Emilia: ‘Sharing My Life Is A Work In Progres
I filmed my first ever lesbian kiss this year.
I was playing Portia, the novelist lover of Alex Kingston’s character Blanche Mottershead in Upstairs Downstairs. In the story, we had been lovers before and I came back into her life. The kiss wasn’t in the script, but Alex and I discussed it and decided we were going to go for it. It was a full-on kiss, because there was no point being half-hearted about it, and it worked in terms of taking the scene to another level.Changing your hair colour is one of the quickest ways of creating a new adventure for yourself.I am a natural, albeit highlighted, blonde, but to play Portia I had to become a redhead and I’m loving it. It takes you out of your comfort zone because once you change your hair, you need to change your make-up and rethink your clothes. But the best bit is the reaction you get from people who might have a preconception of you. I’m loving walking into meetings and seeing people doing a double-take. It demonstrates that I am versatile and stops them pigeonholing me. As an actress, that is very useful.








