Bassey crash-course prepares Negga for film role
Irish actress Ruth Negga had only eight days to prepare for the role of a young Shirley Bassey for an upcoming BBC biopic.
Negga insists her voice is so bad that when her agent revealed she had been put up for the role as the 'Big Spender' singer in a new one-off film of her life, she thought she was the victim of a cruel trick.
“I basically just lived, ate and breathed Shirley,” said the 29-year-old.
“The producers gave me everything they could get their hands on: early footage, recordings. I went on YouTube, had a dialect coach for a couple of days and some vocal training.
“I’ve never immersed myself in a role so quickly or deeply. It was incredible.”
The film tells the story of Bassey’s rise from her humble beginnings in Cardiff’s Tiger Bay to international stardom. It charts her struggle to overcome poverty and prove herself as a mixed race performer while hiding the fact she was a single mother (her young daughter Sharon lived with her sister while she went on tour).
The actress did have to sing while filming to make the performance scenes look genuine, but she insisted Bassey CDs be played at full volume in the background to drown out her voice.
Those songs will benefit from a bit of production, she explains, while the big numbers will be Bassey’s original recordings.
“There’s no point trying to recreate that sound. It’s just lovely to hear her,” Negga says.
“I literally can’t hold a note. Well, I can hold a note but I can’t do the few notes afterwards.”
'Shirley' is on BBC Two on Thursday, September 29.
