No stranger to the crew having worked with them on As If, Jemima was right at home on Hex. But was playing Thelma quite so comfortable? Jemima reveals all.

When you first read Hex what where your initial impressions?

My initial impression was this is very very different, it was bizarre because there are so many different components in it, the supernatural element and the stuff between my character Thelma and Christina Cole's character Cassie, which is all very natural and more about the drama behind it, which is mixed with great comedy and scary scary bits. That to me was really great because you get the best of everything.

Tell us about your character. What's her name?

My character is Thelma she's seventeen and her and Cassie are best friends and outsiders, slightly ostracised from the rest of their year at school, because they are both very different. Thelma is very secure in herself and she definitely knows who she is. She has a very deep affection and love for her best friend and the sad thing is that this spills over into her sexuality. She actually loves Cassie on a deeper level than Cassie is willing to admit so there is all that conflict in her and yet she is very positive and constructive which is very nice in a young person.

As Hex is a high concept show did it require a different style of acting?

It did require some changes for me, especially playing Thelma, because you are a bit more stylised. I couldn't touch Christina, and obviously we had intimate scenes and we couldn't hold or touch each other, we had to think of other ways of expressing the relationship. In the first week when we were filming, we weren't sure how we were going to do this and I wasn't quite sure how or at what level to play it. And naturally after a few weeks it sort of slipped into this style with the humour, the writing and it's just a slightly heightened performance. I like to compare it with Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Carribean, I love the beard! It was a little bit more aware of body language which is unusual with film and voice and thinking of things that were visually a bit different from the usual movie acting.

Talk about your working relationship with Christina and did you become friends? Did this help the performance of Thelma and Cassie?

My working relationship with Christina was awful, it ruined the entire job cos she was an absolute bitch! Of course not really. We met on the rehearsal week and have the same agent as well which is peculiar, we saw each other and she fitted the part perfectly for me and I for her and we just immediately got on and found it very easy to work with each other. Consequently we are great friends now and it was a real pleasure and it was a really hard shoot especially for her every scene all day and it was very important that we got on as well as we did, and I think and hope that comes off on the screen. We were always very comfortable with each other, it was never a chore, or an effort to do scenes together, and we had a giggle. In fact most of the time it was both of us passing wind, Christina more! It was a great bonding experience.

Is she a good kisser?

A great kisser! It was fantastic I only wish we had had more kissing to do and I know she thinks I was the best out of all her snogs too

Tell us about Thelma's look

I was away when the phone call came through from the costume and makeup designers and I had actually worked with them before so I was able to talk to them very openly about what I thought of Thelma. Initially when Laura, the costume designer, called me up and started telling me her ideas I just went yep yep yep, because it was everything that I had thought of. And I totally agreed with all the quirky little things like Wellington boots which I loved and I secretly said to her "what do you feel about wellies?" and she was like "yeah that's just what I thought". And I put it all in their hands and the whole look of Thelma is fantastic I think and I hope lots of people will be inspired by it. Laura came up with this idea that it should be a phenomenal costume so that people don't get bored of it and I didn't get bored of it for two films. So she had it designed and made for me and it was quite a fantastic dress. The dress was inspired by this magazine article that I saw and we had a few fittings and we picked up the material together and it looked very elaborate and looked brilliant, she did a very good job of them. I did want to have a ritual burning of them as it gets a bit boring wearing the same costume day after day but it did look great.

And was it difficult to run in?

You could say that! The dress did pose a few problems, it looked fantastic but was slightly hard to run in as it had a low cut (and we didn't have the foresight to know the material would stretch a bit) and it was kind of baggy around the bust. I had a very beautiful bra on but it didn't help with holding things in a bit, and in the first week I had a lot of running to do. In a way it was a good way of getting to know the crew as my breasts fell out! Not on camera I don't think and I haven't been told!

You have worked with the creative team before haven't you?

Yeah, I have a long history with the creative team. I first met them 4 years ago at 18 and I have never been the same since! I worked for 2 series of 'As If' with them and now Hex, the great thing is they know me - what I can and can't do and my strengths. They have given me this great role to play. Apart from that it's a nightmare! They are all mad, young, twisted little boys. I'd rather work with them than anyone else.