Interview with Yasmin Paige for Glue

3 September 2014

 

Yasmin Paige plays Ruth Rosen

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What is Glue and what can we expect?

It’s centered around a small town, specifically a horse racing town where everyone knows everyone. There is a murder that happens right at the beginning, and it’s how it affects a group of friends, how it uncovers the problems between them, and the problems which they have individually as well.

Can you tell us a bit about who you play?

I play Ruth Rosen, I’m a young police officer, but at the beginning she’s provisional, she’s very new. Because she’s from a Romany background and the murdered boy is Romany, she gets promoted instantly which is a lot of pressure. She also has a lot invested in the case – it’s quite personal – which is always dangerous if you’re a Police Officer. Because of the rest of the village and all the other characters, how they are involved with the young boy that passes away, it makes it complicated. Because they all know each other it complicates it even further.

How much did you know about the backstory of the character?

Jack [Thorne – creator and writer] and everyone really wanted the Romany side to be a really important part of the show because Ruth is half Romany, Cal who’s is murdered in the first episode is Romany, and his brother Eli. Then we have got plenty of other characters who are Romany, Joe and Mara, and they feature a lot – it’s a huge characteristic of the show, that whole community is important. When I first started we had a Romany advisor called Dan Allum – he’s done a lot of Romany theatre and he was talking to us about the culture, and how in this situation our characters would react. I think it will be very interesting to have that element, it makes it very unique.

When you first read the script, what did you think?

Jack is a great writer, and I was a fan of his other stuff. I really like that it was young, but I like the way that Jack writes which is very realistic – the dialogue is all very natural. It’s not just handed to you on a plate you have to dig around to find lots of things in it, which are there. I liked that it was about young people entering a very adult world. I have a job in it and Tina is starting her job, Janine does too – we’re all different and struggling in different areas. A key thing in the show for my character was how you can feel quite lost in a working world full of adults, how you are trying to fight for your place as a young person.

The countryside is a really big part of the show. Is that something that you are familiar with?

The countryside is a really big part of it. It is central to their lives, it’s a lot slower pace. Their income especially in this town is horseracing. It’s also about the scenery. Your surroundings create your character and I think that if you are born in that kind of thing where you know everyone and it’s slow paced it can be quite intense, almost like a little bubble. You don’t have that anonymity that you have in a big city which can create lots of problems. It’s another character really, and it’s beautifully shot so you have that sort of thing looming over you. It can either be sort of silence or it can be this expression of freedom, so it’s one or the other I guess.

Did you hang out with the other cast when you weren’t filming? Do you have any antidotes from onset?

Jordan Stephens [who plays Rob] was very funny. Everyone was really lovely. My character is quite separate from the rest of the cast, our paths are separate and then come together more towards the end so at the end I would see them all more. As when I was filming my stuff it would always be with Tommy [McDonnell] or the actors who both play my superiors so I was with them all the time which helped get me into the mode I guess. Because Ruth is not someone who has a lot of friends, and in her work she is surrounded by a lot of people who are much older than her in her work most of the time. Whereas the others have a very tight sense of friendship, and that’s where betrayal can come in, and they are very close and depend on each other and have a lot of love for each other which makes things quite high stakes.

Why should audiences tune into Glue?

Audiences can expect a lot of heart. The relationships between the characters are beautiful. It’s really artistic but at the same time really exciting because it is a murder mystery. I think the Romany aspect also makes it unique, and of course it’s written by Jack who always produces things which are unusual and exciting and really current. I think he wanted to say something about the countryside and growing up there and how difficult it can be and how difficult it can be for them.

Who dunnit?

Jordan thought he had it figured out and he convinced us it was people it wasn’t, he was all like ‘It’s you, it’s you’! We all started to get really defensive of our characters. ‘What if it’s me?’ It got pretty scary! No one knew who it was right until the end.

ENDS.