Emily Haigh – Ready to Soar

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Emily Haigh is an English actress born in Devon. Her love for acting began at an early age, when she was invited onto the stage during a show in Lapland. This formative moment was encouraged by her supportive parents who enrolled her into The Leonard School of Dramatic Art (LSDA). Two years later, Emily landed a role in a show for the BBC’s mainstream channel for children, CBBC. Her first break in feature films, came at just twelve-years-old, doing the voice-over as Camille’s sister in Quantum of Solace, the $200 million budget James Bond movie. This was followed by being cast in the Columbia Pictures period costume drama, The Other Boleyn Girl, in the same year.

In 2009, Emily landed a role in the BBC’s hospital drama, Casualty – a show she was asked to return to four years later. After a successful audition for Focus Features in 2011, Emily was cast as Georgiana Reed in the Oscar nominated Jane Eyre. The following year, Emily was awarded a Gold Medal for her performances at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA). For the next three years, Emily appeared in a string of successful music videos for such artists as Iko, Vivid Nation, Maddy Carty, and Years & Years.

Emily made her directorial debut with the short film, Dead Wrong, which received an exclusive screening at The Lee Strasberg Institute just weeks after its general release. She has followed up on this with the psychological horror Run Rabbit, her second short film as Writer / Director. (Source: Website)

My name is Emily Haigh. Thank you Occhi Magazine for this interview.

What was your first acting job? What was the experience like?

When I was young I spent time on film sets to see if I enjoyed the experience. I was quickly addicted to set life and wanted to spend more time working on anything connected with film and television. I began working in voice-over at the same time and secured voice-over parts in such films as St Trinians and James Bond Quantum of Solace. My first proper acting job was on the BBC hit drama, Casualty. It was an amazing experience and I’ve been lucky to appear on the show again playing a different role.

The industry can be frustrating, at times. Some give up because the challenge is too great. In your opinion, tell what is the greatest in your profession today?

I feel there can be frustrating periods where you are not working as often as you would like. I’ve always kept busy by writing scripts. I enjoy writing so much, I’ve written several short films and features. I have produced and directed two of my own shorts, Dead Wrong and Run Rabbit. These projects are through my production company, Siren Call Films, which aims to develop strong female driven productions. The company is now busy with my current film, Beautified – a dark drama about three ‘kept’ girls being pushed for perfection. After Beautified, I would like to look into developing my own feature.

It would be great to watch you produce a feature. Tell us about the last production you worked on.

I recently filmed the TV pilot The Dragon Detective directed by Martin Gooch.

I also produced Run Rabbit, which I also wrote and directed. Run Rabbit explores the detrimental impact that bullying can have on a teenage girl, who is relentlessly subjected to being bullied by two malicious girls from her school. In this psychological horror story I play the complex role of ‘Loretta’ which has been a fascinating part to play on film.

Are there any particular qualities a project must have before you audition?

I like a challenge – interesting characters that I can develop and something that will push me further. I love to learn new skills as well as develop existing skills. Acting is a constant learning process; each new character is exciting and different.

How would you describe your acting style?

I was fortunate to attend a summer intensive acting class at The Lee Strasberg Institute in Los Angeles several years ago. I am definitely naturalistic, when it comes to acting whether it is drama or comedy. When people ask me about method acting it is hard to answer. I feel that there are so many different ways when it comes to acting, that if you try different styles and then use what works for you.

What’s challenging about bringing a script to life?

I like to spend time with the character before the shoot, and sometimes listen to certain music or come up with reasons behind the character. There are so many great writers and that comes across when you are reading the script – you can already feel the character. Certain emotional scenes I prefer to keep locked up until we are shooting them, because I like to deliver and capture the raw essence on the camera.

If you could play any character in a movie, who would it be?

Haha, that’s a difficult question. There are so many great characters. I think it would have to be strong character, one that develops throughout the story.

To date, what’s the biggest role you’ve taken on?

Maybe not the biggest, but the most challenging would be playing Aleisha the lead in The Inuring, a short film written and directed by James Hughes. It was a wonderfully written piece, delivering very raw emotions.

As a producer, I produced an animated short film called The Velvet Abstract, this was a very different production from anything I had worked on previously. One of my many tasks was to cast the narrator, whom we felt would be able to deliver the powerful poem attached. I managed to secure the wonderful Tobias Menzies, who is very well known from Outlander and Game of Thrones. I then arranged for the score to be written and delivered by the wonderful Jean-Pascal Beintus, who had just completed work on The Danish Girl at the time.

James Hughes and Emily Haigh – The Inuring

Are there any projects you’re working on that you can share?

I have just landed the lead in another James Hughes short film, The Nomophobe, which I am very excited about. I have also joined the cast of the award-winning web show Horizon. This will be Horizon’s second season, unfortunately I can’t give any information about my character, but it’s very exciting and I’m looking forward to working with the cast and crew.

In conclusion, what advice would you give to someone who wanted to do what you do?

Work hard and expect to work a lot of long hours. Learn as many different skills as you can. I can swim, play the piano and ukulele, shoot a gun, dance salsa and ballet, ride a horse . . . the list is endless. It is needed within this Industry – you never know what part you might be auditioning for.

Emily x

Watch Run Rabbit below.

[su_vimeo url=”https://vimeo.com/170072831″]

Connect with Emily:

IMDB: http://www.imdb.me/emily-haigh
Showreel: https://vimeo.com/198423622
Website: http://www.emilyhaigh.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/emilyhaighactress/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Emily_Haigh
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/emilyhaigh8/

Other links:

Siren Call Films

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sirencallfilms
Twitter: https://twitter.com/SirenCallFilms

Beautified

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/beautifiedfilm
Twitter: https://twitter.com/BeautifiedFilm

Run Rabbit

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/runrabbitshortfilm
Twitter: https://twitter.com/RunRabbitFilm