Meet Laya Lewis -Skins season 5
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Remember that this is Laya and not her character. She will look different in Skins.
IN the first season of Skins, all but one of the cast were Bristolian. The second cast, which followed hot on their Doc Martin heels, had Bristolian actors playing roughly half the angst-ridden teen roles – but the forthcoming series has just one solitary Bristolian in front of the camera.
Meet Laya Lewis.
"Oh I don't mind being the only Bristolian this time around," she says chirpily. "Luckily we don't need to affect strong Bristolian accents for Skins, even though it is set in the city, so I've not had all the others quizzing me for the right intonations or anything like that."
The 18-year-old from St Paul's admits she wasn't seriously considering a career in acting, until she stumbled into the hit E4 series.
I meet her in the Skins production base – an unlikely studio setting, buried deep inside an anonymous industrial building in Fishponds.
"I'm loving it," Laya bubbles, as she leads the way through the network of sets and corridors of cables and cameras.
One moment we appear to be walking through a typical Bristol house, but stepping out from behind a two-dimensional backdrop, we're almost immediately in a college common room.
In the background a floor manager is getting edgy about the noise on set, and we slip into a dressing room just in time before we get a dressing down.
"It is another world," Laya giggles, as she settles on a well-worn sofa. We're surrounded by a random collection of teenagers' shoes, and the wall behind the sofa is filled with framed pictures of previous Skins stars.
"I was very aware that we all had big shoes to fill when we first came on to the set back in July.
"On that first day, I was pretty terrified, but we all were – we're all teenagers, who have never done anything like this before. It's entirely new to us.
"There is a bit of pressure at first to make friends with the rest of the cast – I was very aware that it was important to develop a bond with them that would translate to a chemistry on screen. But within a few days we were all getting on famously anyway. Friendships just developed in the end, without having to make an effort to work on them."
More than 2,000 people descended on Bristol for open auditions in May, to try to win a coveted part in the trendy TV series.
But Laya was offered the opportunity to audition while studying for a drama A-level at Cotham High School.
"Although the production company organised open auditions, they also visited a few of the local schools. We were just all told to go along and join in the audition, even if we didn't seriously think we were in with a chance of getting a role.
"I certainly didn't think I would be called back. There were lots people who had bigger, louder characters than mine," she says. "But I got involved with the role-playing exercises, and had a bit of fun doing it.
"They filmed everyone working on the exercises, and then went away and examined what we looked like on screen. Amazingly they must have seen something in me, because I got called back – and went through seven stages of auditioning, before I was finally offered the part."
Laya says her friends and family were amazed, but have taken her forthcoming fame in their stride.
"It's pretty cool, because to be honest, none of my friends watch Skins, so they're not getting too obsessed about it. My family are just proud that I'm going to be on the telly.
"I was just going to take a year out before thinking about going to university, so I think they think this beats bumming around for 12 months having fun with my mates.
"I must admit though," Laya adds, conspiratorially, "I'm a bit nervous about the first programme being broadcast in January. It's actually quite scary to think that people are going to start recognising me in the street."
She pauses for a moment, her mind clearly working overtime, as her wide eyes examine the ceiling nonchalantly.
"But I suppose it might be quite fun too," she adds with a giggle.
● Skins returns to E4 for a new series in January.
Labels: Gossip , laya lewis , Skins , Skins season 5
