Episode 7: Neil sits down with...actor and writer Skye Hallam

Neil Hancock: 00:00:10
Hello, everyone, I'm Neil On Wheels, and this is my new podcast.  I can't walk the walk, but I can talk the talk.  I'm a wheelchair actor who wasn't able to work during the pandemic, but rather than sitting around doing nothing, I thought I'd sit around doing something.  In this series, I'll be chatting to people in the theatre, TV and film industry about the challenges they've overcome in order to achieve great things in life.  My guest for this episode is actor Skye Hallam, Skye has appeared in TV shows such as Casualty, The Crown, and Intrigo: Samaria.  She made her professional stage debut as the lead role in Paradise of the Assassins at the new Tara Arts Theatre in London.  She has also done several voice and narration projects, including readings on BBC Radio 3's Music Matters, and Music and Words.  Skye has also written her own one woman show Heads or Tails, and has very kindly given up her time to chat with me today.  Hello, Skye.

Skye Hallam: 00:01:09
Hello.  Hi, Neil.

Neil Hancock: 00:01:11
Now for those who don't know Skye and I met at RADA doing a Meisner workshop just before the pandemic hit last year, didn't we Skye?  It was a week before it hit I think.

Skye Hallam: 00:01:21
We did, we did.  Mm-hmm.  Yeah, we did. 

Neil Hancock: 00:01:25
And I believe you also run your own Meisner classes.  Can you explain for those who are unfamiliar what Meisner is all about?

Skye Hallam: 00:01:34
Yes, yes, of course.  So yes, yeah, I trained at RADA and was taught by the wonderful John Beschizza and I sort of fell in love with the Meisner technique there.  And then yes, I've been running my own classes at various different drama schools and part time training courses in London.  And Meisner is all about putting the attention on someone else.  As actors, we can often get very sort of in our own heads and worry about our lines and what we're doing, and actually the most sort of brilliant performances will come from people getting out of their head, putting their attention outside of themselves on somebody else, and really allowing the person that they're working with to just organically affect them, and allow the person that you are in that moment to be because of the person you're with, and trying to get away from you know trying to control how you come across because we all have a bit of a filter with how we'd like to be perceived and Meisner—particularly the repetition technique is about sort of getting you out of that cycle and sort of laying you bare if you like, yeah.

Neil Hancock: 00:02:39
So, what first attracted you to acting?

Skye Hallam: 00:02:42
Oh my gosh.  Well, my mum's an actor, so almost everyone says to me, “Oh, well, that's why then, isn't it?”  And actually if you have grown up with an acting parent, you're more often than not deterred from doing it because for some—because you see the real life of it, but most of all, yeah, I would say I, yeah, did grew up with an artistic household where music and theatre and film and TV, it was all going on all the time.  But I think I first really started liking it when I was in my school productions.  Like a lot of people, I was put in the little school play and given quite a nice little role at junior school.  And I remember Mum and Dad sort of coming to see and thinking, “Ooh ooh, she's got a bit of a natural flair for just being up there really,” for just being okay presenting and performing.  And then I think it was in secondary school when I started to…I think I was in Grease in year seven and I was really chuffed, I was one of the only year sevens that was put in the production with all the older kids, and that's when I started to really think, “Cor, I love this, I really love this.”  And then it sort of went on from there really, yeah.

Neil Hancock: 00:04:02
You say you were in Grease, that was my first school production, I was in it.

Skye Hallam: 00:04:06
Was it? 

Neil Hancock: 00:04:07
Yes. 

Skye Hallam: 00:04:10
That’s brilliant.  Who were you?  Who were you in Grease?

Neil Hancock: 00:04:13
I was one of the Burger Palace Boys I think at the time, you know.

Skye Hallam: 00:04:17
Burger Palace, I love that.  Okay, brilliant.  Yeah, I don’t think I had a named role.

Neil Hancock: 00:04:24
I think they put me in there because I was quite intimidating in the wheelchair, so they just put me in there.

Skye Hallam: 00:04:30
So, they put you in it?  I love it, I love it.  Yeah, I remember very much fancying...  I fancied the boy, I didn’t…yeah, I didn't have a role, I was just...I was, you know, a ‘50s dancing sort of girl with I think I might have had a couple of lines.  But I remember there was a sort of year 11 boy, I must have been about 11, and he was like 15 or 16, and I just remember thinking “Oh my gosh, I got to sit on his lap and do a little dance with him,” and I just thought it was the best thing ever. And he was probably feeling very awkward because I was a child.  That's where it blossomed from being in Grease.

Neil Hancock: 00:05:09
But when you were growing up, were there other things apart from acting that you were interested in?

Skye Hallam: 00:05:14
Oh, yeah.  Yeah, I played piano from a very young age.  So my Dad's a musician and I was doing ballet.  I mean, I was very lucky.  I was sort of, you know, taken to all these different classes, I was an only child, and I think my parents were just trying to give me what they hadn't had growing up and trying to influence me in the sort of arts world, so I had loads of those sort of things growing up.  And then when I got to a teenager, I was really into athletics and I used to train quite a few days a week, and I ran with Epsom and Ewell—the running club, and I went to Surrey events and things, and I really was kind of hoping that I could, you know, I don't know if I really thought I would become an athlete but I really enjoyed being in different, you know, different worlds.  And then when I got to sort of A levels, I was obsessed with A level philosophy, I thought it was sort of the best thing, I'd never studied anything like it and reading all about Plato, and Socrates and Kant and all these people, John Stuart Mill, I was sort of blown away.  And I really did consider applying to study philosophy at university.  So it was, yeah, and I still would want to if I ever got the chance.  Yup.

Neil Hancock: 00:06:26
But you didn't, you decided to go into acting.  At what point did you decide to do that?

Skye Hallam: 00:06:32
Well, I think around the age of 15, it was a bit of a mad one because I got into the National Youth Theatre.  So, I did that, and I met some amazing people and had quite an amazing time.  And I remember coming back from the sort of initial course in the summer and in thinking, “Cor, I really get on with these people.  They seem to get me the sort of theatrical background I'd had at school.”  I was always seen as a little bit different and, you know, my parents weren't like other people's parents, and I think being around that world with people your own age was very exciting, and then I just random...it was quite random, I was in Waitrose in Surbiton and an acting agent sort of started chatting to me and I didn't know who she was, I was in my running kit I think I'd been for a run.  And her husband had worked with my mum, and I looked around and I could see my mum chatting to her husband, and it so transpires that she was sort of wondering if I could act and if I'd be interested in acting, and I was like, “I don't know.  Yes, yes, please.”  But I didn’t know what was going on.  I remember getting in the car and thinking, “What's just happened?”  And my mum said, “I think you've just got an agent.”  And I was like, “Right.”  And all I done was, you know, bits at school and the Rose Youth Theatre in Kingston which was fantastic and set me up with a lot more experience than I, you know, could have had just doing school stuff.  But then I started going up for auditions and I think it was really starting to be thrown into the professional world of it kind of, yeah, made me excited and also made me realise that I really didn't know what I was doing a lot of the time, and I'd be in these auditions thinking, “Cor, all these girls going in, you know, before me and after me,” you know, I'd chat to them and they'd gone to drama school, and I thought, “God.  Well, then I need to do that then if I'm going to do this properly.”  So I was auditioning, yeah, during my A levels for drama schools, and when I got into RADA in my A level year, that's when I realised, “Well, I'm not going to apply...”  I just didn't see another option because you don't say no, you go, you take the golden ticket and you run.  So that was it.

Neil Hancock: 00:08:37
You certainly do, you certainly do.

Skye Hallam: 00:08:39
Yes.  Yeah.

Neil Hancock: 00:08:43
But you talk about you were a member of the Rose Theatre, Kingston’s Youth Theatre.  What sort of productions did you do there?  What form did that take?

Skye Hallam: 00:08:51
Oh, it was wonderful.  I was very lucky to get in, it was quite hard to get in there because it's a really popular youth theatre and Ciaran McConville who was running it at the time.  Yeah, they ran it as sort of professionally as they could with young people.  So I was in various different shows, I remember my sort of biggest one was playing Laertes in an all-female Hamlet, with Grace Moloney who actually then went on to study at Lamda and is doing really, really well.  And yes, she played Hamlet and I played Laertes, on the main stage in the Rose Theatre in Kingston.  And, yeah, I was 15, and I remember my friends coming and sitting in the sort of pit, on the cushions, and when I came out afterwards, they were like, “Well, that was very long.”  And I say, “It’s a very long play, Hamlet.”  And we didn’t do…we did a precis version but it was, you know, it was a proper...it's a proper show.  It’s a proper show.  I had a gun, had a shotgun and a rifle.  I don't know if they're different things but I had a gun, yup.  And that was amazing.  It was my first taste of dressing rooms and, you know, a paying audience.  That's very exciting, yeah.

Neil Hancock: 00:10:04
And you graduated RADA in 2016 I believe, and...but whilst there, what aspects of the training did you most enjoy, and equally what did you find the most difficult?

Skye Hallam: 00:10:17
I think... I really...I really, really enjoyed…I mean, individually I really enjoyed, you know, all of the classes. I mean, I...there wasn't a class that I'd sort of dread going to at all.  I think the timetable was packed with such a variety of things.  So I think in each class, I really enjoyed what I was learning.  I mean, it was just a dream come true for me because I just so wanted to just lap up every little bit of, you know, the work.  And I was a very good student.  I've always been like a bit of a, you know, someone that really enjoys school and sitting in a classroom and like learning in a lesson.  I'm a bit like, I really enjoy that.  So I suppose the sort of academic side almost of the course where we'd learn about phonetics and, you know, all of that kind of thing in our voice classes, and all the different techniques, you know, I'd make crazy copious amounts of notes, and I've still got...I had an iPad, my parents bought me an iPad, and I had this iPad full of like…I'd sit there, everyone would take the mick out of me because I'd sit there on an iPad instead of a notepad.  And I'd sort of type away on my little iPad and make these notes.  I made so many because I just wanted to ingest all the information, and I think…  So I really enjoyed just practically doing it all.  I think what I struggled with was, yeah, being 18 and being not like totally, you know, sure about myself and feeling quite insecure, and sort of…I think I sometimes struggle with, you know, the dynamic of wanting to be liked, and wanting everyone to think I was really good and sort of that sort of side of it, I think it kind of limited me in a way because I became…  Yeah, I became just someone that wanted to be perfect which as artists we can't be, and we have to celebrate.  And I remember the feedback I got at the end of my first year from my acting teacher was, you know, you need to embrace the sort of dirty parts of yourself and like the dirty parts of life and like that sort of experience.  And I really struggle with that because I was like, “No, I've got to be...I've got to be pretty and nice and liked and, you know, and I've got to be just an attractive person to be around.”  And then to sort of realise that we're all so much more than that.  And I guess that's what the...when the Meisner came in, I really enjoyed that because it was like, “No, really, anything you feel right now is okay and everything that you are right now is okay, you just don't have to deny any of it, just let it all come out.”  And actually the bits of you that you're a bit like, “Oh,” you know, that part of my personality or that part of the way I look or that part of this, those are things actually that the people are going to want to because it makes you, you.  So I think, yeah, that's sort of, you know, you go on quite a journey, don't you, through drama school?  And then I was just really unfortunate that I had quite a bad accident just before going into third year because that, yeah, that sort of threw me mentally in a way that I'd been anxious before that but that kind of really sort of, you know, your personal life comes up and then it affects your work, of course it does.  So that was a challenge and a half, indeed.

Neil Hancock: 00:13:27
And do you find having just talked about, you know, you were accepted into RADA when you were 18.  Do you find that, you know, looking back on it now, would you have gone to RADA later on when you're a little bit older knowing what you know now about acting?

Skye Hallam: 00:13:48
Well, it's a funny thing, isn't it?  I mean, I did a short course at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School in the summer when I was 17, and I remember meeting an actor called Billy Howle who's doing really well, and he was a student there.  And I did a week's course and I was really inspired by him and what was going on in the course, and it felt really exciting.  And a teacher at that school pulled me over and said, “You're too young, you know, going to drama school before you've kind of become, you know, a fully-fledged adult, it's really, really hard.”  And she kind of, you know, was saying to me, you know, you've got something and I understand why you're trying to pursue this but maybe wait, maybe have a bit of a life and then go, and that's what my mum was saying, that's what a lot of people were saying.  And, you know, not many 18-year-olds get in, I think there were three boys in my year and me that got in at 18.  And, you know, at drama schools, the feedback is often when you audition, you're not quite ready, you're not old enough, and a lot of 18-year-olds don't get in for that reason.  And I think I was just really stubborn and I was just like, “No, I want to go now.  I want to do this, I want to get on with it.  And I've had a taste of the industry and now I just want to do it.”  And I was just really driven.  I don't really even know where that came from but it just sort of…I was like, “I'm getting in, I'm doing it.”  And now I look back and think I'm the age of some of, you know, I'm 26, and that's the age of some people that were in first year, you know, people get in at all different ages.  And I think, “God, if I was doing it now…God, would it be different,” and it really would, like there would be things that I would get out of it now that I could not have gotten out of it back then.  But then at the same time, I suppose I was quite malleable because I think when you're younger, you don't have such a strong idea of who you are, and maybe that's quite useful.  Because now if I was getting a critique, I think maybe it would hurt me more now, I don't know.  Do you know what I mean?  Because you just have this expectation of what you can do now and maybe the sort of deer in the headlights is quite useful when you're in an institution that is kind of like school, you know.  So, yeah, pros and cons.  Yeah.

Neil Hancock: 00:15:52
It’s one of those things, isn't it?  In some ways, the more knowledge you have about something, the more nerve wracking it becomes.

Skye Hallam: 00:16:00
Definitely, yes.  Yes, exactly.  I think that you've hit the nail on the head because I think, you know, when I…I talked with my mum a lot about how I feel about auditions now and how I feel about myself in the industry now.  And, you know, my mum always says to me, “But you were so confident at 18.  I mean, you had so…”  And I was and I don't know…and I think like you said, because I didn't know potentially all the things that I was getting wrong or just wasn’t aware of, you know, all the things that I wasn't aware of, and now I'm so aware that maybe that sort of you have to be aware and then, you know, like they say in acting, you know, do the work and then just forget it all, you know, just kind of try and let that go.  But that's very hard, once you know it, it's hard to stop re-remembering it all the time.

Neil Hancock: 00:16:46
And so in your third year at RADA, you obviously do your third year shows to a paying audience, and of all the shows you did, what was your favourite and why?

Skye Hallam: 00:16:57
Oh, my favourite by far was Kindertransport, it was by Diane Samuels and Psyche Stott directed us, and, oh, it was...it still is my favourite play.  I was really bummed when I got cast in it because I was sitting in the National Theatre with my mum watching a play, and in the interval I got this email from RADA saying casting breakdown for your next show, and I opened it and it said Kindertransport, and the character was a 50-year-old German Jewish woman living in London.  And I was like, “Oh, I don't want to play another 50-year-old.”  And I was really initially, you know, fairly bummed that I would have to do that and then I read the play.  And then I was like, “Oh my gosh, I think this is best the role I'll ever play,” because it's an amazing play about the Kindertransport, about the Jewish children that came over here and settled here.  And my character, Evelyn, was totally denying her past.  She become a very English woman and wanted to just be totally sort of normal and blend in, and not worry about what had come before her.  And it's a play about her daughter, finding all of the memories kind of in the loft, and it's set in the loft of this house, and it was just extraordinary.  They have a lovely theatre at RADA called the Gielgud and it's tiny, and it's, you know, probably seats 40 to 60 people in our production.  And I mean, you could just feel the atmosphere, how the play was affecting people,  was affecting me, and then it's just this amazing conversation, I'd never had an experience like it.  And, yeah, it was extraordinary.  I remember the first night Ian McKellen was in.  That was a bit of a shock because nobody told us which I think was the right thing because we would have all freaked out.  And I remember just doing my bow and thinking, “Hang on, who's that?”  And then going down to the bar and thinking, “I don't even know who I saw.”  And then Ed Kemp who was the Head of RADA was standing next to Ian McKellen at the bar and Ian, you know, I'd had a glass of wine with him and I was like, “What's going on?  This is insane.  This is wonderful.”  So it was just, yeah, having a touch.  I think Mike Leigh saw it, you know, having a touch of the industry coming to watch you and thinking it was sort of…yeah, it was amazing.  And then Leslie Brent who, rest in peace Leslie, I think of you all the time, he was an amazing person who I managed to meet through a friend who was a real Kindertransport survivor, and an incredible man and scientist, and he actually came to see the show, and I spoke to him for some sort of character development with him, and it wasn't...  To do a play about the Kindertransport with someone in it, who had been through it, it was the most extraordinary...and you just realise, “The play is not about me, the play is not even about my classmates, the play is so much bigger than us,” and that was what was really exciting.

Neil Hancock: 00:19:54
Fantastic.  Now, from that, I'd like to move on to your professional stage debut Paradise of the Assassins at the Tara Arts Theatre in London, based on the 1899 novel I believe by Abdul Halim Sharar, is that the correct pronunciation?

Skye Hallam: 00:20:14
Yes, yes.  That sounds very good to me, yup, lovely.  

Neil Hancock: 00:20:18
And can you explain...?  Can you give us a brief synopsis of that play?  And what it was that specifically attracted you to the character?

Skye Hallam: 00:20:26
Yeah.  I did not know about this book, I did not know about this novel, I didn't know particularly that much about that period of, you know, sort of…I guess a lot of us know what Assassin's Creed is, it is the sort of the ancient, you know, yeah, the ancient sort of extreme Islamic fighters and sort of assassins, and that wasn’t something I wasn’t aware of, and I...  It was all quite last minute.  I remember getting the script, having a good read of it.  And then I went to meet Tony Clark who had written and was directing it.  And what I loved about her was that she was really…this character called Zamurrud was incredibly strong.  So her brother has died and they don't know how he's died, but they reckon it's from…  So you've got the Sunni Muslims and the Shia Muslims, and I think she and her partner played by Asif Khan, the characters think, “Right, I think something has happened here, I think he's been killed.”  So we go out on search of him.  And she gets captured by the other side and is kind of made into a houri which was essentially what the Muslims believed at that time when you died if you fought for Islam and if you kind of killed people in the name of Islam, you would go to paradise, and that's why it’s called Paradise of the Assassins.  And essentially, they would sort of drug these soldiers, once they've done a really good honour killing, and bring them to this incredible garden where people like my character would be dressed up like this beautiful virgin and would spend the, you know, the day or the night with these men, and then they would sort of wake up from their stupor and truly believe they'd actually been to paradise.  And because they'd had that experience would then do everything but, you know, because of these really extreme leaders and would carry on doing these honour killings.  So it was a very extreme story and world to get involved in and I, you know, had to recite parts of the Quran and prayers, and it was extraordinary.  And I really wanted to work with Tara Arts because they've done amazing things.  My dad's Asian and they've done amazing things for Asian people, for South Asian people.  And, yeah, it was really a ride.  And there was difficult parts.  There was a sort of almost rape scene and it was a real challenge but you were doing it on this beautiful Indian mud floor in the new, you know, we opened for Tara Arts Theatre, we were the first production in Earlsfield, and there was such an atmosphere, and sort of as you do the play, the dust would just kind of come up into the air and you really felt like you were somewhere, you know, ancient—you did, you felt like you were, you know, it's a beautiful building and it was, yeah, it was such a sort of ride to come out drama school and play the lead role in something that was quite full on was…it was a challenge, it was a challenge.  Oh, yeah, I'll never forget...I'll never forget it.

Neil Hancock: 00:23:23
And leading on from that, as it was your stage debut, how daunting was it to play the lead role?

Skye Hallam: 00:23:33
I was so nervous.  I was so nervous.  And then I'd have days where I was, you know, really supported by people like Asif that had gone to RADA kind of knew how I felt and there was a, you know, another actress called Tippi who was in it, who'd also just graduated.  And I think, you know, there was a lot of support but I felt, you know, from my classmates. But I felt, yeah, really nerve wracking, you know, it was really nerve wracking.  I think in some ways it helps that I didn't have much time, like I graduated and I pretty much went straight into it.  So I think I didn't have that time to kind of disconnect from my training, it was continuing.  But that's what also made it really hard because I was knackered, I was absolutely exhausted having not had a break and done sort of, I don't know, three or four productions in my third year, a short film, a radio play, you know, and I...and then to just kind of come straight out, it was kind of…yeah, I was knackered but it was, yeah, it was great.  I mean, I never forget, you know, some of the RADA tutors like Lloyd Trott and Ed Kemp, and Nona Shepphard coming to see me in that space, and it was quite funny because I could really, you know, it's quite small theatre and you could really see the audience.  And I remember sort of coming out into the space and thinking, “Oh my gosh, where am I?”  It’s like, “All my RADA,” you know, all my RADA people sitting in this theatre watching me do something, you know, as a professional.  It felt quite, yeah, it was exciting.  Yeah.

Neil Hancock: 00:24:58
What was it in particular about the show that you connected with?

Skye Hallam: 00:25:01
I think it was sort of a woman's fight just against all odds.  At that time, you know, women couldn't travel on their own, women couldn't do really anything on their own.  And I think the fact that she just completely said goodbye to her family, went on this journey with her partner, and just...and then was totally abandoned, you know, was on her own captured, and trying to sort of fight to get out.  It was sort of...  It was very heroic and it was very, yeah, it was very exciting.  And I think also just grieving for someone, she was grieving the loss of her brother, and just to kind of experience that sort of fuelling you I think is something that we can all sort of relate to.  We want, you know, if we lose someone close to us, this idea that we want to fight to find out what's happened and fight for what's right, fight for the justice of it is a very brave thing.  And I think a lot of us can connect to that in our own lives and in the wider world right now, we're fighting for justice for things that are not, yeah, that are not right, and.  So that's quite an exciting theme I think.

Neil Hancock: 00:26:08
And what is it you look for in a script?  I mean, quite often as actors, we're lucky, you know, we're just grateful of the opportunity that comes our way.  But if you were in a position where you could choose the scripts you took on, right, what scripts would excite you the most?

Skye Hallam: 00:26:27
I think anything where it's female driven.  I think that excites me.  It doesn't excite me to play someone's girlfriend with, you know, with three lines and she's there just to serve the male part, you know, that doesn't particularly get me going.  Yeah, something female driven and something…you know, I've been looking at as you like it, I've been working on that recently and just, oh, like Rosalind, like those sorts of roles where you get to just be playful.  And it's not even about, you know, you're crying for the loss of a man or, you know, just to like, you know, she dresses up as a boy and she's just kind of like revelling in it and exciting.  And obviously, yes, she is in love and there is a focus on the man but it's more about her.  And I think that really, really excites me.  And not even, you know, to be the main character but I think some of the roles are played a character in Casualty who was homeless and a domestic abuse victim and that was really, you know, just something that I would never, you know, you don't often get the chance to sort of explore, you know, and often the roles that, you know, to flatter myself come my way are sort of nice girls, you know, nice, lovely ladies.  And that's, you know, and that's all well and good but actually the roles that you really want to get your teeth into are the ones that are slightly tortured, like have really got something to say and they're far away from me, you know, they're like explore…yeah, explorations of really different people.  Because that's why, that's what I want to do.  I want to play characters, you know, yeah, transform.

Neil Hancock: 00:28:04
And then you played Lee Radziwill in 2017, in The Crown, who was the sister of Jackie Kennedy.  How did you prepare for a role like that?

Skye Hallam: 00:28:14
Well, I mean, again, that was like a lot of things.  You wish you had months.  But actually that was like the quickest turnaround of anything I think I've ever done.  It was a week I think I had to also binge the first season of The Crown because I hadn't seen it, so I needed to understand what I was going to be walking into.  But, yeah, I did a lot of research into them and you can watch.  There's not so much of Lee out there in terms of...  There's probably more about Jackie in terms of like videos and, but there were videos where, you know, I could watch her particularly in her later life, Lee, I watched, you know, things as an older woman of how she talked and how she was and how she behaved and I read a lot of things and, yeah, I made a lovely little scrapbook and there's some gorgeous photos.  So I brought that along with me.  And I think I showed Stephen Daldry something, not to be like a good student but just to sort of say, “I have done a little bit of digging,” because it's, you know, it's useful for them because you've got to bring all of that authenticity, you've got to bring that understanding of the world.  They can't do that for you, you know, I enjoy that.

Neil Hancock: 00:29:17
Absolutely.  I think that's great that you actually created a scrapbook of different things.

Skye Hallam: 00:29:23
Oh, I Iove it.

Neil Hancock: 00:29:25
As you say, it's good to have those sorts of things, so you kind of understand not just from writing it down or researching it, but you understand the visuals of that world, you know, what's going on around you.

Skye Hallam: 00:29:39
No, definitely.  And because it so affects how you are.  And if you can build that world really clearly around you then, then actually the acting bit becomes easier and easier I find, you know, if I really can see where I am and how, you know, how everything's working around me then to do the acting, yeah, it just…you can just then let it flow because you've kind of put yourself in the right position to do it.  And it's just great fun, you know, some…you know, I think you there is a limit to it.  And I remember in my first year at RADA, my acting teacher, Alex Clifton said to me, you know, “Do the work that's relevant.”  And I think sometimes I don't.  I think sometimes I do just kind of venture into all different places that surround this world because I really enjoy it.  But I think you then have to...then you can get a bit overwhelmed, can't you, because you've got so much information and you're like, “How the hell do I allow this to sort of infuse what I'm doing?”  So I'm trying to get more streamlined, and then when you have time pressured, you can't do everything, you just have to do exactly the really detailed work that you need, and then you have to be quite concise about it which I struggle with.

Neil Hancock: 00:30:53
And does preparing for a role like that differ from how you prepare for the role in Casualty?

Skye Hallam: 00:30:59
Yes, because I guess—yeah, someone historically that you can…that you're playing, that you can get to know, that's very different to sort of…in a lot of scripts, you don't know much about the character at all, and you have to really make some bold choices, and then you turn up on set and you see whether they're going to work or not.  So for Casualty, yeah, I definitely was reading up on, you know, domestic abuse survivors and reading up on what it's like to be a homeless woman in today, you know, today's time and sort of doing a lot of that sort of research.  And then deciding the sort of person she was, you know, writing that backstory, understanding why she's in the position she's in now.  And a lot of that work doesn't really get spoken about on set, you do that work and then you do the bit of the scene in your first moment, and then you see what the director thinks, and do they like what you, you know, what you're kind of coming up with or do they want you to kind of adjust it?  And that's, you know, it's…you know, that prep is always on your own but it's always interesting to see when you get to the set, what they want from you.  But you have to be quite...  It's difficult, isn't it?  Because you have to be quite secure in what you're coming with and quite malleable for them to just go, “Do you know what, could she be a bit more like this?”  And then you're like, “Okay.”  And that doesn't have to totally throw you if you can help it, you know. 

Neil Hancock: 00:32:21
Yeah.  It’s a question of going in with your own choices but then knowing them so well, that you...it's adaptability at the end of the day, isn't it?

Skye Hallam: 00:32:32
Yes, exactly.  And not being too precious, if you've set something up.  I remember on the film I did which you mentioned early, Intrigo—Intrigo: Samaria, I'd had a really, really long time to prepare for it because the film get kept getting pushed back.  They were making a trilogy of films and Daniel Alfredson who's done The Girl That Kicked the Hornet's Nest and various different versions of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo films in Sweden.  Yeah, so he was doing three films, kind of in order of this trilogy of books, and... by Håkan Nesser and it was kind of mad.  When I turned up, I'd had probably three months to prepare for this.  And then I was sitting there and we'd had some lunch, I was working with the actress Phoebe Fox and he just said, “Right, so in this scene Skye, you're actually not going to say this anymore, you're going to say this,” or, “You're not actually going to do this anymore, you’re going to do this.”  And I was like, “Oh my gosh, I have so specifically prepared this massive scene.” It was like a sort of…I don't know how many pages it was, it was sort of six pages.  It was my longest scene in that.  And it was like in that moment I had to go, “Okay, you just have to accept what's happening and you might only have 30 minutes to prepare this.”  But you just have to go okay, because you don't have a choice at that point, you just got to go, “Okay,” I'm saying that now, “Okay, cool, yeah, lovely.”  All of that prep I’ve done, I’m just going to…don’t worry, it’s not going to, you know, it’s not going to harm you now, and I sat there eating my seabass or whatever we had for lunch, not being able to eat because I was trying to remember my new lines.  But, yeah, it's hard sometimes to be that flexible but you have to be because you just…yeah, you have to, yeah.

Neil Hancock: 00:34:17
But you've also as well as doing all you've done so far; you've also modelled for Dolce & Gabbana.  When did you start that and how did that come about?

Skye Hallam: 00:34:27
Yeah.  So I was, yeah, quite lucky when I...because I used to do a bit of modelling and I was with quite a big agency, and they asked me to lose weight again when I was 15, everything happened when I was 15.  I feel like nothing else came before or after, everything was in the year I was 15.  I didn’t even know how I went to school.  I seem to just be doing all these other things.  But, yeah, so I was with an agency.  They asked me to lose weight and I was already a size eight and I was very slim, and I said no and I left, and I never thought I'd really touch on modelling again.  And then obviously in the acting world, there is a bit of a crossover, lots of actors are asked to be models for different projects and different campaigns, and that's a really big thing, you know, if you open the cover, you know, open the cover of Vogue and then you're just going to get advert after advert with actors now, more so than the model sometimes.  So I knew that it could crop up again and I was just very lucky when the Ian Loughran, my cousin, on my dad's side, happened to be running the London office of IMG Models which is a very big agency who happened to be within like a two-minute walk of RADA.  So he kind of when I was graduating was very helpful and kind of took me under their wing as a sort of…as an actor really, as an actor on their talent book.  And they have, you know, various sort of sports people and, you know, and singers and all sorts of people.  And then, yeah, and then I got booked to do some work with Dolce & Gabbana which was just completely mad really.  It was amazing.  I just turned up and there was Pixie Lott and various different, you know, people from all different walks of life and they were all…yeah, we were all just doing this exciting sort of millennials, DG Millennials campaign and we did a catwalk in Harrods in the food court, it was crazy.  They kind of made this catwalk and it was very shiny, lovely floor and we were all panicking in our heels.  And then, yeah, we did some photoshoots for them, they took us for Christmas dinner in the Bond Street store, it was a really strange few months but it was really exciting.  And my mum's half Italian and I just wished my Italian was a bit better because I would love to have had more chats with Dolce & Gabbana which are, yeah, they were brief but they were lovely.  They were very funny, funny guys and very generous.  But that was a, yeah, that was a mad one, meeting lots of different actors and musicians and up and coming artists.  It was exciting to be part of that world for a little bit, and maybe I will again at some point.

Neil Hancock: 00:36:48
And do you find that both your modelling and acting work complement one another or do you like keeping them separate?

Skye Hallam: 00:36:55
I think…yeah, I think the only way I would be involved in the modelling world would be through the acting and that's why, yes, they definitely do complement one another because, you know, if you're doing a big project and you can get some publicity and be part of a world that can kind of, yeah, you know, lead people to your acting work and that's fantastic, and it can earn you fantastic money, and it can be a really exciting thing.  But I think I would never want to do modelling for modelling sake just because I…you know, I didn't particularly enjoy that side of my life when I was a teenager.  It’s a very difficult industry.  And I'm simply, Neil, I'm simply not thin enough.  I’m a healthy size 10.  And, you know, although the industry is changing, even at Dolce & Gabbana, I turned up and they were like, “Oh, you have breasts and an arse.”  Yeah, it’s like, “Yes, I do.”  I eat my cake when I get given it so, you know.  So, yeah, so I wouldn’t actually be able to do a lot of the mainstream, you know…yeah, the industry is changing so I shouldn't say they are just looking for stick thin people, they're not, but, yeah.  On its own, it wouldn't be my bag but, yeah.  If it's part of the acting work and its photoshoots around that and campaigns around that then hell yeah, I think it can be a lot of fun, and it can be really exciting to be part of another creative industry.  Yeah, yeah. 

Neil Hancock: 00:38:23
And how are the demands of modelling different from that of acting?

Skye Hallam: 00:38:29
Well, in a lot of ways they’re the same and that's why you get a lot of crossover, so there's a lot of models that go into acting, and there's a lot of actors that go into modelling, you know, there is a crossover because you are essentially performing, you know, that is what you're doing.  You are taking on the sort of energy and emotional energy and kind of character of whatever this photoshoot is asking for you.  Obviously, sometimes you're not…sometimes you're just being a really nice version of yourself.  And you're just, you know, posing in a way that's really just appealing and, you know, not as challenging, and then other times, you know, they really are asking a lot of you.  And that's, you know, I have a lot of respect for models that, you know, that…yeah, you have to work very hard, but I think it's quite nice the areas of the acting industry where you don't have to care quite so much about what you look like because as somebody that has modelled, you know, there is a sort of horrible pressure and expectation of what people think that you look like and at RADA and in my professional life that's been there, you know, people kind of expecting me to look a certain way, or they like me because I look a certain way.  And actually, I've found myself trying to get away from that as much as I could because I want people to kind of, yeah, if the way I look is the reason that you're kind of watching me, great, but then if you could listen to what I have to say or you could watch what I do then that's what I'm interested in.  And I think it's sad sometimes the areas of the acting industry that are so based on how you look because I just think that's not what a lot of us are in it for and that's not what a lot of us should be in it for.  And I think representing a wide range of looking people is always going to be the better way.  And I think actually that's why particularly the theatre industry for me appeals to me so much having done more of the film and TV world because I'm interested in real people and I think that real people are often much…it's much easier to represent an average…  There's no such thing as an average but, you know, a normal person rather than a sort of superhuman, beautiful supermodel person that happens to be an actor.  And I think the film and TV world, there's obviously a lot of projects where that is shown but I think in the theatre world, it feels easier to be that.  And I don't get as nervous walking into a theatre audition about what I'm wearing or what I look like, than I do when I go and meet a casting director for TV or film, and whether that's my own pressure or that's the industry pressure, it's probably a bit of both.  It's quite freeing to work in the theatre and the voice world because you're not being seen in that way, and that's so awesome, that's so nice.  So, yeah, that's where I kind of want to go I guess now, or next.

Neil Hancock: 00:40:56
Now, as I mentioned earlier, you've done numerous things in theatre, film, TV, modelling, but now you're going on to another challenge, a one woman show called Heads or Tails.  Now, I write as well and I have to ask, what prompted you to begin writing your one woman show?

Skye Hallam: 00:41:21
When I was finishing Intrigo: Samaria, I was flying back from Belgrade and I just was sitting on that plane and I thought, “Oh, I don't have a job now.”  So, I've waited a long time to do this job and then I don't have a job, so I need to...I just thought…it just kind of instinctively happened.  I got out my laptop and on that plan home, I started writing down some ideas of what this one woman show would be.  And then almost three years later, last year lockdown, I just got it out again and I just started…I just started working on it again and I'm not really sure what inspired that.  I think Paul Sirett who's a really lovely friend of mine and playwright, who was running the advances in script writing class at RADA.  His group were really supportive of me, you know, and supportive of all of us sort of writing our own work.  And then an opportunity came up with the living record festival in Rostruri to…yeah, to do a version of it for the digital theatre realm, which I hadn't thought about before, I was writing this to hopefully take it to Edinburgh one day and perform it, and I didn't realise that actually a version would happen so kind of quickly, after reigniting this idea, that would take me, yeah, to having a five-week run online of this show and now it's going to go on at the end of May until the end of June to the Brighton Fringe online as well.  And it's kind of amazing what's been able to happen during such a weird time.  And, yes, yeah, so the accident I referred to earlier just before coming back into my third year at RADA was a horse-riding accident, that kind of…that totally changed my life, it changed my perspective, and it changed how I felt about myself and life and death.  And the play is about an actress taken too soon who's kind of really, really wants to perform one woman show and she didn't get the chance, and God kind of lets her come down and do it and talk about the bits of life, like I was saying that I suppose Meisner, you know, this sort of really raw parts of being an actor you're forced to show which is the vulnerability of being a human and realising that we are going to die, and that that's okay, and that we can actually talk about it, especially this year when everyone's experienced such a lot of loss, we can talk about it in a way that is, you know, in the…the best way English people do it which is to laugh, right?  To have moments of heaviness but also know that the lightness is around the corner, and that actually they can happen at the same time, and that's what I've tried to do with the show is to talk about how I felt having kind of gone, you know, to the point where I thought I might die.  And in my head what did that mean and how did that change my relationship with myself and my family and my body and all sorts of things.  So there is some sort of verbatim parts of the show at the end but, yeah, what does it mean to be here?  And what does it mean if you're not and what happens?  And actually—and the initial thought that kind of inspired the show was, you know, if when you get there, there are like, you know, Barry Chuckle and it is just sort of all the people that you've grown up loving all just sitting on clouds waiting for you, that it will be glorious and we should all go.  But no, we shouldn't, we should wait until the right time but, you know.  And it's kind of that joke of, you know, what does happen afterwards?  And if yeah, Cilla Black is just sitting on a little chair, waiting to have a chat with me, then I'm chuffed and if the non-famous people that I also love are going to join me then I'm chuffed, you know, so it's kind of, yeah.  It’s as Paul Sirett said, it's an existential pop culture comedy, that's what it is.

Neil Hancock: 00:44:47
I must say, I love it because one of the things I love about it, Skye, is that as you say, you're dealing with quite serious issues of death.  But you do it in such a comic way, and you do that I believe because it makes it so much more accessible to talk about it when it's funny as opposed to when you're being serious, you know.  And I think that's one of the great things about comedy and humour is that you can explore serious issues in a light-hearted way that allows people to access it in ways that they wouldn't even contemplate had you done it in another way.  How long did it take you to write the show?

Skye Hallam: 00:45:31
Well, the initial idea, I'd only written a few pages of it and it’s written as a monologue.  And then I think last summer, I really cracked down and it probably took me a few months to get a first draft.  I mean, it was a good part of last year really, but I was kind of dipping in and out of it.  So I wrote the first draft and I read it aloud to my writer’s group, and they thought I was going to be reading something out that probably was going to take sort of like a few minutes and actually ended up being, I don't know, somewhere between 25 minutes and 45 minutes, so it’s like, well, I’ve written like a full thing here.  I was like I didn’t even realise, I got about halfway through.  I was knackered and I was like “Oh theres still a bit…how long left?” I was like there’s still a good chunk to go.  And then I had a sort of, yeah, slightly manic August last year.  I was staying on a houseboat in Bued which was my, you know, a little staycation.  And, yeah, I was trying desperately to make this thing…a version that was sort of around 40 minutes that I could learn, that I split it into these chapters of eight minutes each so that I could, yeah, just like…just learn it.  And then I was very lucky to have the Jermyn Street Theatre support me in giving me their space for a day, I worked with Luke Dale of 505 Films, and we just put this version of it together with no rehearsal, just me and my kitchen, and then we just filmed it in these eight-minute takes, and hoped that it would work.  It was a big experiment—a big experiment. 

Neil Hancock: 00:47:03
And what were the challenges of writing the show?

Skye Hallam: 00:47:07
Oh, it’s a weird one writing for yourself because, you know, you have the indulgent bit of you that wants to say certain things but that's not good for the show.  So you have to be quite... I was very reliant on Madeleine Burden and various people I have around me that are helping me with my writing and being that outside eye.  And I think, yeah, I needed that because it, yeah, it's very hard.  I kind of can waffle on as I probably have today, you know, I can talk, I can...there are things flowing out of me, so it's kind of…  And I mean, I like that style, I like the sort of Russell Brand, like I've seen him live where he can just talk and you're just engaged, you know, and it's just so eccentric but, yeah, just articulate, and I kind of wanted...I wanted to do something like that but, yeah, that was quite hard to make it structured, to make it into something that was narratively interesting and that people wouldn't zone out of and that people would get something from.  So I found that sort of editing process very difficult because it didn't work with many people, you know, so it was hard, and I'm hoping that this next version of it that will hopefully happen live in the near future will…I will have a team and then I will just be able to do the writing, and then the acting hopefully as well, but separately and with help and support.  Yeah.

Neil Hancock: 00:48:33
But you wrote it initially to perform it onstage as you've said at Edinburgh, but because of the pandemic, it wasn't possible to do it live, so instead you filmed it.  What parts of the show had to be changed?

Skye Hallam: 00:48:49
Well, I suppose the whole kind of concept of it had to change because I couldn't possibly without rehearsal, perform a 38-minute piece in one go, like that just wouldn’t…I couldn’t do it.  So we split it up, so that was the main thing.  The structure of it having chapters and I titled those chapters, and I felt that I was sort of doing a mini play within each chapter, that’s kind of how it felt.  So, yeah, that kind of, yeah, massively affected the feel of the piece.  And then thinking about, “Well, if there’s no one in the theatre watching me apart from Jane Majaria our lovely lighting designer and our assistant Philipa Quinn.”  I was like, yeah, how do I do this?  So I used the kind of Fleabag-esque Miranda kind of aside of I’m looking at you camera one for most of it and I’m looking down the barrel and I’m trying to connect with you on the other side and then I’m looking at camera two for the kind of cheeky folk, the cheeky folk that are giggling away and giving them a little wink, you know, so.  So that’s how we had to kind of think about it rather than if I had an audience of people, well, then I’ll just pick on them the whole them in the way that a stand-up does and that’s what I wanted from the show to have that kind of engagement.  But then when you don’t have them there, how do you kind of take the mick out of them and have fun with them when they’re sitting at home?  It was a challenge to think about how to play that.  Yeah, it was a challenge.  

Neil Hancock: 00:50:21
I love the cheeky asides, that’s one of the funny things about it, I like that very much.

Skye Hallam: 00:50:28
Yeah.  No, thank you.  No, me too, it was fun to do.

Neil Hancock: 00:50:33
And I wanted to ask, what is the one thing you've discovered about yourself doing Heads or Tails?

Skye Hallam: 00:50:42
I think one of the funniest and the most interesting things that anyone said to me at drama school was a teacher called Robert Pryce who was our voice tutor.  He said to me once, “You’re very good at acting on your own.”  So I thought that was quite funny because it was very nice that I was good at acting at all at that point when you’re sort of at drama school losing your mind a little bit and you’ve forgotten how you do anything.  So it’s good to have that.  But then also I’ve always kind of thought, “Well, I don’t want to be good at acting on my own, I want to be good at acting with people.”  But then I, you know…yeah, I’ve always wanted to do a one woman show and I think what I found quite interesting was that we have so little control as actors and so many people say that.  But it really is true, you know.  We do essentially have to wait to be chosen to do a job.  And, yes, if you do a good job in something, that can often lead to other things but you are sort waiting at home to be used, and that’s a difficult thing.  And I think what I’ve been amazed with, with the amount of control I had over this process because I arranged the whole thing, I wrote the whole thing, I chose who I was working with, I put my own money into it, and then to stand there in the Jermyn Street Theatre, a theatre I haven’t played before, and be completely in control really of what I was doing that day, it kind of…and I didn’t feel as nervous as I have in other things, and I think it was just that sort of…just that settled feeling of I’m putting something out there that I want to say and I’m feeling…and that’s quite an empowering thing.  So I think that’s what I’ve learned really is that if you do create your own work, even if I do work outside of my work that there is, you know, that I am just turning up and doing, I think just holding onto that feeling of empowerment is very useful, and I want to hold onto that.  Yeah.  Yeah. 

Neil Hancock: 00:52:42
Now, this question I'm about to ask, I ask every person that comes on the show, what has been your greatest challenge in your life and or in your career to date?

Skye Hallam: 00:52:53
My greatest challenge?  I think it was the accident that I've mentioned, I think that was...  It was so difficult to come out of, and I think I'm still experiencing repercussions of it mentally, at least.  Yeah, because it was just a really, really difficult time I had, you know, a collapsed lung and I've never spent so much time in hospital and I've never taken so many painkillers and had all these different things going on, and it's a bit of a shock, and I think it's... It is that the physical part of you repairs, but I think the emotional part of you in the sort of post-traumatic stress of it and that kind of side of it changes your life forever.  And I think it makes you so aware of yourself and your, yeah, your body and your relationship with yourself, I think that's a really…yeah, a really difficult thing to get your head around so that’s…I've really struggled with that, and I…yeah, and I think anyone that's had anything that's come out of the blue like that, it pops your bubble of reality, you know, it makes you, yeah, really aware of yourself in a whole (overlapping conversation). 

Neil Hancock: 00:54:01
But do you think it's made you a better actor as a result?  Because you're able to go to much deeper…?

Skye Hallam: 00:54:06
Yeah.  I think it’s made me really brave in a weird way because it's made me feel that this anxious part of me that deals with certain things is, yeah, is real, and I can bear that.  I can bear that to people, you know, so that's good, that's positive, yeah.

Neil Hancock: 00:54:26
And you mentioned about, you know, pilot projects you're working on.  Can you talk a little bit about that and how these differ from the work on Heads or Tails?

Skye Hallam: 00:54:38
Yeah.  So I’m working on one called Daddy’s Girl which is about my dad and it’s about…  So it’s, you know, it’s a personal thing again because I think you should write what you know and we’ve all got some good stories and some things we’ve been through that are useful to portray.  So in a way, yeah, it’s still very personal but it’s about…yeah, it’s a totally different thing, it’s a comedy sit-com.  So to write for screen, it’s so different.  And I quite enjoy writing for other people, I think it’s really positive, so.  So, yeah.  So it’s a totally different thing.  And I’m also developing one called Cutcher Butcher which is all about the Anglo-Indian side of my family and kind of the struggles of living in the Himalayas and then living in East end of London and what that journey is like.  I think there’s been a lot of stories about the wind rush of that time from the sort of Jamaican perspective and from people coming over, and I don’t think there’s been as many stories about people from India and the South Asian story of that time and that’s what I want to try and tell people about because I don’t think people realise how many Indian immigrants were here at that same time and like my family, they were struggling and thriving and bringing interesting culture here, so I think it’s…yeah.  It’s fascinating to write.  But like I say, writing for screen is so different to writing for stage, and I understand why there’s a separation in the writing world with some people that write, you know, some people write both but some people write for screen or for stage.  And I think like with my acting, I want to try and do it all, I want to write for all mediums if possible because I think that’s where you’re going to really get to know the different styles and maybe one of them will stick and maybe it will be stage maybe or screen.  Maybe I’ll be writing audio plays, all audio plays. Who knows?  Let us just try it.   

Neil Hancock: 00:56:31
And do you find writing for TV easier than writing for stage or do they both present their own sets of challenges?

Skye Hallam: 00:56:41
I think writing for TV is such a visual thing, and I think that's...I think technically it's quite difficult.  I've found it quite hard and I've had to have a lot of advice and guidance.  And I think it's helpful that as actors, we read a lot of scripts, so we know how scripts work, but trying to articulate your ideas into a screenplay can be quite difficult.  And obviously actors are very relationship and character driven so that's quite hard.  But then, you know, writing for stage as well as is as, yeah, is a very visual thing as well, so there's some similar challenges but I think the technical sort of structure of how much action you need in those first five minutes and how much sort of…to write a pilot, what you need to get people gripped and, you know, there's an art to this and I am just at the beginning of it.  So I think it's, yeah, it's probably more natural for a lot of actors to write for stage because I think we just have this understanding of plays in a way that screenplays is a slightly separate thing.  But I think creating your own work of any kind right now for actors is really positive and empowering and it seems to be going very well.  So I think the more of us that can try it, then we should just go for it.

Neil Hancock: 00:57:55
Skye Hallam, thank you for coming on the show.  It's been a pleasure to have you.

Skye Hallam: 00:58:00
Oh, you’re so welcome.  Thank you Neil for having me.  It’s been a pleasure.

Neil Hancock: 00:58:05
Thank you so much.  As this episode was recorded in 2021, Skye’s performance of her one woman show at the Brighton Fringe has since finished.  She now has Arts Council funding to develop it further and is planning a showcase for industry professionals at a future date.  If you enjoyed listening to this podcast, please follow me on Twitter @NeilOnWheelsPod or Instagram: The Neil On Wheels Podcast.  Until next time.

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Duration 58 minutes and 53 seconds