Q & A with Miranda Raison

[Nitrus]

Q&A with Miranda Raison from Radio Times.

Q&A with Miranda Raison - November 2007

BW: We're nearing the end of another cracking series of Spooks. Where's Jo now and where on earth is it all heading?

MR: She's had a pretty rough time of it all round - much tougher than before. She's had a gun held to her head twice in this series already. You'll see towards the end of the series that this does have an effect on her - things get pretty bad. Then again she has got a love interest now. She gets a bit of [makes kissing sound] from a newcomer.

Now look, she's not going to die is she? Say it ain't so…

I can't possibly tell you that. You'll just have to see.

Sounds pretty Spooks, then. Nice haircut, by the way.

They seem to write more action for Jo the more I cut my hair, so now I've cut it really, really short. I was going for the Breathless look [Jean Seberg sported a crop in A bout de Souffle, to give the film its French title], but I don't know if I've achieved that. It can get a little Billy Idol in the mornings. It's short, short.

How are your ninja skills as a result of playing a spy?

Pretty good. We've had some good stunts and I did actually get injured. I had three weeks off because of it. We were saving the world - or saving London at any rate - from being poisoned. And I was running along with an axe and fell and hit my head on a closed metal door.

Ouch!

Indeed. My head split and I got a big black eye and a cut and they couldn't film me for three weeks. I was terrified they were going to write me out, but luckily they wrote around it. The scar's still there.

Since you've been an on-screen Spook, have you started to do any secret sleuthing at home?

I'm not particularly cut out for it: I'm not very good with technology, and the whole staying awake for 48 hours and working late doesn't appeal. I'd much rather sit in my dressing room and Google films. I do watch masses of crime drama, though. I'm obsessed with all the CSI shows, Cold Case…any of those things where it's going to be somebody really unlikely "wot done it".

A few years ago you were in the film Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo. That must go down as a career high point.

It was most definitely a high point. It was the rhyming title that really drew me in. It's quite hard to do something that falls short of your 14-year-old brother's standards, but that did. It starred Rob Schneider - who isn't the bloke off Jaws [that was Roy Scheider]. I was playing a very serious character swathed in black. She was born in Chernobyl. Luckily, I got to wear a veil.

So until now, no-one knew you were in it.

Yup. Thanks for telling them.

One final question: is it tough making it in showbusiness when you're named after a dried fruit?

In my currant situation… no, sorry. Funny you should mention it, as I did actually put on weight in the sixth form at school and one of the boys from the lower years let slip that my nickname at the time was Miranda Grape. Aren't boys lovely? Luckily, I'd lost the weight by the time he told me, so I could see the funny side.


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