The audience is asked ''why love, if losing hurts so much?'' in the Noughts and Crosses dystopian and segregated world where terrorism, racism and domestic violence aim to turn star-crossed lovers Callum and Sephy against one another. We felt their loss deeply; there wasn't a dry eye in the house.
Chris Jack joins us for a chat ahead of his performance as Home Secretary Kamal Hadley and passes on some encouraging advice.
Could you give us a plot summary of Noughts and Crosses?
‘’Sephy is a young girl and she’s a Cross and she falls for a young man who’s a Nought. Crosses are the wealthy people with all the power, the upper class if you like, and the noughts are the underclass. The Noughts don’t even have passports or anything. It’s a world where there are a lot of political and social divides. Sephy and Callum want to be together but can’t because of the circumstances.’’
How would you describe your character and what motivated you to take on this role?
‘’Kamal Hadley is power hungry, driven, two-faced, and self-centered and he will stop at absolutely nothing until he gets what he wants. Yet, it was a part that I really wanted to play as it’s one of the castings that I don’t necessarily get as an actor. I’ve played a lot of very corporate sort of roles, nice roles, amiable kind of characters and that was completely the opposite. So, it was an acting challenge for me but one that I grabbed with both hands and absolutely relished. I didn’t grow up with anything like this. I grew up with Adrian Mole, Sue Townsend, and Roald Dahl and I wanted to sort of challenge myself as an actor.’’
How are you coping with the challenges?
‘’I think a lot of it came throughout the rehearsal process. One of the things is you have to really like the character. And what I mean by that is like the character regardless of whether they’re a good character, whether they’re a bad character, indifferent, you have to like traits of that character to justify the lines that you say, and Kamal isn’t the nicest of people, Kamal Hadley, but I just wanted to challenge myself and do the very best I could with him.’’
Finally, do you have any advice for Newcastle students who are looking to get into acting?
‘’Every experience is a good one. I went to Salford Uni and once I graduated, I was told by older actors to just say yes to every opportunity that comes up as an actor. They will be good experiences, purely because the more experiences you have under your belt, the more you know, and the better equipped you are for the future. I would say follow your dreams and try to broaden your horizons. Don't just go for theatre or TV, don’t forget radio and rehearse readings. There are so many different variations within the acting world that you can get involved with and I would encourage you to do as much as possible!’’
