LEE MEAD | INTERVIEW

 

With his new show hitting Cardiff in May Heather Arnold talks to Lee Mead about what he’s up to and his plans to move to the welsh Capital.

 

What can we expect from the new tour?

It’s a new tour, I’ll essentially be doing songs from West End musicals and shows that I’ve starred in, like Wicked, and I’ve got a Joseph number as well. I’ve got a lot of new material, songs that I’ve been finding I’m looking forward to chatting to the crowd as well. If you’re doing a play or telly or something you never get to interact with the audience, but it’ll be a good chance to be able to interact with the audience and tell some stories.  I’ll be playing the Sherman Theatre, which will be a first for me in Cardiff, so it should be a good experience. It would be nice to get down there to sing some songs. It’s a real mix – I’ve got some more contemporary numbers like Hallelujah and Here Comes The Sun, then some songs from previous albums as well.

 

Are you looking forward to moving to Cardiff for your new role in Casualty?

I’ve been coming here for years off and on and I’ve got my band here. I’m coming back to Cardiff with a new show. I’ve done shows at the New Theatre before and I’ve brought it to the Millennium Centre as well, so it’s like a home from home really, it’s nice to be based down in Cardiff Bay. But I’m looking forward to getting the band out again; we’ve been on tour most years, and we’ve released two or three albums now. So to be coming back with a new tour is quite exciting really, it’s exciting to get the chance to sing a few songs.

 

So with this and with Casualty you’re making a move into straight acting, was that a choice is it just that that’s the opportunity that’s come about?

It’s been a choice for a while actually. I’ve done theatre for almost ten years, lots of theatres and plays. I studied acting in New York For three months on a course called Le Strasberg, that’s based on method acting, and I had a great time there. I’ve always wanted to get into film and TV, but sometimes there’s a bit of a stigma, so making that transition can be really hard. I’ve been trying for about four or five years, and there’s a six-part drama series called Bedlam which was shown on Sky TV and I had a guest spot for that. I was getting down to the finals for shows like Waterloo Road and Casualty before, then I got a call from my agent saying they wanted to see me about a new character Lofty and I got the part, which was brilliant! It’s a new chapter for me, in a career sense. I’m based down in Cardiff and we shoot five days a week I’m signed for a year. There’s lots of big storylines coming up.

 

So it looks like you’re pretty busy at the minute?

Yeah I’m pretty busy, it goes in spells. It depends on storylines. I’m filming Casualty at the moment. It’s a bit quieter recently had a week’s holiday and I got back about three days ago. I shot my first film in Jaipur

 

Is that Utopia?

It was pretty crazy actually, I flew out on a Wednesday night, I met the director, we met at six o’clock on Friday  morning and kept on until ten at night, then we filmed through to about ten at night and I flew back on Saturday. I’ve got three scenes to shoot there then three in Scotland get periods when it’s really full-on then you get quite a few days off as well.

 

So what’s Utopia about?

It’s essentially a film about isolation and loneliness. The main plot of the story is based on this woman called Janaan. She’s looking for a sperm donor because her husband is critically ill and they’ve always wanted a child, so she goes to the UK to a fertility clinic and it turns out the sperm donor is my character William. But they’ve never met and its policy that you can’t pass on your details about who the actual donor is. William’s character has got this strong belief in Islam and he’s got this whacky idea that he wants to have a child with a woman of every religion, which sounds mad, but it’s to abolish racism and create world peace, so he’s a bit of a hippyfied type of guy in his views.  He takes it upon himself to find a woman who wants to have his child and it takes him to India and Afghanistan so he breaks all the rules. It’s filmed in India and Afghanistan, which is quite scary.

 

Are you going to Afghanistan?

I’m not going to Afghanistan, I’m going to Scotland. The producers are going to the heart of a warzone which is kind of unheard of for a film. Pretty scary stuff. It’s a really good script

It’s just a nice opportunity to do my first film. The team involved were great as well- the director of photography won a Bafta recently, and the set designer just got one too. The plan is it will be shown around various festivals around 2015 in Europe and then Iran and India then hopefully the UK. We’ve just got to see how it’ll be received.

 

Sherman Cymru, Cardiff, Sun 4 May.  Tickets: £25 /Cream Tea Package (tea and scone + ticket) £30 / Sparkling Cream Tea package (tea, scone and glass of Prosecco + ticket) £32. Info:   029 2064 6900 / www.shermancymru.co.uk

 

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