Interview with Katy Wix (Jules)

How far back do you and Jack go? Had you crossed paths before Big Boys?

We must have met at the Edinburgh festival, or something like that. He’s done a couple of shows there. He started off at those pretentious poetry nights. He was kind of adjacent to the comedy world. So, it’s been lovely to see him develop this voice, and find the humour in it, because he can do both, which is a rare, special thing to be able to do. There’s a picture of us in my phone at a party from, maybe, 2014. We must have known each other then!

How much of a kick do you get out of playing student union rep, Jules?

It’s really fun. I mean, sometimes it’s hard, because there’ll be this sweet, subtle moment, and then I have to stride in and make it stupid again [laughs]. I love it when Lucia [Keskin] is there, who plays Kelly. We’ve become such good friends, but it’s so much easier when you’ve got your double-act partner. When it’s just you, when you have to come in and be the comic relief, it can be too much pressure, like, I wish there was someone else here who could also be the d***head!

Maybe I felt like that in the first series, then afterwards, it’s fine, people like it, it’s not cringe; I grew in confidence. Because there’s always that worry. There’s something so vulnerable about how cringey and annoying she is, I worried she would be too much. But I tread a fine line. I love playing characters that have all this pain that they’re hiding. I think she’s really sad and lonely, and is desperate to be liked, and to be seen as fun, and tries so hard. I was thinking back to when I was at uni, the people who did a similar thing, they stayed on, would get jobs in the union, this sense of, I want to be institutionalised a bit longer. 

What’s nice is, in series three, she’s a bit more solemn, and you get to see a different side of her. I think she is dismissed as a bit of an idiot, and you get to see a few more layers. She’s responsible for all these young people’s mental health and lives, and there is a side to the job which is really responsible, and she can be a bit of a saviour. That was nice to play in that arena a bit more. She really cares about these young people.

Does part of you hope that she leaves the uni at the end of it?

I wasn’t sure if she’d leave. I imagined it – one way of playing it is, she’s always going to be there, everyone else moves on, and she doesn’t. Without giving it away, it could go either way. There’s a definite ‘I’m done too’, or a feeling that this is her sort of purgatory, and she is still bounding around in her lanyard in her 50s. I won’t say what happens, but there is definitely a decision made.

What was it like reuniting with the cast one last time? 

It’s a really nice atmosphere to come into work. It’s a good bunch. This series, I had a lot more scenes with Jon [Pointing] and that was special. He’s such a brilliant, natural actor, and I guess because we both write as well and we’re used to creating our own work, it’s very easy to go off script and improvise. There was a lot more of that because Jack knew we’d both be up for that. Some actors find that terrifying. We have this very easy chemistry. There are episodes, without giving anything away, where we just get to spend more time together, and those were absolutely my favourite bits to film. He’s an absolute delight.

Is there anyone in the cast you wish you’d had more scenes with?

Shannon is an amazing character, and I’m sad that we don’t have more scenes together. But, maybe, Jules and Shannon cancel each other out, they just couldn’t co-exist, they scene would implode! 

Did you pinch any props from set as a memento? 

[Laughs] I kept nothing. I was out of there. No, my arms were too full of flowers and champagne. I didn’t keep anything… I had quite a boring set, which was just a crap office. Nothing came to mind that I would want to hang on to. Just the memories for me.

Comedy has a way of tackling challenging subject matters. Is that something you personally relish about the genre when you’re writing?

Absolutely. Like Jack, I wrote a memoir [Delicacy] which was a lot about grief as well. My book came out a few years ago and it was heavy, because I’ve had a lot of loss in my life, in fact, very similar losses to Jack, which is something we talk about a lot. When you go through those situations, profoundly sad things rub up against surreal, funny things all the time. 

Even a big serious drama, when the writing is totally humourless, it’s hard to connect and care. Comedy is my favourite type of writing for sure, where you’re somehow able to acknowledge that something can be incredibly sad but oddly funny at the same time. It’s really rare that it’s just one thing, isn’t it?