Her book will follow Page from her childhood in a small village near Swansea to graduating from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art – and landing the plum role as Stacey
Gavin and Stacey star Joanna Page is writing her life story – in a pub car park. Mother-of-four Page, 48, escaped to her car to find peace and quiet for her new book called Lush.
She is penning her secrets from her roles in the hit BBC sitcom set in Barry Island, South Wales, and romcom Love Actually starring Hugh Grant.
Her book will follow Page from her childhood in a small village near Swansea to graduating from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art – and landing the plum role as Stacey.
She said: “I love telling stories and it was very exciting thinking I’m going to write my life story because a lot of things have happened.
“But trying to do that while looking after four children and four guinea pigs and a hunky husband is quite hard work.
“So at five o’clock I’ll hand the kids over to James, make myself a quick cup of tea, grab a chocolate bar and drive to a little local pub that is just waiting to change hands, so nobody is going there.
“I’ll park in the car park, think of stories and write notes until 11.30 at night when I’ll start freaking out, thinking I’m going to get attacked.
“So then I will drive to the car park of this cricket pitch closer to our house and work until about 1.30 in the morning and it’s pitch black outside. When I think about it now it’s ridiculous.
“Then I drive home, park in front of the house and then, no word of a lie, continue to work in the car because if I go back inside, my youngest child Bo will wake up and then everyone will wake up, and I won’t be able to work at all.
“So I’ll work until five in the morning. At that point think, I’m near death and can’t go on any more. So I go inside, sleep for two hours, get up at 7 to get the kids ready for school and get on with the rest of the day with Bo.
“That’s where my life is at the moment.”
Welshwoman Page says writing the book has been “like a therapy session” as she prepares to open up to audiences.
She said: “It was very strange going back to the beginning. Thinking and talking of everything has been like a therapy session and quite liberating.
“But it does freak you out a bit as well, because I don’t think I’ve ever analysed myself this much before. I’m an impulsive person so to think about everything so much has been quite scary.”
The actress says she started filming Gavin and Stacey when she was just 29 and cried constantly during the filming of the final episode last year.
She added: “There was so much joy and so much laughter because we all knew this will be the last time that we’re here, playing these characters in these costumes, all together, doing this story.
“You think about how far all our lives have gone. I started it when I was 29, and for something to be there in the background for the whole of your life.
“And then, even though, Ruth and James would say to us, that’s it, it’s done, you’ve still got that feeling in the back of your head, oh surely, in a few years, there might be something. But now knowing that’s never going to happen again, it’s just so sad.”
Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
