Twelve Questions with Actress Jessie Lawrence

Actor Jessie Lawrence will be performing a Q Theatre in Auckland starting tonight. Photo / Peter Meecham

Actress Jessie Lawrence has never been busier, appearing on TV shows 800 Words, Dirty Laundry, Westside as Cheryl's sister and Why Does Love as Victoria. The 25-year old West Aucklander is about to take the stage in The Effect - a play about love in a clinical drug trial for antidepressants.

1 What was your childhood like?

I'm half-Croatian on mum's side and half-English on dad's so I was blessed to grow up with a lot of theatrical Dallies. My brother and I would spend Saturday nights with our Nona and Nono in Mangere Bridge. They'd have all the old Dallies over to their house to smoke and drink and play poker. It was so loud we'd have to watch the movie with our faces up against the screen. There was a lot of love. Everyone's an aunty and uncle. You might not be a blood relative but you come from the same village.

2 Did you show early leanings towards theatre or performance?

I loved doing kapa haka and speech competitions at primary school but at about 10 I became really self-conscious. I'd put on a lot of weight around the time my mum got ill with Lupus. For Croatians, food is love so everyone would bring food and just I ate my way through it. I went through a really awkward phase. I had all my hair cut off in a pixie cut which really didn't suit me at the time. Then we moved to West Auckland and my parents separated. I didn't have any friends and I got bullied. It was a hard time.

3 How did you get through it?

I made a decision when I started at St Dominic's College that I was going to be head girl. I decided to embrace everything and go hard. My school wasn't very performing arts oriented so I focused on that. I started the drama and dance clubs and helped organise the school's first production. We even managed to win the Auckland Stage Challenge - a school from out west that no-one knew of up against St Cuth's and all those rich schools and we won. It was amazing.

4 You're currently on screen in TV3's Westside. There was a rumour you were going to play the young Cheryl West but you end up playing her big sister Jeanette. Were you in on that?

Yes it was funny - they set it up so that people would think I'm Cheryl. The trailer had this blonde girl that was going to get with Wolf so everyone thought it was Cheryl but it was actually me playing her sister Jeanette. People who watch Outrageous Fortune know that in OF lore, Wolf originally got with Cheryl's older sister before Cheryl stole him. Westside has just got funding for a fourth series, so that's awesome.

Daniel Watterson and Jessie Lawrence star in The Effect. Photo / Supplied

5 What do you watch on Monday nights when Westside goes head to head with Game of Thrones and local drama Filthy Rich?

I don't have a TV so I go to mum's to watch Westside on Monday night and I watch Game of Thrones later on one of my devices. That's just the way of the world now. The other shows I'm watching at the moment are Master of None and Arrested Development. I love comedy, although I could never be a stand-up comedian - that terrifies me.

6 What was it like playing the eponymous Victoria from The Exponents' pop classic in the TV1 drama last month?

It was great because Victoria's such an iconic song. Jordan Luck has said the song was inspired by his former Christchurch landlady who ran an escort service and was in a bad relationship. There's a beautiful moment in the film where Victoria hears that song for the first time at a gig. She has this overwhelming mix of emotions; the beauty of having a song written about her but also realising that he's right, she's with someone who abuses her.

7 What can you tell us about your new play The Effect opening at Q Theatre tonight?

It's about two people taking part in a clinical trial for an antidepressant. They fall madly in love and can't tell if it's because of the drug releasing dopamine in their brain, which is also what happens when you fall in love, or if it's a placebo effect. It's really intriguing. If their emotions are affected by chemicals does that make them less real? It's written by one of the UK's hottest young playwrights Lucy Prebble and has been performed in London and Broadway.

8 Does the play take a stance on whether antidepressants are good or bad?

No, it just raises questions which I think is important because it's a very relevant topic right now. I know so many people that have been or are currently on antidepressants. People feeling depressed will go to their GP and get a prescription right off the bat but there's a line in the play; "What if it's a good pain? A pain that's telling you you need to make a change in your life?" If the play can provoke a discussion then I feel like I've done my job.

Jessie Lawrence as Wella in the musical Jingles. Photo / Supplied

9 You've appeared in Shakespeare's As You Like It and The Tempest in the past year. Have you always been a fan of The Bard?

No. When I was younger I thought Shakespeare sucked but then I saw Baz Luhurmann's Romeo and Juliet and realised Shakespeare wasn't meant to be read in class in a monotone. Once I got to perform it at drama school I fell in love. It's written so beautifully and the words are so delicious in your mouth.

10 You're also a singer/songwriter. Did you have any formal training?

No, I've always sung. I taught myself to play the guitar and ukulele and write my own songs. I don't have the technical knowledge, I just go with what I feel. It's a way to express myself. A friend and I started a band in high school called Lemon Pie. We played indie kind of cutesy stuff. We went to the Gold Coast and did some gigs. For the past couple of years I've been writing and recording songs with my friend Mike Weston, a contemporary artist at Weston Frizzell. We haven't decided what to do with them yet.

11 You got to sing loads of TV adverts in the play Jingles at The Basement last month. Did some of those pre-date you?

I didn't remember the Flake ad or "I'm an utter peanut butter nutter" but dad remembers me dancing in front of the TV to that as a little one. I definitely knew the Chesdale Cheese, Tux and Columbine jingles. That show was so much fun. We had the audience singing along.

12 When have you failed?

I really struggled to fail at school. I was the classic high achiever that needs to get everything perfect. It wasn't till I got to drama school at Unitec that I realised I was allowed to make mistakes. I fell on my face hard in my first year. I discovered that trying to get everything 'right' actually detracted from the creative process. Now I hope to fail every time at rehearsal because you're not going to learn anything by treading a safe line. If I ever have children I'm going to ask them every day, "What did you fail at today?" and then celebrate it.

• The Effect, Q Theatre, August 1 to 12, www.qtheatre.co.nz/effect-2017-matchbox-season