Pride caught up with talented young actress on the rise, Pippa Bennett-Warner in between performances of her new play The Witness, now showing at the Royal Court. Read on to hear what she had to say about her new role, watching awful reality TV and why she’d have to give Beyoncé the elbow…
Hi Pippa, so tell us a bit about your new play The Witness.
I play Alex, a Rwandan girl captured in an award-winning shot taken by a famous photographer who later adopts me in order to save me from the Rwandan genocide. The play is set in Hampstead and in the first hour, the focus is on the father and the daughter. This man has saved me, brought me up, sent me off to Cambridge and the play starts with me coming back after a year of being away from him at college. I come back and something’s different –something’s changed. I’ve dropped out of college and have decided I want to get back to my Rwandan roots. In the first half of the play you get to see the reasoning behind my actions but in the second half, a figure arrives with the potential to destroy everything.
Sounds great…was acting something you’ve always wanted to do then?
No actually. At one point I wanted to go to Cambridge and be a doctor. That idea disappeared quite early on and acting took over. My sister and I went to an all-girls prep school and she played Oliver in our groundbreaking all –female production of Oliver Twist! Obviously as she was my older sister, I wanted to do everything she was doing so that’s how it happened. I started entering competitions and I think at one point I won a singing competition so that gave me a bit of a push and made me think, “Maybe I should have a go at this…”
You’re still very early on in your career at only 23 but what’s been your big acting moment so far?
It sounds cliché but every job has been a highlight. If I had to pick a single one though, it would be King Lear. I played Cordelia for eight months and it was the longest theatre role I’d had at that time. It was a brilliant role and one that will always be very close to my heart. Starring in Ruined at the Almeida was a pretty big triumph too.
So let’s find out a bit more about you. Which other actors do you look up to?
I guess my favourite actress would have to be Angela Bassett. I think she’s pure class and she’s just breathtaking. Sophie Okonedo…I love her, I really do! I watched Hotel Rwanda recently and I just thought she was so brilliant –and she’s absolutely gorgeous.
Ok. If you could dropkick any actor out of any movie and replace them, who would you take out, and why?
Oh my, that is a good question. Let me see… first off I have to say I have really bad taste in films! I think I’d have to kick Beyoncé out of Dreamgirls and be her character Deena. Don’t get me wrong I am in no way as great a singer as she is but whatever, I want that role!
What’s on your Summer playlist at the moment?
Yeah, I’ve got really bad taste in music as well! I do like that song ‘R.I.P.’ by Rita Ora and Tinie Tempah though, the video is pretty cool. I have a little bit of a thing for Conor Maynard too! There’s also a song by this half Swedish, half American singer called Jasmine Kara, called ‘Try My Love Again’. It’s got a really cool reggae vibe to it.
What’s your favourite TV show?
I’m very fickle with TV shows. I love stuff like Modern Family but I have to say that my guilty pleasure is Made in Chelsea. Yes, I know it’s awful!
What three things can’t you live without?
My iPhone, my Macbook and my Vaseline. Not the standard tin, though, none of that. I carry a mini tub around with me!
If you weren’t an actress what else might you be doing?
Ooh…maybe I’d be a Fashion editor or work in advertising or something like that.
Really? How would you describe your personal style then?
I was saying to my flatmate the other day that I want to start trying to dress a bit more androgynously, like a tomboy. I was wearing these purple trainers and she was like, “Oh, no. Don’t.” so maybe I’ll re-think that! I guess my style’s a bit tomboy-glamour –quite simple but and classic but with a bit of a funky twist.
Catch Pippa in The Witness which is showing at the Royal Court Theatre until June 30th.
