TGtS Meets...Georgina Leonidas

Tell us a little bit about your role in Black Coffee…

I play Lucia, who's the wife of Richard. She has this fantastic back story that you learn more about as the play goes on. She's a great character to play and one that I can get my teeth into. There's a lot going on inside her head, so she's really fun to play. 

What attracted you to the part?

As soon as you see Agatha Christie on a script, you think to yourself "ok I want to be in this". She's a brilliant writer and the majority of parts that she's written for women are incredibly strong. I'd never read Black Coffee before, so reading the script was a lot of fun, it kept me guessing the whole way through. 

Growing up did you always want to become an actress?

It's always been something that I've loved doing, I have a brother and sister who act, so we started performing together from a young age. When I was about 12, I landed the role of Molly in The Basil Brush Show, it's one of the parts that I'm most recognised for, people still occasionally shout "boom boom" at me when I walk down the street. 

People will recognise you from Harry Potter, do you prefer being on stage or screen?

At the moment I'm really enjoying being on stage, but I would never want to do just one or the other. Most of the work I've done has been either TV and film, so it's nice to shake things up every now and then. With theatre I love that you can do something different every single night, it's a really exciting experience and nothing can beat the buzz that you get when you perform infront of a live audience. 

What was your highlight of working on Harry Potter?

Definitely working with the stunt department.  If I can, I love to do my own stunts. We filmed this amazing scene for The Deathly Hallows, where Katie gets cursed. The whole thing was shot under water, so I was lucky enough to have some diving lessons. Working on the Harry Potter films was a highlight in itself but being able to take away a new skill made the experience even better. 

Which actresses do you admire the most? 

Olivia Colman, I think that she's amazing. I saw her in Tyrannosaur and she absolutely blew me away. She's just great in everything that she does. 

When you're not on stage how do you like to spend your free time?

I've become quite the gamer actually. My brother and I always used to mess about on the Playstation as kids but as I've gotten older, I've become more and more addicted. More recently I've taken up knitting, but I'm not very good! I tried to knit my family socks last Christmas but they didn't exactly turn out as planned. 

Is there a role that you haven't played but want to?

I'd love to play Eustacia Vye in The Thomas Hardy novel, The Return of the Native. I first read it when I was taking my A Levels and absolutely fell in love with it. 

Who’s your celebrity crush and why?

There's a French actor called Romain Duris who I have a bit of a soft spot for, I've seen a couple of films and it's not just his acting that I appreciate! 

Aside from the tour, do you have any exciting projects or performances in the pipeline?

I filmed an episode of Father Brown a few weeks ago, which will air as part of season 3 next year. Funnily enough the title of the episode has the name of a beverage in it too, murders and drinks seem to be a bit of a theme with work at the moment.