Ruth Jones and Joanna Page mistaken for hookers filming Gavin and Stacey
Men "accosted" Ruth Jones and Joanna Page and thought they were sex workers when the actresses filmed the first episode of Gavin and Stacey.
Ruth Jones and Joanna Page were mistaken for hookers when they filmed Gavin and Stacey.
Men "accosted" the actresses and thought they were sex workers because Joanna and Ruth were dressed in cheap clothing for a scene in the opening episode when Stacey (Joanna) and Vanessa 'Nessa' Jenkins (Ruth) first meet Gavin Shipman (Mathew Horne) and Neil 'Smithy' Smith (James Corden).
Speaking at the launch of her new memoir, Lush!, in Somerset, Joanna revealed: "Ruth and I actually got mistaken for prostitutes when we were filming because I was dressed in tight white jeans and Ruth was dressed as Nessa.
"We were filming in Leicester Square and we basically got accosted on the way to the toilet. And Ruth said, ‘Excuse me ... but we are serious actresses.'"
Elsewhere, Joanna recalled the time when working on a theatre job, she was "sexually bullied" by one actor, and another actor on a different project.
Speaking to Bryony Gordon on her The Life of Bryony podcast, she said: "I can always speak up for myself, but there have been moments where I've gone completely mute.
"There was a time working with one actor in the theatre, and oh my God, he was so full on and degrading in the language he used towards me.
"I told him that nothing was going to happen between us, and the way he dealt with that was by being so derogatory.
"Then, on a different job – I had a scene with this fellow, just me and him. The sexual language he used … it was so awful, it wasn't banter.
"I remember calling the producers and saying: 'I think I have been sexually bullied."
And one theatre director walked into her dressing room while she was naked and kissed her while she clutched a curtain around herself.
She recalled: "I had to stay there and wait it out until he left.
"I just said to myself, I am not letting this curtain go and will wait for it to be over. There was such a huge power imbalance."
Even now, Joanna has faced "uncomfortable" situations but she has not reported the incidents in case she was deemed "difficult" to work with and lost jobs as a result.
She said: "I do think actresses have more control now, and you do have a number on call sheets now you can phone if you feel you're being bullied or something uncomfortable has happened.
"But I still think this industry is so floaty and all over the place. It's run by men with money.
"I have been on jobs at this age, where uncomfortable things are going on – you know, ways you are spoken to.
"If I call that number on the call sheet – what is actually going to happen? The next day, you turn up and has that person just disappeared?
"Then everybody knows: you become the person responsible for them going, and that's quite a frightening thing to take on board.
"Directors have come up to me and said, 'Look, do you want me to have a word?'
"I just go, 'No, absolutely not. That will make it really difficult for me work-wise. I'll sort it out myself out now – and that's recently, like now.'"
