Helen Baxendale

Helen Baxendale in Swimming with Sharks, Johan Persson

Helen Baxendale is best known for starring as Rachel in ITV drama Cold Feet and US sitcom Friends, playing Ross’s fiancé Emily. And now she’s appearing in the West End alongside Christian Slater in Swimming With Sharks – a stage adaptation of the 1994 film starring Kevin Spacey - as Dawn Lockard the only character with integrity in a story filled with Hollywood monsters and the grimy politics of the movie business.

It’s a fitting role: Helen, 38,  may be high profile but she shuns the celebrity game and doesn’t like interviews ( “ It’s just not me, it doesn’t interest me at all,” ) and I’m expecting monosyllabic answers and the cold shoulder.
But, she’s friendly and down-to-earth, if a bit guarded.

That said, she’s pretty cut and dry about reading celebrity magazines or gossip.
“I make a purposeful attempt not to read them, they’re about all the wrong things. I read newspapers with news and books,” she says.

So, is she enjoying Swimming with Sharks?
“ It’s good fun, and really nice to be doing something creative.”
Is it a true reflection of Hollywood?
“ It’s a terrible reflection and not my experience at all,” she says, quite emphatically.

Indeed, when Helen was in Los Angeles filming Friends it was widely reported that she had a terrible time and the cast didn’t exactly live up to their series name ( something that Helen refutes.)
But, she has said that she’s far happier in her life now than back then.
“ I wasn’t really there long enough, to be fair, I didn’t give it a good enough go,” she explains.
“But now I am content, I’ve got a nice balance. I know that I’m really lucky and at the end of day I go home to my lovely family.” ( husband David Elliot and children Nell, nine, Eric, six and Vincent, one.)

And the nature of her job means that she can ( and does ) choose to have long stretches of time at home – although it could be argued that looking after three children is harder work that treading the boards.
So how does she find being a working mother?
“It’s very hard, but I think it’s important that you keep up your career. If people do choose to stay at home I totally respect that.
But, for me, it’s important for my children, especially my daughter, to see me working and doing what I’m passionate about, and to see that I have a life too.”

Has acting always been her passion?
“My first love was ballet. But I like being creative, I like growing cabbages! I wish that I was science-y. But I am quite interested in politics.”
And Helen is particularly concerned about the environment.
“It seems that we’re blindly going in our own sweet way. I really try to do something as an individual. We haven’t flown for two years as a family and, instead,  we drove to the South of France for our holiday.

Do the arts and creative industries do enough to highlight social, political and environmental issues?
“Well, I have a company  ( Shooting Pictures ) with my partner and we’ve just made a film, Beyond the Pole with Stephen Mannon  ( Green Wing )and Rhys Thomas ( The Fast Show ) about two men who walk to the North Pole to raise awareness of the environment and how we have to keep our carbon footprint down.
It was shot in Greenland and looks stunning, and it’s really funny,too.”

So it seems that Helen has got the work/ life/ social conscience balance down to a fine art.
But she’s still constantly toying with the idea of moving to the country; but leaving London, she says, would be a “ sacrifice. I couldn’t do this ( theatre ) and I do love my job.”
So what’s her next project?
“Nothing!” she declares happily. “ The close of the play is a long way off, and then I’ll have a little break.”

Maybe to kick back and read Heat magazine? Perhaps not!

Loma-Ann Bonner

Swimming with Sharks, Vaudeville Theatre, The Strand, London, WC2, until January 19th. Box Office 0870 890 0511

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