When Katie Jarvis won the Best British Performance award at Edinburgh this year, she didn’t need to thank God, or her hairdresser or any of the acceptance speech regulars. She needed to thank her boyfriend for being a pain in the arse.
Because if Katie’s boyfriend wasn’t a pain in the arse, they wouldn’t argue so much. And if they didn’t argue so much, she wouldn’t have been mouthing off at him across the platform of Tilbury Town train station in 2008. And if she hadn’t been mouthing off at him across the platform of Tilbury Town train station in 2008, the casting assistant for Andrea Arnold’s Fish Tank would never have noticed her. And if the casting assistant for Andrea Arnold’s Fish Tank had never noticed her, the landscape of young British actors would look subtly but vitally different.
Katie’s story is so unlikely, so weighed down by ridiculous extremes of chance and good fortune that you half expect Richard Curtis to be lurking in the background with a script. Plucked off the streets of Essex with no acting experience, Katie has seen her face plastered across billboards, her name celebrated in exalted circles and her debut film nominated for the prestigious Palme d’Or.
Fish Tank is the second feature from a writer/director whose hard-bitten debut, Red Road, catapulted her into the front line of young, socially conscious British filmmakers. Fish Tank is a worthy successor, shot entirely on location in Essex, where the urban sprawl of London gives way to the wide open spaces where the Thames meets the sea.
Here we meet Mia, a volatile 15-year-old, all mouth, attitude and earrings. She prowls the streets looking (we assume) for trouble, until it becomes clear that Mia – friendless, bored and frustrated – is really just looking for a connection, a way out of her own stagnant alienation. She finds that connection, dangerously, in Connor (Michael Fassbender), her mother’s new boyfriend, who likes what he sees beneath the perma-scowl and sharp tongue. Shooting documentary style, and capturing the raw beauty of this concrete jungle, Arnold builds to a painful, inevitable climax that will throw Mia’s world into disarray.
And all this rests on the shoulders of an untried 18-year-old, a girl who is likely to attract the same scrutiny (and criticism) as Mia herself. There’s no getting past the fact that Katie is a tabloid story waiting to happen. Correction: Katie is a tabloid story that’s already happened. Shortly before Fish Tank debuted at the Cannes Film Festival, Katie, then only 17, gave birth to her first daughter, Lily May. Given that juicy piece of gossip, not to mention an Estuary accent that sounds like a parody of the Essex girl cliché, it’s tempting to write Katie off as a futile experiment doomed to failure.
That, of course, would be a mistake. And Katie herself explained why during a lengthy chat to LWLies.
LWLies: First of all, how guilty do you feel? All these middle class kids spending thousands of pounds at drama school and you waltz in, no training, and you’ve got your face up on a poster in Cannes…
Jarvis: I don’t feel bad because I think I’m proof that people like me should be given a chance because obviously a lot of people that go into the music or the film industry, some of them have either gone through drama school or practised singing and stuff, or they’re already related to famous people. People like me don’t get a chance like that, really, unless you’ve got the experience. But I think, obviously, it proves that there’s people out there that don’t need the experience. But I do feel a bit bad. But not that bad because not all parents can afford to send their kids to drama school.
LWLies: It’s a relief to hear somebody who sounds like 90 per cent of English people do. Ninety per cent of English people don’t talk with a posh accent. Are you finding that people in the film world almost aren’t sure how to take you?
Jarvis: I’ve met loads of different people who have obviously met all types of different actors and actresses before, but most of them I’ve met have all been really good and great.
LWLies: Most?
Jarvis: Yeah, no, I’d say all of them. I think there’s not one horrible person I’ve met so far. Everyone’s been really nice.
LWLies: In the film industry?
Jarvis: I think I’m lucky though that I got the chance to do a film with Andrea first because she’s really nice and she, like, give me some advice for the future – warning me that not all directors are like her, warning me that not all directors are the same, they work differently and stuff. So that helps. But no, I love it, I do.
LWLies: Before you started working on Fish Tank, how into film were you?
Jarvis: I was one of them people that always wished that I could do it, but never thought I actually would because my parents couldn’t afford to send me to drama school and stuff like that, I just used to look at it and think, ‘Yeah, that’s a dream.’ It’s not gonna happen. But it did happen, and it is a dream because I don’t think it’ll happen to anyone else.
LWLies: Would you go to the cinema a lot? Did you have favourite films or directors or actors?
Jarvis: I did go to cinemas and stuff but until I actually done Fish Tank I never actually looked at films, about the way they was made. To me, I was looking at the films when they were put together, so that was the best part – when they’re done. So I was only seeing all the good parts and all the glam parts. Whereas obviously in the film industry, it’s not all glam, it’s not all good. It’s tiring as well and it’s hard work but at the same time, I did enjoy it.
LWLies: Do you remember making the first phone call to Andrea after you were spotted at the train station? Was there a point where you thought you weren’t going to do it?
Jarvis: Yeah, because Lucy asked me for my phone number, and because she was a stranger and I really did not believe what was going on at the time and everything she was saying I said, ‘No, I’ll take your phone number, and I’ll call you.’ Then three or four days later, that was when I phoned her. I don’t know what it was that made me phone her. I just thought, ‘There’s no harm in trying.’ I called her and she was really, really pleased to hear from me – she got all excited on the phone – and that’s when I went along to start doing a couple of auditions.
LWLies: Where did you go for those? Tell us a bit about the process.
Jarvis: The first audition I went to was in Tilbury, I think it was at a hall or a church or something, and there weren’t really that many girls there – there was only around 10 of us or something. I had to do a role-play along with a girl – I had to be upset, she had to be my friend that I wanted to tell a big secret in my life, and I was really upset about it and I needed someone to lean on. Andrea wanted us to do that and that weren’t too hard really. I think the main thing for me was the dancing because I weren’t aware that the film was a dancing film until I got to the first audition, and Andrea wanted to record me dancing. Before starting Fish Tank I was really shy, and I was like, ‘No, I can’t dance in front of everyone.’ So Andrea sent everyone out of the room, set up the camera for me and then I just danced to my own song in front of the camera on my own.
LWLies: Do you remember what the song was?
Jarvis: Yeah, it was Pussycat Dolls’ Dontcha. Yeah, it was that one. So Andrea looked that over for me and she said, ‘I don’t know what you’re worrying about, it looks fine, you look great.’ But I was obviously a bit, like, shy then. The other auditions were held, after Tilsbury, mainly at Three Mills Studios in Bromley-by-Bow, and the second one I went to was a lot more nerve racking. There was a lot of girls there and when I turned up, all of them were dancing hip-hop, R’n’B, and all of them were great, I’m telling you. And I thought to myself, as soon as I walked in, ‘I’ve got no chance’. ’Cos I can’t dance like that. I really don’t know why they ended up choosing me, to be honest ’cos I’ve got no experience with dancing, no experience with acting, I really didn’t think I had a chance. I don’t know what it was that drove me to keep going forward because part of me thought that I weren’t going to get, so I could have just give up. But something inside me was just saying, ‘No, keep going, keep going.’ And then they phoned me on my seventeenth birthday and told me that I had the part.
LWLies: What was your reaction?
Jarvis: I cried.
LWLies: Presumably you had quite a big night?
Jarvis: Yeah, it was the morning of my birthday, a Sunday morning, it was Lucy, the woman who went up to me at the train station, to ring me and tell me. And I started crying my eyes out on the phone – I didn’t know what other reaction to do, to be honest.
LWLies: What was the reaction of people around you?
Jarvis: When we started filming, everyone I think was just fascinated about how I got the part. The fact that I’d never been to no drama lessons or nothing… Because I found it really easy to do the acting, I don’t know what it is, but it come naturally to me, just to go along with it. And after a couple of days I just sort of forgot the camera was there, which made it easier. But all the actors and actresses, Michael Fassbender and Kierston [Wareing], they was all really great. They didn’t make me feel like I weren’t one of them. ’Cos obviously they’ve got more experience than what I did, and I was a bit worried thinking maybe I’d be a bit pushed out ’cos everyone else has got experience, but everyone made me feel really welcome.
LWLies: Had you ever stopped to think about what it takes to make a film?
Jarvis: Well, yeah, I do look at films a lot differently now.
LWLies: Was it almost like a culture shock seeing how it all worked?
Jarvis: Yeah definitely, definitely. Because I thought it was just all fun and roses, and obviously it is great but there are hard parts to it as well. There were parts that I found were difficult as well.
LWLies: Which kind of parts?
Jarvis: The scene with Michael Fassbender; the scene with the travellers where they rip my bag out of my hand and stuff; throwing that poor little girl in the Thames, that was quite hard ’cos I didn’t know that was coming, with the little girl. I knew about the sex scene, but Andrea made me aware that it wasn’t that explicit. It weren’t no nudity or nothing like that. That’s why I accepted to still do it, but she didn’t actually tell me it was with Michael, until the day before. So it was a bit nuts.
LWLies: Was there any point where you thought you’d bitten off more than you could chew?
Jarvis: No, I will admit that there were times when I thought I couldn’t do it no more. Not because I found it hard, I think what it was was I found it tiring. The acting was fine for me, it just come completely natural, the only thing I found hard was because I’d left school and then I didn’t do nothing for a few months, then I went to doing Fish Tank doing Monday to Saturday 12 hours a day. So the only thing really that I found hard was the early mornings, which was quite tiring. And doing the same scenes over and over, like the dancing scenes, that got quite tiring, and there were times when I felt that I couldn’t do it any more. But from day one, as soon as I got into it, I just thought to myself, ‘I’ve got to do it now. They’ve chose me; I can’t just walk away now. That’s it.’ So thinking of it like that helped me, and that’s what drove me to do it properly.
LWLies: How did you find it watching yourself up on screen for the first time?
Jarvis: The first time it was, like, really weird ’cos it was, like, looking at myself with a different personality, if you know what I mean. Because even though I feel like I can relate to Mia, my personal life is nothing like her personal life, and when I was watching it, it was quite weird. The second time I watched it, I watched it as a film and it was better for me because I weren’t looking at it as me, I was just looking at it as an actress on the TV or something, so it made it a little bit easier.
LWLies: Do you worry that because of your background and your story, it’ll be easy for people to say that you’re not an actress? That you’re just playing yourself?
Jarvis: It does worry me a little bit I suppose because where I lived in Essex all my life, the same as Mia, there is that sort of thing between both of us. But the only difference is that I only don’t really care what other people think because Mia is nothing like myself. And her family is nothing like my family.
Hopefully I can prove that to people by getting more films because I don’t just want to do parts like that. I want to experiment with different things – older people, younger people, I want to do a bit of everything. And hopefully I’ll be able to prove to people that I’m not like Mia by showing them the different things I can do, and then it’ll show that I don’t need to go to no acting school or drama school, I can just do it naturally because I can.
LWLies: So now you’ve had a taste of acting, you don’t want to go back and do drama school?
Jarvis: No, I don’t want to go to drama school, no. I think Fish Tank has got such a good response so far, and I’m proud of how it’s turned out as well, I’ve won two awards from it and it’s my first film… I think maybe I’ll do another film if I can get one and see what the response is like for that, and maybe if it weren’t so good, maybe I’d think about going for drama lessons ’cos I do want to carry on with the acting. But at the moment, I think Fish Tank has done so well that I’d rather try and carry on the way I have been and just, sort of, role play and go along with it how I think I feel best because that’s how it helped me with Fish Tank. I just thought how it would look good and sound good, and that’s sort of how I done it. So it helped me like that.
LWLies: So you’re confident you’ve got the talent to avoid playing Mias for the rest of your life?
Jarvis: Yeah, no. At the moment I’m actually saying to my agent that I don’t want nothing like Mia for my next film. I don’t want no scripts sent to me. Because they’re sending me loads of things for all different types of people and characters but I have actually said to my agent, ‘Look, the next film I do I don’t want it to be like Mia’s character’. ’Cos a lot of people at the moment do sort of think I’m like Mia, do you know what I mean? And I think that people shouldn’t be judging a book by its cover.
LWLies: Does that annoy you? Because if people are saying you’re like Mia, what they’re basically saying is that anyone with an Essex accent is a chav.
Jarvis: Which is why I want to carry on with the acting, and I’m not going to no drama school, I’m not doing nothing, I’ll prove to everyone that people like me should be given a chance. Because if Andrea didn’t do that, a director wouldn’t look at me twice. They’d hear my voice, they’d hear I’ve lived in Essex all my life, I’ve never been to drama school. They wouldn’t want to know. But Andrea gave me that chance, and because Andrea give me that chance, look at everything that’s happened with Fish Tank, it’s gone great so far, which is why I think that people like me should be given a chance. Just because I’ve lived in Essex all my life doesn’t mean I’m like all the rest because I’m nothing like Mia at all.
LWLies: Do you think we’re losing out on seeing good new actors because of the snobbery of casting agents? Who knows how many more people like you there are out there?
Jarvis: There could be – there’s probably thousands out there that could do the acting because it just comes naturally. But they don’t get looked at do they? People don’t really care because these days you’ve got to go through the drama school and you’ve got to work your way up towards it. But when it comes to Andrea, she wanted someone from real life, and that’s why it’s turned out so good – because she’s took a chance, do you know what I mean? I think if other people took a chance and gave other people a chance then things could be better.
LWLies: If you did a second film, and the reviews were shit, would you be bothered? Now that you’ve been thrust out into the world, people like me are going to have an opinion about you. Can it hurt you?
Jarvis: Yeah, it would hurt me a little bit I suppose if I done another film and they thought I weren’t as good as I was in Fish Tank. But at the same time I wouldn’t care because obviously the audience knows best. If they think the film’s not good and I’m not the right character for that then obviously they know. But I don’t really care whatever any of the papers say because some papers know the truth whereas others, sort of, don’t really know, they just say stuff.
So, to me, I don’t listen to nothing, really, in the papers, do you know what I mean? Because I know the truth, and if I know the truth then that’s all what matters. And if I know I tried my hardest, to me, that’s the best. If I tried my best and it didn’t turn out well, then, to me, it doesn’t matter – I done what I could. Do you know what I mean? So, whether other people like me or not, I know that I would put my hundred per cent into it. So if it weren’t good, at least I could say I tried.
LWLies: Did you get some shit from the papers around Cannes?
Jarvis: I think one of the papers were slagging me off a bit for the fact of my age and having a baby. And one of them was saying that I’d rather be at home with my one-week-old baby than at the premiere at Cannes. But to me, that didn’t bother at me at all.
LWLies: That sounds more like a compliment.
Jarvis: My baby’s seven days old, as if I’m gonna leave her in England and fly out to France, do you know what I mean? So that didn’t really bother me. I really don’t care what they say about me.
LWLies: Having had a baby, does it give you a different perspective on the film? Because that mother/daughter relationship is key. Do you have a new understanding for that relationship?
Jarvis: I do have a bit of sympathy for the mother but I have more sympathy for Mia, I think, because she’s got quite a bad life. And even though she’s a pain in the backside, a lot of teenagers can be and I think that her mum should obviously be a bit more understanding and obviously it’s not just because of Mia that her mum’s like that. Because her mum’s like that with Rebecca too. And it’s quite a weird relationship because in front of people, they’re great, but then as soon as their backs are turned or the door’s shut, that’s when the mum gets nasty, so it’s sort of all done in secret, like, all the nastiest between them.
But I think Mia, I do feel sorry for her, yeah. Because she’s got no friends, she argues with everyone, no one likes her, and then she makes one friend, which is that traveller boy, to which her mum thinks bad of her because of that when she actually ain’t done nothing with him. And Michael’s character is questioning her about the boy when, deep down, Mia just wants a friend. She’s done nothing with this boy. She’s being quizzed on him and they automatically assume stuff. But I think towards the end, it’s better because before Mia leaves there is genuinely something between her and her mum, and for once it’s not hatred left between them, there is a little hope there. I’m hoping there’ll be a Fish Tank 2.
LWLies: Beyond the tabloid bullshit, have you felt any changes personally? Is it daunting, exciting…?
Jarvis: I don’t know, I think it’s a bit of both. I’m excited about everything that’s going on with Fish Tank and what might be happening for the future, and what future films I might do and stuff. But at the same time, I am nervous, yeah, because I suppose I’m a bit worried about everything. It’s not just me I’ve got to think of now. It’s not just me, is it? I’ve got my little girl to think about as well. But at the same time, which is why I want to carry it on, I feel that… Head-wise, I feel a lot older than 18, and I feel like I’ve had to grow up quick obviously ’cos of Fish Tank and then having my baby, but I am loving every minute of it.
LWLies: How is Lily-Mae?
Jarvis: She’s alright! Getting really big, really quick. She was 10 weeks on Saturday.
LWLies: One more thing: when you were yelling at your boyfriend at the train station, what had he actually done? Do you remember?
Jarvis: No, no. It was that long ago. Me and him always have little tiffs. Because I’ve been with him on and off since I was 13, and I’ve just turned 18 last month, so that’s a long time. We have our ups and downs, but we always sort things out, and I’m still with him now.
