Julie Graham’s breakthrough role was in Sally Wainwright’s At Home with the Braithwaites in 2000. Since then, she’s brought her grit, wit and humanity to, among others, Benidorm, Shetland and This City is Ours. Claire Cooper made her name as Jacqui McQueen in Hollyoaks and went to on play Anne Boleyn in Lucy Worsley’s Six Wives and starred in Kay Mellor’s In the Club. Now they’re back as mother and daughter, Ma and Mary, in series two of the rags-to-riches period drama The Hardacres...
Julie Mother and daughter relationships are complicated. I never believe mother-daughter relationships where they’re all nice with each other and supportive. It’s just b***ocks. So I love the tensions between Ma and Mary.
Julie Whenever we can, we find little moments where we can really get on each other’s nerves. Similarly, when we find the emotion of it as well, it’s really special. Claire and I are friends but I do feel like I’m her mother sometimes.
Julie Mine’s dead, so it’s great now.
Does your on-screen chemistry come naturally or is it something you can manufacture?
Julie If you’ve got to play something that’s a little bit spicy and a little bit antagonistic, as Ma and Mary often are, it does help if you adore somebody. The more you like them, the easier it is.
Julie The fact that it was created by working-class writers [Amy Roberts and Loren McLaughlan] makes it unusual because writers like that are rare.
Tell us where you’re from and how you got into acting...
Julie My mum [actress Betty Webster] was from a working-class background. She was a single parent living in a two-bedroom flat in a Glasgow tenement, and I was raised by my granny and my aunties – strong, matriarchal women. I had an easier crossover into acting because my mum had done it, and that opened doors for me. But I had a chip on my shoulder worrying I only got this particular job because my mum knew the director.
Julie Starting out, I was told to get rid of my accent and only do auditions in a neutral English or RP [received pronunciation] accent. At the time, that was common advice to Scottish and working-class actors but that felt wrong, like I wasn’t being myself. So I ignored it – and I don’t think my accent has held me back.
Julie When I think about stuff that we had to put up with – how unsafe sets were for women, the huge power imbalance between men and women on a film or sometimes in the theatre… it was palpable. Now, there’s so many more guardrails around that kind of behaviour. I’m so protective of younger actors, but often I don’t need to be, because they’ve got it sorted out.
Claire It just doesn’t make sense to me because those women are the very demographic that they’re selling to, so why not feature them and their stories?
Claire I love being on a female-led set. On the first series of The Hardacres, the director, writers and producers were all women, and obviously there was us, and that’s a great working environment. It’s still rare though.
Julie Yes, obviously it’s the women at the heart of it all.
Are you driven more by curiosity or ambition?
Claire Curiosity, definitely, but with a sprinkling of ambition.
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