Nicole Faraday
Plays
Snowball Merriman
TELL US A BIT ABOUT YOUR CHARACTER.
She has always aspired to be a Hollywood movie star. She’s obsessed with 50s icons like Marilyn Monroe, Jayne Mansfield. Barbara Stanwyck she admires very much. But she never quite made it, which is a constant annoyance. Therefore she likes to live her life as if she were in the movies, I feel. She likes to impress those around her with what a great actress she is, how glamorous and exciting her life would be – could be – if she’d had better breaks.
She trained as an actress, but the biggest part she ever managed to get in Hollywood was in a Pizza Hut commercial – a non-speaking waitress! Consequently she decided that she would use her, err, natural assets. If she couldn’t make it as an actress, she thought she’d make it as a porn star, and she’s been very successful at it, until now. There was one particularly obnoxious photographer one day, and she had a big row with him, probably drug-fuelled, I imagine, and stabbed him. Seventeen times…
Consequently she panicked and thought she’d better run back to England, and got caught at customs with drugs. She was on remand in another prison, she was ghosted into Larkhall in the night. She was swapped with Shaz.
Snowball uses her acting ability and her looks to get what she needs. She’s very clever and manipulative. She uses her sexuality and her skills as an actress to manipulate those around her, so that the end result of any situation is in her favour. She uses every manipulative trick in the book.
WHAT’S THE BEST THING ABOUT BEING IN BAD GIRLS?
This is definitely my big break. It’s a great part, a fantastic part for an actress. I get to do different accents, I get to sing, I get to show off, I get to laugh, I get to cry, I get to flirt… she’s got so many facets to her – she’s a real chameleon.
WHAT DO YOU LIKE BEST ABOUT YOUR CHARACTER?
Loads of things. I just love her glamour. Even her cell’s got pictures of Hollywood goddesses and feather boas all around it. The other thing I really like about her is that it’s so easy in TV and theatre for the blonde glamorous one to be a complete bimbo, but with this character, while she plays on her looks, she’s really very intelligent and clued-up, and I love that. It’s nice to play a glamorous yet intelligent character because so often on stage and screen, those things don’t go hand in hand.
WHAT DO YOU DISLIKE MOST ABOUT YOUR CHARACTER?
I hate the way she treats all those people that have been really nice to her and tried to get on with her – she doesn’t care. She’s too selfish and blinkered. She only sees what she wants to see and although she pretends to everyone that she’s their friend, she’s very two-faced and she’s extremely selfish.
DO YOU LIKE THE COSTUMES THAT YOUR CHARACTER WEARS? WOULD YOU WEAR THEM?
Yes, and yes! I love her clothes! She’s very influenced by 50s starlets and consequently her wardrobe has a slight 50s feel to it, which is really nice. They are modern clothes, but they’ve all got that little 50s twist. Her hair and make-up, although certainly over the top for everyday life, are done in the way that she wants to be perceived – as a movie star. It’s very Kim Basinger, in LA Confidential. She’s got far more expensive tastes than me – or perhaps if I had her money then I’d have more expensive taste! I think most of her costumes were bought at Harvey Nichols which was quite a fun shopping experience. Nearly all her clothes are labels because she’s made so much money in the porn industry that she can afford it, and as she aspires to be a rich glamorous movie star, that’s how she dresses. Or more accurately, how she feels that a movie star dresses. There is a lot of denim in her wardrobe – but most of it’s very fitted, again to give that slight 50s twist. Shirts are very tight but have a 50s bias to them – little sash ties. Kind of Marilyn Monroe in Some Like It Hot I suppose, fitted skirt suits and very high heels. I’m not so keen on the gold jewellery as I’m more of a silver girl myself, but she loves gold. Snowball’s dripping in gold…
ARE YOU LIKE YOUR CHARACTER? ARE THERE ANY TRAITS THAT YOU SHARE?
I’m very ambitious. I care about how I look, although I’m not as obsessed as she is and I certainly wouldn’t go out caked in the slap that she wears. She’s a show-off and I suppose I’m a bit of a show-off! But otherwise no, I’d certainly like to think I’m a much nicer person than her.
WHAT SCENE HAVE YOU MOST ENJOYED OR HATED FILMING SO FAR?
I can tell you what scene I most dreaded before I did it. That was the scene in episode 14 that I actually did on my third day ever here, having only done one little tiny scene on the telephone on my own before. It was my biggest, hardest scene, of all the scripts I’ve had so far, and they put it on my third day! I hadn’t even met most of the actors and I was so worried. It was in the chapel - I have a born-again Christian spiel about how God changed my life, and I go down on my knees in front of everyone and pray, and tell them all how they can be saved if they let God into their lives. I cry, and I sing a hymn… and I did it all on my third day. There were all these major characters there in the congregation – people I’d barely met yet and only knew from having seen them on the telly - and I was preaching to them. It felt like I was really on show. But it went really well and it was lovely because people said that I did a good job. So really it was good in a way to come in with such a strong scene. At least everyone got to know me.
WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE NEW EXTERIOR?
It’s cold. But apart from that it’s great. It’s so odd that there’s an outside, but there’s nothing behind. It’s purely external – it’s quite interesting.
WHAT DO YOU DO IN YOUR FREETIME?
I go to the cinema. I like horseriding, and I play the guitar. And I sing, all the time. Whatever I’m doing, I’m singing. I make up little bits of songs. And shopping, I suppose. Girly things! I prefer having a nice dinner party with friends over a glass of wine when you can talk properly, with comfortable seats, rather than being in a club with loud clubby music where you can’t talk. I’m ore of a stay-at-home girl than a clubby girl.
I love, love, love the sea, because I grew up by the sea. I swim a lot in summer, and I love going for walks along the cliffs. I’ve been surfing in Australia but it’s not an ongoing hobby. And I went paragliding once which is something I’d love to take up although I know it’s a bit dangerous. Great fun. Kicking the clouds…
HOW WOULD YOU GET ON WITH YOUR CHARACTER IF YOU MET THEM IN REAL LIFE?
Probably very well. She’s hard not to like, until you find out what she’s really like, and also I’m quite gullible so I’d be completely sucked in. If someone’s nice to me, then I tend to respond in the same way. Because she’s into fashion and glamour and theatre and acting, on the surface, we might appear quite similar.
Nicole Faraday trained at the Guildford School Of Acting. Her television work includes roles in Casualty, Time Gentleman Please, and ‘Orrible. She also played Jerry Hall in Mick Jagger Story. A keen singer, Nicole appeared as a soloist in Meridian Television’s Musical Masterclass and has toured the UK as Agnetha with Abba Gold.