Everybody's Talking About Jamie star Ivano Turco shows off his Sheffield accent and shares what he brings to Jamie New

The Star, Sheffield

Transcript

00:00 JME is very different because it's the first time that I've actually got to play a gay character

00:06 whereas all the other ones before like a Rasta man and a prince and stuff like that it's never

00:14 it's never it could never really equate to like being something like JME. I'll drop it now. A lot

00:20 of people just think it's like a general northern or like a Yorkshire accent is where a lot of

00:24 people fall into the pockets but they were very on it about policing us that you know we need to

00:29 represent accordingly which is only fair. It is a not to sound like I'm regurgitating this information

00:37 but it's a coming-of-age story I think that's a very appropriate you know term for it about a

00:45 16 year old boy who is on the precipice of the next chapter of his life and we follow JME as he's

00:56 just trying to navigate you know the his wants of wanting to be a drag queen. I was liking it to like

01:02 a Wizard of Oz kind of thing like you know they all teach him you know how to have the courage and

01:10 how to have the brains and the heart to be able to follow his you know his dream and his passion

01:16 but I wouldn't give any more than that away. We hit the road in September and then we've just

01:22 been playing I think we're nearly we've played over 200 shows now so we're on the last leg of

01:28 our tour which is tiring but it's good and it's nice to have Sheffield at this point of it because

01:33 it's just like another you know kick to like finish high and strong now that we're like finally here

01:39 in the hometown it just it feels like liberating in a kind of way because like the script is so

01:44 specific to Sheffield audiences as well so you know playing some of the jokes and they don't

01:49 really quite land the same way. Parsons Cross, that is a everyone loves that one but every time

01:57 we've played that in the tour so far like it's just been crickets like it's just been silent

02:02 because everyone's just like you know what is that but here like everyone's just like

02:06 that's so funny. It started when I was I was actually doing Angela Webber's Cinderella

02:15 in town that was my first job kind of outside of college and towards the end of the run you know I

02:21 just met with the producers and creators of the show because they you know they were like oh we've

02:28 had our eye on you for a very long time so like they came to me with this offer like a year in

02:33 advance before we were ever going to hit the road so it was quite a long time coming for me in that

02:38 sense but it feels liberating for me because it's the first time I've actually been able to play a

02:42 queer story as well and you know I'm really all about pushing fronts for queer black people in

02:48 our industry especially. It is the closest closest to me I guess in a sense. How so? What are those

02:58 similarities? Well well first of all because he's gay and you know that's to be able to live that

03:05 kind of truth on stage it is so priceless in itself. When I first like found out about this

03:14 show I was still in college but you know I'll be frank and say I just thought oh it's you know

03:20 another role for a queer white person to be able to go and you know show up and show out on the

03:28 stage so I was a bit like that that could be fun but you know and I put it to the side and then

03:34 when I see how like you know the how diverse the casting became I then got really excited because

03:40 I was like okay now I want to come and inject what I can do. The good thing about it being done

03:48 before by so many other people is that you know you you see the ground that has been covered

03:56 and then I kind of look at it to be like okay where do I want to take it now that it hasn't

04:00 been taken before so I studied a lot about like how the other Jamie's presented and what theirs

04:10 stood for because every Jamie I think specifically the actors I think we all represent very different

04:17 sectors of the queer community like we're all not the same at all so I wanted to represent like

04:25 myself and my sector in a sense of that you know I didn't want Jamie to be this over the top

04:34 flamboyant like entity like of just energy that was on the stage that kind of lived away from

04:42 the actual reality of the world I really wanted to ground him

04:46 in the world make him seem like he is just as normal as everybody else

04:54 um you know for me and it's it's counterproductive I guess at first but I think it

05:01 worked in the long run I wanted to play the show for homophobic people in a sense because

05:09 gay people love the show allies love the show allies um but we can't shy away from the fact

05:19 that there are going to be parents who are just bringing their kids to come and watch the show

05:22 because they just want to watch it there's going to be other people that are coming and they have

05:26 no idea what the show is about so I kind of wanted to also have that audience in mind because

05:32 the importance is changing their minds and changing their hearts going forward because

05:38 we've really got everybody else on side not to pander to the homophobic people but just to let

05:44 them know that like we're really human too do you know I mean we're really really down to earth too

05:50 and it's you can see the humanity in that and that's why I wanted to make him laddie at times

05:57 because then you could be like oh yeah that's funny because yeah like everyone has so many layers

06:04 to them it's not just one note and I definitely didn't want to make him one note that was that

06:09 was my goal I definitely dance it a lot more I love to dance and I was trained as a dancer so

06:16 I really wanted to you know some of the points where the jamies wouldn't be as involved in what

06:23 in the choreography as the ensemble and stuff I've definitely injected into that because I want to

06:27 continue with this narrative of he's just like everybody else I do love musical theatre

06:33 but I do feel like sometimes the vocal can get a little bit mundane

06:40 and I wanted the score to feel like you were listening to a chart album I wanted it to feel

06:48 like bumpy and current and like with the times I wanted it to to touch people in a certain type

06:56 of way as opposed to you know just I was gonna be shady but I'm not gonna be shady but yeah I

07:03 wanted it to sound like it was an R&B album that could have dropped like a year ago if people have

07:08 seen the show previously seen it in years gone by should they come again 100% 100% no question

07:18 and I feel like if you've got to the end of this interview and you still don't feel like that then

07:23 girl I don't know go see Les Mis I guess but like it is it is so different and you know like even

07:31 from the cast that we've had that we built we've all kind of sat in this pocket of reality and I

07:38 feel like it has such a different nuance to the whole thing and you know I'm not the only one like

07:47 in the cast that kind of like is standing 10 toes and this like reality thing like we want to make

07:52 it real because that's so important to me I wanted to be able to have a new demographic of people be

07:58 able to relate to all of these characters you know on stage so I think it is definitely worth

08:06 getting a ticket because you'll be missing out and you don't even know it

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