Emily Atack in Outside Bet
Emily Atack made her big screen debut over the weekend with new movie Outside Bet, which was released on Friday.
I caught up with the actress to discuss the new role, moving into movies and what lies ahead.
- Your new movie Outside Bet has just been released into cinemas so can you tell me a little bit about the film?
It’s set in the eighties and there is a group of friends who hang around this pub a lot, I play the barmaid Katie and I hang around with them as well - so we are all this big group of friends.
It’s when the print workers strike is going on so a lot of people have been made redundant and there are some really hard times for people. So they all decide to put their money together to invest in a race horse in the hope that they will win a lot of money - the thing is they all put everything that they have got on this one horse.
So the film is about hope, being there for each other as friends and helping each other through really hard times and just trying to make the best of a bad situation really.
- You take on the role of Katie in the movie so what was it about the script and the character that made you want to get involved in the movie?
Well I read the script and I immediately loved it because it is a really warm, hearty British film. It is a really lovely story and it has got everything that you need in a film; it’s funny, sad in parts and it has a romantic storyline so it has a bit of everything.
So I read it and instantly fell in love with it and the character of Katie as she is the mixture of being a girly girl and being a tomboy, which is a great mix to play.
As soon as I heard that cast I just thought ‘wow there is not way I can turn down working with these kind of people’. It was great.
- Can you tell me a bit about the character of Katie in the movie and we see her develop throughout the film?
She is madly in love with the lead guy Calum MacNab who plays Mark Baxter; she works in this put and is always hanging around with these guys.
She looks like a real girly girl but she has got a real edge to her as she can take the banter from the lads and she is use to being around drunken men in pubs so she is quite feisty and can handle herself.
So she is madly in love with Mark Baxter and she is desperately trying to get him to understand that and realise it - so it’s very much a will they/won’t they throughout the film.
You really do feel for her half way through the film because as it goes on she is getting more and more desperate for his affection and for him to notice than she wants this to happen. You really want her to get the guy in the end and it’s nice.
- You have worked extensively in TV over the last few years and this movie marks your big screen debut so how did you find making the transition into movies?
It was so exciting, I was enjoying television so much and everything that I have done in TV has been great stuff and I have just been so fortunate to get all these things.
When this film came along I just though ‘wow it doesn’t get any better than this this is amazing’. It was just a really exciting and I just had that tiny little bit more excitement in me.
- As you say the movie is set in the eighties so how did you find going back to that era?
It was great; I was bought in eighty nine so I missed that era. It seems like a really fun era as the costume and make up was really fun and we were all laughing at each other when we were trying things on.
It was very surreal walking onto an eighties set but it was great fun, obviously there were hard time as well during that time. My mum told me lots about the eighties so it was great fun.
- Sacha Bennett is in the director's chair for the film so how did you find working with him?
He is brilliant, he is a fantastic director. He has this great energy about him on set and he makes everybody feel really comfortable and happy - there is a real lovely and light atmosphere on the set.
I think the energy and the atmosphere on a set is all down to the director and he really did that well. He allows you to play with the character yourself he isn’t ‘this is how you do it’ he really lets you converse with him about what you think what might be a nice idea.
He is just so friendly and down to earth and you can have a really nice chat with him about characters and you can work together on making the best of it. He is a fantastic director and I always love to work with Sacha, he is great.
- As you say he is a very collaborative director so how much do you enjoy that time of filmmaking?
It is fantastic. I have worked with so many different directors and I am learning that each director has very different ways of working. I just feel that with Sacha’s way of working there is just a real sense of relaxation about it and he is just so easy to get along with.
I love working like that, it’s good to work with different director and see how they work, but it was lovely the way he works. There was a real sense of happiness and relaxation, it was nice.
- It's also a great cast with the likes of Jenny Agutter, Vincent Regan and Bob Hoskins so how did you find working alongside them?
It was fantastic! The first day on set I was quite nervous and Bob Hoskins was one of the first people that I met on set and he was so warm and friendly and kind.
The initial meeting you just want to understand what everyone is like as people and they were just all so lovely and we all got on really well and looking after each other. There were lots of cold days of working n fields and we would all huddle together - it was just great.
I started off this film as being massive fans of these people and now we are just good friends so that’s lovely.
- With this being your first film how much of an education was this role for you?
Oh yes extremely. I am learning now that every actor and every director has a very different way that they work and I feel like I am still finding my way, at the moment I feel like I am just learning different pieces from everybody because I am new to this.
But it’s nice to take a piece from everybody, take advice and take away their stories. It’s exciting growing as an actor and working alongside these people and taking little bits and pieces away as you find out who you are as an actor.
The whole education side of it is about finding out what your method is, what works for you and how you like to act - it’s really exciting.
- You will also be appearing in Get Lucky, which is another project with Sacha Bennett, so can you tell me a bit about that?
I don’t want to say that it is a British gangster film because it has very different aspects to it.
Luke Treadaway play the lead role of Lucky and he gets into debt with some local heavies, there is a big casino heist and there are gun chases - in that sense it does sound like a gangster film but it is different in the sense that you care about the characters more as they are not just thugs, they are nice fun characters.
I play the femme fatale called Bridget, who has a little thing for Lucky, and Bridget comes across as very feisty and sexy and very sure for herself but there is a lot of hidden stuff going on there that comes out during the movie. That was really exciting and it was a great movie to do.
- You are best known for your role as Charlotte Hinchcliffe in The Inbetweeners so how would you describe your time on the show when you look back on it now?
It was nothing but hilarious fun, it was just great. Again I felt like I learnt a lot doing that and I made great friends. It was my first job that I had done in three consecutive years and it was just so much fun and I thoroughly enjoyed doing the long hours.
There is just one work to describe my time there and that was ‘fun’ it was so fun and it was a great time in my life.
- As I said earlier you have done lots of TV work and now movies so how do the two mediums compare?
I think they are very similar ways but when it comes to a movie there is just that little bit more excitement in your gut you are just ‘oh my gosh’.
There is just that little more excitement I suppose and I didn’t think that I could get more excited doing great television shows. I feel really fortunate and lucky that I am doing it because it’s great.
- How much is film the area you want to work in as an actress?
I just never thought that it would happen anyway and now that these movies have come along it’s fantastic and I can’t wait to do more.
I would say that it’s something that I want to be involved in 100% as I am learning so much and I feel like I am growing into myself as an actor, I’m loving it all.
- Finally what's next for you?
I have got a couple of films this year; I have just filmed another movie called Tested which is out later this year as well.
And there is a possibility, I haven’t signed anything yet so I can’t really talk about it, of going to America to do a film there - hopefully I can talk to you more about that when I have signed a contract.
Outside Bet is out now
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw
Tagged in Emily Atack