Since exiting my mother’s womb, I knew I wanted to entertain. I didn’t know in what capacity, but knew very early on that I wanted to and was able to, emote things from people. I can remember at 13 years old, being with my sister (who is 10 years my junior) in her bedroom.
I put on a performance: A Tomy pre-school torch (red filter) was shining on me and Glenn Miller and his orchestra was about to start playing on my cassette player. I pirouetted and thrashed about dancing to and fro, giving birth, waving my husband off to war, cooking meals, until I could take no more and had to end my days with a kitchen knife.
By my own admittance, my performance was Oscar worthy and to prove that, my baby sister was traumatised and crying her eyes out! She really believed the story I was telling! My mother got angry and asked what had happened and I simply explained that my sister got so involved in my performance that she believed it and got upset. A few weeks later, I was taken out of Stage School and was taken to my first Drama group. My acting journey had begun! Two years later I landed my first professional Theatre job in the world premiere of “The Darling Buds of May” alongside Gemma Craven and Christopher Timothy.
SHOWREEL 2017 #acting #actress #actorslife #CASTING #uk pic.twitter.com/fOKjelNSBR
— Fanni Compton (@fanni_compton) February 21, 2017
How did you become an actor?
At school I was always being picked for the leading roles in either Dance or Drama but I got to kind of expecting this after a while! None of my classmates had my passion for the stage and so there wasn’t much competition. Teachers would tell my Mother “She should really do something with her talent” and I think even my Mother got used to hearing these compliments. My step Father however, thought my “talent” to be foolish and would constantly brandish me as a “Dreamer” who needs to “live in the real world”. I didn’t know what this “real world” was, but if it was devoid of jazz hands, accents, costumes and a constant search for “truth”, then I wanted no part of it. The more I was told I was a “dreamer”, the more I wanted the dream.
In 2010 I won a scholarship to study Acting at Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts in London. Quite simply…. THE best time of my life. I’ve been working as a professional Actress since graduating.
What acting technique do you use?
I’m totally a Method Actor. Of course it’s dependant on the role and how deep one has to go with the character, but, I believe, its nigh on impossible to portray (truthfully) any person, characteristics or emotion without “going there” either mentally or physically. One has to tap into experience or memory as an Actor and if you don’t have the correct one in your arsenal, then you must live it, breathe it, feel it as if it’s your own truth.
What wrong impressions do actors hold about acting?
Acting is not going to give you an overnight success. Well, it might., but the chances are slim, you have to want to perform as bad as you want to breathe. Actors work so incredibly hard, day after day, after day. We face constant rejection and often criticism. We can travel miles to auditions only to never hear back from a casting. It’s terribly expensive, after headshots, showreels, website, voice reels, memberships (Spotlight, equity, IMDB), acting classes etc. You can often be left out of pocket, especially if you haven’t booked a job in a while. Acting is one big game of risk. No guarantee of an income, a job or even a career.
If, hand on heart, you can say, there is nothing else I can, or want to do with my life, regardless of setbacks, rejection or heartbreak, then GO FOR IT, then it will be worth it. I think one needs to be a beautiful blend of vulnerable and impenetrable in this industry!
Do you take courses to improve your craft?
I haven’t for a while actually, but this year I’m most certainly starting. I’ve got a few places in mind. I’m the self professed “Queen of Improvisation” and as well as running a group on Twitter called #improvdareandshare, whereby actors and non-actors can show their “Improvisation wares” every Thursday, I’m an avid poster of improvised sketches that I put together, and this really helps hone my craft in camera technique and in thinking on my feet, truthfulness and character creation.
I think it’s so so so important to stay creative and to create in whatever format that it takes. If you let your creativity dry up, then you will dry up as an actor. It is actually possible to learn more about your craft at the same time as having fun and creating your own material.
What acting books do you read?
The last Acting book I read would have been ‘Presence’ by Patsy Rodenburg. Not necessarily just acting related, it teaches us how to be more present in all aspects of our life and on stage. I think Stanislavski is always a good firm go-to for any aspiring thespian or veteran of the industry
How do you keep fit as an actor?
Well, as an ex Ballet dancer and an avid weight lifter, I’ve always been very physically fit, flexible and agile. However, nothing stays the same forever and in the last couple of years, I’ve noticed my body stiffening and my fitness levels dropping and I feel so uncomfortable within my own skin when I feel like that. I express so much with my body so if it’s not able to move in a way that’s coherent with my active mind…. we have a problem and my physicality will reek of untruthfulness when in character. It’s so so important for an actor to be physically and mentally fit. Your body is part of the product you are selling.
I’m currently four weeks into a 12 week body transformation challenge and to say it’s gruelling would be a huge understatement. I want to radically change the way I look and alter my fat to muscle ratio. Although it’s actually horrendous and on most days makes me wish I would get run over so as to have no use of my legs thus no possibility of exercising ever again, I truly believe, if we can push through a physical challenge, we change/shift something within us mentally. I want to challenge myself on every level and have massive success in all areas of life and your body and your fitness regime is an awesome place to start!
Fanni Compton aged 12 at the Derngate Theatre (Shadow of an Angel)
How do you prepare for a role?
I don’t have a strict method for this. Primarily, I read the script, over and over, and over. Then I read it out loud, everywhere, on the bus, shower, washing up or wherever. Where I go from there is so so dependant on the role and how much of a challenge it is for me. Some roles are easier than others to tap into. If I’m really struggling then I would undoubtedly go back and reference Stan the Man (Stanislavski) and go through the Toolkit book and break the script down.
How do you create a character from a script into a person
Whilst at Drama school, I recall a particular session with the Head of Acting. We were looking at Chekhov and I was up in front of the class doing an exercise. I was struggling with the character and couldn’t relate to anything about her. I acted untruthfully and over compensated with larger than life gestures and peculiar face contortions. My teacher saw I was flailing, grabbed me and turned me round towards the mirror. “Who do you see?” he asked. I emphatically stated the characters name! He asked me again “who do you see?”. I gave him a funny look, rolled my eyes and repeated my answer.
“WRONG” he shouted. “It’s you. It’s you in the mirror Fanni!” I thought, at the time, this was some kind of trickery. I felt foolish! What did he mean by this?
It took me a good few years to really, on an experiential level, understand what he meant! Every character you approach is YOU. You’re taking elements of self, of experience and of emotion memory to re-create, to give life to, someone else’s truth. As Meryl Streep fantastically puts it, “Acting is not about being someone different. It’s finding the similarity in what is apparently different, then finding myself in there“.
How do you stay fresh on set
Physicality! Physicality! Physicality! Every time. Again this is so dependant on the role as some characters will be easier to tap into than others but I tend to be cast in quite characterised, defined roles where the way in which you hold yourself is everything. For me, what the body does, the mind believes! If I’m playing someone depressed for example, or suicidal, then it’s imperative I remain small, crouched, hidden and insignificant physically. I will keep this physicality between breaks, takes and cuts. Find your character’s’ physicality and really use this to create some emotion memory. If I stay focused on this throughout I can snap back into any character. Again much of this goes back to method acting and “feeling” your character. I find I’m often very similar to the character I’m portraying on set, even when we are on a break. It’s quite strange but necessary. For me.
Describe a memorable character you played
Gosh… there are so many and for varying reasons. Ok… well I guess it has to be Catherina Linck! A few years ago, not long after graduating, I was approached by an actor/writer who had written a script based on a true story about a woman who had lived and fought in the war as a man. He wanted me to play the part of the wife. A meek, mild, patient, fragile yet strong young woman who loved Catherina Linck with all her heart. The play was called simply LINCK. I read the part and all was going well until the woman playing LINCK started struggling with the ugly, disturbing and raw emotion of the character.
She left and never came back. What now? I had my eye on the lead role of LINCK right from the start but I was informed I wasn’t right for the role. I was too feminine, too pretty. “Well, at least let me read in for the part until you find someone” I said. Ten mins in and Danny, the director, shouted “stop! You’ve got the role!” It transpired that I was in fact perfect for LINCK. I attacked the script ferociously, and didn’t shy away from the grit and the emotion. I revelled in it. This was “big guns” acting.
Fanni Campton as Catherina Linck in the play titled “Executed for Sodomy”
To cut a very long story short, it was a surreal experience and unbelievably hard. I mean really REALLY hard. I had to deal with rape, physical abuse, acting with a penis (made of pig skin) which I also had to use in a simulated sex scene with my wife, mania, humiliation, depression, cults and death. I was at death’s door after every performance and each show went by like some surreal dream. The main reason why this role was so prominent in my memory was due to the fact that it kept reappearing.
We first performed it to a public audience at The Central School of Speech & Drama for a week which in itself was enough for me after the months of rehearsals. However… a year later, there was a collaboration on the script and the Director had arranged for some industry professionals to come and watch the play so more rehearsals, bigger script and even more demanding mentally and physically. We performed at The Last Refuge Theatre in London and got some fantastic reviews. We even had some household names come to watch. I took my final bow ready to say goodbye to this wonderful but life zapping character.
A few months later, the play is under a different name. ‘Executed for Sodomy’. Sounds delightful doesn’t it? “We are taking the play to Edinburgh Festival for a whole month!” I was told. Before I knew it there was photos for the paper, publicity, marketing and an even bigger script. Would this character of LINCK ever let me go? It was like an ongoing nightmare and yet it was also a dream come true to play such an exposed character. So murky, so complex, so vulnerable yet hardened. An Actor dreams of roles like this. It was just so demanding when it was repeated performance after performance.
I gave the role of LINCK everything. Every ounce of sweat, all the tears, the weight loss, the sleepless nights afraid that I couldn’t do the role justice, the tantrums because it scared me, every single night…… it taught me so much and it broke so many preconceived notions I had about acting. I will NEVER forget Catherina Linck. Ever!
Explain one creative choice you took on set
I actually pride myself on creative choices and it’s not something I’m afraid to do, at all. In saying that, a good director will help you to push this further and give you permission to be completely free to make such choices. I don’t have a particular memory of an example of how I’ve interpreted a director’s direction but I do know that whatever note or direction I’m given I adhere to what I was told at Drama school….” Always give it all you’ve got, because it’s always easier to take things down than it is to send them up”. I tend to take things to the extreme and work my way from there.
What do you want most from a director
Freedom, encouragement, the ability to be playful and to inspire playfulness in me. Honesty.
What actors do you long to work with
Most actors I want to work with are the ones that I think are phenomenal at their craft and so, thinking about it, I’m not sure I’d want to work alongside them presently as they may show me up! But, if you’re pushing for an answer it will be Meryl Streep or Ian McKellen
Why
Both are masters of their craft in every which way. Purveyors of truth.
