As Carrie Hope Fletcher says, usually you are either the ingenue or the romantic lead, either the action hero or the comedy in the piece. But with Calamity Jane, she has got to be all of those things and more, especially as she is now combining them all with an even bigger off-stage role as a new mum.
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00:00Good afternoon, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Answer Dissert at Sussex Newspaper. It's a huge
00:06pleasure to speak again to Carrie Hope Fletcher. You are on the road with Calamity Jane and what a
00:10fabulous poem you're playing, Calamity, and you're saying there's just so much to her.
00:16She sounds exhausting, exhausting to play, exhausting to be with.
00:20She absolutely is exhausting, but she's just so much fun. There's no way that you can watch the
00:26show and not come out with a huge smile at the end of it, because it's just such high energy,
00:30good fun, you know, with all of the classic songs that everyone loves, Black Hills of Dakota,
00:36Secret Love, Windy City, Deadwood Stage, they're all such amazing songs.
00:40And you were saying that she's so many different things, isn't she? She's the action hero,
00:44the romantic lead, she's the comedy. How do you get your way into all of that?
00:50It is sort of tough because, you know, she is so many wonderful things and she's got a kind
00:55of chop and change between, you know, singing something that's very characterful, like men,
01:01then going into, you know, Secret Love, which is this gorgeous romantic ballad.
01:06But the thing about Calamity is that she's very, very sure of who she is and she sort of arrives
01:11all guns blazing, not thinking too much about what she's doing until she does it and it all
01:16goes wrong and then has to think about it afterwards. And that's kind of how you have
01:19to approach it. You just need to arrive on stage, this huge, larger than life character,
01:25not thinking too much about what you're doing and just sort of go for it.
01:28It's been a great, absolute blast of energy, which is even more impressive as you are a new mum.
01:32When we last spoke 16 months ago, you were heavily pregnant in Crawley Ponto,
01:37maybe before March the 1st, 2024. How on earth you can make a role as large as this,
01:44with a role even larger as a mum?
01:47Yes, it's a lot. And I'm very, very grateful that I have my husband, who is just an amazing,
01:54amazing person. He's such a hands on dad. So we are kind of taking it in turns to have her
02:01week by week and sort of seeing how we go, which is really tough. And we, you know,
02:05we miss Mabel and we miss each other so much. But, you know, that's, it's kind of where the
02:11it's kind of where the beauty of things like social media and, you know, FaceTime and Skype
02:17and Zoom and all that kind of stuff kind of comes into play.
02:22Exactly, exactly. So it gives us the freedom to still be connected, even when we're not actually
02:26with each other. And, you know, it's heartbreaking. And I always cry every time I get in the car and
02:30leave to go to a different city. And, you know, equally, he, he's sort of left in tears when I
02:36take Mabel with me. But we're figuring it out as we go. And, you know, we keep reminding ourselves
02:40that we're not the first people to do this. We aren't the only working parents in the industry. So
02:45we're very much sort of calling on the wisdom and expertise of our other friends who are parents,
02:49who are also in the industry going through the same stuff.
02:51Well, it sounds like you are more than coping. But later, congratulations on the birth of Mabel
02:56and congratulations on coming to Brighton and Southampton in our area. And really,
03:02really looking forward to seeing it. Great to speak to you again. Thank you.
03:05You too. Thank you so much.