Karen Taylor Q&A

28 November 2008

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Karen Taylor is perhaps best known as a an English comedienne who front her own sketch show Touch Me, I'm Karen Taylor.

But 2008 saw her move over into British film as she starred in Angus, Things and Perfect Snogging as the mother of the lead character Georgia.

How did you first get involved with Angus, Thongs & Perfect Snogging?

I was asked to audition for the part of Connie Nicolson. When I read the script, I loved it but I was slightly offended because Connie was meant to be mid-40s and I thought: "Well, I'm not really sure about that."

So, I rang my agent and said: "How dare they!" And then went for the audition and Gurinder [Chadha] said "you're too young", so I thought there was no way I'd got the part. But either I look older on camera or they decided to make the role younger.

How was it having Alan Davies as your husband?

Great. It was a bit weird kissing him but only because I'd never met him before. But otherwise lovely, we did sort of sit and do lots of crosswords and things when we weren't filming, so it was like we were a proper married couple.

Talking of kissing, did it take you back to your own first kiss?

Yeah, yeah... my first kiss wasn't the best I don't think. I don't know if anyone's first kiss is though. I'd like to hear what everyone else has said. But my first kiss was a bit sort of after-school disco and a little bit toothy. So, not that good sadly.

How was the Steve Jones kiss?

Did I kiss Steve Jones? I don't think I did! You're trying to catch me out... Highly recommended.

How did you take to playing a mother?

Well, I was a bit worried about that really because I'm not a mother and I'm 32 so I kind of talked to Georgia like: "I'm like you!" But I'm not really 14; I am 32 and it was quite a difficult transition. But I just thought of my mum and what she'd be like. She was quite embarrassing when I was younger, so it kind of worked.

But did it also make you see things from your mum's point of view and the stresses and strains of coping with a teenage girl?

Yeah. I think I'm sort of at that age now where I'm seeing that anyway. You know, you kind of get to the point of settling down a bit more than you were and saying: "Ah yeah, I see why I was such a nightmare! Yeah, that wasn't good!" And watching Georgia [Nicolson] and thinking: "What a brat! She's so naughty."

Did you have long to work on the mother-daughter bond that exists between your character and Georgia Groome?

We didn�t have masses of time but just sort of spending time in make-up was fun. But she's just a typical teenager, talking about boys. I tried to join in but I think she was slightly embarrassed, especially when I tried to make her listen to The Smiths and said: "The Kooks? Never mind The Kooks, get listening to Morrissey!" She'd say: "What's this? Your old!"