EXCLUSIVE: SHOWTRIAL SEASON 2 DIRECTOR JULIA FORD TALKS DIRECTING, ACTING AND TRUE CRIME 

Over the Shoulder was delighted and lucky to sit down with the multitalented actress turned director Julia Ford to discuss her experience at the helm of BBC’s hit courtroom drama SHOWTRIAL. Julia began a successful stage and screen career in the 1980’s before moving to her real love, directing.

Julia offered great insight into the directing craft and the processes involved in making a blockbuster series and much more too…here we go

Season 2 of SHOWTRIAL has been a massive success. How did the opportunity to direct this come about? 

 I had done a show called Until I Kill You, for a company called World Productions. The Producers Ken Horn and Simon Heath asked me if I wanted to come in for an interview for ShowTrial. I accepted and then they offered it to me, which was fabulous. 

You had a great cast; did they need much direction and was there room for improvisation?

They were just brilliant right from the start! I tend to approach directing from “I wait and see what people do and if they want to ask me things, then I’ll do my best to answer.” 

I’ll let them know if I think it’s not working or if something’s going away from the story, but generally I’ll just encourage people to do what they do. When you’ve got people like Adeel Akhtar who’s just such an incredible actor its easy.

The whole cast were fantastic. Our main characters were all phenomenal, Michael Socha and Adeel worked brilliantly together. They would just be free, and they’d riff off each other which was lovely.

In terms of improvising, we didn’t improvise in the sense of making up the words. They might throw the odd little word in, but we had a great script to work with. In terms of them trying different things, yeah, they just tried things out and I think as an actor, you soon realise if it’s working or not, so it’s better just to try it. 

 Are you a one, two take type of director or do you like numerous takes?

 I’m not one of those directors who makes actors do two lines 180 times because I think we’d all lose the will to live! I don’t really have a rule, you just do it until you feel it’s right. I would say most of the time, it might be a two take, but then you’ll do shots from a different side.

You’ll end up in your edit with maybe six versions or something, but I wouldn’t be wanting to do it too many times, because often in the edit you go back to the first one anyway. 

Did you direct the series one episode at a time, or did you move back and forth in the timeline? 

We did the five episodes all at the same time. We tried to keep it in sequence as much as we could. We filmed as much of episode one as we could and then progressed into two, three, four and five. 

 It’s about two and a half weeks an episode and we worked straight the way through.

Did you edit SHOWTRIAL as you went along or at the end of shooting? 

Our editor, Alex Fountain started editing on day one of the shoot. Every day he would assemble all the scenes that we shot that day. He would get the rushes in at lunchtime of what we shot in the morning and if, say we shot three scenes he’d then edit those in the afternoon. 

Next morning, he’d work on what we shot the afternoon before. At the end of the week on a Friday morning he’d then send the “weekly assembly”. This is all the scenes we’ve shot that week, edited together.

 When we finish shooting then I’ll start working on the “fine cut” with the editor. You start with the assembly, where you watch the whole episode and gradually you work through it from the beginning to end. You might cut things, or you might reorder things and some scenes you might not touch again.

Was Screenwriter Ben Richards on the set much? 

He was very involved in the early stages because he wrote it all, but also in terms of meetings about the script and casting etc. 

He would watch assemblies, and he would offer feedback if he had any thoughts on anything. But in terms of visiting the set, he only came once.

You have proven to be a great director of suspense; are there any specific techniques you use in directing thrillers? 

 I think it’s just the story and where the characters are in their journey. I think that’s the same whatever you’re doing. It’s building the surprise and the atmosphere. That can be with the lighting, the sound or the music. I think more than anything for me, whether it’s a comedy or a thriller or any other genre, it’s the story and where the character is at that time that’s important. 

Are there any other genres that you haven’t directed that you would like to do?

Oh, that’s a good one!  I really would like to do a musical.

 What musical remake would you want to?

I don’t know about remake. I really enjoyed Emilia Perez which is an unusual kind of musical and I love Billy Elliot and West Side Story.  There’s not really a genre that I don’t like.

Are you a true crime fan? 

 I’m not really. I find them quite disturbing; it feels very dark to keep going into the minds of seriously deranged, disturbed violent individuals. 

I am a fan of true-life stories and a lot of them do end up being crime stories. I suppose because true life is often stranger than fiction! 

What I loved about Until I Kill You as a project was that it focused more on the victim or the survivor rather than the serial killer. 

You already had a successful career as an actor before you began directing. Was being in the director’s chair always in the back of your mind?

 I think probably on some deep level, because old friends from when we’d all sit around in our twenties said I used to go on about how I’d like to direct one day.

I don’t really remember that, but clearly, I must’ve said it! At some point in my life when I was about 40, I thought, well, what have you got to lose? 

I’m so glad I did because I just love it so much more. I loved acting when I first started, and it gave me life experiences. Right at this moment though, I’m so glad I’m directing because I just love it. I absolutely love it.

Which directors do you most admire?

People who I came across in my life. There was a theatre director called Howard Davies. I loved how he worked because in his productions you could never really see Howard in them. He always told the story well and it was always a good production.  There was a radio director called Marilyn Imrie too.  Last year, Molly Manners was just phenomenal directing, How to have Sex. 

 I love the Andrea Arnold films like, Red Road. Jane Campion and the old films of Billy Wilder, there are loads. 

I hope I am not wrong, but I think your last acting role was in 2017, do you miss it? 

 I don’t miss it at all. Very occasionally, if we’re filming and I need to go into the actor’s green room to give a note or to say something, if they’re having a particularly good laugh in there, I say, “can I sit with you for a minute?”

I used to be very nervous acting. There’s a lot of pressure and things to worry about as a director and there’s a big responsibility, but it’s different.

It feels different without a camera on you. You can go behind the scenes and just be you. I feel more comfortable behind the camera than in front of it.

You have a Jimmy McGovern project coming up can you tell me when it starts filming and what it is about?

 It’s an hour and 45 minutes long single drama. Jimmy McGovern really is my hero. I can’t believe that I was able to direct one of his projects.

It stars Anna Friel, Anna Maxwell Martin, Bobby Schofield and David Threlfall. It’s set in Liverpool and all I can really tell you is that it is the story of a sex abuse case and how its ripples affect a family.

It’s in post-production and it’ll be out I think this year.

Over the Shoulder would like to thank Julia for spending time with us out of her hectic schedule. I hope Julia found the chat as much fun as we did, it was so informative.

I hope Julia can come back soon, so we can find out what new exciting projects she is working on. 

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