We have three types of vampires, Jennifer tells me. The classic bloodsuckers, who are benevolent, then the bad, undead ones, and those like my character who are half-human and halfvampire who are guardians, protecting the good ones from the bad.
In some ways its more glamorous than Poplar in the 1960s,” she adds, her blue eyes twinkling. And there are more costume changes than Call The Midwife, but my character isnot very glamorous. Shes a fighter, so she doesn’t get all the glitz.
Milton Keynesborn Jennifer, 34 Jen to her friends plays twofisted Alberta Casey who has agility and speed and is very good at fighting.You would struggle to imagine two worlds that were more different. Once Jennifer Kirby delivered babies as Call The Midwife's Cockney nurse Valerie Dyer in the dirt poor, postwar fagend of east London.We use your signup to provide content in ways you have consented to and to improve our understanding of you. This may include adverts from us and 3rd parties based on our understanding. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Now she is playing a half-human half-vampire hybrid in the more upmarket Vampire Academe a role only slightly less bloody Jennifer Kirby in her midwife costume Kirby stars in hit BBC drama Call the Midwife Image: BBCWe have three types of vampires Jennifer tells me. The classic bloodsuckers, who are benevolent, then the bad, undead ones, and those like my character who are half-human and half-vampire who are guardians, protecting the good ones from the bad. In some ways it’s more glamorous than Poplar in the 1960s, she adds, her blue eyes twinkling. And there are more costume changes than Call The Midwife, but my character isn’t very glamorous. She’s a fighter, so she doesn’t get all the glitz.
Milton Keynes-born Jennifer, 34 Jen to her friends plays two fisted Alberta Casey who has agility and speed and is very good at fighting.Does she have a love interest? No, she laughs, she’s up for grabs.Yet for all the vampiric violence Kirby suffered more pain in her first Royal Shakespeare Company stage production at Stratfordn upon Avon, eight years ago.The first night the adrenalin was running high and I fell over and smacked my face on the edge of the stage, she recalls. I thought I’d broken my cheek bone, it was such a bang! And in my very last performance, I broke my foot. So, I literally topped and tailed it!
Nobody ever expected Jennifer Kirby to become an actress, let alone a TV star least of all her parents. “My mother was a teacher, and my father was a businessman, she says. I grew up in a little village outside of Great Malvern and came to acting quite late when I was fifteen was a very shy kid, so acting wasn’t a natural thing for me. The change happened by chance. I’d chosen to do GCSE music but I was rubbish at it, so my only option was to do drama. I gave it a go and I was hooked! I felt a rush from my first lesson, my shyness just vanished .Her parents were surprised but supportive. Although it took some persuading for people to believe I could make a career of it.
What was she like back then? A bit of a nerd, she admits. I was quite good; I had no teenage rebel phase. I enjoyed my own company. I read anything and everything. The first time I read Jane Eyre was a big moment for me; I devoured all of the Lord Of The Rings I loved stories and immersing myself in other worlds, fantastical or historical, and acting also takes you to another world, something removed from my reality.
None more so than the US supernatural saga Vampire Academy –very different from Jennifers 2015 TV debut in the more grounded medical soap Holby City. Asting director caught her on stage and convinced her to audition, and consequently win, the part of Elizabeth Bennet in Pride And Prejudice. The role, at Regents Park Open Air Theatre, saw her nominated for Outstanding Newcomer at the Evening Standard Theatre Awards. “I’m proudest of that part, she says. You can’t get more iconic than Elizabeth Bennet.
Persuaded to audition for the RSC, she landed plum gigs as Lady Percy in Henry IV Part I & II and Katherine in Henry V. I was living a dream with the RSC. I had great parts and I got to work with Anthony Sher [Prince Hal in Henry IV] who had long been a hero of mine.It was also where the wry articular star met her other half actor Robert Gilbert, last seen on TVs Killing Eve.
Other strong stage roles followed, including Sylvia in The Recruiting Officer at Salisbury Playhouse and her mesmerising performance as Josie, a gun-toting Teddy Girl in Teddy, a critically acclaimed 2015 play set around south London’s Elephant & Castle in the 1950s, at Southwark Playhouse. It was such fun, she says. One of the reasons I got the Call The Midwife part was that a casting director saw me in that everything is linked
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