The Haileybury Society is always interested in hearing from OHs about their careers. Here Suzi Battersby (Aby & C 00) tells us about her early dreams of acting and how her journey led her instead to play a major role behind the scenes in the UK film industry…

Dreams of an Oscar

If I was to make a guess at what I might be asked to write about nearly 20 years after leaving Haileybury, it would (I’d have hoped at the time) have been about a glorious acting career! My delusion as a theatre-obsessed 18 year old was fierce at that time… I’m sure I was day-dreaming of going to The Oscars as an actor, so to now be going for Makeup & Hairstyling is something I never imagined.

Ayckbourn adventures

As my peers will perhaps remember, I wore my love of Drama on my sleeve trying to be involved with as many plays as possible in the lovely old Ayckbourn Theatre, taking LAMDA exams up to Gold Medal and even mucking around doing performances in our rooms at Allenby with Lisa Hunt, Natasha Beazley, Issy McCann and Sophie Auster…

‘Performance’ is a  generous description, God knows what we were doing! I even spent the majority of Physics lessons with a play script open on my lap so I could multi-task reading plays while also learning formulae. Whether being in plays, or on my hands and knees painting the stage floors, I just loved being in that theatre and are truly some of my fondest memories from school.

A-level decisions

Art was the other subject close to my heart after doing Sculpture and Photography for my GCSE with one of my absolute favourite teachers Jason Marks, who I still correspond with now and help his current students where I can. As much as I loved Art & Design, I decided not to pursue it for A-Level. He was disappointed, but I remember saying to him “It’s okay, I can still be an artist without taking it as an A-Level.” How prophetic those words were now I find myself working as an artist professionally, though to be honest I wish I had just done it!

UCL … and then RADA?

After leaving Haileybury, I started immediately at UCL studying History of Art, and, you guessed it, spent most of my time doing Drama; acting, directing and designing shows.

I was dead-set on getting into RADA (conveniently round the corner from UCL), so I never let my theatre obsession waver. I got representation with an acting agency while studying and began to get a taste of how a professional actor’s life might be, landing just one small role in 3 years.

Undeterred, in 2008 I finally had my chance to apply for drama schools and almost made it… But RADA said no at the fourth and final round of auditions, breaking my heart in the process. Dramatic reaction I realise, but remember, I’m an actress…

A change of focus

Many actors will recognise this process and simply get back on the horse and try again. But strangely enough for me, I found myself thinking there was a better place for me in the industry. While at Haileybury, and at UCL, I took as much pleasure from making sets, props, costumes and yes, ropey special effects makeup as I did from performing.

So, miraculously easily, I changed my focus from front-of-camera to behind-the-scenes and I’ve never looked back. I trained in Technical Effects at London College of Fashion (UAL) and have been working professionally in Prosthetics and Creature Effects for Film, TV and theatre ever since.

Working with Helen Mirren

I now work as a Prosthetics Designer and run my own business, a prosthetics studio called Red Girl, that I founded in 2017. I’m sure Haileybury helped shape the independent mind-set you need to run your own business and gave me the confidence to follow my instincts throughout my career.

Red Girl is in fact one of the only prosthetics studios run solely by a woman, something I’m enormously proud of. The fact that I have been nominated for an Academy Award for ‘Best Makeup & Hairstyling’ for our work on Dame Helen Mirren as Golda Meir is still something I’m having to pinch myself about.

You can follow Suzi on Instagram (@suzbat and her work @redgirlfx) and by visiting the Red Girl website.

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_{Unless otherwise stated, all content and images on this website and blog © The Haileybury Society, 2024, all rights reserved}