British actress Jo Joyner chatted about starring in “Little Disasters” on Paramount+ and the digital age.
The synopsis is: When Jess (Diane Kruger) rushes her baby to the ER, she is treated by one of her closest friends, Liz (Jo Joyner).
Alarmed by Jess’ behavior, Liz calls social services, triggering an explosive chain of events.
‘Little Disasters’
On her experience in “Little Disasters,” she remarked, “We had a great time. It was a long shoot, but we had a really lovely cast. We’ve got such a great cast, and they were all very similar ages.”
“So, we had a good time on and off screen and a lot in common. There were a lot of young parents like us. So, the themes that were in the show were being talked about amongst us as well. So, it was great,” she elaborated.
Working with Diane Kruger
On working with Diane Kruger, she said, “It was fantastic! She is a really formidable woman. We got along really well; she is great.”
“Diane is so intelligent apart from anything else,” Joyner said. “Diane speaks so many languages and she’s obviously beautiful, but she is just so talented, and she is no nonsense.”
“We kind of bonded over the fact that we both like to just get the work done, and there is no messing around. We ask the right questions, and we take it all seriously,” she added.
Playing Dr. Liz Burgess in ‘Little Disasters’
On portraying Dr. Liz Burgess, she said, “What I like most about Liz is that she doesn’t always get it right; she is fallible. Liz works too hard, and she is trying so hard with work.”
Joyner continued, “Liz tries so hard with motherhood and being a wife, and she’s sort of overstretched in so many different areas that she’s trying to be all things. Consequently, she’s really not winning at any of them. She’s a little bit of herself with all of them.”
“I think that resonates with quite a lot of women and men, working parents especially. We kind of stretch ourselves every way and somehow end up not being brilliant at any of them. So, I felt for her because I could relate to that, and I think a lot of people will,” she explained.
“I like that Liz says it how it is, and she’s very real, and very down to earth. Whereas it’s really complemented by the fact that Jess is so perfect and brilliant on the outside,” she added.
Lessons learned from this screenplay
On the lessons learned from this screenplay, she shared, “I think it taught me to be a bit kinder to myself, because I ended up having so much empathy for Liz, working so hard and trying to get everything right.”
“I think I came away thinking, ‘Well, if I can be sympathetic towards Liz and think, oh, come on, Liz, just give yourself a break, have a minute,’ then I maybe should say that to myself,” she expanded.
The digital age
On being a part of the digital age, Joyner said, “In the digital age, I think it’s a funny thing that we spend a lot of time making a show. We can be there for five months filming, and all hours of the day. Then, it’s all released on the same day.”
“Everybody can watch my five months work in one night, and that’s a new phenomenon. You know, it used to be that we would work hard, and then it would come out over the course of two months, once a week,” she elaborated.
“That felt the same as how we filmed it,” she said. “Whereas now we work all this length of time, and then it’s gone within seconds by people. So, you know, it makes it quite hard and fast, doesn’t it?”
Success
Regarding her definition of the word success, Joyner shared, “Success means finding the time to just take a moment for yourself, step back, and enjoy what happened.”
“I think a lot of us, certainly me, have a success, but then, I just move on to the next thing straight away, and I think ‘What’s Next?’ Rather than going ‘ah, that was lovely I’m going to just stay here for a minute and enjoy what I’ve accomplished, and then I’ll move on to the next thing’,” she elaborated.
“I think it’s a peaceful place to be. I think that would be success. I don’t know if I’ll get that,” she concluded.
To learn more about actress Jo Joyner, follow her on Instagram.
