Platform chats to actress Romola Garai after graduating from The Open University with a degree in English literature at The Barbican, London in 2010…
Romola´s first acting role was in The Last of the Blonde Bombshells (2000) and she went on to film Nicholas Nickleby (2002) and Vanity Fair (2004) with Reese Witherspoon, Atonement (2007) with Keira Knightley and the TV mini-series Emma in 2009.
How do you feel about graduating?
It was a great feeling, graduating. I feel honoured as I’ve had such a fantastic experience with the OU, so it was nice to give the staff and academics a round of applause to thank them for helping me.
How would you compare your time with a traditional university over your time with the OU?
I left school and went to Queen Mary, University of London, for a year and started working full time as an actor so had to stop studies. But I really didn’t want to not have a degree; I really enjoyed my studies and the discipline of working towards an academic qualification. That I was able to complete my degree with the OU was fantastic.
I had a great experience at Queen Mary but had great time with the OU as well, especially the fact I was able to work and live my life and study around that. My job is very stop-and-start so it was lovely way to progress, studying gave a real structure to my life.
When I wasn’t working it wasn’t easy but much more manageable. I did a year with the Royal Shakespeare Company and had one-and-a-half hours off so I read Middlemarch and did essays in that time. When filming it’s difficult and my grades plummeted because I didn’t have time, so I was up at 6am trying to make notes. That was difficult but I managed it and enjoyed it.
Will your degree help your career?
Study has been useful to my career, yes, and I think it’s important for anyone in the arts, whether actor, painter etc to have an appreciation of literature, and it gave me a great deal of joy and pleasure and being better equipped to read and understand literature. Although it will help my career, I probably did my degree more for my own pleasure.
Would you consider more study with the OU?
I do feel the lack of study now, and I would absolutely consider doing an MA; not to start right away as it was hard work and I’ve enjoyed having a year out but I would consider doing more. I’m a crazy supporter of the OU and I’m constantly telling everyone I meet to do OU degrees so I will continue to do that.
What would your advice to new students be?
Watch Romola´s video response in which she gives a useful snippet of advice to new OU students:
