed by Freddie Bonfanti. The chemistry between the actors was fizzing, it was wonderful to watch. Every film I saw in that particular selection was incredibly well done. I’ve been rewatching Detectorists recently, which is honestly one of the most heartwarming shows out there. My parents got me on to it and I’ve never looked back. I’d love to do something like that, you can’t beat that British comedy style.

Is there anything you haven't yet done - perhaps a genre you haven't worked in, someone you admire you haven't worked with - that you'd like to cross off in the near future?

There are… so many. Tatiana Maslany would be an incredible actor to work with. I’ve always found her to show such openness and vulnerability. She seems like someone who you could really play with in a scene and feel like you’re crafting something together. I first saw her in Orphan Black playing numerous clones with individual personalities and quirks. Then I saw her in The Other Half and was blown away. She’s just phenomenal. I’m also a fan of Edgar Wright’s films, the way he rhythmically marries music and sound to the visuals in the edit is right up my street. It scratches an itch in my brain - and it’s wonderfully funny too. To work with him would also be one for the bucket list. And I think I’d like to do something in the fantasy or sci-fi kind of realm. I enjoy combat so it’d be great to put that into practice (though I did get to wield a longsword in Macbeth, which was fun). I’m a big fan of The Last of Us, both the video games and the HBO series, so something like that would be amazing. I still watch the behind the scenes footage of the first game – Troy Baker and Ashley Johnson are just magnetic. I’ve actually done some performance capture work in the past and I loved the freedom it gave; it was like playing “let’s pretend” for a living. It’d be great to dive into something like that again. I’m painfully aware how ambitious it is to want these things for the near future, but I’ve learned that anything can happen in this industry, so why not dream? The list goes on!

Words: Scott Bates

Photo credits: Patch Bell

Follow Gemma on Instagram