I studied dance as a child and made my first professional appearance in ‘Sinbad the Sailor’ at the King’s Theatre in Glasgow – it was wonderful. I did my first feature film at the age of 14 in ‘Heavenly Pursuits’ starring Dame Helen Mirren and Tom Conti. It is set in a Glasgow Catholic School where miracles start happening and I played a featured child in Tom Conti’s class. Again it was an amazing experience.
How did you become an actor
I always wanted to be an actor for as long as I could remember – I felt deep down it was my destiny to perform. When I was fourteen I started to train properly at Scottish Youth Theatre and it was a bit scary but helped me a lot. I was a shy child and my acting ambition sort of went against who I seemed to be. When I was older I did some clown training with the Master clown Angela de Castro and this helped my understanding of comedy no end. Clown training is difficult because it breaks down the ego – we are brought up to be winners and killers but to a clown this doesn’t make sense. No fakery is allowed because clowns live in the now and want to be happy – they would rather keep playing a game than win and the game be over.
So happy that ‘Pieces’, my new short film is now online – watch it here at https://t.co/l75kFgIBv5 #piecesfilm #horror #SupportIndieFilm pic.twitter.com/2NFHX0Dg4D
— Kate Sandison (@katesandison) April 17, 2017
Angela de Castro called me out ruthlessly if I did something that wasn’t real and she changed my life. I did another extensive course of training at the International Ecole de Mime based on the Etienne Decroux mime technique where we had to devise all our plays and find every prop and costume ourselves – a very creative place. I also studied at Mountview theatre school in London which is a more traditional approach but again pushed me forward. I had private voice lessons from Kate Godfrey at the Guildhall School and one to one acting coaching from Eunice Roberts who is now the Joint Dean of BADA in London. All my teachers expected hard work and I was very grateful for their classes.
What acting technique do you use
I would say my training was broadly Stanislavski based – for me I look at the emotions a character is experiencing and where these come from. I also examine the text very carefully to see if what I have decided is actually borne out by the words – often it is not. Eunice Roberts emphasized the importance of this and it was a wonderful lesson. If you are tired or busy you can decide all kinds of things about a character that aren’t actually true or helpful. It’s about discipline I suppose.
What wrong impressions do actors hold about acting
Acting is not faking – it is being real in that character no matter how surreal or fantasy-like the scenario. Many actors can be clever mimics but that’s not it at all.
Do you take courses to improve your craft
I do when I can – I did a course that touched on Playback theatre with the Chinese company ‘Trueheart’ and I do workshops with friends when we practice doing scenes for the camera. There just isn’t always time to fit in a new course because an acting career can suddenly send you off to another part of the country or world and then you can’t complete the classes you arranged which is disappointing. There are teachers and courses I would love to do.
Kate Sandison in Yearning with fellow actor Hugo Nicolau
What acting books do you read
I love ‘Audition’ by Michael Shurtleff and ‘The Actor Speaks’ by Patsy Rodenburg.
How do you keep fit as an actor
I do TM (Transcendental Meditation) and this is invaluable for calming the mind and doing a good day’s work for any job but particularly acting when you need to be rested and focused 100% on what you are doing. I do a lot of walking and dance. I’m not a gym person!
How do you prepare for a role
I read the whole script always a few times and then see where my character fits into the story. I imagine what happened to make them like the way they are – check the text for clues as I said, look at the emotion behind their words – then I think of their accent and the way they would say things.
Kate Sandison in Death of the virgin
How do you create a character from a script into a person
I have a picture of them in my mind – and starting from their inner life as I said above I will then think what clothes they would wear, how they would move and why they are doing what they are doing. We always want something in our day to day lives, trivial or life changing and so do the characters you play.
How do you stay fresh on set
I never look at my phone or any device or read a book on set. These things take me out of my world and into another one. If the scene is a very emotional one then you focus a strand of concentration on that pain they are in and it’s not easy. You remain in that place and time to a degree but still listening to more direction or practical things like ‘Keep near to that light’ or ‘Don’t go beyond this point’. I think actors who look at their phones between takes are very irritating – but maybe it works for them.
Describe a memorable character you played
I played Mrs Ashcroft in ‘Downsizer’ a short film completed in 2015, directed by the wonderful double Emmy winner Joe Pavlo. She is a very controlled, shrewd character on the surface but with madness and violence underneath. I had to shoot lots of people with a machine gun! And despite her evil she was very funny. It was an amazing role – you are never told Mrs Ashcroft’s first name and that is a part of her.
Explain one creative choice you took on set
I played the role of the hotel maid Maria in ‘Death of the Virgin’ (a horror movie shot in Italy) – I had very few lines but applied my usual techniques to studying them but when I got onto set the director told me my character had been adopted by the main family of the story so they could get an unpaid servant to save money. She was not regarded as a daughter as she should have been. This hotel and their rules were all she had known from the age of 13. I had not known this before and it really helped the character and 15 minutes later we were filming! But it changed what I did – Maria became a receiver not a driver as I had thought.
What do you want most from a director
I would say that I want to ask reasonable questions and be kept on the right lines. You give a performance but it’s up to the director to film it well, time the scene well – so much is on him – you are doing what is in his head though you may come up with something new that they love! I find it hard when a director loses their temper horrendously on set – once I was on location on Gold Hill in the UK and some passers by started making faces at the camera, shouting loudly and being very unpleasant – they just loved messing up the shoot. The company had licences and permits to film everything and the light was going. The director went ballistic yelling at these rude people when he should have called a break and let them get bored. I started shaking with fear – I don’t know why. I need the person in charge to be in charge.
What actors do you long to work with
So many but I think Michael Crawford.
in Samsara by Deadly Intent Films with fellow actor Joe Evans.
Why
I think he is so committed to his performance and has a real inner clown as I hopefully do myself.
What advice would you give to actors
Do your very best, be dignified as possible in the many surreal and difficult situations you will often be in and keep a sense of humor! It is a privilege to see life from an actor’s perspective despite the difficulties.
Briefly write about your career
I have worked on over 20 shorts and 12 completed features. It took me a long time to build up a good show reel but once I had it made a huge difference. The film community is a small one and people like best to see you in something they loved. This and a show reel are what help you move on.
When I was 16 I played David Tennant’s sister in an episode of ‘Dramarama’ at Scottish Television which was great and a role in the wonderful Screen Two film ‘Shadow on the Earth’ directed by Chris Bernard who also directed ‘Letter to Brezhnev’. Everything seemed good but when I left College the UK was hit by recession, very little was being made and I found people viewed me as a teen actor.
Throwback to Thursday to filming ‘Downsizer’ in Canary Wharf UK! pic.twitter.com/dnfo5bRAL7
— Kate Sandison (@katesandison) April 27, 2017
I withdrew for a few years then came to London to train more and start off again which was quite difficult but worth it. I think playing Mrs Ashcroft was a real game changer as was working on ‘Petite Mort’ a new portmanteau feature film by the acclaimed horror director Ray Brady. I do a lot of supernatural and horror things and they can be a bit predictable but Ray’s ideas are all new – I don’t know how but his take on horror is always fresh and terrifying.
In the last year I have been very proud of ‘Pieces’ a new film by Cappuccino Studios which has had a good festival run (I play Theresa) and ‘Yearning’ by Padelis Fernandes films. Made entirely in Portugal, ‘Yearning’ is a beautiful piece about what people long for. Yearning is something we have all felt and is a film many people will resonate with. I am also very excited about ‘Toby’ by Professor Stamen Productions and ‘Samsara’ by Deadly Intent films now in postproduction. And I am about to start filming several new features that out of superstition I won’t discuss yet! Here is a link to my website
My blog is there – I have had a lot of good luck in my career – many highs and some awful lows but I feel grateful to all people who gave me an opportunity no matter how disappointing in the end – after all they made me grow.
