Juno Temple plays Jamie Vine in Martin Scorsese and Mick Jagger’s TV venture Vinyl. The English actor who was nominated at the BAFTA for ‘BAFTA Rising Star Award’, plays the fierce A&R whose ambition drives her career in Rock and Roll era of 1970’s New York.
Here she talks about the show, Jamie Vine, and how it is to work with legends.
Q: Jamie’s an incredible character – what drew you to her?
Juno: She’s kickass. It was a great moment when I got the part, because I was getting ready to go to a Christmas party and I was faffing about in my living room in LA, and my agents all called me at once, which always means like either good news or bad news.
I said: I’m getting ready, I’m not going to be late, I promise. They were like: you booked the part. I literally had to collapse to the floor and have a momentary weep.
I remember reading the pilot and just thinking like: this is like my ultimate fantasy. I wish I’d been a young woman in the 1970s – what a time, musically, fashion wise, and with this huge move forward for women – birth control was legalized, abortion was legalized, sex became a whole new thing for women. Women were really starting to speak out, stating we are just as fabulous as men are, if not better.
And Jamie is the epitome of that.
As the show goes on you find out more about her, you see she is someone that is so passionate about music, and so passionate about being a woman and so passionate about being heard in such a male industry, and she’s going to do whatever it takes to have her voice heard.
It really is an honour to play her because she is one of those badass chicks that I think whatever decade you put her in she would inspire women around her.
Q: Do you think her bad-assery is in some ways a reflection of the time as well?
Juno: I feel like in the 1970s, there were such incredible artists that really sat down and said to their fans, be you, and be proud of being you.
Someone like David Bowie, someone like Iggy Pop – these incredible human beings and artists that just were like: stay true to yourself. Say what you want to say, whether it’s through your wardrobe, whether it’s through your music, whether it’s through your painting. And I think Jamie listens to that and she wants to be an individual, and she’s proud to be her own person, and she lives her own life for her.
Q: There’s obviously a lot of you in Jamie – how do you differ?
Juno: I spend a lot of time in my pyjamas. Jamie would never be caught dead in her pyjamas. Not in public. Never. That’s the one big difference between us.
Q: She does have some incredible outfits – did you enjoy the dressing up side of the role?
Juno: I’m a huge vintage collector when it comes to clothing anyway, and I would say that 75 percent of my wardrobe is 70s pieces.
Later in the show there’s a pair of knee high platform boots that are original 70s boots that are mine. I bought them on Ebay, and they got shipped from Taunton – which is my nearest train station at home – to LA.
The sad thing is, there were two, a pair of bright red ones, and a pair of white ones, I should have bought them all.
But I do wear those, which is good, because they’ve stomped a lot in my real life, and they’ve stomped even more in Jamie’s life now.
Q: Your Dad, Julian Temple, is a friend of the Sex Pistols and was very involved in the punk movement – how much did you know about this era already?
Juno: My Dad is someone that so embraced and lived in the 70s and really was a part of that amazing punk movement, that revolution, and I grew up listening to it all, for sure.
But I also grew up with this amazing attitude from him, which was again: stay true to yourself. Be you. Don’t do things you’re not passionate about. And also saying things like: knowledge is the key to life, listen and learn. Because that’s, that’s the only way you’re going to be the best you can possibly be.
He was truly inspired as a young man by those artists, which is what my household musically was filled with when I was a kid.
Q: You and James have quite an intimate scene in the very first episode…
Juno: Yes we do! We shot that on my 25th birthday. So that was a wild day for me, turning 25, butt naked, directed by Martin Scorsese, having sex with Mick Jagger’s son. I’ll never forget that birthday.
Q: Did you have any anxiety about that scene?
Juno: Yes, of course I was nervous, because it’s a really powerful scene. She’s turning around to this guy being like, actually, you’ve got some serious power with what you’re doing, so own it, grab it, and say what you want to say.
I was definitely nervous, but when you’re working with such an amazing team, headed up by Martin Scorsese, being naked is the last thing on your mind.
I saw the pilot and that’s what I love – that actually it’s not a distraction at all, because it’s so much about a scene between these two characters where this girl is really inspiring this boy to be like, you got something to say? Then say it. I dare you. I dare you.
They’re going to have a great journey together, those two, and I think it’s cool for him that he’s met a girl that has the balls, the attitude.
That was actually audition scene, well, one of them. And I’m so, so happy that I got to do that scene, because I do think it’s a really powerful moment for young women.
Q: Were your parents always totally supportive of you acting, and of moving to LA at just 19?
Juno: Not when I first told them. I told them when I was 14 and they were like: Uh, okay, you’re going to spend a lot of time being told no, a lot of time being told you’re too short, you’re too this, you’re too that.
They definitely weren’t supremely excited, and I think they also wanted to make sure I wanted it for the right reasons, not: I’m going to go be a movie star.
But then my mum found out about this open audition for Notes on a Scandal.
And when I booked that she was like, oh my god. Okay.
Then my second audition was for Atonement, she was like, it goes downhill after here, I promise you.
And there’ve been parts that I’ve wanted so badly and I haven’t got and I’ve wept like a child, and I still do.
But I think that’s why I’m still doing it, because the minute I don’t feel that way I’ve gotta go and do something else.
And my parents are so supportive now.
They read things for me – I say I love this, what’s your opinion? My dad I’ve called for so many things, saying: please help me.
Q: Your Dad must have been an incredible resource for this show in particular, I imagine?
Juno: Yes, I asked him as soon as I got it, and we talked a lot about the time period. I grew up with this world as something that was a huge part of my Dad’s life anyway, so these amazing stories that he would tell from that time period have always stuck with me. So I continued to ask him questions and I will continue to ask him questions and, and I hope, I hope when he sees it, I make him proud.
Q: How much did you also get from Mick Jagger, and Martin Scorsese and Terry Winter about the period?
Juno: Marty and Mick are like these two amazing godfather figures that we can go to and talk, and then Terry creating this story with them – we’re these lucky creatures that are getting to bring it all to life.
I asked Mick lots of questions. I think it’s important to ask questions and not be afraid to ask questions – otherwise, I think you’re only going to give a bad performance. Like my dad said, knowledge is the key to life.
Vinyl airs every Wednesday at 10 pm on Star World Premiere HD!