Actress Emma Campbell-Jones tells Jane Wright what she fears most about the possibility of making it big

IS THERE no justice in the world? Not only is new actress Emma Campbell-Jones equipped with tumbling treacle-coloured curls, eyelashes to sweep the floor with and even a perfectly positioned Cindy Crawford mole, but she also packs that winning combination of talent, charm and determination which is sure to make her a star.
The 25-year-old from Harrington Square, Mornington Crescent, is already bagging auditions for the Hollywood director of The Shipping News and Cider House Rules, Lasse Hallstrom, as well as the long-running BBC TV hit Monarch of the Glen.
Now, less than a year after leaving her job as barwoman and usher at Hampstead Theatre in Eton Avenue, Swiss Cottage, to concentrate on her acting, Emma is back, but on stage this time, to star in the Sharman Macdonald drama The Girl with Red Hair, which opened last night (Wednesday).
She tells me: “I was always extremely jealous of the actors at Hampstead and wanted to come back in the minimum time possible.”
Referring to the two most recent, sell-out productions at the Swiss Cottage playhouse, Losing Louis and Primo, she continues: “It’s amazing to be following in the footsteps of Alison Steadman and Anthony Sher. But it’s also a huge responsibility – now people are paying good money to come and see me act. If they go away lukewarm, I take it really personally. But I feel quite calm about it at the moment. That is, until I see the faces of my drama teachers in the audience.”
And her teachers are sure to be there, as Emma graduated only last year from the Central School of Speech and Drama, just a few steps along Eton Avenue from Hampstead Theatre.
Emma recalls she was initially “gutted” not to get into the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in Bloomsbury. However, she adds: “Central was edgier. And watching out of the window of my various acting classes the new Hampstead Theatre spring up from the rubble was intriguing.”
But she started her three-year stint of work in the old theatre around the corner in Avenue Road and reminisces: “I miss its homely, user-friendly feel.” It was there too that, as well as seeing all the plays, she was able to rub shoulders with acting luminaries, although she didn’t always make the most of the opportunity. She remembers: “One time, I stood on the end of my trousers and managed to rip them right in front of Ewan McGregor. He had a good laugh.”
She adds: “I can’t remember ever not wanting to be an actress.”
She was initially inspired by her great aunt, actress Diana Churchill, who worked with Sir Alec Guinness and Rex Harrison. At six, Emma was already attending the famous Anna Scher Children’s Theatre in Islington. Just two years later, on a holiday in Hollywood, Emma went up to John Huston, who was sitting with Jack Nicholson in a restaurant, and asked for his autograph. She recalls the director protested: “But you don’t know who I am.” So eight-year-old Emma fired back: “Oh yes I do. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre and the African Queen are my favourite films.”
Yet not all her early experiences of acting have all been plain sailing. Her first professional role after drama school was the romantic lead of Elizabeth Bennett in a national tour of Pride and Prejudice. She starred with former TV presenter John Leslie in the role of the scoundrel Wickham, after he was sacked from daytime TV in the wake of an alleged sexual scandal of which he was subsequently cleared in court.
Emma says: “It was a baptism by fire. There was so much publicity because John was in it and the press wanted him to fail. I had obvious reservations, because we all know him via the tabloids and he had no acting training. But he was very eager to learn and he will get better. People shouted at him in the street and men wanted to pick fights and I felt very sorry for him. He was acquitted a long time ago but he can’t move on.
“Anyway, we had no time to rehearse and the reviews were awful. After being nurtured at drama school, it’s difficult to adjust to reviews.”
But she’s much more confident about The Girl with Red Hair, set in a Scottish fishing village. Emma says: “It’s about characters moving on and learning to love again after Roslyn, the teenager with red hair, is killed in a car accident. And Sharman (the playwright) has captured the small community mentality really well.”
Emma features as the new girlfriend of Roslyn’s former love, played by a star of the first two Harry Potter films, Sean Biggerstaff. When the play opened in Edinburgh last month she said: “We have a really long snog and I could see Sean’s hordes of teenage fans, all in the front row, wincing. I was really worried I was going to get beaten up.”
Neither is she cock-a-hoop about other possible pitfalls of acting, confessing that, if she becomes famous: “People rooting through my bins would be unappealing. And having my parents or, worse still, my grandparents, watching me in a nude scene would definitely feel funny.”
So does self-confessed optimist Emma think she’s made it already? She replies cautiously: “I wouldn’t say I’ve made it just yet. But it’s a start.”