Meeting with Jenna Coleman, the magnetic actress of Sandman and The Serpent
January 2, 2023   David   Gallery Update, Photoshoots, The Serpent

Numero Magazine-Spotted in the mythical Doctor Who series , the English actress Jenna Coleman also impresses alongside Tahar Rahim in The Serpent in 2021. This year, we find her on Netflix in the fantastic series Sandman , adapted from the eponymous graphic novels by Neil Gaiman. A role worthy of his magnetic talent.

From her captivating role in  The Serpent  to her magnetic performance in  Sandman


 

More than any other country, the United Kingdom holds the secret of the excellence of the actors and actresses. Year-round, the screens of the world testify to this, to the point that Hollywood is full of Britons who force the American accent to reign over series and blockbusters. Jenna Coleman is part of this wave, while often remaining elusive. This year, she played an occult detective in the prestigious fantasy series Sandman , a creation by legend Neil Gaiman for Netflix . One of these new kind of cultural objects, watched simultaneously all over the planet.

 

During the year 2021, in full confinement, the thirties interpreted the Quebecer Marie-Andrée Leclerc, accomplice of a serial killer played by Tahar Rahim , in The Serpent , one of the hits of this strange spring. “ He was a tortured and romantic person, whom we worked on in detail. Even in the way she dressed, she concealed her true nature. ” With this role, Jenna Coleman made herself known far beyond her native country, in a fictional form that was both seductive and voracious. She also discovers a tendency to play tormented women. “ I have struggled for a long time with the roles of girl-next-door and nice good friend,she explains as a profession of faith. Finally, I play angry women who swear a lot! I seem to be leaning towards the dark lately [laughs].”

 

The young woman in front of us would rather find herself on the side of the light, even if the life she has chosen pushes her towards the limits of fatigue, by dint of braving the time zones of globalized entertainment . “ I was filming in Arizona, and a few days later, here I am in Paris for the Chanel show. At the moment, my daily life looks like this. Sometimes it happens to me to ask myself, but I like the uncertainty, the change and the journeys that my job entails, this idea that we don’t know where we will live the following week. I think it makes me happy. I’m one of those weird people who love airports and constant movement.” This existence in the spotlight, Jenna Coleman has known it since the mid-2000s. She was 19 when the producers of the Emmerdale soap offered her the role of Jasmine Thomas, who was to appear on screen for a few weeks but whose presence spanned four years. The time to perfect his art in a popular medium, very respected in England.

Unlike many actors in the UK, she did not attend a major drama school like London’s RADA or LAMDA. No regrets for the one who began by pacing the boards during her adolescence, in pieces created by a local company in Blackpool, her hometown in north-east England. “ When I finally had the time to do major studies, it was already a bit late. I gave up because I would have missed this period of the beginnings of the twenties, fruitful for an actress. So I learned on the job, with actors and directors with different methods. Basically, that suits me: I like to react to the other. ”

“ I find out about the era and the characters, I build a story by noting down many details, the better to get rid of them when shooting . Jenna Coleman

When we observe her acting, both seductive and precise, we can only say that the multiplicity of approaches has forged an excellent actress, who never gets lost in a cold and technical vision of her roles. She evokes the impostor syndrome that may have accompanied her, as during these rehearsals at the Old Vic theater in London in 2019, when she felt a lack of technique which could handicap her. Except that the complex never lasts very long, as Jenna Coleman seizes the roles, works on them, mixes them up to make them her own.

Her favorite moment? The preparation phase, where she is totally involved, especially when she interprets a historical character like Queen Victoria in the homonymous series, between 2016 and 2019. “ I find out about the era and the characters, I build a story by noting many details, the better to get rid of them when shooting. So I am impregnated, but I feel free to go where I want. Without this preliminary work, I would not have my base and I would feel too close to myself. ” We stop for a moment on the last formula, which intrigues coming from an actress. Master Eckhart did write in his famous sermons the following formula, as obscure as it is fascinating: “Observe yourself, and whenever you find yourself, let yourself; There is nothing better. “It is unclear whether the Briton has read the German medieval thinker, but his conception of the game resembles his teaching.

Jenna Coleman, a talented actress revealed by Doctor Who

Self-forgetfulness as a key to success, Jenna Coleman talks about it very well. “ The less cerebral I am, the better my game. The effort I have to make is to manage to get out of my head, to abandon my perfectionist side and let myself be led by instinct. This is when this job becomes really exciting. You have the feeling of jumping off a cliff without controlling anything. These moments don’t happen all the time, but they are exactly what we are looking for in this profession. ” Such a method, the actress applies it through all her appearances, whether in her new independent film Klokkenluider,  a comedy about whistleblowers, or the series that made her a star, the legendaryDoctor Who. In the mid-2010s, she emerged as the most alert and slender actress of her generation, with showrunner Steven Moffat raving about her ability to say lines both really fast and really well.

A quality reminiscent of that of the greats of screwball comedy, whose golden age was the 1930s. A genre that contemporary cinema seems to have unfortunately neglected. “ It would be great to remake some of these comedies like Bringing Up Baby , one of my favorite movies. Regarding Steven Moffat, the screenwriter of Doctor Who, his writing is very rhythmic, and since I drink a lot of coffee, it helps with the speed! Comedy is often based on this, especially black comedy, which I really like. ”

Jenna Coleman admires films as different as 37°2 in the morning, The Harvest of the Sky and Breaking the Waves. Was it born a few decades too late to feel in step with the contemporary image industry, which is often highly formatted? The lament is not really part of his vocabulary. She intends to grow what is offered to her, such as the Wilderness series, which she has just shot for Amazon in the four corners of the American continent, under the direction of So Yong Kim. “ Four months of very long days, but it was exciting! ” confirms this friend of the Chanel house. “ Last night I had the pleasure of visiting Coco ‘s apartment, and , in this place, we can measure how sincere and deep the attachment of this house to culture. Chanel pays great attention to the people we are. She is genuinely interested in what we have to say as actors, and in our work. She is not just trying to dress me, but to identify what woman I am. The Chanel universe has a lot of personality, I always find something strong and fragile, feminine and masculine. Thanks to this, one has the feeling that the pieces never get old. ”

 

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