Small Is Beautiful In Mistresses
WalesOnline, 23 February 2009
While Trudi chose to dob in her husband and series one ended with her happy with Richard, but facing a very uncertain future, Sharon says there are more tough times ahead in series two.
“It’s now set 18 months on and Siobhan has her baby and is getting on with being a mum, Katie has a fresh start and re-training again as a hospital doctor,” she explains.
“Shelley’s getting married – to a man she was previously having a relationship with a married woman and then my character is still with Richard and we’re juggling three children between us and living in two houses and there’s not much in the way of romance going on there.”
But while the characters’ may be believable, Sharon doesn’t think all the storylines in Mistresses are particularly reflective of everyday life.
“There’s no way you could all have that much drama going on at the same time, so you need a bit of artistic licence so people watch and hopefully enjoy what’s going on,” she says.
“However, I also think life is stranger than fiction sometimes and I think people will be able to relate to lots of little bits. I know someone who recently said to me, ’Oh my goodness – my toes were curling, that was my life on the screen’ so there are people out there experiencing issues we deal with on the series – and even stranger!”
Fortunately, Sharon says she has little in common with her character in real life – “I don’t think I’d make the decisions Trudi makes, I think I’m a bit more than cynical than Trudi” – but admits there is one similarity.
“I’m the least glamorous – the tired old mum, so there is a similarity between my character and me as I am the tired old mum in real life too.”
Sharon had just had a baby when the first series started filming, then fell pregnant not long after it finished, so she returned to Bristol to film series two with a new baby and an excitable toddler in tow. Luckily, her partner travelled down to help out while she was on set.
Like Sex And The City, everyone is keen to pounce on any stories of diva behaviour or bitchiness on set, but Sharon says there’s little chance of that happening with the Mistresses crowd.
“There’s no point having competition really we just really enjoy each other’s style and work and who we are as women, celebrating women, working together playing leads,” she says.
“Women can sometimes be very hard on each other or feel a little insecure and so be a little competitive but I haven’t experienced that in this at all.”
SHARON SMALL – EXTRA TIME
If Sharon hadn’t become an actress she thinks she’d have become a make-up artist.
It was only at age 15 when she saw a drama course that she realised she wanted to work as an actress, she explains: “I didn’t know that was something you could do and at the time there weren’t a lot of Scottish voices on screen and it seemed only very nicely spoken English people were on the television at the time so I didn’t know it was an option.”
She gained fame for her role of Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers in the Inspector Lynley Mysteries
When filming Mistresses in Bristol, all four actresses stayed in the same apartment block.
Having children has changed Sharon’s priorities. She says: “It’s been a real wake up call, I don’t have time to file my nails or pluck my eyebrows or anything. All the things you need to do to arm yourself as an actress and go out and get a job have gone on a backburner, it’s quite a juggle.”
