Former Eastenders star Kirsty J Curtis has opened up about the trials and tribulations of being a dyslexic actress, and the joy of starring alongside Sophie Turner in ITV drama Joan.
Curtis plays Nancy, a sensible sister to title character Joan Hannington, a mother turned glamorous jewellery thief played by Turner.
The actress admitted that once she got the breakdown for her character in and knew she’d be working alongside Turner, she was initially apprehensive, but those worries quickly slipped away after the pair met.
She said: “She’s a very generous actor and I when I’m acting with her, it feels like I’m not acting it’s just so easy.
“We really got along, and she had such a big job to do as well, it was a dream job.”
However, working on the drama didn’t come without its struggles for Curtis, as she discussed her experience with dyslexia candidly.
After being diagnosed at 21 during her time at drama school, Curtis has been open about the difficulties she has faced throughout her career.
Those include being told not to tell casting directors when she turned up to auditions.
Curtis said: “When I first started in the industry, it was a bit of a myth – you’d always be told not to say you’re dyslexic.
“However, this is massively changing – the industry is completely different now.”
When asked if she had any tips on how she learns lines with dyslexia, she laughed and said: “I knew you’d ask me this, no.
“I wish I could help, my issue with learning lines has been so bad, like so bad that I do believe if I didn’t have this issue with learning lines, I’d have been way further in my career.”
This statement came as quite a shock, considering Curtis is a highly-acclaimed actress with many credits both on and off stage.
She continued: “I did GCSE drama and we did The Trojan Women, I played Hecuba.
“She’s literally the lead – she’s got loads of lines.
“They had to for my GCSE drama performance, which got marked, had to project the words on the wall, and I had to read up the wall, and I thought that was ok.
“I didn’t know until now how bad that was.”
When asked if she related to her character in Joan, Curtis revealed it was more a case of doing so with co-star Turner’s part.
Curtis said: “They all had the same upbringing, so the way I looked at it was that she is like Joan, but Nancy put a lid on their trauma, and she’s chosen to be sensible.
“She’s chosen to take this persona on to further her career and life.”
Curtis hasn’t let dyslexia stand in the way of her from achieving big things in the industry, and had plenty of encouragement for budding actors in the same position as she was.
Curtis said: “It’s a superpower because you do look at things differently, and you do things differently, and I do think you work harder.
“Because you work harder, you learn more, not necessarily the lines, but you learn more.
“I’ve worked with so many people, and I’ll talk about all the stuff that I’ve researched for the part, and they can’t believe I’ve done all that work, and I’m like, I have to.
“I can’t just rock up and just not have done any research.
“There’s no way around dyslexia unless the world comes back with a miraculous cure, but just know that your artwork will get you somewhere just don’t give up.”
All six episodes of Joan are available to stream now on ITVX.
Picture credit: Michael Shelford
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