A little while ago I wrote about being a “football mum”, as both my girls play football and how this has resulted in me becoming a football coach and manager.
Well I’m not just a football mum, I am also a mum of an actor.
Ashley started acting when he was 12 years old, he had never been to an acting school or had any formal training, but it was something that he enjoyed doing at home. He loved dressing up and pretending to be someone else – usually an old lady or old man, complete with walking stick and flat cap!
My cousins are often reminding me of the year he dressed up as Father Christmas and we all had to take turns going into the Grotto to tell him what we wanted for Christmas, haha!
As Ashley had not had any training or regularly attended an acting group, I’m often asked how he got into acting…
It all started when he was 12 years old and he went to watch a west end show with his Nan, they were sitting having a drink before the show started, when an agent came up to them and asked if he would like to audition to be the boy in the Hovis advert, as he had the “right look” for the part. It turned out that, yes he did want to audition, so he did, but unfortunately he didn’t get that part. It did however give him a tiny taste for it, so he went along to an acting group in London that his Auntie taught at. The owner of the group also ran a children’s acting agency and they asked if Ashley would like to audition to join the agency, which again he did want to, so he did and they offered him a place on their books.
When you join an agency, the actor has to get headshots and complete lots of details all about the actor (hair colour, eye colour, height etc) as they get put forward for jobs based mainly by what they look like and if they have the right eye colour, height, weight or hair for the role. All the details and photos get put on to a huge directory called Spotlight, where casting directors can see and choose who they would like to audition.
Within a couple of months Ashley had some auditions – Let me tell you a little bit about how auditions work. You can get a call about an audition at very short notice and you HAVE to be available when they want you. Some casting directors will try to book the auditions around school times but not always, so sometimes Ashley would have to leave school early. Most of Ashley’s auditions were in London . We were very lucky that Ashley’s granddad had retired as this allowed him time to take Ashley to auditions. This was a huge help as Chloe and Lucy were very young at the time and trying to get up to London with twin toddlers would have been a nightmare!
Ashley shortly got offered a part in a play called MEDEA, which was running at The Scoop, London (outside City Hall). This was an outdoor space that was running the show throughout the summer months and he was playing the part of Prince Talus.
When you are an actor under 16 years old there certain things you can and can’t do, for example, you can’t work every evening and only 2 hours a day on a school day, so this means that most child parts have a few children playing the same part and they will take it in turns. You also have to have a license provided by your county council (this does vary between councils) to be able to work and to get a license we had to have a letter from the school to say they were happy for him to miss some school, a doctors letter to say he was fit to act, proof of age and a photo.
Right back to Medea…
If you didn’t know (which I didn’t), Medea is a Greek tragedy where the mum kills her two children! Obviously seeing your child being “killed” can be quite upsetting even if it is only acting and I had to fight the urge to jump up and protect him, luckily for him I did. Can you imagine how embarrassed he would have been. Of course I wanted the girls to come and see their big brother performing but didn’t think that they would understand the devastating end and I didn’t want to scare the life out of them, so they watched up to a point and then I took them away for the last bit, haha!
Just before he finished his run in Medea, he auditioned for a part in Billy Elliot The Musical at the Victoria Palace, London, which I’ll be honest when the agent sent through the call for this, my immediate thought was “but he can’t dance!” It was ok though as it was a non-dancing part, phew. He was successful in this first audition and was called back for a second audition, we then found out that he had been “pencilled” which basically means he has been shortlisted and then shortly after that I received a call to say that he had been offered the part of TALL BOY. This was on a school day and back then Ashley didn’t have a mobile phone so I had to wait, what seemed like forever for the school day to end so I could tell him the amazing news. He was obviously thrilled and quickly started rehearsals, again we were lucky that Ashley’s granddad and other family members could help out with getting him to these, but we spent many hours in St James’s park feeding squirrels waiting for Ashley to finish rehearsing.
On Ashley’s opening night as Tall Boy, sitting in the audience watching your son walk onto a west end stage is the most amazing thing ever and I could have burst with pride. I wanted to shout out that, that was my son up there!
Ashley went on to stay at Billy Elliot for 3.5 years, meeting some amazing people, making friends for life, attending some great parties and still getting fantastic GSCE and A-level grades (even when one of his teachers said he wouldn’t if he stayed in Billy!!)
Ashley is 21 now and acting full time, since finishing his A-levels he has been touring the country, first as “BEN” in The world premiere of David Walliams’ Gangsta Granny, then as “SOOT” in David Walliams’ Awful Auntie and now as “MARCUS MELDREW/GRANNY” in Tom Gates Live. He gets to see some of the best bits of the UK and still continues to meet some truly lovely people.
Oh wow! This was really interesting to read acting and theatre has always been a hobby of mine and it’s good to see child actors that don’t have pushy parents!
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Oh really? There are plenty with pushy parents, believe me! haha
What an amazing selection of jobs he has played! Did he play Soot in Awful Auntie at the Marlowe in Canterbury? If so, we would have seen him performing!
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Yes he played Soot at The Marlowe, so you would have seen him. Did you enjoy it?
We really did. The whole production was fantastic and Soot was excellent.