Off-Cut: Nine

Interview with GILLIAN JONES conducted by Margaret Throsby on ABC FM Friday 20th June 2000. GILLIAN was appearing as Mrs Venable in Barry Koski's production of "" for which she was receiving rave reviews. GILLIAN also teaches at WAPA.

Margaret Throsby: Do you like her?

Gillian Jones: Mrs Venable? (After some thought) I don't know that I like her. I can understand her.

Margaret Throsby: How did you find her? In a sense it's intrusive to ask an actor how you find a character but people are always very curious to know. I sat there on the night that I saw this play and there you are this person and here you are sitting in front of me and there are 'wiffs' of the physical woman but you are a totally different person. How do you find that character?

Gillian Jones: Well I think that you don't - in a sense. You do what the person does and you leave the character to the audience.

Margaret Throsby: But you assume some sort of personality?

Gillian Jones: Well you assume the given circumstances of the character. Which are that she is very old, she had a stroke last year, she's very physically weak and she is only held up by her will. And the stakes she is playing for are immense.

Margaret Throsby: Do you ever find any inhibition?

Gillian Jones: Only if I'm not completely convinced by what I'm doing or if I can't pick the trigger from one moment to the next - then that leaves me outside the play. If your actually following a logical line from point to point and you're listening and you're present then there isn't any room for (inhibition) that.

Margaret Throsby: Do you become her for the time you are on stage?

Gillian Jones: Happily…there are moments where you almost. It's a fine line.

Margaret Throsby conducts wonderfully relaxed and informative interviews on ABC Classic FM (105.9Mhz) 10.05am to 11.00am each weekday. Sometimes she interviews actors. Often, in interesting and diverse ways the conversations relate to performance.

June 2000