Kelly Harrison is Leanne Roxton
Kelly Harrison admits she was instantly compelled by the out-there and audacious character of Leanne Roxton, and couldn’t wait to step into her shoes.
Published: 23 July 2018
Leanne is oblivious to anything outside of her own bubble, which she has created to make herself look bigger and better and more loved than anybody else, because she hasn’t had much real love from anybody in her life
Kelly Harrison admits she was instantly compelled by the out-there and audacious character of Leanne Roxton, and couldn’t wait to step into her shoes.
"From the moment I read Leanne I loved her and wanted to be her. She is fun, and sassy, she is bitchy, naughty and she couldn’t care less what anyone thinks about her. She opens her mouth before she thinks and she is extremely glamorous. However, while Leanne may be all bravado there is a huge amount of vulnerability to her, and as much as she says she doesn’t give a monkeys what people think, there is one person who’s opinion she secretly cares about a great deal. That’s Bel (Polly Walker), her older sister and it is the fact that Bel barely thinks about her which makes Leanne incredibly jealous and bitter."
Kelly explains what is in store through this series for her larger-than-life character, Leanne.
"At the beginning of the series Leanne invites her older sister, Bel, to return to the family-run beauty salon, which Bel used to run 20 odd years ago. However, as the series progresses her jealousy of Bel grows rapidly, because she feels like Bel walks into the salon and takes over her world. So Leanne attempts to create her own self as a brand, a beauty guru, but underneath all of that she doesn’t realise the web of deceit which is being weaved by someone very close to her. Leanne is oblivious to anything outside of her own bubble, which she has created to make herself look bigger and better and more loved than anybody else, because she hasn’t had much real love from anybody in her life. Leanne’s story is one of glitz and glamour but also one of pain and turmoil."
It wasn’t only the character which drew Kelly to this role, but the additional musical element to the show which allowed her to display her hidden talents.
"I loved the singing and the dancing and that definitely drew me to the project. When I was little I wanted to go to musical theatre school but it never happened because my parents couldn’t afford to send me, and there were no grants being offered at that time. I’d never had an opportunity to use my training, so that has been liberating. I am a bit older now so my voice isn’t as tuned as it once was and I am not as flexible, but it has been an incredible opportunity to have fun with it and really turn Leanne into the fantasy that she believes she is in her own head."
Whilst her character is obsessed by all things beauty, Kelly’s relationship with make-up is slightly different:
"Back in the day, when I was younger, I did like to spend time doing my hair and make-up, but now I don’t particularly have the time and it is not something which is very high on my priority list. I like to make an effort for my husband but at the same time what I like to do more is to take care of myself, so I drink lots of water and eat the right things. I am the only one who takes my make-up off in the make-up truck at the end of every day, because it is just a bit too much with the false eyelashes and hair weave which I have put on every day. You do get used to it. As soon as the hair and costume go on I am 100 percent Leanne and no longer Kelly, the transformation, which happens through costume and make-up, is amazing."
Kelly tells us that her own personal style is worlds apart from that of Leanne’s:
"I am a jeans girl. Our entire family live in wellies, I am a country bumpkin. We live in the countryside and you can’t step out of our house without stepping in a puddle or muddy field so a good pair of strong wellies is a must in our house.
"It’s very rare I wear heels. I had to walk around during rehearsals for a week just to get used to wearing heels. I had the costume designer give me the highest pair of heels in Leanne’s wardrobe and I wore them the entire time. I was in agony. I had to dance in those - that was difficult."
Walking in heels wasn’t the only thing Kelly had to learn for the role: she also had expand her dictionary and practice speaking at warp speed.
"There are some things about Leanne which are tongue in cheek; she is very witty and quick. She talks extremely fast and her words are straight out of the urban dictionary. I spent a lot of time on there, as I didn’t know what half of these terms meant: hundy p, totes, amazeballs... the list goes on. Having to talk so fast has definitely meant flexing a muscle which hasn’t been used for a while. The lines Leanne has had in this series are like a steam train - when they come they don’t stop. I have never learned so much dialogue for a character in all my life. The writing from Debbie Horsfield has been awesome; I love Leanne one hundy p!"
A Foreword by Debbie Horsfield
"In 2001 I worked with Laura Mackie and Sally Haynes on a series called Cutting It, which was set in the world of hairdressing. Fifteen years on, Laura, Sally and I were discussing what had changed in the world of makeovers and personal grooming, and we agreed that women - and increasingly, men - had become much more obsessed with looking youthful. The anti-ageing side of the beauty industry had exploded in those intervening years so we thought it would be interesting to explore the impact on three generations of one family by using it as the backdrop to our saga.
Age Before Beauty explores the expectations we have, and the 'rules' we create about what people are 'allowed' to do at any given age. It was inspired by a feature I read about what women were and weren’t 'allowed' to wear, according to their age and shape! [No bikinis after 35. No long hair over 40. No mini-skirts after 25. No leather trousers ever unless you’re 6ft tall and a size 8!] It made me wonder what other rules are there out there, which people feel they have to abide by? Especially in a world of selfies and social media where so many people are keen to pass judgement and so many people feel they have much to live up to.
So Age Before Beauty became less about specific anti-ageing beauty treatments and much more about characters deciding to confound age-related expectations - for better or worse - at whatever age they fancied! I say for better or worse because one of the things we explore is the midlife crisis. We ask the question: Is it automatically better to be young? Does age always envy youth? Is beauty always the thing to aim for? Or does youth and beauty ever have anything to learn from age and maturity?
We’re looking at three generations of one family and exploring how they deal with the demands of youth, age and everything in between. And how they confound expectations. So for instance, the worst-behaved generation is actually the oldest and the most sexualised and overdressed is actually a nine year-old!
Family has always played a large role in my work and I enjoy exploring the dynamics between siblings and different generations. In Age Before Beauty we have three generations, aged from nine to late 60s, and we’ve been fortunate enough to assemble an extraordinary cast. The drama is set in my home town of Manchester. Obviously I’m biased but I feel there are particular qualities about the city (its vibrant multiculturalism and ever-changing faces) and its inhabitants (their resilience, irreverence, inventiveness, humour) - which make for particularly entertaining drama.
It’s been fun to return to the world of contemporary Manchester after being immersed in 18th century Cornwall for the past few years, but in truth I’ve loved both worlds and would happily return to either and both!"
