Interview with Kimberley Nixon of Fresh Meat

4 October 2012

Kimberley Nixon is worried for her character in Josie in this series of Fresh Meat as things seems to be spiralling out of control for the 'Mental Dental'.

Kimberley explains what is going on in Josie's world this series...

"In the first term personally things weren't great for Josie; she was making a lot of bad decisions. But she had always wanted to be a dentist so she had that to cling to, however this series her studies go a bit awry and things start to fall apart.

"Heather (played by Sophie Wu) is a girl she's met on her dentistry course; they share a love of teeth. She is really happy to have found a best friend away from the house, it makes her feel special.  But things go wrong when Heather has a fling with Kingsley and Josie's attempts to destroy the relationship just ends up with them going out together.

This is a catalyst for her going off the rails.

"She dubs them the mental dentals and for the first six and a half episodes she is just drinking in a rather worrying way.

"A part of Josie thinks Kingsley is hers, that he is just on loan to Heather - they can have their dalliance but deep down they've got a bond, history and she knows she can be as horrible as she likes...so him getting serious with Heather shatters her.

"She steers clear of sex for most of this series...after the first term with JP, Kinglsey and the whole Dave debacle she knows it won't make her feel any better."

Although Kimberley admits Josie does have one epic sex scene; "It was really fun. I was so worried and thought I'd be really self conscious but I have never laughed so hard. The crew kept giving us rounds of applause. There wasn't any nudity; it wasn't about looking sexy just letting go of pent up feelings!"

"Kimberley continues: "I think they all went through something in the first term, and came together rallying round JP for his dad's funeral. This term they've got good caring friends which really becomes apparent later on. The housemates are disappointed in Josie for a number of reasons but they still rally round. JP says 'we never leave a man behind' towards the end of the series and that is how it is for them now."

And similarly for the core cast real friendships have been forged. Says Kimberley: "As soon as we found out we had a second series we were all ringing each other - we couldn't believe we'd have to wait another five months to get going again! I had withdrawal symptoms. We spend so much time together - long days on set and then in the evenings we'd still have dinner together or go for a drink and there was a lot more of that this year.  There were a lot of long scenes with all six of us in plus the newbies Heather (Sophie Wu) and Sabine (Jelka van Houten) some of which took seven hours to shoot!

"We are all very different with different backgrounds and rhythms to ourselves but we have a similar sense of humour and I think that translates well, because on screen there is nothing more important than chemistry. You feel you can really for something, try things out and stretch yourself because there are five other people ready to catch the ball. Everyone is really supportive of each other."

And Kimberley is loving the reaction of Fresh Meat fans.

"The big question from fans has been will Kingsley and Josie get back together again...I think we expected the fans to all be people at uni or in their 20s-30s who'd just left but I've gone to auditions where older producers or directors in their 60s absolutely love the show, which is brilliant.  You couldn't ask for anything better than people from 15-70 watching the show and finding it funny."

Kimberley had never acted in a comedy before taking on the role of Josie in Fresh Meat. She says: "When we won the comedy award we were on cloud nine - we all had this over whelming feeling we'd worked on something really special but it is hard to look at it objectively.

"I had never been cast in a comedy before Fresh Meat and never thought I'd get the role as I'd always done straight drama. But there has been a tonne of comedy roles coming my way since - it has totally changed people's perception of me. Hebburn was the one that really stood out for me. I've just filmed the series for BBC2 with Vic Reeves, it's a sitcom set in Newcastle I play a Jewish girl who drunkenly got married in Vegas...

"Personally I love British comedy so Fresh Meat is totally my sense of humour; I've always been a massive fan of Peep Show but work wise it has always been drama whether in film, TV or theatre.

"What always makes me laugh is that I auditioned six or seven times for the part of Oregon. Now of course I can't imagine why anyone would have thought of me for the part - I am so at home with Josie.

"Coming back to our characters is great; the writers have picked up rhythms of our speech and accents. Josie has these rambling monologues when she is trying to get herself out of trouble and that works well with my Welsh Valley's accent.  Howard is very dour and to the point which works for Greg. I've definitely noticed they are writing a bit more to suit us all now we are more established in the role."

 

Fresh Meat returns to Channel 4 on Tuesday 9th October at 10pm.

Don't forget to check out Fresh Meat House which will launch 9th October directly after transmission of the first episode on Channel 4. Go to www.channel4.com/freshmeathouse for a tour of the student digs and to watch exclusive content released at the end of each episode.

Fresh Meat House is a new commission from Channel 4's Education team who have a focus on life skills for young people