Post by tomsgirl on May 31, 2007 19:49:57 GMT 1
' I love playing Emmerdale's man-eater'
Heartbreaker Jo Stiles is wreaking havoc in Emmerdale, and actress Roxanne Pallett wouldn't have it any other way. This week, she breaks up the Sugdens' marriage.
If Britain was asked to select its top soap temptress of 2007, you would get short odds on Emmerdale''s Jo Stiles scooping the top prize. Sexy and spontaneous, the petite femrne fatale has left a trail of devastation in the Dales since making her first appearance in 2005.
Roxanne Pallett, the stunning young actress who plays her, hopes that more man-eating mayhem is on the way.
"Jo's been mixing it up recently and I love it - she's been a bunny boiler and a bitch. It's what she does best," she laughs.
Former vet's assistant Jo has left a trail of destruction, playing with men's hearts since her arrival in the village.
Her latest trick has been stealing love-struck Andy Sugden from his young wife Katie. Love is blind for the besotted farmer, who fell for Jo despite the fact she slept with his father, Billy, before they got together. But in this week's episodes, Jo really tests his feelings for her. She books an appointment with a lawyer to push through his divorce to Katie and then announces her engagement to Andy - without consulting him!
But Roxanne doesn't believe her character deliberately tries to create trouble and is not trying to sabotage her relationship with Andy.
"It started out as a challenge and a game to lure him away from Katie, but now she really does love him," Roxanne insists. "Her feelings have grown for him and he offers her a stability that she's never had."
Earlier this year, Jo's secret past came back to haunt her when her mum, Jackie, reappeared and accused her of lying about her abusive stepfather, turning the village against her.
"Jo ran away from home because her mum never believed her version of the story, but Andy did," the actress explains.
"When the accusations came out, everyone was prepared to wash their hands of Jo and he was the only one that stood by her. That was a turning point for her."
This week, when she is attacked verbally by both Val and Viv for being a troublemaker, Jo takes control and complains to Andy that she is sick of not being accepted in the village. She then shocks him by telling him she has booked an appointment with a divorce lawyer.
After his adoptive dad Jack advises Andy that his daughter Sarah needs security, Andy takes Katie for a drink and gently tells
her he wants a divorce. He insists that Katie and Jo a truce, but Katie is angry that the divorce is Jo's idea and winds her up by dismissing her relationship with Andy as a passing fling.
This backfires, however, when Jo armour that she and Andy are engaged.
"It's only because Jo feels threatened," Roxanne explains. "The daring things she does are quite endearing because they oftei stem from her insecurities. Under the heels and make-up, she is a little girl lost."
Jo's announcement is overheard in the Woolpack by village gossip Betty, and soor spreads to Jack and Andy, who is furious to be backed into a corner. Privately, he sai he won't be bullied into marrying her.
After they argue, Jo storms off with And wallet and blows £400 with his credit card But, later realising what she's done, she re home and apologises to Andy, who soften and says he does want to marry her after all.
"The whole experience reminds her of the stable life she had before Andy and she asn't like it," Roxanne explains. "She feels very guilty."
While Andy is not happy with her behaviour, d even more annoyed when he discovers she s blown their rent money, Roxanne thinks Jo's ipredictable nature is one of the reasons the rmer has fallen for her so hard. "Andy is used to Katie, who is like a puppet, it Jo offers him a sense of excitement - she is girl who acts first, then thinks later. I think er heart is in the right place but she just gets irried away sometimes," she smiles. "She's one of these people who are misunderstood. Before she knows it, people ave just written her off so she thinks, 'If you're
ping to treat me like that, then I'll act like that.'" In fact, Jo's sexy antics have made her such
icontroversial character that Roxanne reveals
hat while in a supermarket recently, she was hit
over the head by an old woman. "She told me to keep away from Andy and it was so funny! I took it as a
compliment, in a way. It means I
must be convincing on screen" She shrugs off the incident
with good humour.
"I love playing Jo because she's like an alter ego and I can lose all my inhibitions! She's had to be tough and act in an selfish way because she's been let down in the past and her mum wasn't there for her. She's very vulnerable underneath. But she is still competitive - she still has to win."
There is one similarity between Roxanne and her screen character: both are fiercely ambitious.
"There is a lot in my career that I want to explore," says the actress. "I'd love to work with different people and tackle projects in music, theatre and TV."
She admits she has always been driven and learnt to be independent from her mother Monica, who split
up with her Iranian husband when Roxanne was a baby.
"I couldn't be closer to my mum," she says. "She's like my best friend. I value her opinion more than anyone else's. She has never stopped me doing anything, so I have never hidden anything from her or had any secrets."
The actress was raised in Carlisle with her mum and her maternal grandmother, who died from a brain tumour when Roxanne was studying for her GCSEs.
"Even during my lowest lows, I carry on now. I think my grandmother is watching and I can't let her down. I'm so devastated she can't see me in Emmerdale."
She seems unconcerned about her father's absence in her life, and last year revealed in an interview that she didn't even know his name.
"When I was growing up, I never had the ideal 'TV family', but although we didn't have much money, I couldn't have had more love. Not having a dad and losing my grandma has played a part in who I am now. I probably do look at relationships differently. We're all a product of our past," she explains.
"I remember my mum and grandma both had to juggle different jobs. It means I'm not afraid of challenges and hard work. I give 100 per cent to whatever I'm committed to,
which is Emmerdale at the moment. I was always the first in the queue for an audition."
Roxanne has been career-orientated since her teens, when she set her sights on being a performer. While her friends were partying, she juggled her media studies degree at Liverpool John Moores University with performing in girlband Urban Angel, who were managed -by former East 17 singer Tony Mortimer. "I found out Tony's number through a producer friend and rang him up," she says. "I sang down the phone to him and flooded his voicemail! I was told I could sing well so I decided to set up my own band. I co-ordinated everything. But when we met record labels, they liked me but not the group. It was an awful feeling. I was trying to balance my music and finish my degree. The deal fell through."
We finally got to enjoy Roxanne's vocal talents when she took part in last year's series of ITVl's Soapstar Superstar - the show on which she also met her boyfriend, former Coronation Street actor Richard Fleeshman. He was the eventual winner of the talent contest and, 18 months later, the couple are still together.
She makes it clear she does not want to talk about her relationship with the 17-year-old heart-throb, who played Craig Harris, but it must be gratifying that she and Richard remain an item after the press attention they received about their six-year age difference.
"I'd prefer it if the publicity focused on my job. Who I'm dating is a part of my life that I want to keep for myself."
Although she does admit "my personal life is great, I couldn't be happier", the pair have not moved in together yet and Roxanne lives happily alone in her Manchester apartment.
"I love my girly pad," she beams, "it's very Sex And The Cityl I've always got friends round. My mum has bought a house nearby now and I'm about 15 minutes away from everyone special in my life - old friends from home and university."
But the actress gave her nearest and dearest a big scare late last year when her Peugeot 206 car was written off in a horrific accident after it smashed into a lamppost on the way to the Emmerdale studios in Leeds.
"I can't remember what happened because I lost consciousness," she says. "I hurt my back slightly and I had to stay in hospital overnight, but I was lucky to be OK. Everyone was there for me and I felt very loved.
"But it told me I had to slow down. I was trying to do too much and getting about four hours' sleep a night. That was my wake-up call and probably wouldn't have happened if I'd had more sleep and been healthier.
"Things like that are a reminder that you need to look after yourself a bit more. My mum was so worried!"
It was also her mother's support that got Roxanne through the trauma of being bullied at high school.
"My grandad is Italian, so I've always had darker skin than most people," she explains. "And at school this singled me out from the other kids. I was a bit of a tomboy, too, and I found it easier to get on with the boys. I think that was something to do with it."
It was when she signed up for after-school drama classes, which offered an escape from the bullies' taunts, that Roxanne discovered her passion for acting.
So now, as a successful actress, does she feel she has avenged her schoolyard tormentors?
"A few years ago, I would have thought, 'Ha!'" she replies. "I remember walking out of the classroom when they were laughing at me and thinking, Til show them!'.
"But now it's more, Til show myself.' I don't want to get anyone back."
My car accident
a wake-up
call. I was trying
to do too much
and not getting
enough sleep!
By Jane Oddy.
From Saturday Express magazine 19th May 2007.
Roxy is on the front cover & features on 3 pages.
Heartbreaker Jo Stiles is wreaking havoc in Emmerdale, and actress Roxanne Pallett wouldn't have it any other way. This week, she breaks up the Sugdens' marriage.
If Britain was asked to select its top soap temptress of 2007, you would get short odds on Emmerdale''s Jo Stiles scooping the top prize. Sexy and spontaneous, the petite femrne fatale has left a trail of devastation in the Dales since making her first appearance in 2005.
Roxanne Pallett, the stunning young actress who plays her, hopes that more man-eating mayhem is on the way.
"Jo's been mixing it up recently and I love it - she's been a bunny boiler and a bitch. It's what she does best," she laughs.
Former vet's assistant Jo has left a trail of destruction, playing with men's hearts since her arrival in the village.
Her latest trick has been stealing love-struck Andy Sugden from his young wife Katie. Love is blind for the besotted farmer, who fell for Jo despite the fact she slept with his father, Billy, before they got together. But in this week's episodes, Jo really tests his feelings for her. She books an appointment with a lawyer to push through his divorce to Katie and then announces her engagement to Andy - without consulting him!
But Roxanne doesn't believe her character deliberately tries to create trouble and is not trying to sabotage her relationship with Andy.
"It started out as a challenge and a game to lure him away from Katie, but now she really does love him," Roxanne insists. "Her feelings have grown for him and he offers her a stability that she's never had."
Earlier this year, Jo's secret past came back to haunt her when her mum, Jackie, reappeared and accused her of lying about her abusive stepfather, turning the village against her.
"Jo ran away from home because her mum never believed her version of the story, but Andy did," the actress explains.
"When the accusations came out, everyone was prepared to wash their hands of Jo and he was the only one that stood by her. That was a turning point for her."
This week, when she is attacked verbally by both Val and Viv for being a troublemaker, Jo takes control and complains to Andy that she is sick of not being accepted in the village. She then shocks him by telling him she has booked an appointment with a divorce lawyer.
After his adoptive dad Jack advises Andy that his daughter Sarah needs security, Andy takes Katie for a drink and gently tells
her he wants a divorce. He insists that Katie and Jo a truce, but Katie is angry that the divorce is Jo's idea and winds her up by dismissing her relationship with Andy as a passing fling.
This backfires, however, when Jo armour that she and Andy are engaged.
"It's only because Jo feels threatened," Roxanne explains. "The daring things she does are quite endearing because they oftei stem from her insecurities. Under the heels and make-up, she is a little girl lost."
Jo's announcement is overheard in the Woolpack by village gossip Betty, and soor spreads to Jack and Andy, who is furious to be backed into a corner. Privately, he sai he won't be bullied into marrying her.
After they argue, Jo storms off with And wallet and blows £400 with his credit card But, later realising what she's done, she re home and apologises to Andy, who soften and says he does want to marry her after all.
"The whole experience reminds her of the stable life she had before Andy and she asn't like it," Roxanne explains. "She feels very guilty."
While Andy is not happy with her behaviour, d even more annoyed when he discovers she s blown their rent money, Roxanne thinks Jo's ipredictable nature is one of the reasons the rmer has fallen for her so hard. "Andy is used to Katie, who is like a puppet, it Jo offers him a sense of excitement - she is girl who acts first, then thinks later. I think er heart is in the right place but she just gets irried away sometimes," she smiles. "She's one of these people who are misunderstood. Before she knows it, people ave just written her off so she thinks, 'If you're
ping to treat me like that, then I'll act like that.'" In fact, Jo's sexy antics have made her such
icontroversial character that Roxanne reveals
hat while in a supermarket recently, she was hit
over the head by an old woman. "She told me to keep away from Andy and it was so funny! I took it as a
compliment, in a way. It means I
must be convincing on screen" She shrugs off the incident
with good humour.
"I love playing Jo because she's like an alter ego and I can lose all my inhibitions! She's had to be tough and act in an selfish way because she's been let down in the past and her mum wasn't there for her. She's very vulnerable underneath. But she is still competitive - she still has to win."
There is one similarity between Roxanne and her screen character: both are fiercely ambitious.
"There is a lot in my career that I want to explore," says the actress. "I'd love to work with different people and tackle projects in music, theatre and TV."
She admits she has always been driven and learnt to be independent from her mother Monica, who split
up with her Iranian husband when Roxanne was a baby.
"I couldn't be closer to my mum," she says. "She's like my best friend. I value her opinion more than anyone else's. She has never stopped me doing anything, so I have never hidden anything from her or had any secrets."
The actress was raised in Carlisle with her mum and her maternal grandmother, who died from a brain tumour when Roxanne was studying for her GCSEs.
"Even during my lowest lows, I carry on now. I think my grandmother is watching and I can't let her down. I'm so devastated she can't see me in Emmerdale."
She seems unconcerned about her father's absence in her life, and last year revealed in an interview that she didn't even know his name.
"When I was growing up, I never had the ideal 'TV family', but although we didn't have much money, I couldn't have had more love. Not having a dad and losing my grandma has played a part in who I am now. I probably do look at relationships differently. We're all a product of our past," she explains.
"I remember my mum and grandma both had to juggle different jobs. It means I'm not afraid of challenges and hard work. I give 100 per cent to whatever I'm committed to,
which is Emmerdale at the moment. I was always the first in the queue for an audition."
Roxanne has been career-orientated since her teens, when she set her sights on being a performer. While her friends were partying, she juggled her media studies degree at Liverpool John Moores University with performing in girlband Urban Angel, who were managed -by former East 17 singer Tony Mortimer. "I found out Tony's number through a producer friend and rang him up," she says. "I sang down the phone to him and flooded his voicemail! I was told I could sing well so I decided to set up my own band. I co-ordinated everything. But when we met record labels, they liked me but not the group. It was an awful feeling. I was trying to balance my music and finish my degree. The deal fell through."
We finally got to enjoy Roxanne's vocal talents when she took part in last year's series of ITVl's Soapstar Superstar - the show on which she also met her boyfriend, former Coronation Street actor Richard Fleeshman. He was the eventual winner of the talent contest and, 18 months later, the couple are still together.
She makes it clear she does not want to talk about her relationship with the 17-year-old heart-throb, who played Craig Harris, but it must be gratifying that she and Richard remain an item after the press attention they received about their six-year age difference.
"I'd prefer it if the publicity focused on my job. Who I'm dating is a part of my life that I want to keep for myself."
Although she does admit "my personal life is great, I couldn't be happier", the pair have not moved in together yet and Roxanne lives happily alone in her Manchester apartment.
"I love my girly pad," she beams, "it's very Sex And The Cityl I've always got friends round. My mum has bought a house nearby now and I'm about 15 minutes away from everyone special in my life - old friends from home and university."
But the actress gave her nearest and dearest a big scare late last year when her Peugeot 206 car was written off in a horrific accident after it smashed into a lamppost on the way to the Emmerdale studios in Leeds.
"I can't remember what happened because I lost consciousness," she says. "I hurt my back slightly and I had to stay in hospital overnight, but I was lucky to be OK. Everyone was there for me and I felt very loved.
"But it told me I had to slow down. I was trying to do too much and getting about four hours' sleep a night. That was my wake-up call and probably wouldn't have happened if I'd had more sleep and been healthier.
"Things like that are a reminder that you need to look after yourself a bit more. My mum was so worried!"
It was also her mother's support that got Roxanne through the trauma of being bullied at high school.
"My grandad is Italian, so I've always had darker skin than most people," she explains. "And at school this singled me out from the other kids. I was a bit of a tomboy, too, and I found it easier to get on with the boys. I think that was something to do with it."
It was when she signed up for after-school drama classes, which offered an escape from the bullies' taunts, that Roxanne discovered her passion for acting.
So now, as a successful actress, does she feel she has avenged her schoolyard tormentors?
"A few years ago, I would have thought, 'Ha!'" she replies. "I remember walking out of the classroom when they were laughing at me and thinking, Til show them!'.
"But now it's more, Til show myself.' I don't want to get anyone back."
My car accident
a wake-up
call. I was trying
to do too much
and not getting
enough sleep!
By Jane Oddy.
From Saturday Express magazine 19th May 2007.
Roxy is on the front cover & features on 3 pages.