‘Watching Daniel Craig warm up before a shot was something else’
Kerry Fitzgerald was born in Guy’s Hospital, but it was no easy time for mother and child: ‘My mum was ill with a really rare autoimmune disease, and there was basically one doctor in the country who could treat her – thankfully, he happened to work down the road from where we lived.’ And that was in the Old Kent Road, where Kerry’s life got better and better from that stressful beginning, and she is now promoting a new film she is in, writes Michael Holland.
Kerry enjoyed school, progressing through the years at Eveline Lowe School, Bacons College, then City of London Academy. It was at Eveline Lowe when she knew she wanted to be an actor: ‘I played Juliet in a school play when I was about six,’ she recalls, half-laughing, ‘and forgot to kill myself. From that moment on, I was hooked.’
Through working hard, Kerry got a scholarship to train at the esteemed Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, which meant a journey to the opposite side of London, but that didn’t stop her: ‘I had to get the 168 bus, the full journey end to end – Old Kent Road to Hampstead Heath.’
While Kerry studied her craft, she picked up skills and experience at Shakespeare’s Globe. ‘It was really formative for me,’ she says. Many of the staff there were performers, and Kerry got to see all the shows. ‘I’d sneak in and watch the actors warming up. It was a totally new world, totally magic,’ she adds with the excitement she must have felt as a young woman, seeing theatre’s fascinating world backstage for the first time.
When she began her drama degree at Kingston University, she helped with some friends’ theatre company and did work as a background artist or extra. One highlight from that time was a role as Q’s lab assistant in the Bond classic, Skyfall. ‘It was an amazing experience. We shot our scenes over a week at Pinewood, and being so young and watching people work at such a high level was fascinating for me. Watching Daniel Craig warm up before a shot was something else!
With all the skills and experience acquired over time, Kerry also turned her hand to writing. ‘I’ve done a load of new writing in the London fringe scene and at the Edinburgh Fringe. Shakespeare, stand-up, bonkers comedy shows with my theatre company Purple Ostrich Productions – we did comedy lectures on tours around the UK and Denmark!’
That was an impressive body of work. But there was more.
‘I’ve been on TV in King Gary (BBC) and Casualty.’ And there is more, so much more. Just a quick scan of Kerry’s socials shows a woman who has worked hard all her adult life to reach the highs she aims for. She has always made her own luck with nothing falling into her lap.
And now Kerry Fitzgerald, proud Bermondsey Girl, is in Man Baby. A role she won after auditioning via self-tape: ‘You read a lot of scripts as a working actor, and every so often one really hits you… This was one of those. It made me properly laugh. So it was very exciting to land the job.’
I asked for a summary: ‘Man Baby is an absurd comedy about a man called David who finds out he’s going to be a dad, and falls apart – literally. Divian Ladwa (Detectorists, Ant-Man and the Wasp, Lion) is David and he is bloody hilarious. As much as it’s a mad comedy, totally surreal in many places, it’s also a really beautiful exploration of male mental health around becoming a father. People have really related to it.’
Was the filming enjoyable? ‘Oh, totally! It’s an indie feature, which means a smaller cast and crew, so we all really got to know each other. We spent weeks eating, filming, and chilling together. Lots of us have stayed in touch. It was great getting together for the premiere a few weeks ago. We opened the Loco film festival at the Ritzy in Brixton and afterwards did some banging karaoke at Paddy’s Yard next door. There are videos somewhere.’
What’s happening with the film now? ‘This film has been a labour of love for the director Philip Hardy, and the lead producer Syd Heather. It’s their debut feature. We’re delighted to have a short run of the film coming up at the Lumiere Romford in June, and I think the team are talking to other festivals and cinemas for other screenings. The audiences have been great, so I think their goal is to keep running in cinemas and then get a digital release so that my Irish cousins can watch it. There are literally thousands of them!’
What will you be doing next? ‘In June I’ll be taking part in All The Rage at Theatre Deli, a very different project! It’s an immersive response to the Epstein files. Led by Rebecca Lenkeiwicz, about 70 female and non-binary writers are coming together to make it and it’s going to be really powerful.’
I should have asked Kerry if she will ever play Juliet again…
Anything you’d like to add? ‘Yeh, my Insta handle – @misskerryfitz’
Booking for the Romford screening 19th – 25th June: Man Baby