Elizabeth Andrewartha, Actress

I come to see Elizabeth on a Monday afternoon, that bears the signs of a classic London winter – extremely windy, sort of sunny, rain imminent. Having made my way to North London I am relieved to be welcomed by Lizzy and a cup of coffee in a warm and colourful flat. The colour scheme of her living room and bedroom catches my eye instantly – it’s a perfect blend of rich purples, blues and greens and sprinkled with tasteful handmade cushions (made by her mum!). Elizabeth is relaxed, expressive and charming.

She was nominated for the interview by Theresa, who met her in high school in the United States, where they were the only two Europeans at the time. Lizzy is in fact half American (from mum’s side) and half English (from dad’s). The career in acting was not her first and obvious choice and she spent her younger teenage years wanting to be a marine biologist, hence the allure of the boarding school, who organised boat trips to Bahamas, during which students where able to get some real experience.  However, as is the way with Life, as soon as Elizabeth got there, she became involved with school theatre and became immersed into the world of drama, so much so that she never actually made it onto that boat.

From there it was onto acting studies at Fordham University at Lincoln Centre in New York, followed by studies at RADA in London. Elizabeth decided to move back to London, because that’s where all the writers and directors that she loves and where the people she most hopes to collaborate with are based. It’s been three years since her graduation and Elizabeth is currently paying her bills working as a video game voiceover artist. It allows her to do theatre work. She has done a few short films, but theatre is where it’s really at for her. In her own words, “…theatre is my love. The five minutes before you go on stage you literally have this panic attack, when you’re just like ‘why am I doing this’ and then you walk out on stage and you just get hit with this rush of energy from the audience, from the people you’re working with, you get sucked into what you’re doing. It’s just the most amazing high.” And so with that’d little résumé done, I move on to my (so I’ve been told) excruciating questions!

Do you think that life is a play and, if so, do you have the script?

Haha, all the world’s a stage… Is life a play? You know what’s hilarious about that? I joke with my friends about this – there is a really brilliant episode in Sex and the City where Samantha refers to her life as where she’s the lead character of her own sitcom and she’s a guest star in everyone else’s life. But at the end of the day – ‘I am the lead character of my own show’. I don’t know… is life a play? For me it is. Because at the end of the day what I say, do, think or feel doesn’t really have an intense impact on the world. As much as I believe theatre and art change the world, me as an individual, my footprint probably won’t be the heaviest. I certainly don’t have the script. I wish I had a better writer. And if you know of anyone that’s free, please send them along. Maybe a really weird, surrealist, absurdist play.

Who were your role models (real and/or fictional) when you were little? What about now?

I had this person’s pictures all over my walls – Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Without a doubt. She was one of my first role models. You look at Buffy and she overturns all expectations. She appears like this dumb, pretty, blonde girl… and absolutely not – she will kick your ass. She surpasses all expectations. I just love that show. She’s funny, smart, surrounded by smart people, I wanted those people in my life, I wanted to be dating a really a hot sexy old vampire. I must have been about ten-eleven and my love for Buffy still remains, very much to this day. Kickass woman.

I’ve been very fortunate with the fact that two biggest role models in my life are my parents. My mother and my father are the most amazing people. My mum terrifies me as a woman, because you always read about ‘how does a woman have it all’ and my mum actually does have it all. She is disgustingly happily married to my father, she is a very successful high powered business woman, she went to see me in every single play I ever did, she never missed my brother’s rugby games, she’s just the most incredibly supporting, loving human being, she gives time away for charity work, she works for human rights organisation, I’d like to work for sometime called Liberty/Common Purpose, she gives readings at church, she bakes. She literally encompasses what is supposed to be like a “modern woman” and that terrifies me because I think – the point of that ideal is that it’s unachievable, but she just is perfect. And she’s also the best person to sit around with and have a glass of wine with. So it’s incredibly frustrating to have to live up to that and she’s just so kind and lovely.

You’d have to go really far to find someone who’d have a bad word to say about my mum, where as my dad is completely opposite – you wouldn’t have to go far at all. But that would be so wrong. My dad is very much a working class British guy who flew helicopters for the Royal Navy, but then his eyesight went and he went to do computer science, worked at the Science Museum, where he was the curator for the Aeronautics division, and then from that, I don’t know how this happened, but he became a PR writer. When I was eight and my brother was ten, my parents sat down and they were like “the kids are getting to a stage now, when they just need someone at home”. So they compared their pay checks and my dad said “fine, I’ll be a stay at home dad”. So he gave up his very successful speech writing career, to raise me and my brother, while my mum worked. And there is not one chip on my dad’s shoulder about it.He says “yes,that’s what I did – your mother and I are a partnership”. And it is just the most extraordinary thing. 

I feel like as a woman I am so privileged, because I have this incredibly strong hardworking mother who’s also able to be a mother and a dad who’s also able to be  a dad. My dad is a man of honour. If he sees a woman being treated badly on the tube, he will be the one to stand up. 

What do you value most in yourself? And in others?

It’s probably mostly the same things: loyalty, having an opinion. I don’t care if you are crazy, xenophobic, fascist, racist, islamophobe… If that’s your opinion, then I can fight it. I just don’t understand people that just don’t care about the world, and what’s going on in it. What I find genuinely terrifying, that’s happening now in society, is that there are a lot of people with opinions who do keep it inside and their opinions should be out there, so that they can be argued. That’s just what I’m like – I love a good debate. Because how do you change? I argue, because I want to change -that’s how I learn: by talking about things, and reading things and meeting new and interesting people. There’s nothing better than losing an argument, when someone says something that makes you look from a different point of view. I think it’s mean of people to uphold their opinions and the possibility for me to grow as a person haha!

Being a descent human is something I value a lot and I think it’s dying.  There was a really great play about this at the National called “Can we talk about this?” It was fascinating. In the middle of the play in this thousand-seat theatre they asked everyone “Who here thinks that they are morally superior to (I think it was) the Al-Qaeda raise your hands.” No-one raised their hand. You know who raised her hand? My mum did. Why do we feel uncomfortable? There are things going on in this world that are morally reprehensible. When I say morally, its not coming out of Christian, Judaic or Islamic dogma. I’m talking about a moral code as a thinking, feeling human being. There is no religious, political, social, theoretical argument that you can make about putting your values over someone else, but if their values are trying to infringe your mind, than yes, we have a problem.

I also value a good laugh, good sense of humour, sarcasm. Being able to laugh at things and the stupidity and wonderful things in life. Capacity for love is very important.

What was the hardest decision you had to make?

I’m so decisive. I don’t tend to mull over things…. Hmmm…

Honestly, probably… I was in the relationship with, what probably any woman would say, was the perfect partner. He was just generous, loving, supportive, just perfect. I loved him, but I wasn’t in love with him anymore. So deciding that I would rather live my life alone and looking for what my parents have, was more important to me, than just living my life and being happy and content. 

What’s the most ambitious thing that you have accomplished?

I made a Thanksgiving meal to 20 people in this flat. Yes. I legitimately think that’s my biggest accomplishment to date.  I had a 22-pound turkey, all the sides and trimmings, and 20 people in this flat eating, drinking and being merry. It was one of the most stressful experiences in my life, but the turkey was perfectly cooked, pumpkin pie was all eaten, everyone was happy.

What is success for you?

Success for me is being able to support myself in my chosen career. If I can make a living off being actor, then that’s success to me. But that’s obviously limited to a work sphere. Success for me would be when I die, if I think I’ve left the world a little better place than when I found it. 

Five famous people at your dinner party. Who are they?

Well I just told you I can cook a great dinner, so I can have 20 haha!

Ruth Bader Ginsburg, definitely, has to come. She is a Supreme Court Justice and she is a bad-ass. Some of her dissenting opinions are just hilarious. She’s just a great woman and a great judge. I even have a shirt with her picture that says what would RBG do?

Sarah Kane. She was a playwright, who committed suicide after her fifth play. She’s a real Marmite playwright, very visceral, very brutal, but I think she’s one of the most beautifully poetic writers in the world and she really sees humanity. If you have a chance, read her play Blasted. It’s extraordinary. I would love to speak to her.

Joss Whedon. He seems like – give him a bottle of bourbon and he could go all night. I would love to see him having a conversation with Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali. She’s a feminist, human rights worker, who is famous because she was in the film Submission. She survived forced marriage, genital mutilation and moved to Holland. She now lives in the states, because there are probably twenty fatwas against her. She’s very strident, very active, beautiful writer, she’s incredible. She believes that the only way that there’s going to be a serious revolution within the Islamic community it has to be female lead. It’s got to be female uprising.

Douglas Adams – my favourite author. Hitchhiker’s Guide to Galaxy was one of the most brilliant things I’ve ever read.

What advice do you wish someone had given you when you were a teenager?

To be honest, I had a pretty good advice from my parents, it was “Do your best and do what makes you happy.” I would probably tell myself to listen to it more.

I’d also say – “You’re not fat! It doesn’t matter, eat the goddamn cookie!”

The best and worst things about my job are…

The best thing about my job is that I get to play all the time, I get to play make-believe, I don’t have to grow up, a bit like Peter Pan… I meet the most incredible people and I get to have the most fun. It’s like being a kid, I get paid for being a kid, which is amazing.

The worst thing is probably the lack of control at the moment. So much of it is other people’s opinions and luck and work schedules…  Also as a stage actor, I would like to get paid a little bit more. The stage doesn’t pay very well. Unless you’re in West End, then you’re golden.

The unemployment, being the ‘resting actor’… No, the worst thing about my job is going to dinner party and being asked “so what are you doing?” I’m an actor. “What have I seen you in?” Then, if you’re fortunate enough, you start listing the things and they just go “no, I haven’t seen that, no I haven’t seen that either…” Then why did you ask me? Acting is a very personal career… It’s weird, it’s a bit like well what do you do? What kind of spreadsheet did you work on today?

What would your 5-year-old self think about you now?

She’d probably wonder why I wear so much make up. I was a proper tomboy as a kid. “Why you’re so girly?” and “Stop being so stressed out, play more, climb a tree, stop taking yourself so seriously.”

Describe yourself in the words of someone who’s in love with you.

Well I’m in love with myself so that’s easy haha!..

Right… Love is the compromise of putting up with all of the amazing things about someone and all their shit qualities. I suppose I’d like to think that people who are in love with me would say – protective, maternal, feisty, stubborn, generous, good cook, bad snuggler.

And, the question from Theresa: are you happy?

Am I happy? No. And yes. Happy is a very simple word. I am grateful, excited, dissatisfied, I’m everything. But happy? There’s a really great quote and I can’t remember who wrote it, but it says “Acting is divine dissatisfaction.” I think that’s what my life is, especially at the moment. What I mean by that is, if I think if I was just happy, then there would be something wrong. Happy to me seems stagnant. I’m constantly driving, I want to do more things. If I’ve done this, then I want to do this next, and I should have read that… I’m constantly dissatisfied, but contently so.

There’s nothing I would change in my life. so I guess in that respect I’m happy. Doing the job I love, living in one of the most notoriously hard cities, London makes you work for her, and I love it here. I have the most supportive family, I have incredible friends, I’m young, I have all my limbs and senses, so yeah I’m happy, and I want to be more happy and I don’t think I’ll ever finish wanting to get there if that makes sense.