British-born actor Elizabeth Henstridge, who stars as scientist Jemma Simmons on the Marvel show “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.,” chats about her training and the challenges of TV.
On her training.
“I was in the National Youth Theatre when I was very young, so that was my first kind of taste of what it might be like to do this for a living. Then I went to the University of Birmingham to do drama and theater arts. [Then finally], I went to East 15 Acting School in London, which is in the top five drama schools in England.”
On the challenges of doing television.
“You have no idea what’s going to happen half the time. The writers don’t know where exactly your character’s going to go or how they’re going to react to different things, or what’s going to do better with the audience. So relinquishing that control and finding the joy of turning up to work and reading the script and going, ‘Oh, that’s what we’re doing today’…. I find that challenging but very liberating.”
On encouraging camaraderie.
“This is an industry full of creative people, and everybody is wonderful in their own way. No one has it 100 percent, 100 percent of the time, so if you’re nervous or feeling insecure, odds are so are 90 percent of the people in the room you’re in. We’re all human beings, and we’re all just trying to make good art.”
On the cast dynamic.
“It’s a bit sad, really, because we’re all quite obsessed with each other and we have been since the start. We have the best executive producers and they’re so lovely and really supportive. We all hang out all the time. We’ll help each other with different auditions that we might have outside of the show, or we’ll meet up before events and go together—I feel very lucky to have that kind of camaraderie. If someone has an episode that’s centered on them, everyone else is really excited for them.”
On learning from Clark Gregg.
“Clark Gregg [Agent Phil Coulson] is the lead of our show, and he’s very much the lead of our cast and makes sure we’re all OK and gives us advice. He kind of sat down at the start of Season 1 and said, ‘Let’s stick together, because this is gonna be so much more fun if we do.’ And we have, and he was right. We feel like a team who can take on anything. He [also told me], ‘Just don’t read reviews. Don’t let that into your head.’ And I haven’t; I’ve never read a review and that’s been so helpful because everything is going to be subjective—especially something like TV, where it goes through the editing room and you do ADR and things get cut. All you can control and enjoy, really, is the process. The product you have very little control over, so it’s sort of focusing on what you do and what your craft is and just letting it go. That process of letting it go, for me, has been difficult, but it’s so much more fun when you do. You hear whispers of what people are saying, but as long as you don’t get obsessed with it…because that sucks the magic out of doing the work in the first place.”
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