Jennifer Ellison : It was great playing the ultimate bitch...

Mar 6 2008

ME MAM, me dad and me nan saw it at the premiere. I was rather worried because of all the swear words, but they loved it!"

Jennifer Ellison is speaking about her second-ever movie outing as a hostage in black comedy The Cottage – and she had reason to worry about her family’s reaction to the film.

But it’s not just her character’s fruity vocabulary that might have disturbed her innocent grandma – it’s also the scene where she meets a sticky end at the hands of a deranged farmer.

Surely they minded that bit?

"No, they loved the film, thought it was great," she says after they watched a special VIP screening at The Odeon in London Road.

Landing her first lead female film role, after a smaller part in 2004’s The Phantom Of The Opera, is clearly a big deal for the former Brookside actress.

She enjoyed success in the role of Roxy in the stage musical Chicago and on television emerged the winner of the reality show Hell’s Kitchen.

But this could be her big break.

She insists she wasn’t nervous about the project.

"Not really, because everyone made me feel so welcome and at ease, it was just a pleasure," says the 24-year-old.

Jen plays Tracey, the daughter of a wealthy nightclub owner, who is kidnapped by two brothers (Andy Serkis, from Lord Of The Rings, and Reece Shearsmith, of the League of Gentlemen) and taken to a remote cottage in the middle of nowhere.

But if the kidnappers thought tracksuit and Ugg-boot clad Tracey would be the model hostage, they were wrong.

"She’s the ultimate bitch," explains Jennifer. "She’s very nasty and just awful to be around. I’d hate to be in her company but she’s a great character to play. She’s got some great one-liners, but I don’t think many people will like her!"

As Tracey is bundled from the boot of a car, into the cottage and upstairs to a bedroom, she puts up a good fight and even manages to break one of the kidnapper’s noses.

But Jennifer says she needed no training for the scrap. "It actually came naturally which was rather worrying because my mum said she didn’t know I could punch like that," she laughs.

The film is a tale of two halves. Feisty Tracey manages to overcome Peter (Shearsmith) – the weaker of the two brothers – and forces him out of the cottage at knifepoint, before leading him through a wood to a secluded farmhouse.

And that’s where things turn really nasty, as the pair come face-to-face with a disfigured farmer, who has a penchant for chopping up trespassers.

Writer and director Paul Andrew Williams approached Jennifer about the role two years ago, but it wasn’t until last spring they finally got to make the film.

"As soon as I read the script, I just fell in love with Tracey. I was hoping the film would come off because I just loved the part so much. She’s such a strong character and obviously, to be playing the female lead in a film is great for me as well."

Paul, whose previous film, London To Brighton, garnered much critical acclaim, says Jennifer "blew him away" when she read for the part of Tracey, so the feeling’s obviously mutual.

Jennifer also heaps praise on her co-stars Serkis and Shearsmith.

"It was such a pleasure to work with both of them, they were fab," she says. "It was hard work, we were working really long hours, which was difficult but actually really fun and that was due to the people around us."

The Cottage takes place entirely under cover of darkness, so filming started at 8pm and would go on until 5am in the morning.

After starring in the West End production of Chicago and again on tour last year, you’d think Jennifer, who split from fiance Tony Richardson last year, would be used to such gruelling schedules, but apparently not.

"It was really tiring," she admits. "We kind of had sleep deprivation, which would send people delirious and it was freezing, absolutely freezing.

"I was the only person who wasn’t wearing a jacket so it was very, very, very, very challenging!"

But don’t worry, when she wasn’t needed on set, Jennifer kept her former glamour model body warm with "five jackets, hot water bottles and stuff".

"I literally got woken up at one point and sat by a fire, by a little heater. Reece and I fell asleep and then woke up to ’come on, ready for you on set’. It was really difficult!"

The prosthetics team had their work cut out on The Cottage to create realistic injuries, from the farmer’s machine-mangled face to a pick-axed leg, guts spilling from a stomach and several severed heads – including Jennifer’s

"There was a full body cast and I had to have a head cast," she says. "It was horrible."

"I’d never done anything like this before. Seeing how it all works and how things come together and how they make it happen was just fascinating."

Jennifer is taking a break before considering future projects including offers of stage musicals, a play and a film.

Losing her head may just be the making of her!

* The Cottage is released on March 14