Welcome to episode 60 of Sweetman Podcast with support from our sponsors – T Leaf T, L’affare and Yeastie Boys. For episode 60 I talked with actor/director/acting coach Miranda Harcourt.
I first met Miranda as part of one of my first ever professional assignments; a housing feature where I interviewed her while a photographer took snaps of the home. Of course I knew some of her work before that – had seen her on TV, in movies and on the stage. And in recent years she’s been working more as an acting coach and teacher – currently she’s in post-production with a film adaptation of the Margaret Mahy favourite, The Changeover. This is her first time working as a co-director with her partner, Stuart McKenzie.
We talked about her 50-year career, how acting has become the family business in a sense; we talked too about her work as an acting coach on the incredible film, Lion – and her work on other Hollywood sets, or via Skype and the phone to and from all parts of the world. We talked about her start on TV – with Gloss and some of her movie roles. It was a great conversation – and I was thrilled that we made it happen. The negotiations for this started a while ago. I would get bumped for people a bit more important than me (“sorry, I’ve got a Skype call with Steven Spielberg” went one memorable excuse). So my thanks to Miranda for fitting me in. Thanks too as always to the sponsors. We enjoyed some of the great T Leaf T and some of the L’affare coffee for this one. And I enjoyed my conversation with an acting and coaching legend. I learned so much about the business and some of the methodology around acting, devising, writing and directing for film and theatre.
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Day-time visitors to the den get to have tea now, thanks to T Leaf T or coffee thanks to L’affare or, later in the day, they can have a beer from the wonderful Yeastie Boys. My thanks as always to these great sponsors. If you want to advertise on the podcast or sponsor an episode, or more, please do get in touch.
Please enjoy episode 60 of Sweetman Podcast, my conversation with Miranda Harcourt.
To use Miranda’s favourite term, that was a truly illuminating conversation. Miranda has this incredible ability to find the truth in her work through personal observation and self-analysis, and her voracious mind and borderline manic energy are probably unmatched, certainly in this country. She is also blessed with a healthy disrespect, so she never takes herself so seriously that she can’t take the piss out of herself. For example, after one of her early break-out theatre roles, Kaz: A Working Girl, she did a devastating parody of it in a satirical cabaret show that was all the more effective because she tackled it with as much intensity as she did in the original. Fuck, I don’t know if that made any sense. I’m sick, don’t hassle me!
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