Indea Barbe-Willson
Indea Barbe-Willson is an acting talent to keep an eye on over the next few years as she makes her debut in Verity's Summer.
She has already picked up awards for her central performance and we caught up with her to chat about the film, working with director Ben Crowe and what lies ahead.
- Your new movie Verity's Summer is set for release next month so can you tell me a little bit about it?
I see it as a coming of age story for my character Verity that is set within these wider issues and the wider story. Her father has just come back from war and has been involved in war crimes - another character has also come back and has see Verity’s father do all of these things.
Verity also has an affair with this guy who is Polish - and with this character there are some race issues tackled as well. So there are these much bigger things going on around her.
She is just getting to this awkward teenage age where you start realising things about the wider world and about your parents; they are not the strong figures that you always thought that they were and that they are just human. She falls in love, goes out and gets drunk and gets into trouble. So for me it was a coming of age story.
- The film sees you take on the title role of Verity so what was it about this character and the script that initially drew you to the project?
The first thing was in the script she played the violin and I do as well. So that worked out quite well because it meant that I could play violin on screen - well it was a viola actually. That was quite nice because I had never seen anything like that before.
Also the characterisation in the script that Ben Crowe wrote - it is a beautiful script - but I just loved the way that she was so awkward and a bit weird. She is just that classic teenage girl who thinks that she knows everything but she also knows that doesn’t know anything at all.
I thought she was really cool and I saw a lot of myself in her when I was that age; I was a similar age when I played her.
- Verity's Summer marks your big screen debut so how did you find stepping in front of the camera for the first time?
(Laughs) I was pretty terrified. It wasn’t just my big screen debut but I hadn’t done any other acting in front of a camera. I had only joined the agency that I was with about a year before and so I had only ever done small little things.
So it really was the first thing that I ever did rather than anything actually big. I was scared but it was a really nice crew - because it was a small film and a small budget there were only a small number of people on the crew.
There were so many talented and very passionate people on the project and I was just around all of these people that just love it and I felt a lot more comfortable.
You start to realise that it is not about you and it is about being part of a crew and part of a group of people who are making a film.
- Ben Crowe is in the director's chair so how did you find working with him? And what kind of director is he?
He is brilliant, I love working with Ben. He is a very sensitive director in terms of being in tune with how the actors see the characters and how he sees the characters and making them come together.
He is also very in tune with how things fit together - I am not really sure how to explain it. He is very sensitive but also very precise and very clear, which is very useful for an actor. I thought he was great.
- While this film is based in a very domestic setting it does tackle the wider issues of the war in Iraq and the use of torture so what kind of research did you do as you were preparing for your role?
I did quite a bit of reading up - mainly just in the news because it is so current - on human rights and abuses. I did that research myself because I think it is important to know about the things you are making a film about, especially if you are going to be passionate about the script and where it is coming from and what you are trying to get across.
In terms of my character it was quite good I didn’t… when I was playing the role I was quite young myself and so I didn’t know too much about these things either.
So it was quite good that I was only just finding out about these things myself as that is what was happening to my character as well. So it worked out quite nicely.
- Throughout the film Verity has a very strained and quite difficult relationship with her parents - played by James Doherty and Nicola Wright - so how did you find working alongside them?
Because we were all living together during the shoot we had this joke that they were my pretend family outside of the shooting as well as we all ate together and things.
They are both amazing actors to work with and they really did teach me a lot and I am really lucky to have worked with them - especially on my first film - they were great mentors. In terms of the characters she does have a bit of an odd relationship with them - but I suppose that everyone does have issues with their parents when they are sixteen.
I thought the dynamic was interesting, especially between Verity and her mum, because at the beginning she is very close with her dad and her mum is the strict one and they don’t really get on.
But towards the end of the film when all of these things come out about Jim and he goes away verity does get much closer to her mum.
There is a nice switch at one point where her mum is crying in the bath and Verity comes in to comfort her - it is a role switching where Verity is becoming someone who can look after her parents.
That was one of my favourite scenes because it really showed that change in Verity as she grows up and realises that her parents are not these super figures they are just people and have flaws.
- Being that this was your first movie what were the biggest challenges that you faced during the shoot?
Partly the hours and being able to keep your energy up - it was absolutely beautiful where we were shooting on the Northumberland coast but it was extremely cold and rainy.
So just keeping your energy up as it is all very well doing a great passionate scene once but if you have to do it ten times - so I had to get use to that. There is a sex scene in the film and I was quite worried about that.
But it did end up being totally fine as Christian, who played opposite me, made me feel incredibly at ease. I was all scared before but it all turned out to be fine.
- You have mentioned already how working with James and Nicola was a huge inspiration so I was wondering what lessons did you learn that will be able to take forward into future projects?
I think the thing about realising and being aware that the film is not about individual performances as everyone involved in a film is incredibly important and it is about making something together rather than it being about anything singular that anyone is doing.
Everything that you do is for the film and it is all about the vision for the film - Ben was really good at being able to create that atmosphere of everyone working for this vision and this film that he wanted to put across.
I also learnt how to focus on my own and to reflect on my own character and on my own work and to be able to take myself away from it for a bit.
It is important to be able to freshen your character every day and to not get bogged down with ‘I already know how I am going to say this’ or ‘I know what I am going to do there’ and you have to be able to look at it differently every time that you look at it and always bring something new to it.
- There are still a few weeks to go to the release of the film but have you been able to gauge any early responses? And what did you think of the film when you saw it for the first time?
When I first saw it I was like ‘no I don’t want to watch myself’ but I am proud to have been a part of it and I think that it is a really beautifully shot, beautifully directed, beautiful script and film.
It is just the place that it comes from is very beautiful; the way Ben has gone about making the film and post production and even up to distribution.
It is all about putting across his film and the thoughts and motives behind the film and the issues behind it. It is a very honest and emotive film.
- Finally what is next for you?
I am at university at the moment studying creative writing. I would still like to be an actor but at the moment I am concentrating on that and then hopefully I will do some writing of my own and pen some scripts.
Verity's Summer is released 5th March.