08/14/2024
"When I was approaching 50 in 1994 I was working in a betting shop in Catford, south- east London and wondering where my life was going, when out of the blue my younger brother, Hollywood actor Gary Oldman, offered me a job as his driver.
He said he was writing and directing a film about a working-class family coping with serious difficulties on a south London council estate.
That film, in which Kathy Burke, Ray Winstone and Charlie Creed-Miles later starred, was Nil By Mouth, and featured hard-hitting subjects such as drug and alcohol addiction and domestic violence.
A lot of the scenes were inspired by real-life events in our own family, and from the start I felt a special connection with Janet, the mother of two of the lead characters.
One evening when I was driving Gary back to his hotel he said the actress playing Janet wasn't quite right for the part. 'I'll have to replace her,' he said.
Then he paused and looked at me. 'But you could do it Mogs,' he added, using his pet name for me. 'Me?' I snapped. 'I'm not doing it. I don't know anything about acting.' But he talked me into reading some of the dialogue aloud, and when I'd finished he was grinning from ear to ear. 'You're doing this!' he said, his eyes shining.
It was a shock to go from working in a betting shop to acting alongside a cast of top actors in a major film. Thankfully everyone was hugely supportive."
-Actress Laila Morse (a.k.a Maureen Oldman) on her acting debut.