If you’re going to leave a soap - do it in style! And that’s what Natalie Ann Jamieson did when she made her dramatic exit from Emmerdale in February when her character Amy was sensationally killed off in the breath-taking Valentine’s Day limousine crash on the icy pond. It was a big-budget, high-concept disaster the award-winning producers at Emmerdale are so good at!  

“It was pretty spectacular,” she reminisces excitedly,” I think it’s quite a legendary way to go, as far as exits are concerned. When you get to do stunts, it’s a whole different level.”

As viewers saw Amy take her last breath in a hospital bed, it would seem there is definitely no coming back form Natalie. But then again, it’s soap, anything is possible. But for now, her on screen death has opened to the door to horizons and she is eager to forge a new path. “If a door is left slightly open, you might always look over your shoulder, wondering if you made the right choice,” she says. “But when it’s fully closed, you must move forward. It makes things easier in some ways. I’m naturally that kind of person - I liketo look ahead.

In this interview with ReVamp, Natalie looks to the future and shares with us her concerns that with lack of funding into local theatres that working class actors are going to find it hard to get their big break! 

So Emmerdale is behind you. The future is yours. And it looks exciting. A lot of soap actors either go into gritty dramas, like Sarah Lancashire, or head to LA and pop up in American TV shows. Do you have a plan?

I really want to do is a little bit of everything. Having been in that job for six years, I got really used to it. So now, getting back into theatre - whether it’s regional, London, West End, or touring - is really exciting. And then, of course, TV. I think TV in the UK is really strong at the moment.

Yeah, there is a lot of great comedy and drama on the box. 

Last night, we were watching loads of our favourite shows we were saying, “TV’s really good right now.” I’ve Been Unreasonable, Amandaland, What We Do in the Shadows—I mean, What We Do in the Shadows has a lot of British cast members, but it’s filmed in America, isn’t it? And there’s a lot of that happening now. So yeah, just having all of these options feels really exciting.

Moving on to new projects means you get to try new things, go to different places. 

One of the good things about being on a soap, is that you’re based in one location. I’ve been living next to work for the last six months, just a 20-minute drive, which feels like a normal job. But now, it’ll be, “Where is it filming? Where is it rehearsing?” Life will be back on the road again. I don’t mind that, but I have to say, I’ve enjoyed having a house and a garden.

Theatre is a whole different kettle of fish, isn’t it? 

Well, you don’t get many days off. You’re in every day, so you really have to be based nearby. But I’m still looking forward to it! Though I do wonder if I should have left that door slightly open…

Could musicals be in your plan?

I am the worst singer. I’m terrible! I wish I could sing because I love musicals. In fact, yesterday, when I was driving home, I had Magic at the Musicals on the entire journey. I had a couple of my castmates – Olivia Bromley and Johnny McPherson – asleep in the back of the car and they woke up to say, “Natalie, this is bonkers.” But what they meant was, “That was very out of tune.”

Maybe that’s something to work on - take some singing lessons?

I can try, yeah. I’m a little bit deaf in one ear. I don’t think that helps.

What kind of stage work would you want to do?

I love comedy. A bit of everything, really. But I’d love to do a sitcom or something comedic soon. It’s amazing to hear an audience laughing. That immediate feedback - you know they’re with you.  That’s something you don’t get with TV, actually. I’ve done TV for so long, and you don’t get that instant reaction. In theatre, you feel the audience’s energy- t’s a completely different experience.

The brilliant Amy Lou Wood from Sex Education said last week that she loved The White Lotus so much that she basically manifested her role in it. Is there a show you’ve had in mind for ages that you’d love to end up on?

Ooh, well, I wouldn’t mind manifesting myself into The White Lotus - they film in the most spectacular places!  Somewhere sunny and lovely? I’d take that! I’d love to do something like Absolutely Fabulous, but maybe a more working-class version. A proper working-class sitcom would suit me well.

You’ve got a big personality, have you ever thought about writing something yourself? 

I wouldn’t rule it out! I actually have a couple of ideas. And now, I’m in a position where I have the connections to develop something properly. So that’s good news. It’s definitely something I’d be interested in doing. And now I’ve got a bit more time on my hands, so I can actually consider it seriously.

When you were younger, were you always performing, like a little Shirley Temple? Was there an actor or role that made you think, “I have to do this”

I was always performing! We’ve got home videos of me as a kid, just diving around all over the place. I think I was trying to do The Sound Of Music, but really, I was just flinging myself about. At the end of one video, my grandad just goes, “Natalie, man!” and that’s the end of it. One of my strongest memories is going to the theatre a lot. My mum worked for John Lewis, and they would organise staff trips to see musicals. She took us from a really young age, so I’d be there with all the John Lewis employees, completely transfixed by shows like Evita. Everyone would be watching me, saying, “Wow, she’s really into this,” but I just thought the people on stage were incredible. I remember when Cats came to town - I got to go on stage during the interval to see one of the cats. The costume was so big that the actor couldn’t really move, so they let kids come up and see them. I remember standing on that stage, looking out at the audience, and thinking, Whoa, that’s a lot of people. Later, when I was in college and performed on that same stage at the Royal Theatre, I had the exact same thought - Whoa, that’s still a lot of people!

It’s said the TV and theatre industry is populated mainly by middle class. As a working class lass, did you find it easy to get big break? 

The difficulty lies in getting that first opportunity. I was lucky because I went to a youth theatre in Newcastle called Live Youth Theatre, and it was free to attend. That was a huge help, but they relied on funding, and now a lot of arts funding is being cut. The problem is that you can’t go from doing nothing straight into Emmerdale. There’s a process - you start with youth theatre, you use whatever free resources are available, and that’s how you begin. My Newcastle college was also free, so that helped. It was only when I decided to go to drama school that it got expensive. I was lucky to get in just before they raised the fees, but Rose Bruford worked like a regular university—you could get student loans. Because I came from a low-income family, I could also get grants. But I still had to work in a pub to afford everything. Auditioning for drama school was expensive, though. They all charge you just to audition. Even though they say they want working-class and regional actors, most of the top schools are in London. There are more regional schools now, to be fair, but it’s still expensive. If you come from money, you don’t have to worry about how to afford it—you can focus on chasing auditions and writing scripts. But if you’re working-class, you’re constantly juggling work and finances.

Yes that’s the toughest part of this process. 

For actors, you’re often expected to drop everything for an audition. COVID helped a little because now we do more things over Zoom. But still, if you rely on your day job to pay for food and heating, it’s hard to just take a day off for an audition - especially when you don’t know if it’ll lead to anything. If you get the part, great, but you might not. It’s always a gamble. That’s the hardest part for working-class actors - it’s not just about whether the roles exist, but whether you can even afford to access those opportunities in the first place.

That makes so much sense. And do you think having youth theatres or after-school activities for young people is important? There’s been a rise in crime among young people, do you think that if there were more creative or sports opportunities, it might help steer kids in a better direction?

I think it’s so important. Whether it’s acting, sports, music - whatever a kid is interested in -having an outlet is crucial. School is great, but it doesn’t always offer what everyone is passionate about. Even after-school clubs are still within the same school environment, and sometimes kids need to branch out, meet new people, and try new things. If there’s no funding for those activities, not everyone can afford to participate.

I’m not saying kids won’t still go out with their friends in the evenings, but if even one or two nights a week they’re engaging in something constructive, meeting new people, and developing skills, that can make a huge difference. What those opportunities do is open your mind to the future and what it could look like. If you don’t have a way of seeing a future beyond your current circumstances, it can feel really lonelyand closed off - like life is always going to be the same. Everyone needs to be able to see hope and opportunity; without that, things can become really difficult. I think that applies to adults, teenagers, and children. The only difference is that children haven’t quite figured out what that means yet. But no matter what stage of life you’re in, you need to be able to see that there’s something to work towards, something to build on. That’s what keeps us all happy and in a good place. Without those things, life can feel quite bleak.

It’s also about meeting people from different walks of life. If you only ever interact with people just like you, how are you ever going to grow? It’s so enriching to meet different kinds of people, to learn from them, to be exposed to new perspectives.

Even in something like theatre, you might read a play you never would have picked up otherwise. And through that, you’re introduced to a whole new world, a new way of thinking, or a different experience you’d never considered before. It’s such an important thing. I talk about this so passionately because that’s exactly what happened to me. When I joined Youth Theatre, I met people outside of my school circle for the first time. Then I went to the National Youth Theatre, and that opened up another whole group of friends. You go from having local friends to friends across Newcastle, then across the North East, then the whole UK—and eventually, through work, you start meeting people from all over the world.

Each experience broadens your world and makes it richer. That’s why opportunities like these are so important.

Even now, having been on Emmerdale, I’m constantly meeting new people. And as I move on to a new job, I know I’ll experience that all over again, and that excites me. That’s the spice of life, isn’t it?