Balance March Issue 2018 - 38

In this context, I wonder what she makes of the Mail Online
and the sex-pest lexicon it has developed for describing women. A
recent red-carpet event she attended prompted the website to speak
of her 'stunning cleavage'.
'I wish I had a f*cking cleavage!" she laughs. 'I've got no tits! I
must, I must, I must improve my bust! It's horrible, it's horrific. The
Mail Online is trash - we all know that. I'd never speak to them out
of choice, a bit like The Sun. I've got no control over what they write
but I ain't going to buy it and I'm not going to read it. It's got f*ck all
to do with my career.'
For the moment, though, she feels she largely exists below that
particular radar. 'I don't see myself as an interesting story,' she says.
'I think I've only been papped once and I was buying a casserole pot
from TK Maxx. The only time anybody cared what I was doing on
my day off, I was buying a discount pot.'
The obvious question remains. What about Hollywood? Turns out
she's tried it. Got an agent, but it didn't work out. In fact she's never
even set foot in LA. How many Bafta-winning actresses can you say
that about?
'After I won the Bafta, they offered for me to go to LA to go to a
party,' she recalls. 'So I was "Oh my God, I'd love to. Who can I bring
with me?" And they said "No, you can only come on your own." So I
said, "Well I'm not coming then." Going all the way to LA to stand at
a party by myself? It would be horrible.'

FAMILY COMES FIRST
'I thought that was it,' she recalls. 'I was going to be massive. I
was young and naïve and I thought I wanted all of that. I got a good
agent, I didn't know where it was heading, but ultimately it was
heading nowhere.'
Fast forward seven years, she's working in a local property
valuation office and Meadows returns to offer her the role of Lol in
his skinhead drama, This Is England. This time something does come
from it - Madonna asks for her by name. No audition, no self-taping.
Get on a plane and appear in the music icon's directorial debut Filth
And Wisdom. She still doesn't give up the day job, even though the
premieres and parties have started.
'There was one screening, I can't quite remember where,' she
smiles. 'But we had to get there on Madonna's private jet. So I went
there and came back and the next day I was back at work with
someone going, "Vicky, I just pressed to get a mocha and it gave me a
cappuccino" and I was like, "Yeah, ok. I'll sort that".'
It took a third visit from Meadows four years later to kickstart
the phase of her career in which she currently finds herself. He was
planning to spin off a TV series from his earlier film, called This Is
England 86, her character, Lol would be centre stage, playing out
her relationship with her abusive father. The series culminated in
harrowing, unforgettable TV, winning her a Bafta and spawning two
further series. It finally convinced her to give up the day job.
'I left, but I did say "I might come back, it might not work out",'
she admits.

THE PRICE OF CELEBRITY
Like most actors, Vicky says she's not bothered about fame, it just
comes with the territory of being in this business. But in this case,
you believe her.
'I can't help the fact that I love acting,' she reasons, 'but
unfortunately that comes with that door where you have to open
your world to a certain amount of people.'

38

One of the greatest ever British films, Saturday Night And Sunday
Morning, was shot in Nottingham (McClure's grandad appeared in it as
an extra, as he worked at the local Raleigh factory). It features the line,
used by the Arctic Monkeys for the title of their debut LP: 'Whatever
people say I am, that's what I'm not'. There's a bit of that about Vicky
McClure. Not that she's truculent or bolshie, but she's certainly only
going to do things on her own terms. But what would she fight for?
'Equality and that goes right across the board,' she says. 'Equal pay,
equal rights, equality. Because everybody should be given a chance.
If you can't afford something it doesn't mean you haven't got the
same amount of talent or drive as the person who can. Everyone's got
to have a chance because everyone's f*cked in some way. If you look
at the NHS, what do you do if you can't afford private health care?
Die? That's where we are heading.
She continues: 'I have got to a stage, a healthy stage, that if acting
finishes tomorrow, I'll be all right. I've got an amazing family and I'll
just have to find a way of earning money elsewhere. For me it's my
fiancé, my family, my life that will continue for as long as time, not
"when's the next job?"
'But I've had an amazing time and if that was my body of work and
that was my career, then I'd look back on it and feel proud.' B
Vicky McClure can currently be seen in the spy spoof Action Team on
ITV2 on Mondays at 10pm. Watch Vicky's confessional self-interview
at balance.media/vicky.

VICKY'S
FORMULA FOR
CONTENTMENT

BA LA N CE March 2018

FAMILY

TEA

HAIR: LOUIS BYRNE, MAKE-UP: JUSTINE JENKINS, STYLING: ALEXANDRA FULLERTON@ EIGHTEEN MANAGEMENT, ASSISTANT YAMINE DAABOUL. VICKY WEARS: P36: PURPLE CHECK BLAZER: TOPSHOP, T-SHIRT,
CUSTOMISED BY STYLIST: GAP, JEANS: DIESEL, STUDDED BELT: ZADIG & VOLTAIRE, BROGUES: GRENSON, CHAIN EARRING (RIGHT EAR) ROMANTICA, HOOP EARRING (LEFT EAR): DOWER & HALL, EAR CUFF: DOWER &
HALL; P38: LOVE ALWAYS WINS T-SHIRT: MONKI, TARTAN TROUSERS: TOPSHOP, EAR CUFF: DOWER & HALL; P39: STRIPE SUIT: ASOS, WHITE BROGUES: GRENSON, WHITE T SHIRT: FRAME, EAR CUFF: DOWER & HALL.

T H E B I G I N T E RV I E W



Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Balance March Issue 2018

Balance March Issue 2018 - 1
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