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 Talks Different for Girls’ Earlier, I reviewed Different for Girls and interviewed Jacquie and Fizz, who created the show. Well, Victoria Broom stopped by too, who plays Fran on DFG. We dove into some of the more intense scenes she had to play: http://bit.ly/VictoriaBroom

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.

The Start of Different for Girls

In October last year, I mentioned that I had found a new lesbian web series from the UK, called Different for Girls, and that I fell in love with it. If you haven’t watched it already, you can find it at Lesbian Box Office. At ClexaCon London, I was able to talk to Fizz Milton and Jacquie Lawrence. Fizz is the producer of Different for Girls and Jacquie is the writer and executive producer of the show. There was plenty to discuss!

Below, you can find how Different for Girls went from a drama development to a book to a web series. Also, you can read how hard it was getting the web series funded. Well, I am glad it worked out, and I hope that one day, I can watch a second season!

We talked about more things during the interview than what you can read here. If you watch the video, you can hear how Rachel Shelley got involved in the project.

‘The Start of Different for Girls (New Lesbian Web Series)’ In October last year, I fell in love with Different for Girls. At ClexaCon London, I was able to talk to the producer and the writer of Different for Girls. There was plenty to discuss! In this blog post, you can find how Different for Girls went from a drama development to a book to a web series. Also, you can read how hard it was getting the web series funded: http://bit.ly/DFGInterview

The book version of Different for Girls

Me: “So, Different for Girls started as a book, right?”

Jacquie Lawrence: “Originally, Different for Girls was a drama development for Channel 4. Then, it moved into a book and then, it changed into the series that you have just seen. But, when I was writing the book, I always had an idea that it would become a screen project. So, the chapters of the book are very short and have cliffhangers. And, to use your words, it is very, very soap-like. The chapters are like soap episodes.”

Me: “I think it was AfterEllen.com that had that article online: ‘Your new favorite soap opera.’ I read it and thought: “I guess that makes sense, but I do not fully agree.”

Jacquie: “Yeah, I liked your analysis.”

Me: “Did you read the book reviews on Amazon?”

Jacquie: “I did! It was interesting because it was first on Amazon.co.uk and then on Amazon.com and one said that it was the new L Word. I thought that was wonderful. I think overall they were pretty favorable.

Me: “Because I loved seeing the comments that people wanted to see it on screen and watch it as a web series.”

Jacquie: “Exactly.”

The start of Different for Girls as a web series

Me: “I am usually quite up-to-date when it comes to new lesbian web series, but I was not familiar with this one. Is it a fairly new production or has it been around longer?”

Fizz Milton: “Well, it depends. What is new? I mean, we started the series production two years ago. We were going to film twelve episodes. It was incredibly ambitious.

We were hugely reliant on the Indiegogo campaign that Jacquie had kicked off. That was a very different learning curve for me. My background is in straight mainstream TV and film. It was a completely different approach. You feel an even greater sense of responsibility, I think. People have put their own money into it. It takes you back to that ruthless… You want to make it as good as possible.”

Perseverance

Fizz: “We had various pledges from people and right before Brexit, something did not work out, and we had to retrench and start again. I think it is a real message about how perseverance pays off because we were going to stop.

But Jacquie went: ‘Ok, how much money do we have and what can we do? Let’s rebudget. Let’s reschedule and let’s look at the story. And let’s go to the essence of the story. Could we do six episodes?’ I said: ‘Can we do five episodes?’ The director said: “Can’t we do six episodes?’ Let’s make it work. We were really working together as a tight-knit team to bring it to fruition.”

ClexaCon London

Me: “What does an event like ClexaCon London mean to you and your projects? Do you think you can get something out of it for Different for Girls?”

Jacquie: “Absolutely. I was very interested when you said I have not heard about this. Actually, the one thing that we did not have a budget for was distribution and marketing that a tv series or film would have. It is really interesting listening to Fizz talking about how hard it was. I mean, we filmed in each other’s houses, a lot of the characters are wearing our own clothes…”

Me: “Really? That’s awesome!”

Jacquie: “I don’t know if you have noticed the recurring white Mini. That Mini is in every scene. So really, in a way, we have not even started the marketing. It has been through word of mouth. We had quite a lot of press coverage when we first dropped because one of our main actors is very well known.

There are still markets we have to get into, certainly in Europe. It has taken off really well in the UK and in the US, but everywhere else, we really need to make our presence. And ClexaCon London is, of course, ClexaCon Europe.”

The cast of Different for Girls

The rest of the interview, we discussed how Fizz and Jacquie found their actors. If you didn’t know already, Rachel Shelley is in it. “OMG is that Rachel Shelley?!” is the number one comment that people left under my video and social media posts about Different for Girls. Naturally, I wanted to know more about how she got involved in this project.

After my interview with Fizz and Jacquie, I was also able to talk to Victoria Broom, who has the very, VERY interesting part of Fran. You can read and watch that interview next week, so stay tuned (and subscribe to my channel!)

PS 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.

Tag: Victoria Broom

Victoria Broom Interview [Different for Girls]