“Being famous makes me sick”, Says Torchwood Star
(Reprinted from Ikonz Magazine on Torchwood Guide with kind permission. Text by Adam Yosef.)
So Eve, your most recognisable for your role as Gwen Cooper in popular cult series Torchwood – tell us more…
Well, she was introduced to Torchwood last year and she was kind of introduced as the vehicle for the audience to find their way into Torchwood and see what Torchwood was about, how the organisation works and so on but this year, what with Jack leaving Cardiff in the last episode of the last series, she’s been controlling the troops there and she’s been running Torchwood. She’s kind of second-in-charge there and she’s really grown into Torchwood and she’s more feisty than ever. It’s very funny this year, I’ve got a lot of kind of comedy to play. She’s still juggling the two worlds of her normal life and Torchwood but as the series progresses, she’s kicking ass again this year, she’s action-packed again but she’s very much the human part of Torchwood.
What’s it like being a part of the whole wider Dr Who ‘universe’?
Absolutely great, yeah. We have the most dedicated fans than any other programme around and they’re completely supportive of everything that we do which Is wonderful. To work with Julie Gardener and the team is just amazing because they’re the best writers in Britain and the best directors, and if it’s possible for them to get the best then they will get the best.
You’ve actually appeared in Doctor Who. Which is better, the Who team or the Torchwood crew?
I’ve got to say my Torchwood team, I’m with them for whatever. They work so hard, the crew and the production and the cast. We’ve just worked seven months without a break and every single day there’s a laugh to be had on set and people work their asses off. Our reward then at the end of it is a really good product.
You were well known in Wales before Torchwood. Do you not find it a little weird that you traveled the whole country as an actress and now that you have hit the big time, it’s all happening from the comfort of your own back yard?
You know what, it’s so typical, isn’t it? You go to the other end of the world or whatever and then all of a sudden you’re brought back to where you were in the first place for a job. It’s just fate, I suppose and it is very, very odd but, as a Welsh woman, I’m very, very proud that two massive productions – Dr Who and Torchwood – are made in Wales with Welsh crews and I’m just proud that it’s made in Wales and that I can be part of it and be able to keep my own accent, my own Welshness about me, it’s fantastic.
Torchwood’s being introduced to US audiences and is creating quite a buzz, how excited are you and are you hoping it’ll help Hollywood find you?
It’s unbelievable! My friends have been out in Kansas, they’ve been out in Texas and all over the world, like Australia etc. and my friends, who have strong accents, have been asked ‘My God, are you from a place called Cardiff because we watch Torchwood’, and they’re like ‘How bizarre is that’. It shows people from around the world what Cardiff is, what Wales is and Britain.
You know what, I never say never to anything and I just think that… it’s very strange when I get asked this question because I come across sometimes as very un-ambitious and that’s not the case at all, I’m just very realistic. I am very ambitious, I just think that I take every day as it comes and tomorrow will take care of itself and if something was to come up, and if something made me go to Hollywood to work or have meetings… I’m due to go out to LA next year to have some meetings. I will enjoy it, if something comes of it, wonderful but if it doesn’t I haven’t lost anything.
Have you been offered anything then?
No, no, no, they’re meeting for representation but there are things kicking about but there’s tons to conquer in this country first that I haven’t done yet so you know…
So, would you like to be the next Catherine Zeta Jones?
Well, if the projects were interesting and challenged me, then yes, it would be wonderful but I kind of thing I’d like to see what the project was first. You know, I’m completely not into celebrity and not into doing things for the sake of being famous.
I mean, the word ‘famous’ makes me want to be sick to be honest with you. I can’t wait to go back to theatre, I can’t wait to be back in the West End. I can’t wait to go back with the Royal Shakespeare Company. Those things really excite me. Also, getting some really good parts, that excites me. But the whole razzle dazzle, if it came about well great but it’s not a path I’ll be going after.
Were you even a fan of Doctor Who before doing sci-fi?
Well, when Doctor Who first aired in the 70s or whatever… the second time it came out with Chris playing the doctor, fantastically may I add, and Billie, amazing, when they came back. I hadn’t really followed Doctor Who the first time around because I was too young. My era was very much Buffy and X-Files…
Yeah, that’s me too…
Really? All those kinds of shows really. Star Trek was a little bit… I was too young for that. Were you the same?
I got the Next Generation in.
Oh, yes, yes! I got that in!
But I got bored with Deep Space Nine and stuff and with Doctor Who, I remember Sylvester McCoy and that’s about it…
Yeah, absolutely – and it was kind of like my brothers and my cousins, they remember it but it [Doctor Who] certainly wasn’t my kind of era. I was a fan of sci-fi but not Doctor Who until I was involved in it.
Well, it’s nice to know you were a fan of The X-Files because I was quite big on that…
Oh my God, yeah, I mean, Oh my God – it was like being from a different planet!
You’re from ‘Ystradgynlais’, can you give us a lesson in pronouncing that?
Okay, it’s very difficult and it’s so bizzarre when I say where I’m from because people look at me as if I belong in… [she laughs]
How is it pronounced?
[Laughs] it’s pronounced ‘Ustradgunlice’.
‘Estradginlice’?
You’re not far off. That’s ‘Us’, ‘Trad’, ‘Gun’ and then ‘lice’, as in a horrible little critter.
[After a few seconds of going back and forth on syllabels]
So that’s ‘Us-trad-gun-lice’?
[Eve gasps] That’s it, that’s it – Ystradgynlais…
Gosh, I almost sound Welsh.
Listen Adam, you said it absolutely brilliant, magnificent.
I’m going to have that write that down so I don’t forget…
You’ll have to do it in phonetics [she laughs].
Now, what can you tell us about the new series of Torchwood – Should we expect any surprises?
If you didn’t it wouldn’t be Torchwood. I can’t reveal too much but there’s so many things… every story’s individual, it’s a huge ensemble piece this year and everybody gets to get fantastic storylines but there’s a massive bombshell and we’ve got amazing guest stars in.
Who have you got?
We’ve got James Marsters, he’s in the first episode, he’s wonderful. I was handcuffed to him for a couple of days which was fun. I kept looking at him thinking, ‘Oh my God, this is Spike from Buffy and here I am running around Cardiff with him’. There’s also Richard Briers, Alan Dale, Ruth Jones, Robert Pugh and these are some peole who have asked to be part of it which is a huge compliment to us. There’s massive storylines and tons of stuff happens.
You must enjoy promoting your hometown and cities to all of these celebrities coming from outside…
It’s very bizarre because I trained in Cardiff, I did my degree in Cardiff and then I stayed here because I had a movie and drama to do here for BBC Two and then I left for London and then I moved with the Royal Shakespeare company to Stratford and then back to London with the national and then I came back here to do Torchwood, so it’s very bizarre that where I started as an actress is where I landed my most notable role.
Yourself, John Barrowman and David Tennant film a lot in Cardiff for both Torchwood and Doctor Who, and you’re always running around the city in costume, or with the Tardis etc. just outside the Millennium Centre. Do you think the people of Cardiff ever get enough?
Do you know what? They’ve been totally, totally amazing and they’ve allowed it to happen in Cardiff because if it did get to a point where we were annoying people or people didn’t want it, I don’t think we’d be able to use the beautiful facilities that Cardiff offers. It’s with the help and the support of the people who live in Cardiff, they’ve made it possible, they’ve allowed us to film outside of their houses at half past three or four o’clock in the morning, they’ve allowed us to use their houses. People not walking in a certain area because we’re filming, they’ve allowed us to do that.
We sign as many autograph as we can, have as many photographs taken as we can with them, we mention them as many times as we can in interviews, we thank them for doing so.
They must be really proud and have a lot of fun…
They are proud of it, they are proud to say ‘Doesn’t Cardiff look wonderful’… or wherever we’re filming – all the scenes down the beaches – which is supposed to be other planets and everything – they’re not, they’re Welsh coasts, they’re our coasts and it looks beautiful.
Eve, what do you like to do when you’re not acting?
I love surfing, I love body boarding, I love kiting, I love anything that is a little bit extreme really…
I never had you down as a surfer type person really…
Yeah, I love all that and I love simple things like lighting a fire, putting a DVD on and having a couple of bottles of wine. You know, I love doing all that…
Good job it’s a Friday…
[She laughs]
Your co-star John Barrowman is doing pantomime in Birmingham, will you coming down to see him?
Yeah, he did panto last year on Christmas Eve and me and my mum went and it really got us into the Christmas spirit but this time I’m taking my number one critic and fan, my dear old niece – who has the biggest crush on John in the world!
So, you’ll be at the Birmingham Hippodrome to shout ‘Oh yes it is’ at him?
Yes! Oh my God, I’m a little kid when it comes to stuff like that – shouting stuff and eating sweets, it’s a lot of fun!
Your message for the readers of Ikonz magazine…
I’d like to wish them a very merry Xmas, hope they have a wonderful Christmas and New Years and hope they enjoy the second series of Torchwood and to carry on supporting us.
