Freema Agyeman’s Time to Shine
Freema Agyeman, who debuted on the UK’s latest genre series, Survivors, on November 23 said, “I couldn’t have wished for a better start to my career than Doctor Who. It was like a rocket that blasted me up and as a consequence I have all these opportunities presented to me. It feels like it would be rude to say no.”
The 29-year-old told the London Telegraph that she plays Jenny Collins, “a teacher trying to escape a population-killing virus in a six-part remake of the 1970s cult drama.” Survivors.
“Jenny is bright and capable but in this situation she is overwhelmed,” she described. “Looking after her sick flatmate gives her a purpose to get through the situation. The whole thing is about trying to find hope.”
“Doctor Who was a good warm-up,” Agyeman admitted. “You’d be running around on the edge of cliff, chased by someone holding a fake monster on the end of stick. At first you would feel silly, but you quickly learn to go for it, to feel the terror of the moment. In Survivors, although it is much more serious, I tried to imagine the loss and loneliness Jenny is feeling in that moment.”
Agyeman will also be seen in the BBC’s new adaptation of Charles Dickens’s Little Dorrit, followed by playing a government prosecutor Alesha Phillips on Law & Order: London. “There’s so much I want to learn and these three [roles] were all extremely different from each other and from what I had done before,” she said.
For Little Dorrit, the attractive actress will play attention-seeking orphan Tattycoram. “Tattycoram’s race wasn’t specified but in Victorian London if you weren’t upper class, you experienced prejudice, so race transposes beautifully,” she said. “Up until Doctor Who I was happy in my career but I was being cast as gangsters and suchlike, which was a frustration for me. Now I get parts that could have been cast to any color. I am aware that I have this huge platform and I am proud to represent the black community but I am also proud of being able to show that I can do other parts.”
