24 S MAGAZINE ★ 18 AUGUST 2019
A move to the Big Apple has paid off
for Doctor Who star Freema Agyeman.
Simon Button catches up with her
T
alking 10 to the dozen,
Freema Agyeman insists,
“I have actually learnt to
slow down when I speak.”
You could have fooled me.
Having established herself in the
States after such homeland hits
as Doctor Who and Law & Order:
UK, she’s a very happy and exciting
person to be around.
When we first meet it’s at the
Monte-Carlo Television Festival,
where Freema is animatedly
promoting her latest show, medical
drama New Amsterdam. We meet
again a week later at the Soho Hotel
in London, where she’s looking very
summery in a white top and floral
skirt and is clearly thrilled to be back
in the homeland for a while.
She laughs about one early
stateside audition where she walked
out of the room feeling confident
she’d nailed it. Then the casting
director came up to her and said
they wanted her back in the room,
but with the caveat, “Can you just
slow down?”
Looking a good decade younger
than her 40 years, the actress is still
a fast talker and seems surprised by
her own success. America wasn’t
part of a grand plan.
“I was lucky enough to be working
quite consistently at home,” says
Freema, whose big break as the
Doctor’s sidekick Martha Jones came
in 2007, four years after her TV
debut in Crossroads. “I was around
my friends and my family and I wasn’t
looking to pursue something
somewhere else. I was very happy
and feeling very fortunate.”
But then an actor friend suggested
she pop across the pond for pilot
season, which is when American TV
tries on new shows for size. “And
I was like, ‘I’m not free to do it and
also I’m really happy here and
everything is fine.’ But it stayed in my
mind and once I was out of contract
I decided to give it a go.”
That was after she had hung upher gown as court prosecutor Alesha
Phillips on the sixth and final season
of Law & Order: UK in 2012 and
within the year she was in Sex And
The City prequel The Carrie Diaries
as a Manhattan magazine editor.
She then landed a recurring role
in the Netflix sci-fi drama Sense8
before signing on to play head of
oncology Dr Helen Sharpe in NYC-set
New Amsterdam.
At first, Freema worried she wasn’t
right for the part, saying: “Helen’s
very measured, very level, very in
control and I thought, ‘I can’t
squeeze myself into that sort of
stable behaviour’ because my energy
is insane. Sometimes, I can see a
person straight away and I know
exactly how they’ll move and talk,
what they’ll eat and drink and listen
to, but I had no clue with Helen.
“It was like, ‘My God, it’s going to
be a slow burn just trying to warm
her up.’ But it’s a challenge I’ve
enjoyed, trying to navigate her as
a character.”
She prepared for the show by
speaking to and shadowing doctors.
There are also on-set advisers and
a pronunciation drop box that puts
phrases and terminology into context
for actors and “a massive support
network to make sure we’re doing it
as authentically as possible”.
So could she switch career should
this acting thing not work out? She
has an actor friend who quit Holby
City to pursue a medical career. “And
now he’s a surgeon, I kid you not. So
it is possible.” But maybe not for
Freema, who adds, “Don’t pass out
or I won’t know what to do.”
Headlined by Ryan Eggold, who
plays doctor Max Goodwin, New
Amsterdam is a fast-paced, hard-
hitting show that’s been as much
a journey for Freema as it is for the
audience. “We don’t know a great
deal in advance in terms of
storylines. I’m sure if we asked
they’d tell us but I don’t generally
want to know.”“I think it’s
sometimes
healthy to
rock your
own boat”
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