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Tania's
Lucky Break
Actress Tania Emery's career in THE BILL came to a
dramatic end in April. After just 18 months in the
popular TV drama, her character DC Kate Spears and four
others were killed off in an impressive explosion at Sun
Hill. After a gritty storyline in which her character
was brutally raped, the decision was baffling - although
it came as little surprise to 26-year-old Tania.
"It's gone down in print that everyone was stunned,
and quite honestly I really wasn't," she explains.
"It was a bit of a shock but more, ' Oh right, my
thoughts are confirmed.' A new executive producer comes
in and he's got a definite idea of where he wants the
show to go. I was a bit upset because I'd made some
great friends but, from a professional point of view,
actors are gypsies and you move on."
As it turned out, leaving THE BILL was a blessing in
disguise for the sultry star. She no longer has to
endure a gruelling schedule of long hours and late
nights that go hand in hand with a regular series. It
has also given her the opportunity to pursue her dream
of acting on the big screen.
"Most TV drama is sensationally hard work,"
she says, "There are great sides of course, but
it's an endurance test. On films you get driven to the
set!"
Independent British films seem to be Tania's passion and
Club Le Monde, the final part in a trilogy (she stars in
all three) by Simon Rumley, was a project she clearly
loved every minute of. In particular, she was drawn to
the script. "It's a very real examination of young
life in London," she enthuses. "Britain is
such a quirky, eclectic place, and we really do have
some of the best writers." Set against the early
nineties clubbing scene, Club Le Monde is a hilarious
account of a colourful array of very different
characters. "I play Kelly. She and her friend Yas
are so outrageous that they really do push the
boundaries of what's decent to say," Tania laughs.
"They quite happily spend the whole evening in this
great sweaty club in the loo!". So is there
anything of the loud, cheeky, gossipy character of Kelly
in her? "She's the kind of person I'd like to have
had the guts to be when I was 18," she says.
"But I can be quite mouthy and to the point, so
there were perhaps strands of my character coming
though!"
Den Of Lions, the other project occupying Tania's time,
sees her starring alongside national treasure Bob
Hoskins and American heart-throb Stephen Dorff -
although the actress insists she was never star-struck.
"Actors are actors at the end of the day," she
says matter-of-factly. Playing a women abducted by the
Russian Mafia, it was also a chance for Tania to
demonstrate her skills as an actor. "My character
goes through a terribly desperate time in her
life," Tania explains. "I spent ten days
investigating the feelings of loss, frustration and
immense fear. But it was fantastic and my character was
very different from anything else I have played."
Despite becoming more and more high profile, Tania
manages to maintain a life away from the celebrity
circuit. Rather than believing celebrities should offer
something of themselves to their interested public,
Tania thinks the opposite should be the case. "My
private life is exactly that," she states. "I
believe as an actor you have a commitment to the work
you do. The less the audience knows about the person you
are, the more they can believe in what you are doing on
stage or on screen."
Unluckily for Tania, it seems unlikely that she will be
able to remain relatively anonymous for much longer.
"I know I will have made it," she laughs,
"if they bring back the Muppets and I'm a guest on
the show!".
Club Le Monde is released on October 11.
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