Victoria Broom Talks Different for Girls
You probably didn’t expect more footage from ClexaCon London, did you? Well, I saved something special for you. In October last year, I reviewed Different for Girls. Then at ClexaCon London, I interviewed Jacquie and Fizz, who created the show, about how DFG came into existence. What I didn’t tell you, was that Victoria Broom stopped by too. She plays Fran on DFG, one of the lead characters, and Sascha on Marcella. We dove into some of the more intense scenes she had to play.
You can now watch Different for Girls on Diva Box Office.
Victoria Broom discovered DFG through social media
Me: “Thanks for coming. I really loved watching you in Different for Girls. It was so lovely. Can you tell me how you got involved in the project?”
Victoria Broom: “I heard about Different for Girls, I think, through social media. And I reached out to Jacquie and said: ‘I want to know a bit more about this show.’ She sent me a couple of scenes for two different roles. It was actually for Belle and for Fran. Instantly, I was drawn to Fran because for an actor to read the character Fran and the way that Jacquie excellently wrote her, it was just… Oh, she goes on this complete journey of self-destruct. She’s fabulous to play. That’s how I got involved.
Vitamin B
Me: “What was the substance that you take if you snort drugs? Because you have to do it a lot.”
Victoria: “Yes, I did. It’s vitamin B powder, so it’s very harmless, very safe. Yeah, it was a big pouch of vitamin B powder.”
Me: “Does it feel weird?”
Victoria: “It was a weird sensation, but not really. It kind of gives you the ‘Oh, I’ve just put something up my nose, but no, not really. That’s kind of the trick for the industry.”
What shocked and didn’t shock Victoria Broom regarding the script
Me: “What was your response when you read the script of that bar scene with Dascha, where you rudely leave, let’s just put it like that?”
Victoria: “Where I take her… Oh, we’ve all been there. [laughs] That wasn’t the scene that shocked me the most, believe it or not. No, I thought that was just, you know, a normal day at the Candy Bar back in the day. But no, the storyline that shocked me the most and that I really had to speak to director Campbell and Jacquie about to understand Fran’s reasoning was the scene where she takes Cam back after what has just happened. I mean, how do you take somebody back who not only slept with your twin brother but also decided to keep the child. How can you reason that?”
Discussions
Me: “That was precisely my response when I was watching that. Would I? I don’t think I would, but would I?”
Victoria: “I was talking to my partner at the time and a few other people. I was like: ‘Right, let’s talk about this. What would you do if this happened?’ I couldn’t do it.”
Me: “No.”
Victoria: “I think because you will always look at that child and know that that child was created from an affair that broke your heart. Anyway, that was the storyline, so the Dascha one was absolutely fine.”
Some punching
Me: “For me, what was also shocking was the scene with the twin brother and his response.”
Victoria: “Didn’t you just want to punch him in the face?”
Me: “Yes. My wife and I were like what?!”
Victoria: “Yeah. That moment in the kitchen where I confront my brother? For both Craig, who plays Tom, and me, that was a really intense moment. I had to just kind of go away and be by myself for a bit before and after. Because at one point, I actually punched… There’s a metal frame on the camera that kind of comes out. I punched the metal and I carried on. I just saw the whole crew going ‘Ah,’ and I was just carrying on because I really wanted to punch him at that moment.”
For him
Me: “What was the scene like for him?”
Victoria: “So, he just let me be and just didn’t kind of interrupt that process that is happening before and after. Because I had to hate him. I really liked Craig, the actor, not Tom, the character. So, I had to say to him: ‘Look, you just need to leave me alone for a bit because I have to hate you.’ And I think that came across.”
Victoria Broom talks queer representation in media
Me: “Definitely. One last question. What do you think is the one thing that content creators in the entertainment industry should do to improve queer representation in media?”
Victoria: “Oh, that’s quite an interesting one. I’m probably going to get asked something like that on the panel today. My feeling about queer representation in the media is that it has to be created by… People involved in the team have to be queer. Because otherwise, how can they represent the true story? How can they create a true story? I think it’s better.”
More visible
I think it’s becoming more and more visible. And what I love… So, I did Marcella, another series that was on ITV that is coming back to Netflix in March. And what I really liked about that was that ITV, in a prime-time show that won an Emmy last year, was creating gay roles, but they weren’t making a big deal about them being gay. They just happened to be gay. It wasn’t the main focus, and I think that is becoming more and more visible, which is the way it should.
And more queer people behind the scenes and writers are writing those roles, and that is more important to me. That there are queer people behind the scenes creating queer content.”
More ClexaCon London fun
Want to revisit ClexaCon London? Here are my interviews with Kat Barrell, Jamie Clayton, the team behind I Can’t Think Straight, Nicole Pacent, Mandahla Rose, and the directors of ClexaCon. Also, I have had so much fun at ClexaCon 2019, which you can see here.
