{"id":8180,"date":"2021-12-03T11:43:19","date_gmt":"2021-12-03T10:43:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/?p=1529023"},"modified":"2021-12-03T12:09:08","modified_gmt":"2021-12-03T11:09:08","slug":"leigh-anne-pinnock-says-she-channelled-julia-roberts-in-film-acting-debut","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/rss_feed\/leigh-anne-pinnock-says-she-channelled-julia-roberts-in-film-acting-debut\/","title":{"rendered":"Leigh-Anne Pinnock says she channelled Julia Roberts in film acting debut"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>

By Patrick Cremona\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Friday, 03 December 2021 at 12:00 am<\/p>

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The path from popstar to film star is a road well-travelled \u2013 and one of the latest to make the journey is Little Mix member Leigh-Anne Pinnock.<\/p>\n

Pinnock stars as one of the leads in Aml Ameen\u2019s festive romcom Boxing Day, and speaking to RadioTimes.com<\/a> to mark the release she revealed she had looked to one of the legends of the genre for inspiration.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Ameen] said [he was] looking basically for his Julia Roberts, like that sort of vibe \u2013 so I literally went away and watched every Julia Roberts film,\u201d she revealed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was the first time I\u2019d watched Notting Hill and My Best Friend\u2019s Wedding \u2013 I\u2019d never seen those two films. And there\u2019s something about her and I think it\u2019s that sort of, I don\u2019t know, it\u2019s the fact that she\u2019s super relatable. And like she would be that character slightly off-screen as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pinnock shares the screen with some far more experienced actors in the film \u2013 including Marianne Jean-Baptiste \u2013 and she said the prospect of starring in her first movie was one she initially found very \u201cdaunting\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cPetrifying,\u201d she said. \u201cI was so scared \u2013 these actors have been doing it for years as professionals and are just incredible with their work. So yeah, I was very scared.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut at the same time, it was like stepping into a family, a second family. And everyone just held me and helped me and gave me some amazing advice that I\u2019m going to take on to whatever I do next.\u201d<\/p>\n\n<p>Given her musical roots, it\u2019s perhaps no surprise that Pinnock gets the chance to show off her singing voice in the film \u2013 her character is a popstar, and as well as featuring two new original songs, the movie also includes a showcase performance of classic hit I Say a Little Prayer, made famous by Aretha Franklin.<\/p>\n<p>Ameen said he chose this particular song for two reasons \u2013 it\u2019s one of his mother\u2019s favourites and it works as a nice reference to the aforementioned My Best Friend\u2019s Wedding, in which it also appears \u2013 and Pinnock was grateful to have the chance to sing it on camera.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen he said that this is going to be the song, inside I was like, \u2018Oh, that is a <em>big<\/em> song.\u2019 Like, that\u2019s not a song that you just sing, you know, it\u2019s iconic,\u201d she explained.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd I remember my mum actually saying as well, when I was speaking to her about it, she was like, \u2018Leanne, are you sure you want to do that?\u2019 And then obviously, she watched the scene back and she was just bawling. She just loved it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut yeah, I mean, that day of filming, I was super nervous. It was the first time I\u2019ve ever sung on my own for 10 years on a stage \u2013 like, that\u2019s mad to me. But as much as I felt petrified, it was also slightly home to me, because I got to do what I love, and that is sing.\u201d<\/p> <p>The chance to sing was just one of many reasons Pinnock was so excited to take part in the project \u2013 and another thing that attracted her to the role was the opportunity to be in \u201ca beautiful Black British film\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhan Aml and Aja [Naomi King] come out of a beautiful fancy car and go and check into a beautiful hotel \u2013 that is a Black experience and that should be normalised,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBecause actually, it is normal. And I think, why isn\u2019t that portrayed on TV? So thank goodness, we have this film to show that. But it\u2019s not just a film for our community and our culture, it\u2019s a film for everyone \u2013 it\u2019s just a great fun film that makes you feel happy. And everyone just needs to go and see it this year, because it\u2019s what we all need.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>So now that she\u2019s had her first taste of acting, will Pinnock be back for more any time soon?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI really hope that it opens up more doors,\u201d she said. \u201cI loved the experience, and I definitely want to keep going and see where it takes me, and keep finessing my newfound talent and craft.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Boxing Day is currently showing in UK cinemas. Looking for something else to watch? Check out our <a href=\""https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/tv\/tv-listings\/"\">TV Guide<\/a> or visit our <a href=\""https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/movies\/"\">Film<\/a> hub for all the latest news and features.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p><\/body><\/html>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Patrick Cremona Published: Friday, 03 December 2021 at 12:00 am The path from popstar to film star is a road well-travelled \u2013 and one of the latest to make the journey is Little Mix member Leigh-Anne Pinnock. Pinnock stars as one of the leads in Aml Ameen\u2019s festive romcom Boxing Day, and speaking to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":8181,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/12\/leigh-anne-pinnock-says-she-channelled-julia-roberts-in-film-acting-debut.jpg",2000,1333,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/12\/leigh-anne-pinnock-says-she-channelled-julia-roberts-in-film-acting-debut-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/12\/leigh-anne-pinnock-says-she-channelled-julia-roberts-in-film-acting-debut-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/12\/leigh-anne-pinnock-says-she-channelled-julia-roberts-in-film-acting-debut-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/12\/leigh-anne-pinnock-says-she-channelled-julia-roberts-in-film-acting-debut-1024x682.jpg",800,533,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/12\/leigh-anne-pinnock-says-she-channelled-julia-roberts-in-film-acting-debut-1536x1024.jpg",1536,1024,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/12\/leigh-anne-pinnock-says-she-channelled-julia-roberts-in-film-acting-debut.jpg",2000,1333,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Patrick Cremona Published: Friday, 03 December 2021 at 12:00 am The path from popstar to film star is a road well-travelled \u2013 and one of the latest to make the journey is Little Mix member Leigh-Anne Pinnock. Pinnock stars as one of the leads in Aml Ameen\u2019s festive romcom Boxing Day, and speaking to…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/8180"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}