No.1 for Interviews - Dawn Steele
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Dawn Steele was best known as Monarch of the Glen’s Lexie. But her recent stint in Wild at Heart changed that and also got her up close and personal with some wild animals!
The actress Dawn Steele was born in Glasgow, she found fame after starring in the hit drama Monarch of the Glen. Monarch finished in 2004 after a five-year run, Dawn then moved onto the paranormal Sea of Souls before starring in a celebrity series of Fame Academy. She won rave reviews for her performance in Rainbow Kiss at the Royal Court Theatre in the London’s West End in 2007.
Most recently Dawn took over from Amanda Holden in ITV’s Wild at Heart where she played a single mother and a vet called Alice Collins. In the drama feisty Alice had been working as a locum in South Africa, before she went to help vet Danny Trevanion who needed someone to work alongside time, tackling an outbreak of rabies. But Danny soon discovered he had taken on more than he bargained for! Dawn lives in London full-time with her partner Paul and her Irish terrier Murphy.
This was not your first trip to Africa was it? You actually moved there as a child…
My uncle Donny had emigrated there a few years before. At the time my dad was an alarms engineer, so we sold the house, gave the dog to the postman and moved to Johannesburg! It was at the height of apartheid and my mum was pregnant with my brother. But that way of living wasn’t for them. I can’t remember anything of our time there. We only lasted five or six months before we moved back to Scotland, and stayed with my granny because of course we’d sold our house.
How did you cope with the role in Wild at Heart, the upheaval of filming in Africa?
I’m an actor; that’s been my life: Missing my friends’ weddings and birthdays. I’m always working away from home; it’s very, very rare that you get a job where you’re able to stay in your own bed! It wasn’t like Monarch of the Glen, where I could get to Glasgow every second weekend!
In your other roles you were part of the original cast. Was it strange going into a developed series?
I was quite nervous about it, because every series I’ve done, I’ve been there from the beginning and you’re always very aware of new or guest actors coming in but very quickly, they made me feel at home. It was like Monarch in that way, you’re part of a family. And I think that after doing the show for three years, it’s quite nice to have new people coming in.
Did you enjoy playing the part of a vet?
I’d be a terrible real vet. I kept crying while working with the animals; I’m a bit of a baby at things like that. One of the baby zebras died just before we left, and I was crying. Dr Alice Collins wouldn’t have been like that!
But I must admit, when I was doing the vet work, I thought, ‘I’d love to do this for a job,’ but I’m not smart enough, to be honest. My favourite bit of playing a vet is getting all ‘the greens’ on – the gowns, the mask and the hat, before the animals come in. It makes me feel important and that I’ve got a job that’s worthwhile and I’m saving lives!
How would you describe your character?
Alice is quite straight compared to the characters I normally play; for a start, she’s very intelligent. She’s a young single mum and an interesting character because there’s a lot you don’t know about her. She’s quite mysterious when she comes into the series, but then lots of things unwind as it goes on.
She is headstrong and determined, very organised but keeps everything in, which is the total opposite of me!
Was it frightening working with such a range of animals?
You see the animals all the time, they’re all around the farm, so you would just get used to them. It wasn’t scary, just exciting.
I never felt in massive danger; a lot have been hand-raised but you still just need to remember that they are wild animals. You’ve just got to be really brave about it and I think I’m quite a brave, confident person.
On my first day I had a rifle, a baby elephant and I was working with a young girl who played my daughter!
We heard you made friends with a giraffe?
Hamley the giraffe thinks he’s a dog and couldn’t wait ‘til filming started. He’d turn up on set randomly, so we’d have to stop filming; he chased everyone and wanted to sit on people’s laps.
He just wanted to be there. And in the storm episodes towards the end of the series, he is just amazing, when Stephen is unconscious on the ground.
Did you ever get lonely?
Not really as my family came out and Paul came out too but I did miss the dog! In fact Paul came out twice so it was a great opportunity as we got to go to Cape Town and Mozambique and all sorts of amazing places. I certainly can’t complain, it was one of those once in a lifetime opportunities.
Do you ever miss Glasgow?
I never get to really miss Scotland. Mum and dad are still there and as soon as I moved to London, I got the role in Sea of Souls, and did six months in Glasgow. I also did panto there last year.
I was up in Glasgow only a few weekends ago, we stayed at the Hotel du Vin – they take dogs which is great and they love Murphy they treat him like a star. We had a night out on the Friday and the Saturday and we went to the King’s Theatre.
I’ve still got very strong ties with Scotland, but I love living in London; it makes my life so much easier, and it’s warmer!
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