renting flats or staying with friends. so I thought it was time to base myself more permanently. Claire is a Scottish friend and we‘ve moved down together.
‘But I do miss Scotland and my family. At some point in the future. I‘m sure I‘d like to move back.‘
And who can blame her‘.’ The Nardinis. after all. do make some of the best ice cream you‘re ever likely to taste.
‘I never felt at all involved in the family business.‘ she says. ‘If they‘d wanted me to be in it. 1 think there‘d have been more space made for me. But my parents were really positive about me wanting to become an actress. and they‘ve supported me all the way.‘
Daniela‘s mother Sandra. a masseuse. remains her ultimate role model. ‘She‘s a very sound person.
'Actors are paranoid about always playing the same part, but it would be short-sighted to say that I don't want to play a woman who swears or screws.’
Daniela Nardini
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Cone sister: Daniela Nardini in wigs out in This Life, gets girl power in Big Women and goes glam in the
studio
kind and strong.‘ she says. ‘She was very interested when she heard I was doing a series about the rise of feminism. She was obviously aware of the movement in the 60s and 70s. but she wasn‘t part of it; she was in suburbia being a wife and mother.‘
After training at Glasgow‘s Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. Daniela appeared in Taggart. Doctor Finlay and High Road before landing the role of Anna in This Life. She‘s currently filming Undercover Heart. a six-part BBC2 police drama set in East London. in which she stars opposite Our Mutual Friend actor Steven Mackintosh and is reunited with fellow This Life veteran Tony Curran who played Ferdy‘s gay lover.
After This Life. she was inevitably offered a slew of tough-talking. Anna- style parts. ‘Actors are paranoid that they‘ll always play the same part. but
at the same time. I don‘t want to turn down interesting work.‘ she says. ‘l‘ve certainly tried not to say. “I don‘t want to play a woman who swears or screws or whatever.“ That would be short-sighted.‘
Playing a character as strong and predatory as Anna may well have scared men off Daniela in real life. She laughs off the idea, but quietly concedes that she is currently single.
‘1 went out with an actor for three years — never again!‘ she smiles. ‘If you‘re in a relationship. I think it‘s more healthy if you‘re doing different jobs. Two actors together is just too much. I think it‘s much easier if the man is more successful.‘
God only knows what Germaine Greer would make of that.
Big Women starts on Channel 4 on Thursday 2 July at 10pm.
25 Jun—9 Jul 1998 THE “ST?